Full title: Monoculture or Counterculture: Authentic Christianity vs. Christendom in Kierkegaard’s Copenhagen as a Model for Global Evangelicalism
In the early 19th century, theologian/philosopher Søren Kierkegaard lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kierkegaard dubbed his situation “Christendom,” an amalgamation of cultural and national identity with Christianity. In the “objective” sense everyone was a Christian—by law all infants were baptized into the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. In the “subjective” sense Kierkegaard argues that Denmark was filled with Christians “who live just as sensately as any pagan ever did.” In Practice in Christianity, Kierkegaard demonstrates how Christendom cannot be authentic Christianity. Christendom deifies the established order, transforming religion into a program rather than focusing on genuine faith. The deified order attempts to “level” anyone who challenges the status quo. Christendom becomes “secular,” an ironic, active enemy against Christianity. For Kierkegaard, authentic faith resides in contemporaneity with Christ, not an institutionalized monoculture.
Kierkegaard’s assessment of the effects of Christendom is especially prescient considering recent pushes for Christian Nationalism in the United States. Christian Nationalism poses questions for global evangelicalism: Is evangelical Christianity a monoculture—meaning it imposes a specific way of life on the surrounding populace—or is it a counterculture—meaning it seeks no earthly power but rather stands as a witness against the culture? I argue that Kierkegaard is a needed interlocuter for navigating the role of the evangelical church in its surrounding culture. I argue that whenever Christians seek to institute a monoculture via governmental power, it betrays the Gospel and authentic evangelical principles.
I begin the paper with Søren Kierkegaard’s assessment of “secularized” Christendom of his age. Second, I demonstrate how the “abstraction” of Christendom “levels” any form of Gospel that does not match its monoculture. Third, we investigate at Kierkegaard’s solution to Christendom: contemporaneity with Christ. Last, we consider how Kierkegaard’s assessment of his cultural moment aides global evangelicals to think through their role of being “in the world but not of the world.”