Kierkegaard: only God truly believes in himself
anecdote · Kierkegaard ·
retold in 3 talks
Kierkegaard wrote that God is the only being who truly believes in himself; ordinary mortal believers only believe that they believe and can never be certain of genuine faith. Used to frame the epistemic paradox of faith and the question of whether God needs human belief.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Kierkegaard wrote somewhere that God is the only one who truly believes in himself. We ordinary mortal believers only believe that we believe.”
“God is here like a constitutional monarch, trembling like will the assembly agree to his powers”
“Kierkegaard told him good manners, nice smile blah blah nothing more.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
believing that we believe
×1
Christian atheism
×1
materialist theology
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Damásio Pires Pimentel1Christiane Vulpius1Mika Špiljak1John Bosco1Samuel Žbogar1Gioachino Rossini1Peter the Great1Karl Rosenkranz1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Kierkegaard wrote that God is the only being who truly believes in himself; ordinary mortal believers only believe that they believe and can never be certain of genuine faith. Used to frame the epistemic paradox of faith and the question of whether God needs human belief., illustrating believing that we believe,Christian atheism
Kierkegaard describes a God who trembles waiting for theologians to prove his existence, like a constitutional monarch uncertain whether parliament will ratify his powers. Žižek calls this 'materialist theology': the supreme power doubting its own existence., illustrating materialist theology,the big Other,religion
Kierkegaard telling the Danish King he only needs good manners and a nice smile, not wisdom or history, illustrating the empty, contingent nature of the monarch’s role., illustrating contingency of necessity