God as “Intermediate Determinant”: The Debate between Feuerbach and Kierkegaard on Christian Love

Abstract

Feuerbach and Kierkegaard share the thesis that Christian charity strains temporal intersubjective bonds. However, they draw opposite conclusions from this premise. Feuerbach thinks that Christian love ultimately hinders true contact and cooperation among men. Kierkegaard, by contrast, considers that only the religious transfiguration of worldly love grounds the actual realization of what natural love merely promises but never fulfills: the authentic encounter of two free personalities. I shall defend theidea that both thinkers are not as far apart as a first reading might lead us to assume.