Although the chapters that follow each appeared or was produced independently, I believe that they offer a coherent and focussed exploration of some of the contexts in which and for which Kierkegaard wrote. Primarily these relate to his critique of the present age as that is expressed in his response to and appropriation of both its popular and its literary culture. It should go without saying that this is only one aspect of Kierkegaard. There is little or nothing here of his extensive and intensive probing of the psychology of the religious life, or, except almost in passing, of the literary and rhetorical means he employs to enable his readers to enter more deeply and commitedly into that life as the matter of their own ultimate concern. Yet this is not ‘about’ Kierkegaard's view of culture in the sense that it is not also ‘about’ his understanding of the religious situation of his time. As I hope the chapters that follow will suggest, these are not finally separable, even if we have to separate them for the purposes of commentary.

I am publishing separately a highly focussed study of Kierkegaard's upbuilding writings. This study, Kierkegaard's Upbuilding Discourses: Philosophy, Theology, Literature (2002), serves as a kind of companion volume to this book. It offers an exploration of what could be called ‘the inside’ aspect of what is here dealt with in its outward aspect.