Roberto Garaventa Kierkegaard and Christianity: The Difficulty of Communication Kierkegaard points out several times in his works that the main purpose of his «work as an author» is to «make aware of the Christian» 1 , to «introduce Christianity again—into Christendom» 2 , a Christendom, such as the Danish National Church, that has completely forgotten what it means to «be a Christian», and is now permanently involved (reconciled) with the world. The main purpose behind his literary production is therefore a communicative purpose, i.e., to communicate Christianity to those who think they are Christians, but in reality they are only new pagans: They do not see (or guiltily do not want to see) that the Christianity preached and lived by the official representatives of the existing Christendom (and its members) is radically different from authentic Christianity. In fact, the Christian bourgeois of Denmark is first of all and for the most part concerned with his outward security, so that he does not only seek comfort in technical-scientific knowledge in order to cope with the adversities of fate, but most of all he is in constant pursuit of power, wealth, honor, and respect: He believes that only these things can guard him against the difficulties of life. He also indulges in a process of assimilation, massification, and depersonalization, a process that allows him not to take responsibility for himself. According to Kierkegaard, this man (who no longer believes in divine Providence) is gripped by the typical «cares of the pagans» 3 : the cares of poverty, abundance, lowliness, loftiness, presumptuousness, self-torment, indecisiveness, vacillation, and disconsolateness—cares culminating in the anxiety for «tomorrow»: «Just as the Christian continually speaks only about today, so the pagan continually speaks only about tomorrow. It actually makes no difference to him what kind of day today is, glad or sad, lucky or unlucky—he is able neither to enjoy it nor to use it, because he cannot get away from the invisible writing on the wall: tomorrow. Tomorrow I shall perhaps starve, even if I do not today; tomorrow the thieves will perhaps steal my wealth, or slanderers my honor, deterioration my beauty, life’s envy my good fortune—tomorrow, tomorrow! … What is anxiety? It is the next day … Earthly care, breeding, gives birth to anxiety, which in turn, feeding, gives birth to care. In order to make the glowing ember burst into flame, there must be a draft. But craving, earthly craving, and 1 Cf. Om min Forfatter-Virksomhed (FV), in SKS 13, 7-27; On My Work as an Author, in The Point of View (PV), 1851, trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1991, 1-20. «“Without authority” to make aware of the religious, the essentially Christian, is the category for my whole work as an author regarded as a totality» (SKS 13, 19; PV, 12). 2 Synspunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed (SFV), in SKS 16, 103; The Point of View for My Work as an Author, 1859, in PV, 42. 3 Cf. Hedningenes Bekymringer, in Christelige Taler (CT), SKS 10, 11-98; The Cares of the Pagans, 1848, in Christian Discourses (CD), trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1991, 3-92. 1