Inequality and Subordination

Abstract

Christianity reminds us that despite the distinctions in the everyday conditions and relations of people’s lives, people share a fundamental humanity. In Kierkegaard’s Christianity this shared humanity is something that we come to recognise in our individual relationship with God. It is in the spiritual realm that our sense of human dignity is confirmed. Kierkegaard’s Protestant conception too easily sees earthly life as a trial and as a source of sacrifice, which helps us prove ourselves in the eyes of God. Whatever fulfilment we can hope to achieve is going to have its source in our individual relationship with God. It is not going to come from the satisfactions of earthly life.