Kierkegaard und Wittgenstein

Steadfastly resisting established practice in academic writing, Søren Kierkegaard emphasizes the indispensability of "indirect communication" where religious truth is concerned. He wants to encourage the interlocutor's independent, personal search for meaning without influencing the quest through his own discourse. The author Nientied studies which linguistic and textual methods owe to this tenet. Drawing on the thinking of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who largely refrains from treating theological matters, she shows that this problem is not confined to religious discourse and that the ideal of direct communication is dubious. The convergence between Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein extends to semiotic and epistemological implications and offers a new framework for the discussion of the difference between faith and knowledge.