A few weeks ago I covered a lecture for Dr. David Law, a Reader in theology at the University. It was for a course called "Making Sense of Christ" and that week we explored Kierkegaard's Christology. It had been some years since I had spent much time with Kierkegaard so it was good to brush up. You can download the powerpoint that accompanied my lecture by clicking here. In a couple of places, Kierkegaard discusses the clownish nature of his writings. In fact he tells a parable about a clown who tries to warn the audience that the theatre is burning down.  It comes from the first volume of his pseudonymously written Either/Or.  In response to the question, "What happens to those who try to warn the present age?" Kierkegaard offers the following: 

"It happened that a fire broke out backstage at a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.” - Either/Or, vol. I, p. 30

So often in academic theology we read as if it's merely about the insightfulness of the arguments. We read a great essay and we applaud. Kierkegaard knows this. It was as true in the nineteenth century as the twenty-first.  Kierkegaard isn't interested in applause or the acclaim of the academe. Rather, he wants people to grapple seriously with the truth of Christian faith. He's interested in what he refers to as the "absolute paradox" or how it is that "the eternal truth has come into existence in time" (Concluding Unscientific Postscript, 209).

What's so interesting however, is that Kierkegaard fully adopts the disposition of the clown in his writings. In Either/Or, Kierkegaard writes a fictional preface which says that the editor found a compilation of essays in the drawer of an old desk he bought. He's publishing them but doesn't know for sure who wrote them. Kierkegaard is himself playing the clown here by taking on a series of pseudonyms in his authorship, telling parables and playing devil's advocate. Furthermore, and this relates to his Christology, Kierkegaard sees Jesus as a kind of clownish figure. As he says in his Journals and Papers:

“It is frequently said that if Christ came to the world now he would once again be crucified. This is not entirely true. The world has changed; it is now immersed in ‘understanding.’ Therefore Christ would be ridiculed, treated as a mad man, but a mad man at whom one laughs. . . . I now understand better and better the original and profound relationship I have with the comic, and this will be useful to me in illuminating Christianity.” -Journals and Papers (Pap. X' A 187)

Kierkegaard recognizes Jesus himself as a clownish figure who would be applauded and laughed at rather than killed today. People rarely hate Christianity or Jesus, they just don't understand or can't be bothered. As Kierkegaard sought to explain Christian faith to people he met with this kind of complacency. Rather than reject the clownish absurdity of his situation, he embraced it as a central tenet of his style of communication. Jesus's life and teachings have this comic quality about them, and so too do Kierkegaard's. Read Kierkegaard at your own risk. If you aren't careful the laughter can easily turn to genuine tears as the paradox of faith, that clownish Christ, leaps off the stage and into your life.

Kierkegaard PowerPoint