The Concept Of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologicall... May 2026

: While anxiety itself is not sin, it is the state that precedes the "qualitative leap" into sin. In his analysis of the Garden of Eden, Kierkegaard suggests Adam felt anxiety when faced with the choice to obey or disobey God.

: Anxiety is the awareness of what could happen; it is the "possibility of possibility". The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologicall...

The work you are referring to is , published in 1844 by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard under the pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis . : While anxiety itself is not sin, it

Kierkegaard famously defines anxiety as the . He illustrates this with the image of a person standing on the edge of a cliff: they feel a natural fear of falling, but also a terrifying, dizzying impulse to throw themselves off. This dizziness arises because the person realizes they have the absolute freedom to choose their next action. The work you are referring to is ,

: For Kierkegaard, "more anxiety = more spirit". Animals do not experience this existential dread because they lack the self-conscious freedom that makes humans "spirit". A Comparative Theology of Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard