"A Solitary Lifetime Prisoner": Kierkegaard and the Problem of Prison Reform

As Kierkegaard deemed imprisonment to be an evil (et onde), this paper aims to begin a dialogue on Kierkegaard and prison reform in three ways: first, through a review of scholarship related to Kierkegaard and incarceration; second, by situating Kierkegaard in recent discussions on chaplaincy, pastoral care, and theological education in prisons; and thirdly, through a close reading of ideas on the demonic, the imprisoned self, and the crowd in Kierkegaard’s writings. Ultimately, I intend to show the contributions Kierkegaard can make to debates on prison reform in the United States and globally. Whereas religious scholars, philosophers, legalists, and ethicists have written extensively on punishment, prisons, and prison reform through the work of thinkers like Kant, Hegel, Marx, and certainly Foucault, the scholarship is less developed in the context of Kierkegaard’s ideas. This absence only increases the need to turn to Kierkegaard on a substantive moral concern.