This paper explores Søren Kierkegaard’s claim in For Self-Examination that Scripture should be approached as a mirror rather than as an object of detached analysis. A mirror is not normally regarded as an object in itself; instead, it recedes as the viewer focuses on the reflected image. Kierkegaard argues that Scripture functions similarly. When readers treat the text merely as an object of scholarship, they risk neutralizing its reflective and transformative function.
Drawing on Diarmaid MacCulloch’s account of Christianity’s historical shift toward individual subjectivity and Erich Auerbach’s analysis of the biblical orientation toward transcendent meaning, the paper situates Kierkegaard’s insight within broader intellectual history. It then brings Kierkegaard into dialogue with Keiji Nishitani’s distinction between asking “What is for me?” and “What am I for?” Together these perspectives illuminate how Scripture, approached as mirror, can provoke a destabilizing transformation of subjective identity.