‘The Mirror of the Word’: Implicit Norms in Kierkegaard’s Biblical Hermeneutics and the Role of Self-Reflection

This paper investigates whether Kierkegaard’s model of self-reflection, as it operates within his Biblical hermeneutics, contains an implicit normative dimension, a standard by which one mode of engaging with Scripture can be judged more adequate than another. Kierkegaard’s approach to reading the Bible is not a neutral or descriptive enterprise; it is bound up with his conviction that Scripture addresses the individual reader personally and demands inward appropriation. The central question is therefore: does Kierkegaard’s Biblical hermeneutics presuppose a normative account of self-reflection, and if so, what are its criteria, its justification, and its limits?