Unopened Letters and Gutted Books: Kierkegaard’s Call to Direct Experience

In Fahrenheit 451, books are destroyed; in our modern world, they are gutted.

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In his critique of the theologians of the day, Søren Kierkegaard compares them to a young man who receives a letter from his beloved but instead of immediately opening it, says:

“This I must read and study, but first I must familiarize myself with the original language; I must be thoroughly grounded in philology, I must read the Fathers and…