Caring for Creatures: Kierkegaard’s Exercises for a Simple Way of Life

Abstract

This chapter frames the more explicitly positive pedagogy of Kierkegaard’s work in terms of the Pauline wisdom of the cross. Kierkegaard pursues the pedagogy of creatures through simple living. He does this by intertwining practices of reading and writing with scenes that attend to the rhythms of creatures that live just outside the city. This writing of creatures is oriented by a horizon of mortality and joy that shapes everyday actions—like leisure, dress, and work. This vision of a simple way of life serves to provide a positive alternative to the commercialized norms that haunt contemporary approaches to sustainability and justice.