Kierkegaard, the Neighbor, and the Refugee Crisis

I’m in Atlanta, enjoying the national American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature shin-dig meetings. One of the sessions I attended this morning was a group of papers on Carl Hughes’ new book, Kierkegaard and the Staging of Desire (the papers suggest Carl’s book to be an important contribution to Kierkegaard studies).

The discussion about Kierkegaard’s understanding of love, in particular his reflection on Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39), seems profoundly relevant to many of the issue swirling around us in our day. What does it mean to love one’s neighbor? Who counts as a “neighbor”?

My mind wondered to the public discussion regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. I thought about the suspicion, anxiety, and fear that swirls in much of the debate. Might a refugee, from thousands of miles away, be my neighbor? Should I love him or her as if they lived next door already?

Yes, Kierkegaard would say. Your neighbor is not a neighbor because they are geographically close or because you have some relationship of preference already established with them, or because you have something to gain by loving them. The stranger is your neighbor.

Here’s Kierkegaard himself, from Works of Love.

One’s neighbor is one’s equal. One’s neighbor is not the beloved for whom you have passionate preference, nor your friend for whom you have passionate preference. Nor is your neighbor, if you are well-educated, the well-educated person with whom you have cultural equality–for with your neighbor you have before God the equality of humanity. Nor is your neighbor one who is of higher social status than you, that is, insofar as he is of higher social status he is not your neighbor, for to love him because he is of higher social status than you can easily be preference and to that extent self-love. Nor is your neighbor one who is inferior to you, that is insofar as he is inferior he is not your neighbor, for to love one because he is inferior to you can very easily be partiality’s condescension and to that extent self-love. No, to love one’s neighbor means equality (72).

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