In a journal entry from June 29, 1855—“Some Historical Data concern-
ing My Relation to Bishop Mynster”—Kierkegaard provides a compressed
version: “During the final year I scarcely saw him at all. The next-to-last
time I spoke with him was shortly after New Year’s Day, when he came
out into the anteroom and said in the presence of the staff that he could not
speak with me, that he had too much to do and that his eyes were bad.
Then the last time I spoke with him was sometime in the early part of the
summer. It was a long, unusually animated conversation. Contrary to his
custom he followed me all the way out into the anteroom, still talking with
me. When I left, I said to myself, ‘This will be the last time,’ and it was.”
It is impossible to determine the exact dates of these last two conversa-
tions, because “shortly after New Year’s Day” could refer either to 1852 or
1853, as could “sometime in the early part of the summer.” Kierkegaard
nowhere related the contents of the “animated conversation,” yet we just
might permit ourselves to suspect that he had given Mynster a foretaste of
the attack that had been raging in his journals for a long time, but that would
only be officially launched after Mynster was dead and buried. Despite what
may have been a rupture in their relationship, Kierkegaard nevertheless
continued to attend church when Mynster preached—every time he
preached—with the exception of his final sermon at the Castle Church on
December 26, 1853. Kierkegaard’s absence on that occasion was not owing
to illness or because he had been prevented from attending for some other
reason; rather, on that day he went to Holy Spirit Church to hear E. V.
Kolthoff preach because he wished to “break with Father’s tradition.”
In their conversations Mynster had often said that it was not a question
of who was stronger, but of who could hold out the longest. Kierkegaard
was basically in agreement with this sentiment. Nor was he in doubt con-
cerning the paradoxical outcome of the battle: “That I am right is something
everybody knows, deep down—including Bishop Mynster. That I will not
get my rights is something everybody knows—including me.”
Kierkegaard in the Citadel Church
A little event that took place amid Kierkegaard’s various visits to Mynster
and his theological reflections provided a striking demonstration of the dis-
tance between Kierkegaard’s principles and his person, the gulf between
the ideal he cherished and the physical reality of his own body. Kierkegaard
had preached a couple of times at the Friday communion services at the
Church of Our Lady, and this time—Sunday, May 18, 1851—he was to
preach at the Citadel Church. He had considered using the occasion to read