an entire city with cholera, and one thousand perjurers are more than
enough to infect an entire society with scabies.” The cholera epidemic of
1853 was used as a catastrophic counterpoint to the natural and medical
sciences that had otherwise been the source of so much optimism. In the
second issue ofThe Moment, Kierkegaard compared his understanding of
his times with the treatment of a psychiatric patient. At length we are led
into a gigantic hospital (a metaphor for the Danish People’s Church, which
in 184 9became the new name of the State Church) where everyone is
dying like flies, with the exception of Kierkegaard, who is untouched by
the disease and is able to make his expert diagnosis, namely, that the “entire
building is infested with poison” and that therefore the “close air” must be
immediately replaced with “fresh air.” The article bears the clinical title
“Physician’s Diagnosis,” and Kierkegaard’s cure is not exactly the most edi-
fying prescription: “Let this mess collapse, get rid of it, close all these bou-
tiques and shops, the only exceptions to the strict Sunday closing laws. Make
this official ambiguity impossible, put them out of business, pension off all
the quacks,... and let us once again worship God in simplicity, instead of
making a fool of him in splendid buildings; let things once again become
serious and be done with playing.”
“The Pastor—That Epitome of Nonsense
Cloaked in Long Robes!”Kierkegaard’s appeals to governmental and official institutions were for the
most part confined to the early issues ofThe Moment. Thereafter he bypassed
governmental authorities and the clergy and addressed himself directly to
the common man in a personal tone and with a sense of solidarity: “You
common man! I have not cut off my life from yours. You know it; I have
lived in the streets and am known by everyone. Moreover, I have never
amounted to anything and am possessed of no class egotism. So, if I belong
to anyone, I must belong to you, you common man.” Kierkegaard did not
call upon the common man to resign from the church, but to shun it and
in general to remain appropriately aloof from the pastors: “But for the sake
of God in Heaven and by everything that is holy, there is one thing I im-
plore you to do: Avoid the pastors, avoid them, these abominable people
whose way of making a living is to prevent you from even becoming aware
of what true Christianity is.” This plea characterized the entire campaign,
as here, for example, in the seventh issue ofThe Moment: “If you believe—
and of course you do—that God is opposed to theft, robbery, pillage, forni-