I have uploaded a PDF of my honours dissertation, which was submitted in 2017.
Title: The Eclipse of the Individual: Søren Kierkegaard, Varg Vikernes and the Scandinavian Church
Abstract: This dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of the criticism Vikernes and Kierkegaard direct toward the tendency of institutional Christianity to negate individual identity. For Vikernes, this tendency is exemplified in the way in which Christianity was introduced to Norway in the 11th century, and its subsequent expansion at the cost of traditional Norse religion. Different regions within Norway had different rites and customs, and Vikernes blames the Church and state for eradicating these traditions and enforcing a ideology of conformity on a people for whom the concept of monotheism was alien. Christianity in Kierkegaard’s Copenhagen was similarly bound to the power of the state, but the history of its arrival in Denmark was far less violent and conflict-ridden. As a result of the close relationship between Christianity and political influence, Kierkegaard felt that the essence of faith as being a primarily individual matter was diluted. In its place stood a thoroughly mediocre and anti-Christian institution of deified civilized customs and tepid morality.
