Christian existentialism is a school of thought founded by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It relies on three major assumptions drawn from Kierkegaard's unique understanding of Christianity. The first was that the universe was fundamentally paradoxical, and that the greatest paradox of all was the transcendent union of God and man in the person of Christ. The second was that having a personal relationship with God superseded all set moralities, social structures and communal norms. The third was that following social conventions was essentially a personal aesthetic choice made by individuals.

Because of this, Kierkegaard believed that each person had to individually make the choices that made up his or her existence. No imposed structures - even Biblical commandments - could alter the responsibility of individuals to seek to please God in whatever personal and paradoxical way God chose to be pleased.

Christian existentialists include several contemporary American theologians, such as Paul Tillich, and European philosophers, such as Karl Jaspers

After Kierkegaard, his individualism later developed into the more familiar existentialism of Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus, who retained the idea of personal choice and responsibility, but discarded the personal connection with God.

Kierkegaard also upheld the idea that every human being exists on one of three spheres (or planes) of existence, the aesthetic, ethic, and religious. Most people, he observes, live an aesthetic life where nothing matters but appearances, pleasures, and happiness. A much smaller group are those people who live in the ethical sphere, who do their best to do the right thing and see past the shallow pleasantries and ideas of society. Philosophers, most clergy, and religious figures fall into this sphere. The third and highest sphere is the religious sphere. Kierkegaard upholds that there are only two people to ever enter this sphere, The Virgin Mary and Abraham. To be in the religious sphere, Kierkegaard says that one must give the entirety of themselves to God.

See also

• Christian anarchism