When Faith Aligns with Power: Kierkegaard and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd on Religion’s Association with the State

In the literature on Kierkegaard’s relation to Islam, the focus has exclusively been on the existentialist aspects, with the political dimension given little or no attention. This article shows how Kierkegaard and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, an Egyptian Muslim thinker, converge in their critiques of religion’s (Christianity and Islam) association with the state through their problematization of the state religion’s tendency to deny diversity of religious interpretations. Going beyond the analyses of both thinkers, it further argues that this tendency of state religion to deny interpretive diversity stems from its absorption of characteristics of the state, which, as a sovereign power within its territory, does not permit the coexistence of any equally powerful entity. In conclusion, the article briefly considers the possibility of building an ideal of the non-authoritarian relationship between religion and state by combining both thinkers’ critiques of the state religion.