Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Of Men And Mantles: Kierkegaard On The Difference Between A Genius And An Apostle, John S. Tanner

BYU Studies Quarterly

I was once asked to introduce Elder Neal A. Maxwell to a group of BYU English majors. This assignment caused me some concern. I feared that my audience might be inclined to revere Elder Maxwell for the wrong reasons, or at least for secondary reasons—namely, for his considerable gifts as a writer rather than for his apostolic authority. So rather than rehearse Elder Maxwell's résumé, I decided to frame my introduction with insights borrowed from a remarkable essay by Søren Kierkeaard entitled "The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle." In it, Kierkegaard emphasizes that human genius does not confer …