Making Faith Harder A Kierkegaardian Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood

"Jesus is the answer," goes a stereotypical claim of an evangelical preacher. To this statement, nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and twentieth-century American author Flannery O'Connor would likely have a similar response: "No, Jesus is the problem." Using Wise Blood as the central text, I discuss how these two writers seek to problematize faith by challenging a widespread, modern perception that faith is an easily "obtained," simple answer to the difficulties of life. The writers' attempts to accomplish this task intersect regularly as they show the multitude of ways that faith can become atrophied or misdirected and as they discuss the obstacles facing a person who chooses to live faithfully.