09. Εἰρωνεία καὶ Χιοῦμορ ἤ μᾶλλον προηγεῖται τὸ Χιοῦμορ (ἀπὸ τὸ αἰσθητικὸ στάδιο, πρὸς ὑπέρβασή του, στὸ Ἠθικό ἤ Θρησκευτικότητα Α΄) καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ἡ Εἰρωνεία, ποὺ βοηθάει στὴ ὑπέρβασή τους στὸ δρόμο γιὰ τὴ Θρησκευτικότητα Β΄, ποὺ εἶναι ὁ Χριστιανισμός.
Στο τελικὸ, μη επιστημονικό υστερόγραφο ο Ιωάννης τηε κλίμακος μιλάει για το χιούμορ ως ένα ενδιάμεσο στάδιο. Όπως παρατηρεί ο Reidar Thomte, υπάρχει πρόβλημα ως προς το που εντάσσεται το χιούμορ. Ο Ιωάννης ομιλεί για το αισθητικό στάδιο, και για το ηθικό, με την Γενική θρησκευτικό τητα Α, για τον χριστιανισμό ως θρησκευτικότητα Β. Ενώ το χιούμορ λέγεται ότι είναι "όχι ακόμα θρησκευτικότητα", αλλά στο όριο, φαίνεται όμως και ως το τελευταίο όριο από το οποίο αρχίζει να ορίζεται ο χριστιανισμός
Humour as a stage: Τὸ Χιοῦμορ σὰν ἕνα στάδιο
In Concluding Unscientific Postscript Johannes Climacus speaks about humour as an intermediate stage. As Reidar Thomte points out (in his Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Religion, New York, Greenwood Press, 1969 [also Princeton University Press 1948], p. 101-102), there is a problem as to where humour fits in. Climacus speaks of the aesthetic stage, and of the ethical, with the universal Religiousness A, and Christianity as Religiousness B. While humor is said to be "not yet religiosity," but on the boundary, it is also seen as the last terminus a quo or starting point in defining Christianity. Thomte sees two possible explanations: either that humour is the intermediate stage before Religiousness A, and then again before Christianity as Religiousness B (although Climacus speaks of only one intermediate stage of humour); or, Religiousness A is to be seen as within the category of humour because the religious stage culminates in Christianity and not Religiousness A. Thus humour, on this explanation, would be a boundary area between ethics and Religiousness A, but Religiousness A would be a continuous part of the ethical in the sense that the ethical is also the ethical-religious, i.e., the ethical and authentic religion are not divorced from each other. See David Swenson & Walter Lowrie trs.: Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1941, 1968, 1974, p. 258-259; Hong: KW XII,1, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, p. 291: "...humor advanced to the point of being the last terminus a quo in relation to the Christian type of the religious." SV 1st edition, VII, p. 249: "Saaledes er Humor avanceret som sidste terminus a quo i Forhold til det christelige Religieuse". Note the word "avanceret". Humour continues within Religiousness A up to Religiousness B. The individual within Christian religiousness A tries to live the ethical-religious life, but discovers guilt within himself - then sin. There is a deepening intensity of the existential situation from guilt to the radical state of sin.