In Kierkegaard's earlier works are found the germ of some of Buber's most important early and later ideas: the direct relation between the individual and God in which the individual addresses God as «Thou,» the
insecure and exposed state of every individual as an individual, the concept of the «knight of faith» who can not take shelter in the universal but must
constantly risk all in the concrete uniqueness of each new situation, the necessity of becoming a true
person before going out to relation, and the importance of realizing one's belief in one's life.