The occasion for The Book on Adler was the claim by Adolph P. Adler, a pastor on the island Bornholm, to have experienced a revelation in which Christ dictated a new doctrine. In revisions of the manuscript during eight years prior to Kierkegaard's death, this occasion became more a side issue and the question of authority became the central theme. After three integral versions, the larger work was "chopped into pieces" and parts included in two contemplated collections.

Kierkegaard never published any of the five versions.

The present volume is the third integral version, the closest to a copy Kierkegaard would have used if he had published. Later changes are indicated in the text and notes, and the Supplement contains sections of earlier versions omitted in the third version. A major change in the third version was the shifting of two revised sections to become addenda: "The Dialectical Relations: the Universal, the Single Individual, the Special Individual" and "The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle.".

In addition to discussing the central theme, the "most important ethical-religious concept," The Book on Adler provides a unique case study of Kierkegaard as a writer.