All this made Either/Or a succs de scandale: one reader observed, I think no book has caused such a stir with the reading public since Rousseau placed his Confessions on the altar. But Kierkegaards method was the opposite of the one chosen by Rousseau, who said that when he appeared before God on Judgment Day he would present a copy of his Confessions and declare, Thus have I acted; these were my thoughts; such was I. For Kierkegaard, straightforward autobiography couldnt do justice to the truth of his experience, which was full of ambiguity, self-division, and doubt. The Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics had an article about Kierkegaard in 1908. [119], If doubt is the beginning, then God is lost long before the end, and the individual is released from always having a task, but also from always having the comfort that there is always a task. His imagination will be made to depend on his personal history, and his sayings will be so moderated in our minds that they will soon become not his sayings but ours. Nineteenth-century Europeans took for granted that they were Christians simply because they were living in Christendom, in countries where there were just as many Christians as there are people, he wrote. When from the angle of the past it is settled that there is no more to come, we say, "It is a fragment"; from the angle of the future, waiting for the next part, we say, "The sentence is not finished; something is still missing." Thus, Christianity which by no means begins, as do those high flying thinkers, without presuppositions, nor with a flattering presupposition, presupposes this. are likewise being-for-itself qualities. "[191] The dramatist Henrik Ibsen is said to have become interested in Kierkegaard as well as the Norwegian national writer and poet Bjrnstjerne Bjrnson (18321910) who named one of his characters Sren Pedersen in his 1890 book In God's Way. 1517, 555610 Either/Or Vol II, pp. At the same time, he published Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843 under his own name, which dealt specifically with how love can be used to hide things from yourself or others. You will say that the word is not finished, something is lacking. . Here is an interesting quote from For Self Examination. No, thou shalt first seek God's kingdom. But Kierkegaards work emerged, in complex yet unmistakable ways, from his own experiences. In the month of December 1845 the manuscript of the Concluding Postscript was completely finished, and, as my custom was, I had delivered the whole of it at once to Lune [the printer]which the suspicious do not have to believe on my word, since Luno's account-book is there to prove it. 516517. Frequently it seems to let a veil of forgetfulness fall over the past, only to make every single trifle appear in a strong light again. Hans Martensen was the subject of a Danish article, Dr. S. Kierkegaard against Dr. H. Martensen By Hans Peter Kofoed-Hansen (18131893) that was published in 1856[186] (untranslated) and Martensen mentioned him extensively in Christian Ethics, published in 1871. 260261", "Obituary John George Robertson Obituaries Australia", http://sorenkierkegaard.org/armed-neutrality.html, Sren Kierkegaard research library at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, "Karl Barth Prophet of a New Christianity", "Karl Barth And Christian Unity The Influence of the Barthian Movement Upon The Churches of the World", "Kierkegaard's Influence on Karl Barth's Early Theology", "Did Kierkegaard's heartbreak inspire his greatest writing? If you dont think you are in despair, you are lying to yourself, which is an even worse form of despair. Sren Kierkegaard | Christian History | Christianity Today [28] He was a "very stern man, to all appearances dry and prosaic, but under his 'rustic cloak' demeanor he concealed an active imagination which not even his great age could blunt". Kierkegaard - DeepThinkers Kierkegaard questioned whether an individual can know if something is a good gift from God or not and concludes by saying, "it does not depend, then, merely upon what one sees, but what one sees depends upon how one sees; all observation is not just a receiving, a discovering, but also a bringing forth, and insofar as it is that, how the observer himself is constituted is indeed decisive. 154ff, Caesar did many an illustrious deed, but even if nothing were preserved but one single statement he is supposed to have made, I would admire him. Faith is a matter of reflection in the sense that one cannot have the virtue unless one has the concept of virtueor at any rate the concepts that govern faith's understanding of self, world, and God.[133]. Sren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity, Hong p. 205 (1850). His family's inheritance of approximately 31,000 rigsdaler[61] enabled him to fund his work and living expenses including servants. . 223224, Think of the first word and the hyphen of a compound word, and now suppose that you do not know any more about how it hangs togetherwhat will you say then? Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, 13 March 1847 by Sren Kierkegaard, Hong pp. The intimate connection between Kierkegaards thought and his personal life has made him a compelling subject for biographers. They force the dialectical movements of the making and unmaking of the self before God to undergo lyrical imitations of meditation while the clefts, rifts, abysses, are everywhere to be seen. Either/Or Vol II pp. Another reviewer says that "Adorno is [far away] from the more credible translations and interpretations of the Collected Works of Kierkegaard we have today. [23], Some of Kierkegaard's key ideas include the concept of "subjective and objective truths", the knight of faith, the recollection and repetition dichotomy, angst, the infinite qualitative distinction, faith as a passion, and the three stages on life's way. He abandons the career for which he has been studying for ten years and holes up in his apartment, where a kind of graphomania compels him to stay up all night writing at a frantic pace. Kierkegaards entire philosophical program was aimed at countering Hegelian thought, opening his magnum opus Either/Or by asking, Are passions, then, the pagans of the soul? And yet for God, the infinitely strongest, there is an obstacle; He has posited it Himself, yea, He has lovingly, with incomprehensible love posited it Himself; for He posited it and posits it every time a man comes into existence, when He in His love makes to be something directly in apposition to Himself. [92], Kierkegaard believed "each generation has its own task and need not trouble itself unduly by being everything to previous and succeeding generations". In 1845, Peter Ludvig Mller, a writer an editor for the satirical rag The Corsair, published a piece which criticized Kierkegaards Stages on Lifes Way, and Kierkegaards response lit a fuse on a minor feud that had a profound impact on the philosopher. He was fascinated by the revelation of the power of the Holy Spirit when it once touched a man; at the completeness with which it overwhelms and keeps its chosen ones loyal. One can read fragments of Plato with interest, and also the unappreciated Schopenhauer, especially in his least-valued work Parerga and Paralipomena, but not in his systematic treatise The World as Will and Idea. Schleiermacher so enthusiastically declares that knowledge does not perturb religiousness, and that the religious person does not sit safeguarded by a lightning rod and scoff at God; yet with the help of statistical tables one laughs at all of life. He would start seeing a therapist and might be prescribed medication. The man would seek professional help, because, in the twenty-first century, he would recognize his propensities as symptomsevidence of a psychological problem. [239] Dru published an English translation of Kierkegaard's Journals in 1958;[240] Alastair Hannay translated some of Kierkegaard's works. This is, however, far from the case. [227] German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (18831969) stated he had been reading Kierkegaard since 1914 and compared Kierkegaard's writings with Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. The Church noted that dissent was "something foreign to the national mind". Love is won by being exercised just as much as faith and patience are. [294] Although Kierkegaard's earlier works include some misogynist statements, a negative view of women is not found in his later works. Olsen's relationship with Kierkegaard exerted a crucial influence over his intellectual development, philosophy and theology. [278], Kierkegaard's famous philosophical 20th-century critics include Theodor Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas. [2] Things I disagree with: Fear and Trembling being the result of his dis-engagement with Olsen, and his "verbose" style being a product of his time period. On 22 December 1845, Peder Ludvig Mller, who studied at the University of Copenhagen at the same time as Kierkegaard, published an article indirectly criticizing Stages on Life's Way. [139][140][141][142] This book was published under an earlier pseudonym, Johannes Climacus. As if the title werent enough: in The Crowd is Untruth, he wrote that the formation of a crowd is to place another layer of abstraction between the individual and their personal truth. [165] He was against endless reflection with no passion involved. Repetition is about a Young Man (Sren Kierkegaard) who has anxiety and depression because he feels he has to sacrifice his love for a girl (Regine Olsen) to God. Two individuals may both believe that many of those around them are poor and deserve help, but this knowledge may lead only one of them to decide to actually help the poor. Is it possible for anyone to misunderstand this, as if it were Christianity's intention to proclaim self-love as a prescriptive right? Yes. Instead, he concocted a series of nested narratives, defying the reader to say where Kierkegaard himself can be found. Things I agree with: you aren't dumb for not fully understanding Kierkegaard and that he is incredibly difficult! The early environment was one almost entirely of men and women fond of literature and often writers of note. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. Besides affecting Barth deeply, the philosophy of Kierkegaard has found voice in the works of Ibsen, Unamuno, and Heidegger, and its sphere of influence seems to be growing in ever widening circles. The intention taken in vain, the unfulfilled promise, leaves despondency, dejection, that in turn perhaps soon blazes up into an even more vehement intention, which leaves only greater listlessness. His life here on earth attends every generation, and every generation severally, as Sacred History"[96] But in 1848, "The whole generation and every individual in the generation is a participant in one's having faith."[97]. At 27 years old, Sren Kierkegaard was engaged to Regine Olsen, but he wrote in his journal almost immediately afterward that it was a mistake; a year later, he called it off. [154] However, Kierkegaard stated that he was a religious author throughout all of his writings and that his aim was to discuss "the problem 'of becoming a Christian', with a direct polemic against the monstrous illusion we call Christendom". Just as truth comes to one individual at a time so does love. "[64], An important aspect of Kierkegaard's lifegenerally considered to have had a major influence on his workwas his broken engagement to Regine Olsen (18221904). Thus, only if there is nothing to do and if the person who says it were without guilt before Godfor if he is guilty, there is indeed always something to doonly if there is nothing to do and this is understood to mean that there is no task, only then is there hopelessness. [155] He expressed the illusion this way in his 1848 "Christian Address", Thoughts Which Wound From Behind for Edification. Abraham, Isaac, and - Jstor Kierkegaard's world, part 2: The truth of knowledge and the truth of "We may give the name of nature to the entire objective content of our knowledge the entire subjective content, on the other hand, is called the ego or intelligence". 111112, Imagine, as indeed is the case, an animal that has a defense weapon with which it defends itself but which it uses only in mortal danger. [66] From the 1960s to the 1990s, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong translated his works more than once. With regard to secular matters, the established order may be entirely right: one should join the established order, be satisfied with that relativity, etc. I regard it as a plain ethical taskperhaps requiring not a little self-denial in these speculative times, when all 'the others' are busy with comprehendingto admit that one is neither able nor supposed to comprehend it. Hence Christ's suffering is superhuman and his patience superhuman, so that no human being can grasp either the one or the other. 4748 Hong 1990. The prose is also beautiful: it's the work of an experienced writer. It has been neglected, partly because of its difficulty, but it's worth making an effort with it. He argued in Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments that "subjectivity is truth" and "truth is subjectivity." Sren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 330, Relating oneself to the ideal in one's personal life is never seen. Seek Ye First God's Kingdom And His Righteousness Matthew 6:33. [152] "To build up" is a metaphorical expression. Real depression, like the vapors, is found only in the highest circles, in the former case understood in a spiritual sense, he wrote two months later. The book was finished in 1848, but not published until after his death by his brother Christian Peter Kierkegaard. Soren Kierkegaard Christian Discourses 1848 Hong 1997 p. 111, Imagine a kernel of grain placed in the earth; if it is to grow, what does it need? He never loved another woman, and when Either/Or was published he had two copies printed on vellumone for her, and one for mewhich he kept in a specially made cupboard. *"Hegel's philosophic optimism maintained that the difficulties of Christianity had been completely "reconciled" or "mediated" in the supposedly higher synthesis of philosophy, by which process religion had been reduced to terms which might be grasped by the intellect. Keller notes the splits that happen when a new teaching is introduced and some assume a higher knowledge from a higher source than others. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject. The concept of the indirect communication, the paradox, and the moment of Practice in Christianity, in particular, confirmed and sharpened Barth's ideas on contemporary Christianity and the Christian life.