Søren Kierkegaard wrote upbuilding discourses beginning in 1843 with his Two Upbuilding Discourses May 16, 1843. He published twenty-one upbuilding discourses by 1845 with the publication of Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions April 29. He continued with Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits March 13, 1847 and The Works of Love Some Christian Reflections in theContinue reading “Christian Discourses April 26, 1848”
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Kierkegaard’s Confession
Christian Discourses 1848 – Discourse IV 1 Corinthians 11:23 the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed. p. 275ff When the congregation, every time these words are said, “Our Lord Jesus Christ one the night he was betrayed,” surround him anxiously but fervently, as if to ward of the treason, as if to pledgeContinue reading “Kierkegaard’s Confession”
Demonic: Goethe, Emerson, Kierkegaard.
Johann Goethe 1749-1832 from his Autobiography book 20 In the course of this biography, we have circumstantially exhibited the child, the boy, the youth, seeking by different ways to approach to the Suprasensible first, looking with strong inclination to a religion of nature; then, clinging with love to a positive one; and, finally, concentrating himselfContinue reading “Demonic: Goethe, Emerson, Kierkegaard.”
Kierkegaard, Brandes, and Nietzsche
“Why you exist, says Nietzsche with Sören Kierkegaard, nobody in the world can tell you in advance; but since you do exist, try to give your existence a meaning by setting up for yourself as lofty and noble a goal as you can.” (George Brandes, Friedrich Nietzsche – An Essay On Aristocratic Radicalism 1889) Existentialist’sContinue reading “Kierkegaard, Brandes, and Nietzsche”
Christ returns to Christendom
Soren Kierkegaard published Christian Discourses April 26 1848. He wrote about people who say, in Christendom, if Christ came again to the world he would be crucified again. It reminds me of The Grand Inquisitor from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky published in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. Here isContinue reading “Christ returns to Christendom”
Tithon and Aurora by Herder
Not to mislead, therefore, with this abused word, and not to make destructive violence a medicine for mortal ills, we will keep the path of healing Nature. Not Revolutions, but Evolutions are the silent process of the great mother, wherewith she awakens slumbering powers, brings germs to maturity, gives renewed youth to premature age, andContinue reading “Tithon and Aurora by Herder”
Oliver Goldsmith on Resentment
Every part of the universe is beautiful, just, and wise, but man; vile man is a solecism in nature; the only monster in the creation. Tempests and whirlwinds have their use; but vicious ungrateful man is a blot in the fair page of universal beauty. Why was I born of that detested species, whose vicesContinue reading “Oliver Goldsmith on Resentment”
Kierkegaard’s 1845 writings
Alexander Vinet lived in Switzerland from 1797-1847. He took up Pascal’s Thoughts in his book: Studies on Pascal. He said, “The Thoughts are only the papers on which this great man threw out, from time to time, all that occupied his powerful mind, until the excess of physical malady reduced him to complete inaction, andContinue reading “Kierkegaard’s 1845 writings”
How Kierkegaard Got Into English
After the last war I was impressed by the importance the name of Kierkegaard had acquired throughout the Continent, especially in Germany. I could hardly pick up a serious book without finding his name in it. Every writer who claimed to be abreast of modern thought had to say something about him, and every reputable publisher had to bring out something. S.K. had already taken the place of Nietzsche as the literary vogue in higher circles.
Kierkegaard’s spiritual communism
People blame the world, the environment, the circumstances, the situation for standing in the way of good fortune and peace and joy. But it’s the person himself that stands in the way by being bound up too closely with the world, the environment, the circumstances to be able to come back to himself and toContinue reading “Kierkegaard’s spiritual communism”
Fear and Trembling
Soren Kierkegaard used Grimm’s story “The Story Of The Youth Who Went Forth To Learn What Fear Was” in his 1844 book The Concept of Anxiety. Nothing could make this young man fear and tremble. But Abraham trembled, I don’t know if Agamemnon trembled, but Tobias trembled, I’m not sure if Faust trembled; perhaps Isaac,Continue reading “Fear and Trembling”
Doubt
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a many sided character. He was foremost a Christian psychologist, then a social critic, and lastly a philosopher. He calls you “my dear reader” and is grateful that you have taken an interest in his work. He hopes that you find what you are seeking and in the seeking find yourself.Continue reading “Doubt”
L. Harold DeWolf and Soren Kierkegaard
Lotan Harold DeWolf was professor of systematic theology at Boston University and became Martin Luther King Jr.’s dissertation adviser at Boston University’s School of Theology in 1955. DeWolf was a Methodist minister and he lived from 1905-1986. Albert Cornelius Knudson (1873–1953) was DeWolf’s teacher in theology. Knudson published The Philosophy Of Personalism (1927).
Herbert Read and Kierkegaard
God had lodged a veto— such love of God as Kierkegaard had conceived could not co-exist with the love of a human being. It compelled him to an asceticism as rigorous as that of the saints and indeed, from this moment Kierkegaard’s life was in every sense that of a saint. He is perhaps the most real saint of modern times.
I now ask: How do I become a Christian?
Soren Aaby Kierkegaard lived eighteen hundred years after the Christian Era (CE) had been inaugurated through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ chose twelve single individuals to follow him. He demonstrated to them what it means to be like God, his Father. These twelve became seventy and then the seventy single individuals becameContinue reading “I now ask: How do I become a Christian?”
