Christianity provides a succinct solution to this problem. Jesus came and died for us, He bore our sins and endured the pain and suffering we deserved as punishment so that we can be reconciled with the Father. Kierkegaard called this absurdity, I call itlove.

What did Kierkegaard believe about the Church of his day?

Kierkegaard believed the church of his day was merely playing at Christianity. Kierkegaard became increasingly convinced that his calling was in making Christianity difficult. He was to remind people of his day that to be truly Christian, one must become aware of the cost of faith and pay the price.

What was Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existentialism?

This is the existentialism that Kierkegaard is considered the founder of—though later existentialists had significantly different agendas than his. In his later writings— Works of Love (1847), Christian Discourses (1848), and Training in Christianity (1850)—he tried to clarify the true nature of Christianity.

What is Kierkegaard’s definition of faith?

For Kierkegaard Christian faith is not a matter of regurgitating church dogma. It is a matter of individual subjective passion, which cannot be mediated by the clergy or by human artefacts. Faith is the most important task to be achieved by a human being, because only on the basis of faith does an individual have a chance to become a true self.

What is the central paradox of Christianity according to Kierkegaard?

Christian dogma, according to Kierkegaard, embodies paradoxes which are offensive to reason. The central paradox is the assertion that the eternal, infinite, transcendent God simultaneously became incarnated as a temporal, finite, human being (Jesus).

What did Kierkegaard believe about Christianity?

Kierkegaard believed the church of his day was merely "playing at Christianity.". Kierkegaard became increasingly convinced that his calling was in "making Christianity difficult.".

What is existence in Kierkegaard’s view?

Existence, he believed, is actual, painful, and more important than "essence" or "idea.". The authentic person wrestles with fundamental questions that cannot be answered rationally. As Kierkegaard once wrote, "My life has been brought to an impasse, I loathe existence….

What was Hegel’s target?

His target was the "system" (as he mockingly put it) of G.W.F. Hegel, the great philosopher of idealism.

Which philosopher argued for decision and commitment?

Hegel emphasized universals; Kierkegaard argued for decision and commitment. Hegel sought an objective theory of knowledge upon which everyone could agree; Kierkegaard believed in the subjectivity of truth—meaning that truth is understood and experienced individually.

What is the only way to live in this painful existence?

The only way to live in this painful existence is through faith . But to Kierkegaard, faith is not a mental conviction about doctrine, nor positive religious feelings, but a passionate commitment to God in the face of uncertainty. Faith is a risk (the "leap of faith "), an adventure that requires the denial of oneself.

Where was Kierkegaard born?

Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen , into a strict Danish Lutheran home. He inherited a melancholy disposition from his father and suffered through an unhappy youth. His frail and slightly twisted frame made him an object of mockery throughout his life. Still, his father was sufficiently wealthy that Kierkegaard never had to hold down a job but was free to spend his life as a writer and philosopher.

Did Kierkegaard break off the engagement?

And Regine Olsen captured his heart. They became engaged, but Kierkegaard had doubts and quickly broke off the engagement, though he admitted he was still deeply in love. He was weighed down by his unusual consciousness of the complexities of the human mind, which he would never be able to communicate to Regine. As he wrote in his diary: "I was a thousand years too old for her." Years later he compared that painful decision with Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, and some of his books were written "because of her."

What is the time category of an aesthete?

Time for the aesthete is the space of a mood, or the bearer of possibility. The refined Kierkegaardian aesthete’s pleasure is not a mere sensual gratification, but rather the delight in a life unburdened by predictability. (3) The time category most accentuated in the aesthetic stage is the moment, (4) and the moment represents a mock eternity, for the next moment it is all over and has no meaning in terms of commitment. As Kierkegaard described it:

What are the stages of Kierkegaardian time?

The fundamentals of the Kierkegaardian insight into time are found in his three stages (life-styles or levels of consciousness, in contemporary terminology): the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. Each of these must be considered in turn. (1) First, the aesthetic stage is characterized by the search for pleasure – sensual, artistic, intellectual or spiritual – as exhibited respectively by the seducer, the dilletante, the intellectual snob, and those who adopt religion as a source of exalted emotions rather than as a commitment. Unfortunately the exciting, delightful feelings which accompany entrance into the aesthetic stage ultimately give way to boredom, superficiality, emptiness and despair. Some remain trapped in this stage, but others go on to try a life of commitment to some ideal.

What is the ethical stage of the book "Either or"?

Second, the ethical stage, described so well in Kierkegaard’s amusing yet incisive and challenging book Either/Or?, (2) is characterized by the decision to become responsible for others and to give up those aimless hours of rapturous daydreams and desperate introspections which characterize the aesthetical lifestyle. Marriage is the most frequent entrance into the ethical stage with its emphasis on responsibility, but a person may also enter into it through dedication to a cause.

What is the difference between aesthetic and ethical?

Turning from time in the aesthetic stage to time in the ethical stage, it can be seen that one shifts from a world without an ought to the arena where time is the matrix of actions and decisions. Whereas in the aesthetic stage time assumes its meaning only as present, in the ethical stage time assumes its normal contours of present, future, and past. The present is resolution, the future is the task, and the past is gratitude and guilt.

What did Kierkegaard say about giving one’s life for the moment?

For Kierkegaard, to be willing to give one’s life for the moment is to ultimately die the death of despair. (7) In 1848 in the Christian Discourses, he wrote that:

Who is the Christian philosopher who challenged the Christian philosophers to see man’s confrontation with time in the light of eternity?

The implications of this view of time in the religious stage are overwhelming. Kierkegaard , a true Christian existentialist, successfully challenges all Christian philosophers to see man’s confrontation with time in the light of eternity – as the juncture of the fundamental choice between death and rebirth in Christ.

Did Kierkegaard believe in time?

Søren A. Kierkegaard (1813-1855) did not present his philosophy of time as a developed system, which is hardly surprising for a man who believed that all philosophical edifices were towers of Babel. However, to eschew system-building is not to preclude systematic thinking. A careful study of Kierkegaard’s writings reveals fascinating insights into the nature of man’s experience of time as he flees from or moves toward faith in Christ. The results of such a study are summarized in this article.

Why did Hong use the word "upbuilding"?

They were written to edify – Hong used the word upbuilding because Kierkegaard was so much against tearing down in order to build up. He was all about upbuilding and edifying the reader.

How many days apart did Kierkegaard write?

After Kierkegaard had written his discourses and pseudonymous books he decided to write two one day apart. Then more discourses.

What do we do to put an end to our worry?

What do we do to put an end to our worry. We seek diversion and diversion seeks us. Kierkegaard thinks we should look to the lily and the bird as godly diversions from worry. Consider the lily of the field and the bird of the air.

What did Kierkegaard say about the barriers to willing one thing?

He says we must renounce all double-mindedness and be willing to do everything for the good or to will to suffer everything for the good. Once we find the good we must will to be and to remain with the good as the single individual. Becoming aware that we are single individuals is when eternity enters in.

When did Soren Kierkegaard write "either or"?

Soren Kierkegaard paired Either/Or with his first book with his own name on it, Two Upbuilding Discourses May 16, 1843.

Why does Faust keep silent?

“There is evidently something very profound here, which has perhaps escaped the attention of most people, in that Faust, who reproduces Don Juan, seduces only one girl, while Don Juan seduced hundreds; but this one girl is also, in an intensive sense, seduced and crushed quite differently from all those Don Juan has deceived, simply because Faust , as reproduction, falls under the category of the intellectual .” (p. 98-99 Swenson tr)

When was the book "Some Christian Reflections in the form of Discourses" published?

Works of Love Some Christian Reflections in the form of Discourses Published in September 29, 1847 Edited and Translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong 1995 Princeton University Press Kjerlighedens Gjerninger (Love’s Deeds) (Kjerlighedens Gjerninger. Nogle christelige Overveielser i Talers Form)

What was the effect of Martensen on Kierkegaard?

Martensen also had a profound effect on Kierkegaard, but largely in a negative manner. Martensen was a champion of Hegelianism, and when he became Bishop Primate of the Danish People’s Church, Kierkegaard published a vitriolic attack on Martensen’s theological views.

How is the dialectic of the first pseudonymous authorship recuperated by the aesthetic?

So the whole dialectic of the “first” pseudonymous authorship is recuperated by the aesthetic by virtue of its medium of representation. In fact Johannes Climacus acknowledges this implicitly when at the end of Concluding Unscientific Postscript he revokes everything he has said, with the important rider that to say something then to revoke it is not the same as never having said it in the first place. His presentation of religious faith in an aesthetic medium at least provides an opportunity for his readers to make their own leap of faith, by appropriating with inward passion the paradoxical religion of Christianity into their own lives.

How did Kierkegaard distance himself from his texts?

Kierkegaard distanced himself from his texts by a variety of devices which served to problematize the authorial voice for the reader. He used pseudonyms in many of his works (both overtly aesthetic ones and overtly religious ones). He partitioned the texts into prefaces, forewords, interludes, postscripts, appendices. He assigned the “authorship” of parts of texts to different pseudonyms, and invented further pseudonyms to be the editors or compilers of these pseudonymous writings. Sometimes Kierkegaard appended his name as author, sometimes as the person responsible for publication, sometimes not at all. Sometimes Kierkegaard would publish more than one book on the same day. These simultaneous books embodied strikingly contrasting perspectives. He also published whole series of works simultaneously, viz. the pseudonymous works on the one hand and on the other hand the Edifying Discourses published under his own name.

Why is Kierkegaard’s biography important?

In a less abstract manner, an understanding of Kierkegaard’s biography is important for an understanding of his writing because his life was the source of many of the preoccupations and repetitions within his oeuvre. Because of his existentialist orientation, most of his interventions in contemporary theory do double duty as means of working through events from his own life. In particular Kierkegaard’s relations to his father and his fiancée Regine Olsen pervade his work. Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus says of Socrates that “his whole life was personal preoccupation with himself, and then Governance comes and adds world-historical significance to it.” Similarly, Kierkegaard saw himself as a “singular universal” whose personal preoccupation with himself was transfigured by divine Governance into universal significance.

What is existential critique?

This existential critique consists in demonstrating how the life and work of a philosopher contradict one another. Kierkegaard derived this form of critique from the Greek notion of judging philosophers by their lives rather than simply by their intellectual artefacts.

Why did Socrates use irony?

In his dissertation On the Concept of Irony with constant reference to Socrates Kierkegaard argued that the historical Socrates used his irony in order to facilitate the birth of subjectivity in his interlocutors.

Where did Kierkegaard live?

Kierkegaard led a somewhat uneventful life. He rarely left his hometown of Copenhagen, and travelled abroad only five times—four times to Berlin and once to Sweden. His prime recreational activities were attending the theatre, walking the streets of Copenhagen to chat with ordinary people, and taking brief carriage jaunts into the surrounding countryside. He was educated at a prestigious boys’ school ( Borgerdydskolen ), then attended Copenhagen University where he studied philosophy and theology. His teachers at the university included F.C. Sibbern, Poul Martin Møller, and H.L. Martensen.

What is the second important observation of Kierkegaard?

The second important observation is that the first 2 stages are compatible with atheistic moral realism.

What is Kierkegaard’s choice?

Kierkegaard was in essence saying, “In this life there are two choices: Either live a life of despair (stages 1&2), or embrace the absurd (stage 3) and live a life of fulfillment.”.

What is the problem with the transitional leap from aesthetic to ethical?

The problem here is that a transitional leap from the aesthetic to the ethical ends in a worse kind of dissatisfaction than boredom. In the second stage of life, man learns that he cannot live up to the demands of morality.

What is the ethical life?

The ethical life is built on a foundation of morality. Life is no longer about satisfying personal passions, but rather about satisfying the demands of moral obligations (be it absolute or cultural). At this stage, moral conformity becomes the greatest good.

What is the first stage of life?

Stage 1: Aesthetic. The first stage on life’s way, according to Kierkegaard, is the Aesthetic. This is the stage of sensuality and pleasure. The aesthete seeks to defeat boredom by maximizing pleasure. Man at this stage needn’t be hedonistic; he can be cultivated and reflective.

How can we accept God’s forgiveness?

Through faith, we can come to embrace forgiveness of sin and enter into a personal relationship with God. “If we can accept God’s forgiveness, sincerely, inwardly, contritely, with gratitude and hope, then we open ourselves to the joyous prospect of beginning anew.” ( source)

What is negative apologetics?

Instead of aiming to provide arguments for the truth of Christianity, Negative Apologetics examines the disastrous consequences that would result if Christianity were false. In this sense, Negative Apologetics resembles existentialism. The Danish existentialist Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) famously thought that life is lived on three different …

What did Kierkegaard advocate?

Kierkegaard was firmly against the over use of external proofs and advocated the testimony of the inner voice instead. Kierkegaard turned his readers from the external world to the inner beauty of the world of the spirit. The Romantics had deified Nature while the Idealists deified both Reason and the State.

Why was Kierkegaard’s writing a corrective?

Søren Kierkegaard’s writings were a “corrective,” because he presents an either/or – either New Testament Christianity/or none at all. His writings were meant to make single individuals think for themselves and as a result be built up from the inside. Walter Lowrie, his early translator, hoped parsons would read his works because they would find so …

Who wrote upbuilding discourses?

I like the way Kierkegaard wrote his upbuilding discourses.

Who said there is a spiritual Marshall?

Kierkegaard says there is a Spiritual Marshall available for everyone.

Who wrote about Kierkegaard?

Later Jean-Paul Sartre wrote about Kierkegaard, first in French in 1946, and then he was translated into English in 1960. And so began existentialism.

Is it true that every man is naturally bound to diffuse knowledge and virtue among his fellow- creatures?

It is true, every man is naturally bound to diffuse knowledge and virtue among his fellow- creatures, and to eradicate error and prejudice as much as lies in his power. It might therefore be concluded, that it is a duty, publicly tc fiing the gauntlet at every religious opinion, which one deems erroneous.