Kierkegaard (33 page)

Kierkegaard struggled mightily with himself over the form this accounting should take.
Point of View
was complete by November 1848, but Søren was worried it said
too
much about his self-understanding and that it was prone to misunderstanding. Eventually, a much shorter version drawn from
Point of View
was published as
On My Work as an Author
in 1851. The full work, along with its accompanying material on “The Single Individual” and
Armed Neutrality
was eventually published by Peter Kierkegaard years after Søren's death.

The book lays out the case that Kierkegaard was a religious author from the beginning. While there was Christian intent, Kierkegaard does not claim his whole project was fully formed from the start—it developed as the works went on. Kierkegaard again reiterates he is a
reader
as much as the author of the works, and he sees them as a means to his own upbuilding guided by divine Governance. The book justifies the “deception” of the pseudonyms and the necessity of indirectly communicating Christianity. It describes Kierkegaard's relation to the “left” and “right” hands of his writing and devotes ample time tracing “Governance's Part in My Authorship” (71).

The short piece entitled
Armed Neutrality
was intended to supplement
Point of View
but was not in fact published till twenty years later. It spells out Kierkegaard's “Position as a Christian Author in Christendom” (129). The title is an allusion to the conservative and radical upheavals of contemporary Denmark and Kierkegaard's conception that “in relation to the manifold confusion of modern times,” the authentically Christian
position needs to be fiercely protected from partisan co-option. The essay extols the need for every Christianised culture and generation “to uphold the ideal picture of a Christian” (130). Kierkegaard is not that ideal by any means, but his work tries to present the image. “Humble before God, with my knowledge of what it indeed means in truth to be a Christian, and with my knowledge of myself, I by no means dare to maintain that I am a Christian in any remarkable sense” (134). This is in stark contrast to the thousands of Christians who “have known definitely that they were Christians but did not know definitely what it means to be a Christian” (141).

The notes on “The Single Individual” are often overlooked but contain important discussions on Kierkegaard's posture towards politics. “But although ‘impractical,' yet the religious is eternity's transfigured rendition of the most beautiful dream of politics” (103). The essay contains some of Kierkegaard's clearest expressions on what it means to be an individual in the face of the crowd. “The crowd is untruth” (108) when it assumes the mantle of authority merely by dint of its size and numerical strength. Yet truth is not a matter of a “gathering of thousands” or of voting (108). Instead, “truth relates itself to the single individual.” This is not elitism: “everyone can be the one” (109). Christ preached so as to draw persons out from their crowds, an action the crowd hates. “That is why everyone who in truth wants to serve the truth is
eo ipso
in some ways a martyr” (109).

Judge for Yourself!

Written, 1851–52; published posthumously1876

Søren Kierkegaard

Judge For Yourself!
was originally written as a sequel to
For Self-Examination
and bears the subtitle “For Self-Examination Recommended to the Present Age: Second Series.” In the end, Kierkegaard decided to
withhold this more trenchant piece until Bishop Mynster responded to Kierkegaard's repeated calls for confession of Christendom's guilt at portraying authentic Christianity. The confession never happened and
Judge!
stayed amongst Kierkegaard's posthumous papers until published by Peter Kierkegaard in 1876.

The book comes in two parts, with themes familiar to any reader who has encountered Kierkegaard's “attack” material and the ideal Christianity of Anti-Climacus. Part one is a plea for “Becoming Sober,” an act defined, eventually, as “to come so close to oneself in one's understanding, in one's knowing, that all one's understanding becomes action” (115). The primary drunken haze from which the reader needs to emerge, of course, is the intoxication of level-headed, sensible, worldly wise Christendom. The second section is a return to the favourite theme of “Christ the Prototype” and another reflection on Matthew 6:24: No one can serve two masters. Christianity is not a doctrine. It is not a set of scholarly data calling for assent or doubt or a set of moral principles. These are all
objective
phenomena. Instead, it has to do with “the subjective” (that is, Persons as subjects not objects). Jesus Christ “as the prototype required imitation” and in this way “expels all anxiety from a person's soul” (209).

The book's “moral” is worthy of note. Here, Kierkegaard (correctly) anticipates the common response to regard him as yet another reformer. In no uncertain terms he rejects the label. Kierkegaard's appeal is to the single individual. He is not seeking disciples or starting a new movement. He states he is happy to let the established order exist in all its forms, but with the
caveat
that it confess before God how far behind it is to imitating the prototype. Unless and until this happens, all “reforming” is but more noise in the present age. The mania for reform is like rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. It is a sham “without being willing to suffer and make sacrifices . . . This cannot be God's idea but is a foppish human device, which is why, instead of fear and trembling and much spiritual trial, there is: hurrah, bravo, applause, balloting, bumbling, hubbub, noise—and false alarm” (213).

Preface

13
: “His sayings”: Charles Williams,
Descent of the Dove
(London: Longman, 1939), 194.

Chapter 1: A Controversial Life

19–20
: “On the evening of Sunday”:
Berlingske Tidende
(November 16, 1855) in Bruce Kirmmse, ed.,
Encounters With Kierkegaard
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 145.

20–21
: “He was without a doubt”: Goldschmidt,
Encounters
, 130.

21
: “I do not wonder”: Grundtvig in Joakim Garff,
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography
, trans. Bruce Kirmmse (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 796.

21
: “I thought it decent”: Møller,
Encounters
, 132.

21
: “He was said to suffer”: Paulli, Garff, 793.

23
: “living minute by minute”: Lund,
Encounters
, 172.

23
: “strongly discordant”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 190.

23
: “Everyone knew”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 190–91.

24
: “It was probably in this way”: Lund,
Encounters
, 172.

25
: “Søren Kierkegaard was buried”: Andersen,
Encounters
, 136.

25
: “the church was full”: Soderman,
Encounters
, 132.

25–26
: “A man who”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 191.

26
: “The tightly packed mass”: Lund,
Encounters
, 173.

27
: “completely different appearance”: Lund,
Encounters
, 173.

27
: “They conquered the space”: Lund,
Encounters
, 173.

27
: “while his face”: Lund,
Encounters
, 173.

27
: “powerfully delivered”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 175.

28
: “eulogy”: P. Kierkegaard,
Encounters
, 146–50.

28
: “became still as glass”: Lund,
Encounters
, 173.

28
: “Everywhere teemed”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 191.

29
: “In the name of God . . . Let him speak!”: Lund,
Fatherland
(November 22, 1855),
Encounters
, 133–35.

30
: “Therefore, both on his behalf”: Lund,
Fatherland
(November 22, 1855),
Encounters
, 135.

30
: “Bravo!”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 192.

30
: “The speaker was gone”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 192.

30
: “As if”: Soderman,
Encounters
, 133.

31
: “Today, after a service”: Martensen,
Encounters
, 135.

31
: “great quantity of paper”: Lund,
Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks: Volume I
, eds. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, et al. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), vii.

32
: “if anyone wants to talk”: Lund,
Encounters
, 131.

32
: “The unnamed person”: S. Kierkegaard, Garff, 801.

32
: “What I wish to express”: S. Kierkegaard,
Encounters
, 48.

32–33
: “In a little while”: Jørgen Bukdahl,
Kierkegaard and the Common Man
, trans. Bruce Kirmmse (Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2001), 130.

Chapter 2: School Life

35
: “I don't know . . . I myself belonged to this latter group.”: Welding,
Encounters,
6–8.

37
: “I have now read Welding's”: Anger,
Encounters
, 10.

37
: “In his boyhood”: Holst,
Encounters
, 13.

37
: “we did not have the least suspicion”: Lind,
Encounters
, 11.

37–38
: “This young man”: Nielsen, ‘School Testimony' (September 29, 1830),
Encounters
, 18.

38
: “When God speaks”: Attrup,
Encounters
, 12.

38
: “believed [Søren] lacking”: Lind,
Encounters
, 11.

38
: “Kierkg is really annoying”: Anger,
Encounters
, 10.

39
: “Storck's fiancée”: Welding,
Encounters
, 9.

39
: “will you also tell the professor”: Welding,
Encounters
, 9.

39
: “Either you leave”: Lind,
Encounters
, 11.

39
: “Søren had a good eye”: Welding,
Encounters
, 8.

39
: “deliberately made things difficult”: Welding,
Encounters
, 8.

40
: “when he was entrusted”: Nielsen, ‘School Testimony' (September 29, 1830),
Encounters
, 18.

40
: “Slight, slender, and frail”: Søren Kierkegaard,
Journals and Papers
, eds. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. 7 volumes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967–78), 6890 (X.1 A 277).

40
: “SK was always one of the first”: Welding,
Encounters
, 8. 40: “So what?”: Brun,
Encounters
, 6. 40–41: “annoying and provocative”: Welding,
Encounters
, 7. 41: “even though it often earned him a beating”: Welding,
Encounters
, 7. 41: “with rulers”: Meidell,
Encounters
, 4. 41: “Never boots”: Welding,
Encounters
, 7.

41–42
: “From the very beginning”: Nielsen, ‘School Testimony' (September 29, 1830),
Encounters
, 15–17.

Chapter 3: Family Life

43
: “A fork”: Troels-Lund,
Encounters
, 3.

46
: “I was born in 1813”: JP 5725 (V A 3 n.d., 1844).

“Obedience was for him”: Lund, in Joakim Garff and Pia Søltoft,
Søren Kierkegaard: Objects of Love, Works of Love
(Copenhagen: Museum of Copenhagen, 2013), 18.

46–47
: “was not to be trifled”: unnamed servant, Garff and Søltoft
,
24.

48
: “a very strict man”: JC
,
120.

48
: “While they walked up and down”: JC
,
120.

48
: “When I can't sleep”: Brun,
Encounters
, 6.

49
: Michael in an argument: JC, 121–22.

49
: “My father”: Thorkild Lyby, “Peter Christian Kierkegaard”,
Kierkegaard and his Danish Contemporaries: Tome II Theology
, ed. Jon Stewart (Burlington: Ashgate, 2009), 189.

49
: Fuss over sons: Lund,
Encounters
, 153.

50
: “Anne Kierkegaard, born Lund”: Garff, 130.

51
: “deeply humbled”: SUD, 112. The insight comes from George Pattison.

51
: “It is appalling”: JP 6274 (IX A 411).

51–52
: “Then it was that the great earthquake occurred”: JP 5430 (II A 805 n.d., 1838).

52
: “How appalling”: JP 5874 (VII.1 A 5).

52
: “and ours too.” Garff, 136; Alistair Hannay,
Kierkegaard: A Biography
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 456 n.37.

53
: “the temperaments cannot be united”: Josiah Thompson,
Kierkegaard
(New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1973), 27.

53
: “fall from tree”: Lund,
Encounters
, 158.

54
: “No, my children have not been brought up like that”: Hammerich,
Encounters
, 3.

54
: “galloping consumption”: Hannay, 32–33.

54
: “It is really remarkable”: JP 277 (I A 325 January 22, 1837).

55
: “I acquired an anxiety”: JP 6274 (IX A 411 n.d., 1848).

56
: The way of the world: PC, 174ff; WA, 55ff.

57
: “As a child”: PV
,
79.

Chapter 4: Public Life/Private Life

60–61
: “strange, confused look”: Brøchner,
Encounters
, 225.

61
: “witty, somewhat sarcastic face”: Sibbern,
Encounters
, 216.

61
: “intelligent, lively and superior”: Goldschmidt,
Encounters
, 65.

61
: Walking with Søren: Brøchner,
Encounters
, 239.

61
: “As far as little annoyances are concerned”: JP 5092 (I A 72 June 1, 1835).

62
: “a man dressed in modern clothes”: JP 5094 (I A 63 n.d., 1835).

62
: 1262 r.d.: Thompson, 47.

62
: “In this way my father”: S. Kierkegaard, Thompson, 66.

63
: “Peter has always regarded himself as better”: JP 6176 (IX A 99 n.d., 1848).

63
: March 1834: P. Kierkegaard, Hannay, 53.

63
: “when he became morbidly religious”: JP 6274 (IX A 411 n.d., 1848).

64
: “Søren these days”: P. Kierkegaard, Hannay, 90.

64
: “Since from the coming first of September”: S. Kierkegaard, Thompson, 68.

66
: “when the fire gleamed”: Sibbern Møller,
Encounters
, 19.

68
: “fascinated the youth”: Søren Kierkegaard,
Papers and Journals: A Selection
, trans. Alastair Hannay (London: Penguin, 2015), 49 (X 2 155).

68
: “a crack in his sounding board”: Hans Lassen Martensen,
Af mit Levnet
III, in
Kierkegaard Commentary
, trans. T. H. Croxall (London: James Nisbet, 1956), 244–45.

69
: “My mother has repeatedly confirmed . . . the upper hand”: Martensen,
Encounters
, 196.

69
: “I recognized immediately”: Martensen,
Encounters
, 196.

70
: Polemical: See for example JP 5961 (VII1 A 221 January 20, 1847).

70
: “brilliant dialectic and wit”: Ostermann,
Encounters
, 20–22.

71–72
: “with one face I laugh”: JP 5260 (II A 662 n.d., 1837).

72
: “People understand me so little”: JP 5119 (I A 123 February, 1836).

72
: “I have just now come from a gathering”: JP 5141 (1A 161 1836).

73
: “Blast it all”: JP 5142 (I A 162 n.d., 1836).

73
: “One who walked”: JP 1672 (I A 158 n.d., 1836).

73
: “Situation”: JP 5249 (II A 634).

73
: “I don't feel like doing anything”: JP 5251 (II A 637).

74–75
: “What I really need”: JP 5100 (I A 75 August 1, 1835).

75
: “I grew up in orthodoxy”: JP 5092 (I A 72 June 1, 1835).

75–76
: “Christianity was an impressive figure”: JP 418 (I A 97 n.d. 1835).

76
: “When I look at a goodly number”: JP 417 (I A 96 n.d. 1835).

77
: “Oh how unhappy I am”: JP 5225 (11 A 597 n.d. 1837).

Chapter 5: Love Life

79
: “the devil of my wit”: JP 5219 (II A 67 May 8, 1837).

79–80
: Captivated: R. Schlegel,
Encounters
, 34.

80
: “angel with the flaming sword”: JP 5219 (II A 67 May 8, 1837).

80
: “. . . good God”: JP 5220 (II A 68 n.d., 1837).

82
: “compression of the spinal cord”: Johan Schioldann and Ib Søgaard,
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–55): A Bicentennial Pathographical Review
. History of Psychiatry 24 (4) 387–398.

82–83
: “When at times”: JP 5301 (II A 702 February 9, 1838).

84
: “It would be interesting”: JP 4400 (II A 163 September 20, 1837).

84
: “hackneyed proposition”: JP 2313 (II A 159 n.d., 1837).

84
: “Philosophy”: JP 3251 (II A 11 n.d., 1837).

84
: “Such a long period”: JP 5302 (II A 209 April, 1838).

85
: “To the late Professor Poul Martin Møller”: CA, 178 (V B 46, 1844).

85–86
: “There is an indescribable joy”: JP 5324 (II A 10:30 A. M. May 19, 1838).

86
: Pastor Kolthoff: Koltoff to Barfod, letter dated April 19, 1868. Quoted
in Niels Jørgen Cappelørn “Søren Kierkegaard at Friday Communion in the Church of Our Lady”,
International Kierkegaard Commentary Volume 10: Without Authority
, ed. Robert Perkins (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2006), 263–64.

86
: “Father in Heaven”: JP 5328 (II A 231 July 9, 1838).

86
: “I am going to work”: JP 5329 (II A 232 July 9, 1838).

86–87
: “My father died on Wednesday”: JP 5335 (II A 243 August 11, 1838). 87: “insane”: PV, 79.

88
: “Now you will never get your theological degree”: Sibbern to S. Kierkegaard, JP 5769 (VI A 8 n.d., 1844–45).

88
: “If Father had lived”: JP 5769 (VI A 8 n.d., 1844–45).

88
: “as long as Father was alive”: S. Kierkegaard to Brøchner,
Encounters
, 228.

89
: “the longest parenthesis”: JP 5446 (III A 35 n.d., 1840).

89
: “I must bid farewell”: JP 5434 (II A 576 December 20, 1839).

89
: “Even before my father died”: JP 6472 (X5 A 149 n.d., 1849).

89
: “During all that time”: JP 6472 (X5 A 149 n.d., 1849).

90
: “You, sovereign queen of my heart”: JP 5368 (II A 347 February 2, 1839).

90
: “Here on the heath”: JP 2830 (III A 78 n.d., 1840).

90
: “I am so listless”: JP 5454 (III A 54 n.d., 1840).

91
: “determined to resolve the whole thing”: JP 6472 (X5 A 149 n.d., 1849).

91
: “O, what do I care about music”: JP 6472(X5 A 149 n.d., 1849).