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Edifying Discourses: A Selection
Edifying A Soren Edifying A Harper FIRST First Edition Thus, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Harper Torchbooks, 1958. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good with previous owner name on first page and shelf wear/edgewear to covers. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 304017 Philosophy & Psychology We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
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Published January 1, 1958
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October 11, 2024
KIERKEGAARD'S NEAR-"SERMONS" FOR A POPULAR AUDIENCE
Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author, who was the first existentialist philosopher.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1843 book, "Although this little book (which is called `discourses,' not sermons, because its author has no authority to PREACH; `edifying discourses'... because the speaker does not claim to be a TEACHER) only wishes to be ... something of a superfluity...and only desires to remain in secret... I still have not said farewell to it without an almost fantastic hope... insofar as, by being published, it in a stricter sense remains quiet without leaving the place... But I saw also... how the bird that I call MY reader, suddenly fixed his eye upon it, flew down to it, plucked it off, and took it to himself."
He asks, "What then is the eternal power in man? It is faith. What is the expectation of faith? Victory, or as the Scriptures have ... taught us, it is that all things work together for good to those that love God. But an expectation of the future which expects victory has indeed conquered the future. The believer is therefore done with the future before he begins on the present; for what one has conquered no longer has power to disturb one, and this victory can only make one more powerful for the present." (Pg. 16-17)
He observes, "we have sometimes pictured the horror which must have seized upon the rich man when he awakened in hell; but if it were the case with eternal happiness, that the instant a man breathed his last sigh he awakened to this bliss, a man whose thought has been as distant from it as the abyss is from heaven: it seems to me that this man must die again from shame, must wish himself away, because the bliss of heaven and his own unworthiness could not tolerate each other." (Pg. 116)
He says, "When the demands of life exceed the judgment of experience, then life becomes confused and comfortless, unless the expectation of an eternal happiness regulates and calms it... But the expectation of an eternal happiness consoles beyond all measure." (Pg. 124)
He states, "What then is man? Is he but another jewel in the great chain of being? Or has he no power, can he himself do nothing? And what is this power? What is the highest he can will?... For our part we do not propose to cheat the highest aim of its true cost, nor do we intend to conceal the fact that it is seldom attainted. For the highest of human tasks is for a man to allow himself to be completely persuaded that he can of himself do nothing, absolutely nothing." (Pg. 151)
He asserts, "This is man's annihilation, and this annihilation is his truth... he is himself the sole instrument of his annihilation... In this way man becomes a helpless creature... It is in this sense that man is great; and he arrives at the highest pitch of perfection when he becomes suited to God through becoming absolutely nothing in himself." (Pg. 153-155)
He suggests, "Whoever can do nothing of himself, cannot undertake the least enterprise without God's help, or without coming to notice that there is a God. We sometimes speak of learning to know God from history; we bring out the chronicles, and read and read. This method may perhaps succeed... But whoever knows in himself that he can do nothing, has each day and each moment the desired and indubitable occasion to experience the living God. And if he does not have this experience often enough, he knows very well the reason. The reason is that he has become involved in a misunderstanding, and thinks he can do something of himself." (Pg. 171)
He notes, "how does the possibility of an anxiety about subsistence come about? From the fact that the temporal and the eternal touch one another ... from the fact that the human has consciousness. In the possession of consciousness he is eternally far, far beyond the moment... Since now the man has consciousness, he is the place where the temporal and the eternal constantly touch one another, where the eternal interests itself in the temporal...
"Therefore the man has a dangerous enemy that the bird does not know: time... And as God elevated the human being above the bird through the eternal in his consciousness, so He depressed him again lower than the bird, so to speak, through his knowledge of the anxiety, the earthly, humble anxiety, which the bird does not even know. Oh, how superior it seems for the bird not to have a care for the necessities of life---and yet, how far more glorious it is to be able to know this care." (Pg. 245-247)
Nowhere near as religiously challenging as, say, Kierkegaard's "Training in Christianity," "Christian Discourses," or "Attack Upon Christendom," this book is still of interest for giving a fuller perspective of Kierkegaard's religious thought.
Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author, who was the first existentialist philosopher.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1843 book, "Although this little book (which is called `discourses,' not sermons, because its author has no authority to PREACH; `edifying discourses'... because the speaker does not claim to be a TEACHER) only wishes to be ... something of a superfluity...and only desires to remain in secret... I still have not said farewell to it without an almost fantastic hope... insofar as, by being published, it in a stricter sense remains quiet without leaving the place... But I saw also... how the bird that I call MY reader, suddenly fixed his eye upon it, flew down to it, plucked it off, and took it to himself."
He asks, "What then is the eternal power in man? It is faith. What is the expectation of faith? Victory, or as the Scriptures have ... taught us, it is that all things work together for good to those that love God. But an expectation of the future which expects victory has indeed conquered the future. The believer is therefore done with the future before he begins on the present; for what one has conquered no longer has power to disturb one, and this victory can only make one more powerful for the present." (Pg. 16-17)
He observes, "we have sometimes pictured the horror which must have seized upon the rich man when he awakened in hell; but if it were the case with eternal happiness, that the instant a man breathed his last sigh he awakened to this bliss, a man whose thought has been as distant from it as the abyss is from heaven: it seems to me that this man must die again from shame, must wish himself away, because the bliss of heaven and his own unworthiness could not tolerate each other." (Pg. 116)
He says, "When the demands of life exceed the judgment of experience, then life becomes confused and comfortless, unless the expectation of an eternal happiness regulates and calms it... But the expectation of an eternal happiness consoles beyond all measure." (Pg. 124)
He states, "What then is man? Is he but another jewel in the great chain of being? Or has he no power, can he himself do nothing? And what is this power? What is the highest he can will?... For our part we do not propose to cheat the highest aim of its true cost, nor do we intend to conceal the fact that it is seldom attainted. For the highest of human tasks is for a man to allow himself to be completely persuaded that he can of himself do nothing, absolutely nothing." (Pg. 151)
He asserts, "This is man's annihilation, and this annihilation is his truth... he is himself the sole instrument of his annihilation... In this way man becomes a helpless creature... It is in this sense that man is great; and he arrives at the highest pitch of perfection when he becomes suited to God through becoming absolutely nothing in himself." (Pg. 153-155)
He suggests, "Whoever can do nothing of himself, cannot undertake the least enterprise without God's help, or without coming to notice that there is a God. We sometimes speak of learning to know God from history; we bring out the chronicles, and read and read. This method may perhaps succeed... But whoever knows in himself that he can do nothing, has each day and each moment the desired and indubitable occasion to experience the living God. And if he does not have this experience often enough, he knows very well the reason. The reason is that he has become involved in a misunderstanding, and thinks he can do something of himself." (Pg. 171)
He notes, "how does the possibility of an anxiety about subsistence come about? From the fact that the temporal and the eternal touch one another ... from the fact that the human has consciousness. In the possession of consciousness he is eternally far, far beyond the moment... Since now the man has consciousness, he is the place where the temporal and the eternal constantly touch one another, where the eternal interests itself in the temporal...
"Therefore the man has a dangerous enemy that the bird does not know: time... And as God elevated the human being above the bird through the eternal in his consciousness, so He depressed him again lower than the bird, so to speak, through his knowledge of the anxiety, the earthly, humble anxiety, which the bird does not even know. Oh, how superior it seems for the bird not to have a care for the necessities of life---and yet, how far more glorious it is to be able to know this care." (Pg. 245-247)
Nowhere near as religiously challenging as, say, Kierkegaard's "Training in Christianity," "Christian Discourses," or "Attack Upon Christendom," this book is still of interest for giving a fuller perspective of Kierkegaard's religious thought.
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