The Book on Adler

by Søren Kierkegaard, Edna Hatlestad Hong, Howard Vincent Hong

Kierkegaard was driven to write The Book on Adler after news spread that a Danish pastor, Adolph P. Adler, claimed to have experienced a revelation in which Christ dictated a new doctrine. Like many others, Kierkegaard was intrigued by Adler--but for different reasons than most. Over the eight years during which Kierkegaard worked on the manuscript, the phenomenon of Adler became a concern secondary to the larger question of authority. Kierkegaard revised the manuscript many times, and published a segment of it as "The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle" in Two Ethical-Religious Essays , but did not publish the work as a whole before his death. The latest integral version of The Book on Adler is included here, along with excerpts from the earlier drafts and a sampling of writing by Adler himself.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Classics

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1848

About the author

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. Kierkegaard strongly criticised both the Hegelianism of his time and what he saw as the empty formalities of the Church of Denmark. Much of his work deals with religious themes such as faith in God, the institution of the Christian Church, Christian ethics and theology, and the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices. His early work was written under various pseudonyms who present their own distinctive viewpoints in a complex dialogue.

Kierkegaard left the task of discovering the meaning of his works to the reader, because "the task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted". Scholars have interpreted Kierkegaard variously as an existentialist, neo-orthodoxist, postmodernist, humanist, and individualist.

Crossing the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, and literature, he is an influential figure in contemporary thought.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although one cannot deny offended people talent and daimonic inspiration, they ordinarily nevertheless tend to be somewhat obtuse on the whole -- that is, they really do not know quite how one is to go about the matter in order to do harm. They attack Christianity, but they place themselves outside it, and for that very reason they do no harm. No, the offended person must try to come to grips with Christianity in a completely different way, try to push up like a mole in the middle of Christendom. Suppose that Feuerbach, instead of attacking Christianity, had gone about it more craftily. Suppose that he had laid out his plan in daimonic silence and then stepped forward and announced that he had had a revelation, and now suppose that he, like a criminal who is able to stick to a lie, had stuck unshakably to this story while he also sagaciously had found out all the weak sides of orthodoxy, which he nevertheless by no means attacked but only, with a certain innocent naivete, knew how to hold up to the light. Suppose that he had done it so well that no one could get wise to his slyness -- he would have brought orthodoxy into the worst predicament.

[Forsythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The case for (but mostly against) Magister Adler, yes, but mostly springboard for thoughts on writing (authorship), revelation, the age (and man) of movement, the extraordinary individual, the ethical as measuring-rod, silence (and, amidst it, inwardness), Christianity as history (the eighteen hundred years), the long and the short (fortuitous length), the apostle (grounded in authority) vs the genius (grounded in the self), dizziness (and discipline), Hegel, the Hegelian as country pastor, what it means to be born into Christendom (Christianity by accident). Interesting analogies used therein: constipation.

[dunya · Rating 3 out of 5]

what even is this