Along with Blasé Pascal,
Kierkegaard is one of the most influential "philosophers" in my life--aside
from Luther and St. Augustine themselves.
Each time I reread one of his works, something new appears. It is said that Kierkegaard was the first
existentialist. Depending on your point
of view, this is either a blessing or a curse on what we call Western
Civilization. The fact it was the
atheists in the succeeding years who took such intense interest in his writings
did not seem to recommend the attention for the more God-fearing bent. Just the title The Attack Upon
"Christendom" disuaded a great many from tackling his
corpus--being that it only confirmed what they thought they already knew about
him.
It was only in the twentieth
century that most of Kierkegaard's works became available in English. Since then, a more accurate and sober picture of the “gloomy Dane” has taken place.
The
truth is Kierkegaard was not so much a philosopher as he was a religious
essayist. Just a brief scan reveals such
Christian meditations as Two Edifying Discourses, Fear And Trembling.
The Unchangeableness Of God, , Training In Christianity, Two Discourses At The
Communion On Fridays, and (my personal favorite) Edifying Discourses In Various
Spirits. These can only be understood
with Kierkegaard's Lutheranism in the background. Indeed, unfamiliarity with Lutheranism can
and has lead to profound,mistaken misreadings.
I
will end with a quote from his journals.
Some believe Kierkegaard was referring to himself. No.
His contemplation was about Jesus Christ--our Risen Lord.
"THE
SACRIFICE," THE CORRECTIVE
As a skilful cook says of a dish in which there are already
a great many ingredients: "It still needs just a little pinch of
cinnamon" (and we perhaps could hardly tell by the taste that this little
pinch of spice had been added, but she knew precisely why and precisely how it
affected the taste of the whole mixture); as an artist says with a view to the
color effect of a whole painting which is composed of many, many, colors:
"There and there, at that little point, it needs a touch of red" (and
we perhaps could hardly even discover the red, so carefully has the artist
shaded it, although he knows exactly why it should be introduced). So it is
with Governance.
O, the Governance of the world is a vast housekeeping, a grandiose painting. Yet he, the Master, God in heaven, behaves like the cook and the artist. He says: There must be a little touch of spice here, a little touch of red. We do not understand why, we are hardly aware of it, since that little bit is so thoroughly absorbed in the whole. But God knows why.
A little pinch of spice! That is to say: Here a man must be sacrificed, he is needed to impart a particular taste to the rest.
These are the correctives. It is a woeful error for the one who is used to apply the corrective to become impatient and try to make the corrective the norm for others. That is an attempt to bring everything to confusion.
A little pinch of spice! Humanly speaking, what a painful thing, thus to be sacrificed, to be the little pinch of spice! But on the other hand, God knows well the man he elects to use in this way, and then he knows also, in the inward understanding of it, how to make it a blessed thing for him to be sacrificed, that among the thousands of divers voices which express, each in its own way, the same thing, his will also be heard, and perhaps especially his, which is truly de profundis, proclaiming: God is love. The birds on the branches, the lilies in the field, the deer in the forest, the fish in the sea, countless hosts of happy men exultantly proclaim: God is love. But beneath all these sopranos, supporting them as it were, like the bass part, is audible the de profundis which issues from those who are sacrificed: God is love.
O, the Governance of the world is a vast housekeeping, a grandiose painting. Yet he, the Master, God in heaven, behaves like the cook and the artist. He says: There must be a little touch of spice here, a little touch of red. We do not understand why, we are hardly aware of it, since that little bit is so thoroughly absorbed in the whole. But God knows why.
A little pinch of spice! That is to say: Here a man must be sacrificed, he is needed to impart a particular taste to the rest.
These are the correctives. It is a woeful error for the one who is used to apply the corrective to become impatient and try to make the corrective the norm for others. That is an attempt to bring everything to confusion.
A little pinch of spice! Humanly speaking, what a painful thing, thus to be sacrificed, to be the little pinch of spice! But on the other hand, God knows well the man he elects to use in this way, and then he knows also, in the inward understanding of it, how to make it a blessed thing for him to be sacrificed, that among the thousands of divers voices which express, each in its own way, the same thing, his will also be heard, and perhaps especially his, which is truly de profundis, proclaiming: God is love. The birds on the branches, the lilies in the field, the deer in the forest, the fish in the sea, countless hosts of happy men exultantly proclaim: God is love. But beneath all these sopranos, supporting them as it were, like the bass part, is audible the de profundis which issues from those who are sacrificed: God is love.
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