Soren Kierkegaard by David Swenson (1921) Part 6 of 6.
Channel: Craig Campbell
Date: 31/07/2012

Swenson's last section deals with Kierkegaard's "Attack Upon Christendom" which he published in 1854 and 1855 in a series of articles in a newspaper he founded called "The Instant" (Øieblikket in Danish).  Walter Lowrie translated the book into English in 1944, it was translated into German and, so Lowrie states, "in every other language" in 1861. Kierkegaard had been writing since he was a young man. He kept a journal and wrote many of his thoughts there, however, the originals from the earliest years to 1846 were supposedly lost by translator H.P. Barnum.  Here is a link to a very small sampling of his journals. Kierkegaard wouldn't want you to read them and speculate upon them but just to read them and get what truth you can and put it into action. He believed individual truth and action went together. In other words, stop trying to know more things when you haven't even acted on what you think you know. Kierkegaard's writings have been appropriated by the philosophers and historians and theologians it's your job to get them back.
http://www.naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Kierkegaard,Soren/JournPapers/index.html
Howard V. Hong translated this book into English in 1998 under the title "The Moment and Late Writings". We hear much about the Moment today. Kierkegaard first wrote about the Moment in "Either-Or" (1843) and then again in "Philosophical Fragments" (1844). 
Kierkegaard was writing against the use of speculative knowledge in the world of the spirit. He envisioned the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit. Many march around the world of the spirit blowing their horns as though they were surrounding Jericho but never enter in. Others rush in and out as fast as they can change their coats. Kierkegaard felt people should enter into the world of the spirit so they can get first-hand knowledge of what it means to have a relationship with God. A resolution by one single individual is all it takes for the daring venture of becoming religious and, for Kierkegaard, becoming a Christian.  He didn't want to "hate and defy in ill-temper" he wanted to "be a faithful son and love unchanged" by external circumstances. Kierkegaard didn't hate Christians.
Here is a link to some of Kierkegaard's writings from "The Present Moment" Lee Milton Hollander (1880--1972).
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Present_Moment
Here is a link to D. Anthony Storm's Commentary on "The Moment"
http://www.sorenkierkegaard.org/the-moment.html
Here is a link to the whole article by David Swenson:
http://www.archive.org/stream/scandinavianstu06sociuoft#page/n349/mode/1up

And this is a link to his book "Kierkegaard's attack upon "Christendom," 1854-1855
http://archive.org/details/kierkegaardsatta00kier