Soren Kierkegaard by David Swenson (1921) Part 5 of 6
Channel: Craig Campbell
Date: 2012-07-13

David F. Swenson left off with the Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophic Fragments which ended the first part of Kierkegaard's writings (1842-1846). Modern reviewers of Kierkegaard's works tend to see the first part of his work inspired by Regine Olsen and the second part by his reaction to The Corsair attack. These are both external events in his life that constitute the crisis looked at by philosophers and theologians. Kierkegaard wanted to be known as the philosopher of inwardness and was called the philosopher of the heart in his own time because of his book "Works of Love". This essay covers his works from 1847 through 1850, "The Corsair Affair" to "For Self-Examination". Kierkegaard wrote about the crisis he called the sickness unto death. This sickness is sin, which many wanted to call selfishness, but Kierkegaard objected and said you can't call people selfish if they haven't' developed inwardly enough to know what a self is. The crisis for Kierkegaard was when he discovered that he, himself, had the capacity to do evil as well as good. This was his inner crisis and the choice was his thesis. It's something that he knew about and dealt with in his own way as a single individual.  Kierkegaard wasn't afraid to face himself or the crowd either. He followed Christ's admonition about removing the log from your own eye before trying to fix up your neighbor, "whom you shall love". 

Here is a link to "On the Dedication to That Single Individual". It's one of Kierkegaard's answers to the press of his day. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kierkegaard/untruth/files/untruth.html This is the only sample of his writings that is in public domain.

Here is a link to some of his work "Practice in Christianity" from Wikipedia http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Preparation_for_a_Christian_Life 

And here is a link to quotes from Kierkegaard's book "The Present Age" translated by Alexander Dru in 1962. This is from "The History Guide" http://www.historyguide.org/europe/present_age.html

The Works of Love is a good buy!