On the Occasion of a Confession On the Occasion of a ConfessionSoren Kierkegaard, 1847, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 325–326 was a postscript to the first section of Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (On the Occasion of a Confessional Service). This section has also been titled Purity of Heart is to Will One ThingHere Kierkegaard wrote Just as a person should not seek his peace through another human being and should not build upon sand, so it also holds true that he should not rely on any other person's work to convince him that he’s a sinner, but rather to remind him of his own responsibility before God if he does not discover it by himself—any other understanding is diversion. It is only a jest if I would pass judgment on you, but it is a serious matter if you forget that God will pass the judgment. So what is sought is given. God is near enough, but no one without purity can see God, and sin is impurity, and therefore no one can become aware of God without becoming a sinner. The first is a beckoning word, and the gaze of the soul is toward the heights where the goal is, but other words that provide the beginning are immediately heard, and these are depressing words. And yet this is the way it is for the person who wants to understand sin.... "The doctor and the pastor ask about your health, but eternity makes you responsible for your condition." Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions p. 28 Hong translation, Purity of Heart, Streere 1938 p. 209–210 What we Learn from the Lilies in the Field and from the Birds in the Air The first discourse (To Be Contented with Being a Human Being) deals with comparison and choice and how to trust God with the choice once made. He may have been echoing Goethe's Propylaen in which Goethe had written "The youth, when Nature and Art attract him, thinks that with a vigorous effort he can soon penetrate into the innermost sanctuary; the man, after long wanderings, finds himself still in the outer court. Such an observation has suggested our title. It is only on the step, in the gateway, the entrance, the vestibule, the space between the outside and the inner chamber, between the sacred and the common, that we may ordinarily tarry with our friends."Johann Goethe Introduction to the Propyläen 1798 Kierkegaard writes about nature differently than Goethe but similarly because both see Nature as teachers of human kind and Kierkegaard wrote very much about "the inner being"; the soul.Either/Or II  p. 167 Hong , Fear and Trembling Hong pp. 60–61, Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Hong p. 79, Repetition p . 200ff Hong , Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Hong p . 458, 499, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p . 269ff, 328–329 The second discourse deals with diverting oneself from worries by "learning from the bird how glorious it is to be a human being."  Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 194 David F. Swenson translated several of Kierkegaard's discourses which were published in 1958 through the efforts of Paul L Holmer. Kierkegaard wrote of The Glory of Our Common Humanity.The Glory of Our Common Humanity Swenson translation This was the second of three discourses that were all based on the text from Matthew 6 verses 24 to the end. It was titled How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being by Howard V Hong when he translated Kierkegaard's book in 1993. The third discourse was titled What Blessed Happiness is Promised in Being a Human Being by Howard V Hong. Kierkegaard is constantly stressing the importance there is in being a human being instead of a beast in the field because you have been given the gift of choice. "A choice. My listener, do you know how to express in a single word anything more glorious! If you talked year in and year out, could you mention anything more glorious than a choice, to have choice! It is certainly true that the sole blessing is to choose rightly, but certainly choice itself is the glorious condition."Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 206 Kierkegaard began writing about this choice in his first book Either/Or where he wrote first as the aesthetic and then as the ethicist. Hegel thinks that history and philosophy should come afterwards and explain events. Kierkegaard thinks its better to come beforehand.Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) Philosophy of Right translated by SW Dyde Queen's University Canada 1896 edition Preface xxx Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will also regret that; hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the sum and substance of all philosophy. It is only at certain moments that I view everything acterno modo, as Spinoza says, but I live constantly aeterno modo. There are many who think that they live thus, because after having done the one or the other, they combine or mediate the opposites. But this is a misunderstanding: for the true eternity does not lie behind either/or, but before it. Hence, their eternity will be a painful succession of temporal moments, for they will be consumed by a two-fold regret. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or part I, Swenson p. 37–39It is a sign of a well brought up child to be inclined to say it is sorry without too much pondering whether it is in the right or not, and it is likewise a sign of a high-minded person and a deep soul if he is inclined to repent, if he does not take God to court but repents and loves God in his repentance. Without this, his life is nothing, only like foam. Indeed, I assure you that if my life through no fault of my own were so interwoven with sorrows and sufferings that I could call myself the greatest tragic hero, could divert myself with my affliction and shock the world by naming it, my choice is made: I strip myself of the hero's garb and the pathos of tragedy; I am not the tormented one who can be proud of his sufferings; I am the humbled one who feels my offense; I have only one word for what I am suffering—guilt, only one word for my pain—repentance, only one hope before my eyes—forgiveness. And if it proves to be difficult for me to do—oh, then I have only one prayer. I would throw myself upon the earth and appeal from morning till night to the heavenly power who rules the world for one favor, that it might be granted me to repent, for I know only one sorrow that could bring me to despair and plunge everything into it—that repentance is an illusion, an illusion not with respect to the forgiveness it seeks but with respect to the imputation it presupposes. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or part II, Hong p. 237–238Spiritually understood, temporality and eternity are two magnitudes that are to be weighed. But in order to deliberate the person in turn must be a third party or have a third position in relation to the two magnitudes. This is the choice: he weighs, he deliberates, he chooses. Here, however there is never any chance that the two magnitudes weigh equally much, which can of course happen with a scale, it indicates the relation as one of equality. No, praise God, that can never happen, because properly understood the eternal already has a certain overweight and the person who refuses to understand this can never begin really to deliberate. So a person deliberates before he begins. Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, 1847, Hong p. 306–307 His first three texts are from Luke 14:27 Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Matthew 11:30 My yoke is beneficial, and my burden light. and It is said of him the Lord Jesus Christ: Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered Hebrews 5:8. Acts 5:41 Kierkegaard writes about why it might not be so great to have the "distinction" of being an apostle.  Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 327ff (333–334) they went away joyful because they had been deemed worthy to be scorned for the sake of Christ's name. He concluded this way: The first section was translated into English in 1938 by Douglas V. Steere and titled Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing. Steere also wrote the introduction to David F Swenson's 1946 translation of Works of Love.Google Link to Swenson's translation of Works of Love Howard V. and Edna H. Hong translated all the discourses and Princeton University Press published them in 1993.  Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong introduction xii–xiii Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993, 2009 Scholars generally paid more attention to his pseudonymous writings than his discourses. James Collins, from Saint Louis University, wrote the following about Kierkegaard's Gospel of Suffering in 1953. "Find a point which is under fire by an atheist of the nineteenth century and which is also defended by a seventeenth century man of faith and you have found an incontrovertibly religious belief. Such is the case with suffering, which is a scandal to a Feuerbach and a matter of glory to a Pascal, but to both a distinguishing note of the Christian mode of existence. In the degree that it promotes a meditative inwardness, Christianity makes us aware of God's supreme goodness and our own distance from, and hostility towards, His holiness. A religious sense of one's own sinfulness leads neither to morbid despair nor to rationalization. It issues in a voluntary acceptance of suffering as a way of atoning for sin to God, the just judge, and a way of approaching closer to God the redeemer. In a series of discourses entitled The Gospel of Suffering, Kierkegaard establishes the relation between guilt, suffering, and the triumph of faith, much after the manner of Luther's dialectical treatment of the theme of the sinner as a believer."James Collins, The Mind of Kierkegaard Princeton University Press 1953, 1983P . 221  References Sources Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits translated by Howard V & Edna H Hong 1993 World Cat Hong, Howard V. & Edna H. The Essential Kierkegaard. Princeton University Press, 2000. D. Anthony Storm's Commentary on Discourses
On the Occasion of a Confession On the Occasion of a ConfessionSoren Kierkegaard, 1847, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 325–326 was a postscript to the first section of Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (On the Occasion of a Confessional Service). This section has also been titled Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing What we Learn from the Lilies in the Field and from the Birds in the Air The first discourse (To Be Contented with Being a Human Being) deals with comparison and choice and how to trust God with the choice once made. He may have been echoing Goethe's Propylaen in which Goethe had written "The youth, when Nature and Art attract him, thinks that with a vigorous effort he can soon penetrate into the innermost sanctuary; the man, after long wanderings, finds himself still in the outer court. Such an observation has suggested our title. It is only on the step, in the gateway, the entrance, the vestibule, the space between the outside and the inner chamber, between the sacred and the common, that we may ordinarily tarry with our friends."Johann Goethe Introduction to the Propyläen 1798 Kierkegaard writes about nature differently than Goethe but similarly because both see Nature as teachers of human kind and Kierkegaard wrote very much about "the inner being"; the soul.Either/Or II Hong p. 167 , Fear and Trembling Hong pp. 60–61, Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Hong p. 79, Repetition Hong pp . 200ff , Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Hong pp . 458, 499, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong pp . 269ff, 328–329 The second discourse deals with diverting oneself from worries by "learning from the bird how glorious it is to be a human being." Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 194 David F. Swenson translated several of Kierkegaard's discourses which were published in 1958 through the efforts of Paul L Holmer. Kierkegaard wrote of The Glory of Our Common Humanity.The Glory of Our Common Humanity Swenson translation This was the second of three discourses that were all based on the text from Matthew 6 verses 24 to the end. It was titled How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being by Howard V Hong when he translated Kierkegaard's book in 1993. The third discourse was titled What Blessed Happiness is Promised in Being a Human Being by Howard V Hong. Kierkegaard is constantly stressing the importance there is in being a human being instead of a beast in the field because you have been given the gift of choice. "A choice. My listener, do you know how to express in a single word anything more glorious! If you talked year in and year out, could you mention anything more glorious than a choice, to have choice! It is certainly true that the sole blessing is to choose rightly, but certainly choice itself is the glorious condition."Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong p. 206 Kierkegaard began writing about this choice in his first book Either/Or where he wrote first as the aesthetic and then as the ethicist. Hegel thinks that history and philosophy should come afterwards and explain events. Kierkegaard thinks its better to come beforehand.Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) Philosophy of Right translated by SW Dyde Queen's University Canada 1896 edition Preface xxxHang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will also regret that; hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the sum and substance of all philosophy. It is only at certain moments that I view everything acterno modo, as Spinoza says, but I live constantly aeterno modo. There are many who think that they live thus, because after having done the one or the other, they combine or mediate the opposites. But this is a misunderstanding: for the true eternity does not lie behind either/or, but before it. Hence, their eternity will be a painful succession of temporal moments, for they will be consumed by a two-fold regret. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or part I, Swenson p. 37–39It is a sign of a well brought up child to be inclined to say it is sorry without too much pondering whether it is in the right or not, and it is likewise a sign of a high-minded person and a deep soul if he is inclined to repent, if he does not take God to court but repents and loves God in his repentance. Without this, his life is nothing, only like foam. Indeed, I assure you that if my life through no fault of my own were so interwoven with sorrows and sufferings that I could call myself the greatest tragic hero, could divert myself with my affliction and shock the world by naming it, my choice is made: I strip myself of the hero's garb and the pathos of tragedy; I am not the tormented one who can be proud of his sufferings; I am the humbled one who feels my offense; I have only one word for what I am suffering—guilt, only one word for my pain—repentance, only one hope before my eyes—forgiveness. And if it proves to be difficult for me to do—oh, then I have only one prayer. I would throw myself upon the earth and appeal from morning till night to the heavenly power who rules the world for one favor, that it might be granted me to repent, for I know only one sorrow that could bring me to despair and plunge everything into it—that repentance is an illusion, an illusion not with respect to the forgiveness it seeks but with respect to the imputation it presupposes. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or part II, Hong p. 237–238Spiritually understood, temporality and eternity are two magnitudes that are to be weighed. But in order to deliberate the person in turn must be a third party or have a third position in relation to the two magnitudes. This is the choice: he weighs, he deliberates, he chooses. Here, however there is never any chance that the two magnitudes weigh equally much, which can of course happen with a scale, it indicates the relation as one of equality. No, praise God, that can never happen, because properly understood the eternal already has a certain overweight and the person who refuses to understand this can never begin really to deliberate. So a person deliberates before he begins. Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, 1847, Hong p. 306–307 His first three texts are from Luke 14:27 Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Matthew 11:30 My yoke is beneficial, and my burden light. and It is said of him the Lord Jesus Christ: Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered Hebrews 5:8. Acts 5:41 Kierkegaard writes about why it might not be so great to have the "distinction" of being an apostle. Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 327ff (333–334) they went away joyful because they had been deemed worthy to be scorned for the sake of Christ's name. He concluded this way: The first section was translated into English in 1938 by Douglas V. Steere and titled Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing. Steere also wrote the introduction to David F Swenson's 1946 translation of Works of Love.Google Link to Swenson's translation of Works of Love Howard V. and Edna H. Hong translated all the discourses and Princeton University Press published them in 1993. Soren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong introduction xii–xiii Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993, 2009 Scholars generally paid more attention to his pseudonymous writings than his discourses. James Collins, from Saint Louis University, wrote the following about Kierkegaard's Gospel of Suffering in 1953. "Find a point which is under fire by an atheist of the nineteenth century and which is also defended by a seventeenth century man of faith and you have found an incontrovertibly religious belief. Such is the case with suffering, which is a scandal to a Feuerbach and a matter of glory to a Pascal, but to both a distinguishing note of the Christian mode of existence. In the degree that it promotes a meditative inwardness, Christianity makes us aware of God's supreme goodness and our own distance from, and hostility towards, His holiness. A religious sense of one's own sinfulness leads neither to morbid despair nor to rationalization. It issues in a voluntary acceptance of suffering as a way of atoning for sin to God, the just judge, and a way of approaching closer to God the redeemer. In a series of discourses entitled The Gospel of Suffering, Kierkegaard establishes the relation between guilt, suffering, and the triumph of faith, much after the manner of Luther's dialectical treatment of the theme of the sinner as a believer."James Collins, The Mind of Kierkegaard Princeton University Press 1953, 1983 p . 221 Notes References Sources Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits translated by Howard V & Edna H Hong . Princeton University Press, 1993. Hong, Howard V. & Edna H. The Essential Kierkegaard. Princeton University Press, 2000. D. Anthony Storm's Commentary on Discourses
R
ThingHere Kierkegaard wrote Just as a person should not seek his peace through another human being and should not build upon sand, so it also holds true that he should not rely on any other person's work to convince him that he’s a sinner, but rather to remind him of his own responsibility before God if he does not discover it by himself—any other understanding is diversion. It is only a jest if I would pass judgment on you, but it is a serious matter if you forget that God will pass the judgment. So what is sought is given. God is near enough, but no one without purity can see God, and sin is impurity, and therefore no one can become aware of God without becoming a sinner. The first is a beckoning word, and the gaze of the soul is toward the heights where the goal is, but other words that provide the beginning are immediately heard, and these are depressing words. And yet this is the way it is for the person who wants to understand sin.... "The doctor and the pastor ask about your health, but eternity makes you responsible for your condition." Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions p. 28 Hong translation, Purity of Heart, Streere 1938 p. 209–210
Thing
A
Hong
D
Hong
R
p
Hong pp
D
Hong
R
p
pp
R
p
pp
A
Soren Kierkegaard,
R
xxx Hang
xxxHang
A
Soren Kierkegaard,
A
Soren Kierkegaard,
R
1983P
1983 p
A
Notes
R
1993 World Cat
. Princeton University Press, 1993.