Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, Volume 11, Part 2: Loose Papers, 1843–1855 069119730X, 9780691197302

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction to the English Language Edition
Introduction to the Loose Papers
Loose Papers, 1843–1852
Paper 305–Paper 446
Loose Papers, 1852–1855
Paper 447–Paper 591
Notes for Paper 305–Paper 446
Notes for Paper 447–Paper 591
Maps
Calendar
Concordance

Citation preview

KIERKEGAARD’S JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS

B RU CE H . KIRMMSE GE N E RAL EDITOR

KIERKEGAARD’S JOURNALS AND NOTEBOOKS VOLUME 11, PART 2 Loose Papers, 1843–1855

Volume Edited by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, David D. Possen, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, and Vanessa Rumble

Published in cooperation with the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Copenhagen

Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford

KIERKEGAARD’S

JOURNALS and NOTEBOOKS Editorial Board Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, David D. Possen, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, and Vanessa Rumble in cooperation with the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Copenhagen Volume 11, Part 2, Loose Papers, 1843–1855 Originally published under the titles Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter: 27 Løse Papirer and Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter: K27 Kommentarer til Løse Papirer © 2011 by the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Foundation, Copenhagen The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Foundation at the University of Copenhagen was established with support from the Danish National Research Foundation. English translation Copyright © 2020 by the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Foundation at the University of Copenhagen, and the Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number 2011925169 ISBN: 978-0-691-19730-2 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available The publication of Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks is supported by grants from the Danish Ministry of Culture, the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, and Connecticut College. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks is based on Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, which is published with the support of grants from the Danish National Research Foundation and the Danish Ministry of Culture. Except as otherwise noted, all photographs have been provided by the photographic studio of the Royal Danish Library. This book has been composed in Palatino and Optima by Katalin Nun Stewart, Bratislava, Slovakia Text design by Bent Rohde Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America

CO NTENTS

Overview Volume 11, Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Loose Papers, 1830–1843 Volume 11, Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Loose Papers, 1843–1852 and 1852–1855

Introduction to the English Language Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Introduction to the Loose Papers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix

Loose Papers, 1843–1852 Paper 305–Paper 446 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

Loose Papers, 1852–1855 Paper 447–Paper 591 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Notes for Paper 305–Paper 446

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Notes for Paper 447–Paper 591 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697 Concordance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

vii

Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks Introduction to the English Language Edition Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks is based on Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (hereafter, SKS) [Søren Kierkegaard’s Writings] (Copenhagen: Gad, 1997–2012), which is a Danish scholarly, annotated edition of everything written by Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), and comprises fifty-five volumes. SKS divides the entirety of Kierkegaard’s output into four categories: 1) works published by Kierkegaard during his lifetime (e.g., such well-known titles as Either/ Or, Fear and Trembling, and The Sickness unto Death); 2) works that lay ready―or substantially ready―for publication at the time of Kierkegaard’s death, but which he did not publish in his lifetime (e.g., titles such as The Book on Adler, The Point of View for My Work as an Author, and Judge for Yourself!); 3) journals, notebooks, excerpts, and loose papers, collectively titled Kierkegaard’s “journals and notebooks”; and 4) letters and biographical documents. Clearly, Kierkegaard was not only a prolific author; he was also a prolific writer, and his literary activity found expression not only in his published works but also in the mass of writings that were not published in his lifetime. It is these writings, the third category listed above, titled Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks (hereafter, KJN) that constitute the material of the present English language edition.

I. Danish Editions of Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Writings In November 1855, shortly after Kierkegaard’s death, his nephew Henrik Lund visited his apartment accompanied by a clerk named Nørregaard from the Copenhagen Probate Commission. What Lund and Nørregaard encountered when they entered Kierkegaard’s apartment was “a great quantity of paper, mostly manuscripts, located in various places.”1 Lund viewed himself

) Flemming Christian Nielsen, Alt blev godt betalt. Auktionen over Søren Kierkegaards indbo [Everything Fetched a Good Price: The Auction of Søren Kierkegaard’s Personal Effects] (Viborg: Holkenfeldt, 2000), p. 7.

1

viii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

not merely as a relative but also as a disciple of his famous and controversial uncle, and he initially believed that he had been called to sort through and catalogue the mass of Kierkegaardian papers, with an eye to their eventual publication. Lund proceeded systematically, probably beginning as early as the end of November 1855, and during December of that year and the first half of January 1856 he worked his way through the great trove of papers and manuscripts. As the work progressed, Lund noted where each pile, case, box, roll, folder, and notebook lay when Kierkegaard had died, e.g., “in the desk,” “in the lower desk drawer,” “in the left-hand case,” or “in the second chest of drawers, ‘B,’ top drawer, to the left.”1 And he took careful note of which pages, scraps, and slips of paper were found together with which others. Although Lund eventually tired of the task and left the job of publication to others, he is the one who has provided the earliest account of Kierkegaard’s papers, and he compiled a valuable and quite detailed―though never completed―inventory of Kierkegaard’s posthumous writings, entitling it “Catalogue of the Manuscripts of S. Kierkegaard, Drawn up after His Death.” After a rather vagabond existence, these papers eventually found their way to the residence of Kierkegaard’s elder brother, Peter Christian, bishop of Aalborg in Jutland, Denmark, and in February 1865 they were entrusted to Hans Peter Barfod, a former newspaper editor to whom the bishop had assigned the task of “examining, registering, etc. Søren’s papers.”2 Much of what confronted Barfod (and before him, Lund) in the welter of papers was of course drafts and other materials related to works that Kierkegaard had published during his lifetime and to works that lay ready or almost ready for publication at the time of his death (that is, the above-mentioned materials that constitute categories 1 and 2 of SKS), plus letters and other biographical documents (category 4 of SKS). But there was also another group of materials, an enormous quantity of writing that did not fit into the other categories, an amorphous mass of journals, notebooks, and loose sheets, pages, and scraps of paper (category 3 of SKS). ) Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Joakim Garff, and Johnny Kondrup, Written Images: Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals, Notebooks, Booklets, Sheets, Scraps, and Slips of Paper, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 11.

1

2 ) Carl Weltzer, Peter og Søren Kierkegaard [Peter and Søren Kierke gaard] (Copenhagen: Gad, 1936), p. 311.

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

Faced with this daunting pile of paper, but armed with Lund’s above-mentioned “Catalogue,” Barfod plunged into the papers to construct his own inventory, and in November 1865, ten years after Kierkegaard’s death, Barfod completed his own “Catalogue of the Papers Found after the Death of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard.” Barfod’s “Catalogue” had 472 numbered items, and up through number 382 its enumeration was identical to that of Lund’s “Catalogue,” which itself appeared in Barfod’s as number 473. Two years later, in the autumn of 1867, after much hesitation, Bishop P. C. Kierkegaard gave Barfod “a free hand to deal with Søren Kierkegaard’s literary remains”1 and indicated his intention that they be published. Barfod set to work preparing the material for publication. Though not a trained philologist, Barfod (who has been much maligned for reasons that will become evident) was merely acting in accordance with the standard practice of his day when he wrote his own corrections, notes, and printer’s instructions on the pages of Kierkegaard’s journals, after which he sent them off to the printer. Sometimes he cut manuscript pages into several pieces, rearranged the order of the entries, and apparently glued them onto larger sheets of paper before sending them to the printer. Some of the original manuscripts themselves were lost―thrown away by the printer or by Barfod. Thus, some archival materials have been damaged, and others―including, for example, Journal AA, which contained the famous line about “a truth for which to live and die”―have been almost completely lost, so that the only source we have for these entries are the versions in Barfod’s published edition, or in a number of cases, merely the fragmentary headwords listed in Barfod’s “Catalogue.” Of the ten journals AA through KK from the period 1833–1846, only the final one, KK, is completely intact today. For all the remaining volumes―some entirely dismantled, some still in their original bindings―varying numbers of pages have been lost. As has been noted, Barfod was not particularly culpable, for he shared the view of his times, according to which literary remains had served their purpose after they had been examined and their contents published. Barfod’s principal responsibility was to serve Bishop P. C. Kierkegaard as secretary and treasurer of the Aalborg diocese, and he was thus unable to work full-time on Søren Kierkegaard’s ) Søren Kierkegaard, Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer [From Søren Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers], ed. H. P. Barfod, vol. 1 (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1869), p. ix.

1

ix

x

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

posthumous papers. Therefore, even though Barfod received permission to publish portions of Kierkegaard’s papers in 1867, the first volume of his Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (hereafter, EP) [From Søren Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers] did not appear until December 1869. This first volume―in fact a double volume (EP I–II) covering the period 1833–44―was generally accorded a rather chilly reception by reviewers, not so much because of Barfod’s editorial practices but because the publication of the papers was seen as an indiscretion or even as a violation of the rights both of the deceased and of those still living. The next volume (EP III), covering the period 1844–46, did not appear until more than two and one-half years later, in mid- and late 1872 (the volume appeared in two installments), and it was also the subject of scathing reviews. Another five years would pass before Barfod managed to publish the volume covering 1847 (EP IV, published in 1877). By this time Barfod had become increasingly occupied with his diocesan duties for Bishop Kierkegaard, and it was thus a stroke of good fortune when, in the summer of 1878, he chanced to meet Hermann Gottsched, a German educator who had become extremely interested in Kierkegaard, to the point of beginning to teach himself Danish. The very next year, 1879, Gottsched moved to Aalborg and began a collaboration with Barfod, who soon became Gottsched’s assistant, while Gottsched became the official editor of Kierkegaard’s papers. The remaining volumes of EP now appeared in rapid succession: EP V (covering 1848), EP VI (covering 1849), and EP VII (covering 1850), all came out in 1880; EP VIII (covering 1851–53) and EP IX (covering 1854–55) both came out in 1881. And at about the same time that Gottsched took over the task, the critical climate changed, so that the publication of Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers was now seen as a valuable contribution. Still, Barfod and Gottsched’s edition was admittedly only a selection of those materials which the editors believed to be most relevant for an intellectual biography of Kierkegaard. The Barfod-Gottsched nine-volume set of Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers was thus far from a complete edition, and furthermore the philological principles on which it was based were in general quite heavy-handed. Within less than three decades these shortcomings called forth a new and much more comprehensive edition (eleven volumes in twenty tomes), Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (hereafter, Papirer or Pap.) [The Papers of Søren Kierkegaard], edited by P. A. Heiberg with assistance from V. Kuhr and E. Torsting, which appeared over a period of almost forty years, from 1909 to 1948. (The Papirer were reissued, now

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

with two additional volumes, by Niels Thulstrup from 1968 through 1970, and a three-volume index appeared from 1975 through 1978.) This edition was far more complete than Barfod and Gottsched’s, but it imposed upon the welter of Kierkegaardian materials two principles that modern scholarship regards as utterly untenable. First of all, even though a great deal of the material defies such ordering, Heiberg’s edition forcibly sequenced the materials into an absolute chronology, interrupting the continuity of individual journal volumes by removing pages and rearranging their sequence and by inserting undated entries from various loose papers at points the editors deemed chronologically appropriate. And secondly, Heiberg’s Papirer forced the material into categorical compartments, even though the materials, as they actually came into being (as well as the order in which they were found upon Kierkegaard’s death), were often quite mixed. Thus, in the Heiberg edition of the Papirer, “Group A” consists of material that Heiberg and his colleagues deemed to be of the “diary” type; “Group B” is composed of material related to works subsequently published, ranging from the early stages of a work, to various drafts, and finally to fair copies; and “Group C,” a category the editors created out of whole cloth, consists of material deemed by Heiberg and his colleagues to be notes, remarks, and lengthy excerpts connected to Kierkegaard’s studies, to lectures he attended, his reading, etc. The result is that the scholar using Heiberg’s edition of the Papirer is confronted with an artificial sense of order, both chronological and categorical. In order to remedy the defects of earlier editions, the Danish National Research Foundation, an agency of the Danish government, established the Søren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen in 1994, and by 1997 the first volumes of SKS began to appear. In contrast to earlier editions, this new edition is governed by modern philological principles regarding the establishment of a scholarly text from handwritten materials. The new edition thus attempts to preserve the archival integrity of the original materials, organizing them in a manner that respects the order in which Kierkegaard himself kept the documents. Where the individual journals and notebooks themselves display chronological sequence, as they commonly do (though often not without inconsistencies and subsequent alterations and emendations attributable to Kierkegaard himself), the archival principle underlying SKS of course permits that chronology to remain visible. Similarly, when Kierkegaard himself organized his materials into various categories―for ex-

xi

xii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

ample, journals, notebooks, and loose papers―those categories remain visible in SKS. But SKS imposes no artificial timeline or categorical compartmentalization upon the materials.

II. Previous English Language Editions of Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers Several English language editions of selections from Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers have been published. The first to appear was Alexander Dru’s single volume of selections, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard (London: Oxford University Press, 1938). Dru’s work was based on the Heiberg edition of the Papirer, which had not yet been completed at the time Dru published his selection. Accordingly, in 1965 Ronald Gregor Smith published a much smaller volume of selections, Søren Kierkegaard, The Last Years: Journals 1853–1855 (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), which concentrated on what was then believed to be the final volume of the Papirer―volume XI, which appeared in three tomes. (In fact, as already noted, volume XI was subsequently accompanied by two additional volumes of text and three index volumes.) The Dru and Smith volumes were organized almost entirely in accordance with the chronological order that their editor-translators had inherited from the Heiberg Papirer. Shortly after the appearance of Smith’s volume, Howard and Edna Hong began publishing their six volumes of selections (plus one index volume), Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967–1978). Though far more comprehensive than its predecessors, the Hongs’ edition was likewise a selection, and like its predecessors it, too, was based on the Heiberg edition of the Papirer. Unlike Dru and Smith, however, the Hongs’ edition was primarily organized topically, with four of the six text volumes devoted to Kierkegaard’s views on various subjects, arranged alphabetically from “Abstract” to “Zachaeus.” The final two volumes of the Hong edition are devoted to what the Hongs judged to be autobiographical passages from Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers, arranged in a chronological order taken from the Papirer. The most recent volume of selections from Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers is Alastair Hannay’s Søren Kierkegaard, Papers and Journals: A Selection (London: Penguin, 1996). This, too, is based on the Papirer, and the organization is strictly chronological, with the chronology supplied, as in the other cases, by Heiberg’s edition.

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

III. Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks Based as it is on the new Danish edition of SKS, the present English language edition of Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks employs the SKS principle of organization by archival unit: journals, notebooks, and loose papers. The materials constituting the present edition of KJN consist of the documents mentioned above as the third category of materials included in SKS as volumes 17 through 27. The eleven volumes of KJN contain the translated text of these eleven SKS volumes, plus most of the explanatory notes contained in the eleven SKS commentary volumes that accompany SKS 17–27. Specifically, the textual materials constituting KJN consist of the following documents: a set of ten journals to which Kierkegaard affixed labels designating them “AA” through “KK” (as “I” and “J” are identical in the classical Roman alphabet, there is no journal titled “II”); fifteen notebooks, designated “1” through “15” by the editors of SKS, sequenced according to the dates on which Kierkegaard first made use of them; Kierkegaard himself assigned titles to four of these notebooks, and the editors retain these titles in parentheses; a series of thirty-six quarto-sized, bound journal volumes to which Kierkegaard affixed labels designating them journals “NB,” “NB2,” “NB3,” through “NB36”; and a great variety of materials―a large number of individual folio sheets, pages, slips, and scraps of paper―which the editors of KJN, following the editors of SKS, title “loose papers.” There is a good deal of chronological back-and-forth in Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers. Kierkegaard often made use of several of the first twenty-four documents―the ten journals designated “AA” through “KK” and the notebooks “1” through “14”― simultaneously, and there is thus much temporal overlap among these journals and notebooks. (Indeed, it was only after they had been in use for some time, probably in mid- or late 1842, that Kierkegaard assigned the designations “AA” through “KK” to the journal volumes bearing those labels.) Nonetheless, the abovementioned archival units do fall into several broad temporal categories, and these twenty-four journals and notebooks can be

xiii

xiv

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

collectively assigned to the period 1833–1846. Notebook 15, however, which is entirely devoted to Kierkegaard’s relationship to Regine Olsen, his onetime fiancée, stems from 1849. The journals titled “NB” through “NB36” were assigned their numbered titles in chronological order by Kierkegaard himself and stem from the period 1846–1855, though here, too, these journals contain additions and emendations, some of which stem from later periods, disrupting the general chronological sequence of the journals. The final group of materials, the “loose papers,” spans the entire period 1833–1855. KJN follows the editors of SKS in the choice of a two-column format, which best reflects Kierkegaard’s practice when keeping his journals and notebooks. Like many of his contemporaries, Kierkegaard’s usual custom with his journals and notebooks was to crease the pages lengthwise (vertically) so that each page had an inner column for the main text and a somewhat narrower outer column for subsequent reflections and additions. In this way, further reflections could be―and very often were―added later, sometimes much later, often on several subsequent occasions, e.g., when Kierkegaard read or thought of something that reminded him of something he had written earlier. As has been noted above, a certain degree of chronological organization is present in the documents themselves, but a strictly chronological presentation of all the material is neither possible nor, perhaps, desirable. A strict and comprehensive chronological organization of the material is impossible, for while we can often detect the sequence in which Kierkegaard altered and emended an original passage in a notebook or journal, it is frequently not possible to ascertain when these alterations and emendations took place― though in his earlier entries Kierkegaard often dated his marginal additions. Furthermore, there are also cases in which the very sequence of such changes cannot be determined with certainty. Finally, even if it could be established, a rigorously chronological sequencing of all the material would not necessarily be desirable, because such a serial presentation would render it more difficult to see the manner in which Kierkegaard could return to a passage on multiple subsequent occasions, adding to, deleting, and altering what he had originally written. (It is hoped that upon completion of all eleven volumes of KJN it will be possible to produce an electronic edition of the entire series; this would make it possible for readers to organize and search through the materials in a variety of ways.)

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

IV. The Format and Organization of the Present Edition 1. Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks (KJN) and Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (SKS) As already noted, KJN is a translation of Kierkegaard’s journals, notebooks, and loose papers, using the text as established by the editors of SKS. The great majority of the materials included in the present volumes is taken from Kierkegaard’s surviving manuscripts, but some manuscripts were lost in the production of the first published selection of Kierkegaard’s papers, H. P. Barfod’s nine-volume edition of Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (hereafter, EP). Thus, particularly in the early volumes of KJN, and again in a number of the Loose Papers in the present volume, our only source for a portion of the material is the version originally published in EP. When this is the case, KJN indicates that the source is the published version from EP by employing justified right-hand margins, while most of the text of KJN, taken as it is from the surviving manuscripts, employs a ragged right-hand margin. In addition, there are a number of cases, typically involving short or fragmentary entries or lines, in which the only surviving source is Barfod’s catalogue of Kierkegaard’s manuscripts, while in still other cases material in the original manuscripts deleted by Kierkegaard has been deciphered and restored by the editors of SKS; both these sorts of material are reproduced in KJN without text-critical commentary. Scholars interested in these source details are referred to the text-critical apparatus of SKS. In addition, there are some cases in which Kierkegaard’s original manuscript cannot be read meaningfully, and the editors of SKS suggest a proposed reading of the passage in question. KJN has adopted most such proposed readings without comment, though in a number of cases such proposed readings are discussed in the explanatory notes. In some cases Kierkegaard’s spelling is erroneous or inconsistent or there is missing punctuation. On rare occasions the editors of SKS have corrected errors of this sort silently, while in other cases missing punctuation has been supplied (but placed within square brackets to indicate that this is the work of the editors of SKS), and in still other cases Kierkegaard’s errors of spelling or punctuation have been allowed to stand because they are indicative of the hasty and informal style that often characterizes his unpublished materials. Where they do not cause significant difficulties for English language readers, the editors of KJN have followed the editors of SKS in allowing a number of Kierkegaard’s

xv

xvi

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

spelling errors (e.g., of proper names) and punctuation lapses to remain. On the other hand, where the retention of Kierkegaard’s errors might cause significant difficulties for English language readers, the editors of KJN have absorbed without annotation the corrections made by the editors of SKS (both the silent and the bracketed corrections), and have occasionally corrected instances of erroneous spelling and missing punctuation that have been permitted to remain in SKS. Here―as in the above-mentioned cases involving materials that have their source in Barfod’s catalogue or in text deleted by Kierkegaard and restored by the editors of SKS―scholars who require access to the entire text-critical apparatus of SKS should consult that edition. 2. Two-Column Format in the Main Text As already noted, a two-column format is employed where necessary in order to emphasize the polydimensionality of the original documentary materials; thus, for example, providing a spatial representation of a draft’s character as a draft with multiple alterations. 3. Typographical Conventions in the Main Text a) In Kierkegaard’s time, both “gothic” and “latin” handwriting were in common use among educated people. Generally, when writing Danish and German (which of course accounts for the bulk of his journals and notebooks) Kierkegaard used a gothic hand, while when writing Latin or French (which he did much less frequently than Danish or German) Kierkegaard used a latin hand. Following the editors of SKS, the editors of KJN have sought to preserve this feature by using ordinary roman type to represent Kierkegaard’s gothic hand, and a sans serif typeface to represent Kierkegaard’s latin hand. Greek and Hebrew appear in their respective alphabets. b) As in SKS, italic and boldface are used to indicate Kierkegaard’s degrees of emphasis. Italic indicates underlining by Kierkegaard. Boldface indicates double underlining by Kierkegaard Boldface italic indicates double underlining plus a third, wavy underlining by Kierkegaard. 4. Margins and Reference Format in the Main Text a) The SKS pagination of the journals appears in roman type in the margins of the present edition. This permits the reader to refer

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

to SKS, which contains the entire apparatus of text-critical markers and notes concerning the manuscripts, including indications of Kierkegaard’s own pagination of his journals and notebooks. b) Two separate italic line counters are included in the inner and outer margins in order to facilitate specific line references to each of the two columns. c) The boldface entry numbers in the margins are not Kierkegaard’s own but have been added by the editors of SKS in order to facilitate reference to specific entries. Each journal or notebook has its own entry numbering in arabic numerals, e.g., “AA:1,” “DD:8,” “Not3:2,” “NB34:6” etc., which refer to the first entry in Journal AA, the eighth entry in Journal DD, the second entry in Notebook 3, the sixth entry in Journal NB34, etc. Kierkegaard’s marginal additions to journal or notebook entries are indicated with lowercase alphabet letters, e.g., “AA:23.b,” which refers to Kierkegaard’s second marginal addition to the twenty-third entry in Journal AA. If a marginal addition itself has a marginal addition, this is also indicated by another layer of lowercase alphabet letters, e.g., “DD:11.a.a,” which refers to the first marginal note to the first marginal note to the eleventh entry in Journal DD. When Kierkegaard left a reference mark in his main text referring to a marginal note, the marginal note referred to is preceded by a lowercase alphabet letter, set in roman, with no enclosing brackets, e.g. “a.” When Kierkegaard did not leave a reference mark in his main text for a marginal note, but the editors of SKS are not in doubt about the point in Kierkegaard’s main text to which the marginal note refers, the reference symbol (a lowercase alphabet letter) preceding that marginal note is set in roman and is enclosed within roman square brackets, e.g., “[a].” When Kierkegaard did not leave a reference mark in his main text for a marginal note, and the editors of SKS could not determine with certainty the point in Kierkegaard’s main text to which the marginal note refers, the reference symbol (a lowercase alphabet letter) preceding that marginal note is set in italic and is enclosed within italic square brackets, e.g., “[a].” In these cases, the editors of KJN, following the usage of the editors of SKS, have situated Kierkegaard’s marginal additions approximately where they are found on the pages of Kierkegaard’s own journal manuscripts, which, as noted, employed a two-column format. Loose papers are numbered sequentially, “Paper 1,” “Paper 2,” “Paper 3,” etc. Some of these papers constitute a single unit (e.g., Paper 134), but many consist of more than one item and are subdivided using colons as separators, as, e.g., “Paper 3:2,” or in the striking instance of Paper 365, which is subdivided into twen-

xvii

xviii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

ty-four items: “Paper 365:1,” “Paper 365:2,” . . . “Paper 365:24.” If an item has a marginal note associated with it, the designation of such notes is in the same format as that used for marginal notes in the notebooks and the NB journals, e.g., “Paper 371:2.c.” Because of the great mass of material included KJN 11, the volume is divided into two tomes, Volume 11 (Part 1) and Volume 11 (Part 2). Page references to the papers in these volumes are in the format: “Paper 45:1, KJN 11.1, 88,” “Paper 583, KJN 11.2, 297,” etc. If more specific reference than this is necessary, the system of KJN volume number, page number, and line number on the appropriate line counter is employed, e.g., “KJN 1, 56:11,” referring to a passage in the first volume of KJN, page 56, line 11 on the line counter for the inner column. If a marginal note (thus, a note in the outer column of the page) is referred to in this manner, the reference is in the format “KJN 9, 56m:3,” referring to a marginal note found in volume 9 of KJN, page 56, line 3 on the marginal or outer column line counter. 5. Footnotes in the Main Text a) Kierkegaard’s own footnotes are indicated by superscript arabic numerals, both in the main text and at the beginning of the footnote itself, and are numbered consecutively within a journal 1 entry, with the numbering beginning at “ ” for each new journal entry. Kierkegaard’s footnotes appear at the bottom of the text column or at the end of the entry to which they pertain, whichever comes first, but always above the solid horizontal line at the foot of the page. When the source for a footnote by Kierkegaard is Barfod’s EP rather than an original manuscript, the placement in the main text of the superscript reference number for that footnote is of course not known from Kierkegaard, but only from EP; in such cases, Kierkegaard’s footnote will appear at the bottom of the page (though above the solid line) as with all other footnotes by Kierkegaard, but the superscript reference number preceding the footnote will be followed by a close-parenthesis, e.g., “1).” Occasionally, Kierkegaard numbered a footnote and placed it immediately following the paragraph to which it pertained; in these cases, KJN follows the usage in SKS and inserts Kierkegaard’s footnote at the end of the paragraph rather than at the bottom of the text column or at the end of the entry, as in other cases. b) Translator’s footnotes appear below the solid horizontal line at the foot of the page.

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

6. Foreign Language in the Main Text Foreign (non-Danish) words, expressions, and quotations that appear in Kierkegaard’s text are left in the original language. English translations of foreign language text are provided in translator’s footnotes at the foot of the page, below the solid horizontal line. In the event that extreme length or some other technical difficulty makes it impossible to accommodate a translation of a foreign language passage at the foot of the page, it will appear in the explanatory notes at the back of the volume. English translations of the titles of foreign language books, articles, poems, etc. are always in the explanatory notes, not in the translator’s footnotes. 7. Photographs of Original Manuscripts Selected photographs of original manuscript material are included in the main text. 8. Orthography of Classical Names The orthographical standard for all ancient Greek and Roman names and place names is The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 9. Material Included at the Back of Each Volume a) A brief “Critical Account of the Text” gives a description of the physical appearance, provenance, and whatever chronological information is known concerning a document. If the document is related to others―for example, in the cases where Kierkegaard is known to have used one of the journals in the AA–KK group in tandem with one or more of the notebooks numbered 1–14, which stem from the same period―this is also indicated. b) Each journal or notebook is accompanied by “Explanatory Notes.” In some cases, notes included in SKS have been shortened or omitted in KJN. In a number of cases, notes that do not appear in SKS have been added to KJN; typically, these serve to explain geographical or historical references that are obvious to Danes but are not likely to be known by non-Danes. Notes are keyed by page and entry number to specific lemmata; that is, to key words or phrases from the main text that appear in boldface at the beginning of each note. The running heads on each page of notes indicate the journal or notebook and entry number(s) to which the notes on that page refer, while the numbers in the margins of each

xix

xx

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

column of notes indicate the page and line number in the main text where the lemma under discussion is found. When the text of a note mentions a lemma explained in another note for the same journal or notebook, an arrow (→) accompanied by a large and a small number―e.g., →110,22―serves as a cross-reference, indicating the page and line number (in this case, page 110, line 22) where that lemma occurs in the main text. Each journal or notebook is treated as a separate unit with respect to explanatory notes; thus the notes for a given journal or notebook contain no cross-references to notes for other journals or notebooks. (The explanatory notes for Notebooks 9 and 10 constitute an exception to this rule because those two notebooks are so closely connected that they should perhaps be considered a single document.) The notes are usually confined to clarifying historical, biographical, geographical, and similar information not readily available in a standard English language desk reference volume. Notes do not engage in critical interpretation or in discussions of the scholarly literature. As noted under 6 above, on some occasions―which presumably will be very infrequent, if they occur at all―it may not be possible to translate foreign language passages in translator’s footnotes at the foot of the main text page, and in such cases the translated passage will appear in an explanatory note at the end of the volume. There are no markers in the main text denoting the existence of an explanatory note pertaining to a particular word or passage. c) Maps of nineteenth-century Copenhagen, Denmark, etc., are provided where appropriate. d) Calendars of the years covered in the volume, indicating days of the week, holidays, etc., are provided. e) Illustrations referred to in Kierkegaard’s text are reproduced. f) A concordance to the Heiberg edition of the Papirer is provided in order to facilitate using the present edition in conjunction with works, including previous translations of Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers, that refer to the Papirer. 10. Abbreviations a) Abbreviations used in the main text In the main text an attempt has been made to preserve something of the feel of the original documents, in which Kierkegaard made liberal use of a great many abbreviations, shortening words in accordance with the common usage of his times. Naturally, many of these abbreviations cannot be duplicated in English, but where

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

it has seemed appropriate a number of commonly used (or easily decipherable) English abbreviations have been employed in order to provide a sense of Kierkegaard’s “journal style.” b) Abbreviations used in “Critical Accounts of the Texts” and in “Explanatory Notes” ASKB The Auctioneer’s Sales Record of the Library of Søren Kierkegaard, ed. H. P. Rohde (Copenhagen: The Royal Library, 1967) B&A

Breve og Aktstykker vedrørende Søren Kierkegaard [Letters and Documents Concerning Søren Kierkegaard], 2 vols., ed. Niels Thulstrup (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1953–1954)

B-cat. H. P. Barfod, “Fortegnelse over de efter Søren Aabye Kierkegaard forefundne Papirer” [Catalogue of the Papers Found after the Death of Søren Aabye Kierkegaard] Bl. art. S. Kierkegaard’s Bladartikler, med Bilag samlede efter For- fatterens Død, udgivne som Supplement til hans øvrige Skrifter [S. Kierkegaard’s Newspaper Articles, with an Appendix Collected after the Author’s Death, Published as a Supplement to His Other Works], ed. Rasmus Nielsen (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1857) d.

Died in the year

EP Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer [From Søren Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers], 9 vols., ed. H. P. Barfod and H. Gottsched (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1869–1881) Jub.

G.W.F. Hegel, Sämtliche Werke [Complete Works]. Jubiläumsausgabe, 26 vols., ed. Hermann Glockner (Stuttgart: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, 1928–1941)

KA The Kierkegaard Archive at the Royal Library in Copenhagen

xxi

xxii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

KJN

Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, 11 vols., ed. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, David Kangas, Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, David D. Possen, Vanessa Rumble, and K. Brian Söderquist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007–)

KW

Kierkegaard’s Writings, 26 vols., ed. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978–2000) Occasionally, the explanatory notes will employ different English translations of the titles of Kierkegaard’s works than those used in KW. For example, Kierkegaard’s En literair Anmeldelse, which is translated Two Ages in KW, may appear in the explanatory notes as A Literary Review. All such departures from the English titles as they appear in KW will be explained in the explanatory notes in which they appear. Generally, however, the English titles used in KW will be used; these titles have been assigned standard abbreviations as follows: AN BA C CA CD CI COR CUP EO 1 EO 2 EPW EUD FPOSL FSE FT

“Armed Neutrality” in KW 22 The Book on Adler in KW 24 The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress in KW 17 The Concept of Anxiety in KW 8 Christian Discourses in KW 17 The Concept of Irony in KW 2 The “Corsair” Affair; Articles Related to the Writings in KW 13 Concluding Unscientific Postscript in KW 12 Either/Or, part 1 in KW 3 Either/Or, part 2 in KW 4 Early Polemical Writings: From the Papers of One Still Living; Articles from Student Days; The Battle Between the Old and the New SoapCellars in KW 1 Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses in KW 15 From the Papers of One Still Living in KW 1 For Self-Examination in KW 21 Fear and Trembling in KW 6

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

JC “Johannes Climacus or De omnibus dubitandum est” in KW 7 JFY Judge for Yourself! in KW 21 LD Letters and Documents in KW 25 M “The Moment” and Late Writings: Articles from Fædrelandet; The Moment, nos. 1–10; This Must Be Said, So Let It Be Said; What Christ Judges of Official Christianity; The Changelessness of God in KW 23 NA “Newspaper Articles, 1854–1855” in KW 23 NSBL “Notes on Schelling’s Berlin Lectures” in KW 2 OMWA On My Work as an Author in KW 22 P Prefaces in KW 9 PC Practice in Christianity in KW 20 PF Philosophical Fragments in KW 7 PV The Point of View for My Work as an Author in KW 22 R Repetition in KW 6 SLW Stages on Life’s Way in KW 11 SUD The Sickness unto Death in KW 19 TA Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age, A Literary Review in KW 14 TDIO Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions in KW 10 UDVS Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits in KW 15 WA Without Authority: The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air; Two Ethical-Religious Essays; Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays; An Upbuilding Discourse; Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays in KW 18 WL Works of Love in KW 16 WS “Writing Sampler” in KW 9 L-cat.

Henrik Lund, “Fortegnelse over Manuscripterne af S. Kierkegaard optaget efter hans Død af Henr. Lund. d. 17 januar 1856” [Catalogue of the Manuscripts of S. Kierkegaard Drawn up after His Death by Henrik Lund, January 17, 1856]

NKS

Ny Kongelige Samling [New Royal Collection], a special collection at the Royal Library in Copenhagen

xxiii

xxiv

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

NRSV Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (see part c below) NT

New Testament

OT

Old Testament

Pap.

Søren Kierkegaards Papirer [The Papers of Søren Kierkegaard], 2nd ed., 16 vols. in 25 tomes, ed. P. A. Heiberg, V. Kuhr, and E. Torsting (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1909–1978)

SKS

Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter [Søren Kierkegaard’s Writings], 28 text volumes and 27 commentary volumes, ed. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Joakim Garff, Anne Mette Hansen, Johnny Kondrup, and Alastair McKinnon (Copenhagen: Gad, 1997–2012) The 28 text volumes of SKS are referred to as SKS 1 through SKS 28. The 27 commentary volumes that accompany the text volumes are referred to as SKS K1 through SKS K28. (The reason there are 27 rather than 28 commentary volumes is that a single commentary volume, SKS K2–3, accompanies the two text volumes SKS 2 and SKS 3, which together comprise the massive two-volume work Enten―Eller [Either/ Or].)

SV1

Søren Kierkegaards Samlede Værker [Søren Kierkegaard’s Collected Works], 1st ed., 14 vols., ed. A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg, and H. O. Lange (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1901–1906)

SV2

Søren Kierkegaards Samlede Værker [Søren Kierkegaard’s Collected Works], 2nd ed., 15 vols., ed. A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg, and H. O. Lange (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1920–1936)

c) The Bible. All biblical quotations are from the following English translations: Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) (Standard for

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

references to the authorized Danish translation of the New Testament from 1819 and used for many other biblical references.) The Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) (Often used for references to the authorized Danish translation of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha from 1740 and occasionally used for other biblical references.) Occasionally, in order to help the reader understand the text of a journal entry, the translators of KJN may make minor modifications to one of the above Bible translations. Books of the Bible are abbreviated in accordance with the abbreviations used in the NRSV:

Old Testament Gen Genesis Ex Exodus Lev Leviticus Num Numbers Deut Deuteronomy Josh Joshua Judg Judges Ruth Ruth 1 Sam 1 Samuel 2 Sam 2 Samuel 1 Kings 1 Kings 2 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chr 1 Chronicles 2 Chr 2 Chronicles Ezra Ezra Neh Nehemiah Esth Esther Job Job Ps Psalms Prov Proverbs

Eccl Ecclesiastes Song Song of Solomon Isa Isaiah Jer Jeremiah Lam Lamentations Ezek Ezekiel Dan Daniel Hos Hosea Joel Joel Am Amos Ob Obadiah Jon Jonah Mic Micah Nah Nahum Hab Habakkuk Zeph Zephaniah Hag Haggai Zech Zechariah Mal Malachi

xxv

xxvi

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

Apocryphal Books Tob Tobit Jdt Judith Add Esth Additions to Esther Wis Wisdom Sir Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) Bar Baruch 1 Esd 1 Esdras 2 Esd 2 Esdras Let Jer Letter of Jeremiah

Song of Thr Sus Bel 1 Macc 2 Macc 3 Macc 4 Macc Pr Man

Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews Susanna Bel and the Dragon 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees 3 Maccabees 4 Maccabees Prayer of Manasseh

New Testament Mt Matthew Mk Mark Lk Luke Jn John Acts Acts of the Apostles Rom Romans 1 Cor 1 Corinthians 2 Cor 2 Corinthians Gal Galatians Eph Ephesians Phil Philippians Col Colossians 1 Thess 1 Thessalonians 2 Thess 2 Thessalonians

1 Tim 1 Timothy 2 Tim 2 Timothy Titus Titus Philem Philemon Heb Hebrews Jas James 1 Pet 1 Peter 2 Pet 2 Peter 1 Jn 1 John 2 Jn 2 John 3 Jn 3 John Jude Jude Rev Revelation

11. Variants While KJN does not include the full text-critical apparatus of SKS, a number of textual variants, deemed by the editors of KJN to be of particular interest, are included in the explanatory notes for each journal or notebook. The notation used to indicate different types of variants is explained below. (A list of selected variants for KJN 1 is included in volume 2, immediately following the explanatory notes for Journal KK.) first written: changes determined by the editors of SKS to have been made in the manuscript at the time of original

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

E NGLISH L ANGUAGE E DITION

writing, including: (a) replacement variants placed in the line, immediately following deleted text; (b) replacement variants written directly on top of the original text; and (c) deletions changed from: changes determined by the editors of SKS to have been made in the manuscript subsequent to the time of original writing, including: (a) deletions with replacement variants written in the margin or on top of the original text, and (b) deletions without replacement text added:

additions determined by the editors of SKS to have been made to the manuscript subsequent to the time of original writing

12. Symbols []

enclose the KJN editors’ supplements to the SKS text; also enclose reference symbols, added by the editors of SKS, to marginal annotations or footnotes for which Kierkegaard did not leave a symbol, but whose placement is beyond doubt

[]

enclose reference symbols, added by the editors of SKS, to marginal annotations for which Kierkegaard did not clearly assign to a specific locus in a specific main entry

< > enclose text the editors of SKS deem an uncertain reading of Kierkegaard’s manuscript

Acknowledgments I am happy to acknowledge the support for Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks that has been provided by the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Danish Ministry of Culture, and Connecticut College. Bruce H. Kirmmse, General Editor, for the Editorial Board of Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks

xxvii

xxix

Introduction to the Loose Papers I. The Prehistory At Kierkegaard’s death on November 11, 1855, a large collection of literary remains was found at his final address in Copenhagen, 5–6 Klædeboderne (which corresponds to present-day 38 Skindergade / 5 Dyrkøb). Kierkegaard’s estate was inspected twice by personnel from the Probate Commission. In the commission’s first report, which was written three days after Kierkegaard’s death, the posthumous papers received only brief mention, described as “a mass of paper, mostly manuscripts, that were found in various places” and were placed “in a writing desk that was sealed by the court, as well as in a small chest of drawers and a cabinet.”1 On the occasion of the commission’s second visit, November 19, the day following Kierkegaard’s burial, the seal was broken, and the notes were similarly brief: “The writing desk and small chest of drawers belonging to the deceased contained nothing but manuscripts.”2 ) See Provincial Archives for Zealand et al., Copenhagen, sec. DC008, Landsover- samt Hof- og Stadsretten, Københavns Skiftekommission 1771–1863 [Provincial, Court, and City Superior Court Probate Commission for Copenhagen, 1771–1863], 1854–1855, sealed ledger 3, 1–76, estate no. 71, p. 134.

1

) Ibid., p. 135. Kierkegaard’s secretary, Israel Levin, reported that at Kierkegaard’s death, “everything in his room was found to be in order, as if he were going to travel” (Bruce H. Kirmmse, ed. and trans., Encounters with Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996], p. 212). Levin also reported Peter Christian Kierkegaard’s agitation when he received a pair of testamentary letters, addressed specifically to him, containing his brother’s decisions regarding the disposition of his possessions. The event recounted by Levin must have taken place during the Probate Commission’s second inspection of Kierkegaard’s apartment, but from the report of the commission it appears that Levin himself had not been present in the apartment on that occasion (which is not made clear in Levin’s account) and that he therefore must have acquired this intelligence at second hand. Those present in the apartment on that occasion, other than P. C. Kierkegaard and the book dealer H.H.J. Lynge, were Balthasar Christensen, chairman of the Probate Commission;

2

xxx

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

Soon afterward (November/December 1855–January 1856), Kierkegaard’s nephew, Henrik Lund (1825–1889), who was present during both inspections by the Probate Commission, began, as a representative of the family, the first cataloguing of the posthumous papers and produced both an overview, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], and a catalogue, “Fortegnelse over Manuscripterne af S. Kierkegaard optaget efter hans Død af Henrik Lund. d. 17 januar 1856” [Catalogue of the Manuscripts of S. Kierkegaard, Drawn up after His Death by Henrik Lund, January 17, 1856], abbreviated hereafter as L-cat.1 Thereafter, a bit more than a year passed during which the papers remained in storage at the home of Henrik Lund’s parents, because Lund himself had left Denmark to accept a position as a physician on the island of St. John―part of what were then the Danish West Indies (since 1917, the U.S. Virgin Islands). After exchanges of letters among Henrik Lund; his father, Johan Christian Lund; and Kierkegaard’s older brother, Peter Christian Kierkegaard, the material was sent, in late May 1857, to the latter’s episcopal residence in Aalborg.2 After a number of years of hesitation concerning what to do with his brother’s papers, P. C. Kierkegaard accepted the editorial assistance of H. P. Barfod (1834–1892), a jurist and former newspaper editor. The bishop himself had already published (in 1859) the manuscript of The Point of View for My Work as an Author, which had been among Søren Kierkegaard’s papers. On February 24,

Kierkegaard’s nephew, Henrik Lund; attorney Julius Maag, tax collector for estates; as well as M. C. Muhle, clerk of the superior provincial court, and J. P. Gudum, messenger with the Probate Commission. The testamentary letters were given to P. C. Kierkegaard; this was recorded as follows: “Two letters, both sealed, and with the inscription ‘to Hr. Pastor, Doctor Kierkegaard, to be opened after my death,’ were given to Hr. Pastor and opened by him, but nothing was found to be enclosed, after which they remained in Hr. Pastor’s possession” (ibid.). ) For more information in this connection, see Bruce H. Kirmmse, Encounters with Kierkegaard; and KJN 1, pp vii–xi.

1

) See Finn Gredal Jensen, “To genfundne breve. Fra J. C. Lund til P. C. Kierkegaard og fra Regine Schlegel til Henrik Lund” [Two Rediscovered Letters: From J. C. Lund to P. C. Kierkegaard and from Regine Schlegel to Henrik Lund], in Danske Studier [Danish Studies] (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 2005), pp. 194–200.

2

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

1865, Barfod moved into the episcopal residence and began work on a new catalogue of Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers, which he completed at the beginning of November that same year, assigning it the title “Fortegnelse over de efter Søren Aabye Kierkegaards Død forefundne Papirer” [List of the Papers Found after Søren Aabye Kierkegaard’s Death], abbreviated hereafter as B-cat. Almost a decade later, in July 1875, during a visit to Copenhagen in connection with the funeral of Johan Christian Lund, P. C. Kierkegaard transferred his brother’s papers to the University of Copenhagen Library, and in the course of time the papers ended up at the Royal Library, where they are now kept in climate-controlled storage.1

II. Lund’s and Barfod’s Catalogues Apart from the Probate Commission’s brief account, Lund’s accounts of Kierkegaard’s posthumous materials―“The Order of the Papers” and “Catalogue of the Manuscripts” (L-cat.)―constitute the earliest testimony about how Kierkegaard had stored and arranged his many papers, notebooks, journals, drafts, preliminary studies, sketches, etc.2 ) For more information on this matter, see Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Joakim Garff, and Johnny Kondrup, Written Images: Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals, Notebooks, Booklets, Sheets, Scraps, and Slips of Paper, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 19–29, 67, 76–77.

1

) L-cat. is dated January 16, 1856. Flemming Christian Nielsen has questioned whether Lund’s list should be regarded as the most authentic report of where and how Kierkegaard stored his manuscripts, inasmuch as he believes that the Probate Commission had “disturbed the scene.” The wording of the commission’s report does not support this skepticism, however. Nowhere is there any mention of the commission’s having “straightened up” the posthumous material or of its having been greeted with “a surprising sight” in the form of masses of paper that were then “hastily” put out of the way in a chest of drawers and a desk. Nor does the commission report indicate that “the papers had lain around in a mess,” as Nielsen puts it in Alt blev godt betalt. Auktionen over Søren Kierkegaards indbo [Everything Fetched a Good Price: The Auction of Søren Kierkegaard’s Personal Effects] (Viborg: Holkenfeldt, 2000), pp. 7–8. To be sure, as has been noted, the Probate

2

xxxi

xxxii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

L-cat. begins in reverse chronological order, that is, with the most recently written materials being among those listed first, although this chronology is not adhered to in every detail. Lund’s “The Order of the Papers” records where the material was located; for example, item numbers 159–231 are said to have been “In the second chest of drawers. B. / In the top drawer. / . . . To the right” together with item number 155, The Moment No. 9 (see illustration 1 at the end of this section).1 Lund did not complete the work of registering Kierkegaard’s papers and stopped, with few exceptions, with the papers from the period 1844–1846; thus, generally speaking, materials from before that period were not registered. “The Order of the Papers” simply mentions that some of the later and most of the earliest materials were found in a large sack and three bags.2

Commission did place in a writing desk, a small chest of drawers, and a cabinet some of the material (“a mass of paper, mostly manuscripts”) that had not been put away, but by and large this is in fact all that was said about the posthumous papers. Furthermore, an inspection of “The Order of the Papers” and of L-cat. reveals a high degree of systematization―including those papers that might have been moved by the commission―which could not have been accidental, but which must be attributable to Kierkegaard’s own arrangement. The fact that Henrik Lund was present during the commission’s work also makes it less likely that the material was subjected to utterly arbitrary treatment. ) See also Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Joakim Garff, and Johnny Kondrup, Written Images, pp. 11–22, for a description of the manner in which Lund most likely undertook his work with the papers.

1

) The contents of the sack, which also included a white linen bag containing item numbers 383–389, are described as follows: “In addition, this sack contained only a quantity of old, used mss. of Either/Or, Stages on Life’s Way, logical problems, etc., etc. (generally in great disorder and scattered).” The contents of the three bags are described as follows: “A bag with mss. of The Moments and the final polemic / A bag with drafts, fair copies, printer’s proofs, and a little note that was not used. / A bag w/ bills, etc.” In addition, in the preface to his list, H. P. Barfod writes that the contents of “Cardboard box A,” in which B-cat. items 424–454 were found, was covered with a thick layer of mold, indicating that it was scarcely likely that Henrik Lund had opened it, and in any case he did not register its contents.

2

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

Illustrations 2 and 3 are attempts at reconstructing how the posthumous papers may have been situated in Kierkegaard’s writing desk and chest of drawers at his death. It must be emphasized that this only applies to the placement of the later materials, that is, from the period after October 1852 (see below), and that these are schematic depictions that do not claim to depict the furniture precisely as it looked.1 H. P. Barfod’s “Fortegnelse over de efter Søren Aabye Kierkegaards Død forefundne Papirer” (B-cat.) comprises 472 numbers, which, up to number 382, are identical with the numbers in Henrik Lund’s list (L-cat.), which itself appears as no. 473 in B-cat.2 ) In his “The Order of the Papers,” Henrik Lund provides only a partial description of the writing desk, and Kierkegaard’s own description of “the desk” contains so many interpretive possibilities that no unequivocal description is possible. It cannot be ruled out that, prior to 1855, Kierkegaard may have used a number of desks for his papers. In this connection, see the following journal entries and drafts: NB14:44.b (KJN 6, 376); NB20:18 (KJN 7, 408); Pap. X 5 B 12, Pap. X 5 B 163, and Pap. XI 3 B 295:1; plus the information in B-cat. concerning Kierkegaard’s cover sheets for B-cat. 235, 237, 239, 240, 314, 315, and 319. In “The Order of the Papers,” there is mention of two chests of drawers, chest A and chest B. In the list of Kierkegaard’s estate, three chests of drawers are listed―under point 8: “2 mah[ogany] chests,” and under point 12: “1 mah[ogany] chest” (Landsover- samt Hof- og Stadsretten, Københavns Skiftekommission 1771–1863, 1854–1855, sealed ledger 3, 1–76, estate no. 71, p. 133). Two chests of drawers appear in the auction catalogue of his estate, Københavnske Politi- og Domsmyndigheder 1852–1919, Landsoversamt Hof- og Stadsretten, Auktionskontoret, katalog Nr. XLVII: Fortegnelse over endeel gode Meubler og Effecter, tilhørende afdøde Bogholder Kirketerps, Dr. phil. Søren Kierkegaards [sic], Major Soells og flere Boer [Copenhagen Police and Judicial Authority 1852–1919, Provincial, Court, and City Superior Court, Auction Office, catalogue no. xlvii: List of a Quantity of Good Furniture and Effects Belonging to the Late Bookkeeper Kirketerps, Dr. phil. Søren Kierkegaards [sic], Major Soell, and Other Estates] (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 11, Zealand Provincial Archives, et al. In this connection, see Flemming Christian Nielsen, http://www.mardi.dk/betalt, pdf, pp. 13–14.

1

) As has been noted, the last numbers in L-cat., numbers 383–390 (the last of which Lund listed without any description of content) were in a sack that had not been available to Barfod at the time he compiled his B-cat.―though he subsequently gained access to

2

xxxiii

xxxiv

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

Unlike Lund, Barfod included everything in his catalogue, apart from several lesser articles and letters that were in the bishop’s “repository.”1 Furthermore, Barfod provides far more detailed descriptions of the individual items. Owing to its greater detail, and because it includes L-cat., B-cat. has been the principal guideline for the arrangement and organization of the loose papers in KJN 11. In every case, the information in B-cat. was also compared with that in Lund’s “The Order of the Papers.” In some cases, B-cat. provides precise identification of the content of the various groups of individual papers, while in other cases it lists only the number of papers that had been found in a given location. In connection with their own arrangement of the materials, the editors of Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (Pap.) attempted to reconstruct a more detailed content for B-cat. by consciously striving to match up the original materials that had survived undisturbed―plus the materials that had been transmitted indirectly (typically, these were materials for which the original documents had been lost, but which had been published in Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer, see below)―with the contents and the numbers of the items that appear in B-cat. (see illustration 4).2 The editors of SKS have relied to a considerable degree on the reconstruction project carried out by the editors of Pap., but in a number of cases they have made choices that diverge from it.

this material. Thus, when Barfod continued his list with number 383, in the belief that he was starting where Lund had left off, the result is that the contents of item numbers 383–390 in L-cat. differ from the contents of item numbers 383–390 in B-cat. ) B-cat., p. 221.

1

) In practice, however, this reconstruction was not applied to Pap., which builds, primarily, on a chronological, and secondarily, on a systematic principle of organization, but this reconstruction can be seen in the descriptions of the manuscripts provided in the back matter of the individual volumes of Pap. In order to make them fit into the absolute chronology of their edition, the editors of Pap. carried out such a fundamental redistribution of the papers from the period 1830–1843 that it rendered reconstruction of the material by the editors of SKS extremely difficult.

2

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

III. “Loose Papers” “Loose papers” covers the body of surviving material that is connected to Kierkegaard’s lifelong practice of keeping journals and notebooks (published as KJN 1–10), but that exists independently of these and cannot be connected to them on the basis of the information provided by B-cat.1 At some points, Kierkegaard himself employs the category “Loose papers” to designate this material; thus he calls item 144 in B-cat. “Loose papers from ’48 that lay in the Bible case” (SKS 27, 481–497; KJN 11.2). The material is extremely varied, both physically and with respect to its content.2 The contents range from lecture notes and reading excerpts made during Kierkegaard’s years as a university student (and stemming from his own wide-ranging studies), to notes from the early beginnings of his authorship, and to the polemics, toward the end of his career as a writer, in opposition to the manner in which Christianity was being preached by the established Church. Physically, the material consists of individual loose pages, folio sheets, scraps of paper, pieces of cardboard, sewn signatures, and more.3

) Paper 255–Paper 258, “Small Notes of Varied Contents Inserted in Journal AA” (in the present volume), ought to have appeared in KJN 1 together with Journal AA. Barfod mentions these items in B-cat. at the conclusion of his description of that journal: “[4 loose, small pages are included.―The rest of the book has not been written in.]” (B-cat., p. 195; see KJN 1, 293 n. 1). One example of a journal that was begun as loose papers is Journal FF (KJN 2, 67–107), which consists of a fair copy of a number of small loose pages and scraps of paper; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal FF” in KJN 2, 398–402.

1

) In the Critical Accounts of the Texts, no attempt has been made to characterize Kierkegaard’s handwriting, which underwent significant changes over time. In general, it can be said that with time, the elegant and easily readable hand of the earlier material becomes looser and more difficult to read. In places, the papers from the final years (1852–1855) are in fact very difficult to read, marked as they are of having been written in great haste.

2

) The material does not include sketches, drafts, preparatory work, fair copies, and the like of Kierkegaard’s own published works or unpublished writings (the materials that were included in the B section of Pap.). These are available in electronic form at http://sks.dk

3

xxxv

xxxvi

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

Owing to Barfod’s practice of sending original manuscripts to the printer as the basis for the printed version, portions of the material have been transmitted to us only indirectly, via his selection that was published as Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer [From Søren Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers] (Copenhagen, 1869–1881) (hereafter, EP). In addition, a portion of the missing material has been preserved only in the form of transcripts made by Barfod or by P. A. Heiberg, one of the editors of Pap. Lastly, KJN 11 includes some previously unpublished material.1 The material in KJN 11 has been organized into the following levels (here listed in ascending order): ― ― ― ―

division into Papers and entries division into archival units based on B-cat. division into groups of B-cat. units overarching division into specific chronological units (the groups from 1830–1843, 1843–1852, and 1852–1855)

Papers and Entries A “Paper” is the fundamental unit in KJN 11. Papers have been numbered sequentially (from 1 to 591). A Paper can consist of one or more entries, and as a rule, each entry corresponds to a number in Pap. A Paper can consist simply of a single loose page or scrap of paper, but it can also consist of several attached pages. In a few cases, a Paper can also consist of several different sorts of paper materials on which the text is continuous. and in SKS 15 and 16. Not infrequently, however, the distinction between a Loose Paper and material that should be counted among the preparatory work, etc. has been difficult to maintain and has had to give way to pragmatic criteria of selection. To a certain extent, the information provided in Lund’s “The Order of the Papers” has been used in determining whether material ought to included or excluded. As a general rule, material that exists in two or more versions in Kierkegaard’s own hand has been viewed as having been written with an eye to publication and has therefore not been included among the “Loose Papers” (an exception from this is the subscription invitation, Paper 382 [SKS 27, 453–455; KJN 11.2], for which a draft exists; see the Critical Account of the Text for that paper. ) Namely, excerpts and notes on Schleiermacher from 1834 (Paper 13 in the present volume).

1

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

Archival Units Based on B-cat. B-cat. constitutes the fundamental framework around which the materials in KJN 11 have been organized; thus, to the extent possible, papers grouped under the same number in B-cat. have also been grouped together in KJN. As has been noted, the work of reconstruction that undergirds Pap. has been used in this connection, but at some points―where matters of content or chronology have been determinative, or where the editors of the present edition have adopted a divergent interpretation of B-cat.―KJN departs from Pap. in its decisions regarding the placement of individual units. The sequence of the numbers in B-cat. is determined by the earliest dated (or datable) entry within each number; thus, B-cat. 457 is the oldest and therefore the first number in the period 1830– 1843 because it contains Kierkegaard’s Church history excerpts from Philip K. Marheineke’s Geschichte der teutschen Reformation. Erster Theil [History of the German Reformation: First Part] (Berlin, 1816), which are estimated to be from the period 1830–1831.1 Within one B-cat. number―that is, when a number consists of several units―an attempt has also been made to place the units in a chronological sequence that in some cases deviates from the sequence indicated in B-cat.2 In the case of larger units―for example, B-cat. 319 and 353―subgroups within these units have been viewed as independent units.3

) See the “Critical Account of the Text of Paper 1” in the present volume. With respect to the undated papers, it is explained in the “Dating and Chronology” section of the critical account that―on the assumption that Kierkegaard placed the papers together not only because of their content, but also because of when they had been written―the editors of SKS took “soundings” in an attempt to account for their likely dates. Where this is clearly not the case, the critical account makes explicit mention of that fact.

1

) In some cases it has been possible, based on B-cat., to break up and rearrange text that has been indirectly transmitted. This is the case, for example, with the entries concerning the Master Thief, which are arranged in a slightly different sequence in KJN than in EP; see Papers 97–98 and 103 in the present volume.

2

) This means, for example, that Papers 327–328, “ ‘Minor Pieces’ ” (KJN 11.2; SKS 27, 343–345), which have B-cat. number 353x, and Papers 339–340, “‘Berlin, May 5th–13th 46’” (KJN 11.2; SKS 27,

3

xxxvii

xxxviii

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

Groups of Archival Units As noted, the grouping of the material, which is reflected in the table of contents on the part title pages for each of the three chronological periods, has been determined by the units in B-cat., and here again, the sequence is determined by the date of the earliest dated entry within each unit. Many of the units were dated by Kierkegaard himself, typically by supplying a cover sheet with a title, while other units have names assigned by the editors of SKS, based on their contents. In the latter case, it has turned out to be practicable and possible to bring together a number of B-cat. units under the same title (in all cases, the B-cat. numbers have been provided in the critical accounts of the texts). In addition, each of the first two chronological units has a concluding group labeled “Diverse,” that is, material that could not meaningfully be placed among the other materials but nonetheless is deemed to belong to the chronological unit in question. The final chronological period is characterized by the special circumstance that, as a general rule, each paper has its own B-cat. number. For this period, Lund’s “The Order of the Papers” was consulted because, as noted, that document contains information concerning the specific locations in Kierkegaard’s writing desk and his chest of drawers in which the later papers were found and that also provides a sketch of which materials were found together with what other materials. Against this background, the material in this group falls into three subdivisions, corresponding to three specific time periods, namely, October 1852–October 1853, March–December 1854, and April 18–September 25, 1855. These three periods have been labeled, respectively: “After the Final Change of Address,” “Toward the Battle with the Church,” and “During the Publication of The Moment.”

349–363), which have B-cat. number 353a, are each presented separately, and that Papers 341–344, “ ‘Encomium to Autumn’ ” (KJN 11.2, 69–73; SKS 27, 349–363), which has B-cat. number 353b, as well as the group consisting of Papers 372–377, “On Rosenkilde, Mynster, Goldschmidt, et al.” (KJN 11.2; SKS 27, 437–443), which contains B-cat. numbers 353n, 353k, 353r, 353h, and 353g, are similarly presented in separate sections.

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

Overarching Division into Chronological Units The overarching division into chronological units was made by the editors of SKS and was dictated both by content of the materials themselves and by matters related to Kierkegaard’s writings and to the external circumstances of his life. Thus, the division between groups 1830–1843 and 1843–1852 was determined, first of all, by the publication of Either/Or, which appeared on February 20, 1843, and which, in retrospect, Kierkegaard viewed as the beginning of his career as an author. The content of the loose papers from then is thus very much marked by the change from having been primarily notes and entries related to his wide-ranging studies and reading, to being reflections, ideas, sketches, and so forth that were related to his published work. The break between the group covering the years 1843–1852 and the group covering 1852–1855 was determined by Kierkegaard’s move, on October 9, 1852, from the Østerbro district (then on the edge of Copenhagen) to Klædeboderne (right in the heart of the city). On the occasion of that move, he collected and wrote up descriptions of some of his manuscript materials, after which he put them aside.1 In other words, this break provides an important chronological marker for the point at which Kierkegaard collected and organized various separate materials. In addition, 1852 was the first year since 1842 during which Kierkegaard did not publish anything.2

) This is clear from, for example, L-cat. and B-cat. 237, to which Kierkegaard added the following information on their contents: “from the desk, when I moved to Klædeboderne.” That Kierkegaard organized his papers in connection with moving to a new address is also seen from, for example, L-cat. and B-cat. 319, which explain that Kierkegaard had described the papers as “That which lay in the midmost, wide drawer, when I moved out to Østerbro.”

1

) Kierkegaard’s self-imposed silence lasted from the publication of For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age on September 12, 1851 (FSE, 1–87), until December 18, 1854, when he published the article “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?” (M, 3–8).

2

xxxix

xl

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

IV. Typographical Signals et al. The reproduction of original materials in KJN 11 includes several new initiatives not employed in KJN 1–10. By making use of varying widths for headings and margins, KJN 11 attempts to reflect the varied appearance of the manuscript materials themselves. Thus, pages in KJN 11 may have narrow or broad text columns, or the text may extend across the entire page, with correspondingly broad or narrow margins. Similarly, an attempt has been made to reproduce diagrams, tables, and so forth to reflect the original as faithfully as possible. In connection with his earliest papers, and especially with entries relating to his varied studies, Kierkegaard not infrequently scrawled various “doodles,” for example, random words, word fragments, names, letters, numbers, symbols, lines, etc., sometimes also including drawings, especially profiles of faces. In KJN 11, an attempt has been made, to the extent possible, to provide transcriptions of these, down to the level of words and letters, but where this has not been possible, and where there are drawings and the like, an illustration has been provided. In a couple of instances, special symbols in Kierkegaard’s manuscript have also been reproduced in the text itself―for example, his drawing of a circle in Paper 21:2 in the present volume―in order to illustrate the thought contained in the entry. Steen Tullberg, for the editors of SKS

I NTRODUCTION

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

1. Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” p. 1.

xli

xlii

1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 1G 1H 2 3

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

AND

N OTEBOOKS

2. The placement of materials in Kierkegaard’s chest of drawers. A number of copies of The Moment. A book in long octave format with pages of cardboard and a cover of a book in a slip case. A book with white pages in octave format. The Moment No. 10 (L-cat. 156). Journals NB35 and NB36 (L-cat. 157–158). A note concerning Three Ethical-Religious Essays (L-cat. 232). The Moment No. 9 (L-cat. 155). Loose papers from April to September 1855 et al. (L-cat. 159–231). Three spaces containing L-cat. 235–364. A drawer containing L-cat. 365–382.

I NTRODUCTION

1A 2 3A 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F

TO THE

L OOSE P APERS

xliii

3. The placement of materials in Kierkegaard’s writing desk. Manuscripts of articles that led up to and formed the beginning of his attack on the Church and loose papers from March to December 1854 et al. (L-cat. 2–12). Material not included in L-cat. Loose papers from January to October 1853 et al. (L-cat. 19–55). A box containing manuscripts of various unpublished writings and of “Sermon Delivered at the Pastoral Seminary,” the probationary sermon, plus “loose papers from ’48 that lay in the Bible case” (L-cat. 139–154). A package containing copies of Fædrelandet from December 18, 1854 to May 26, 1855, containing all the articles by Kierkegaard in that newspaper during that period (L-cat. 1). Loose papers from March to December 1854 (L-cat. 56–123). Manuscript of the article “Bishop Martensen’s Reply in Berlingske Tidende” (L-cat. 138). Loose papers from October to December 1852 (L-cat. 13–18). Unused sketches and drafts from December 1854 to January 1855 (L-cat. 124–137). Drawing by mollers.dk—Hans Møller

4. Barfod’s list (B-cat.), pp. 192–193. A note on which the editor of Pap., P. A. Heiberg, has set forth his reconstruction of the contents of B-cat. 434, “Philosophica Ældre” [Philosophica. Older], can be seen fastened in the crease between the pages.

LOOSE PAPERS, 1843–1852

Paper 305: The Earthquake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

Paper 306: Probationary Sermon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

Paper 307–Paper 308: Concerning “In Vino Veritas” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

Paper 309–Paper 314: “Minor Items from the 1840s” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

Paper 315–Paper 317: Projected Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

Paper 318: Decision to Become an Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

Paper 319–Paper 326: On Godly Eloquence and on Aristotle’s Rhetoric, et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

Paper 327–Paper 338: “Minor Pieces” from before 1848 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

Paper 339–Paper 340: “Berlin, May 5th–13th ’46” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

Paper 341–Paper 344: “Encomium to Autumn” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

69

Paper 345–Paper 349: On Corsaren, Town Gossip, Grundtvig, Dansk Kirketidende, et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

Paper 350–Paper 363: Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

Paper 364–Paper 371: “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

Paper 372–Paper 377: On Rosenkilde, Mynster, Goldschmidt, et al. . . . . . . . .

139

Paper 378–Paper 380: An Apology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

147

Paper 381–384: Invitation to Lectures on the Writings and to a Subscription to Installments of “Edifying Reading” et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

153

Paper 385–Paper 399: Miscellaneous Jottings, Ideas, and Drafts, 1848–1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

159

Paper 400–Paper 420: “Loose Papers from ’48 that Lay in the Bible Case”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

181

Paper 421–Paper 423: “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.’ 7 Discourses” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

201

Paper 424–Paper 430: “ ‘The Story of Suffering’! Christian Discourses” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

205

Paper 431–Paper 432: “In Adresseavisen” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

213

Paper 433: “The Income Tax—the Temporary” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

219

Paper 434: “ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand.’ ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

223

Paper 435–Paper 439: Drafts of Two Sermons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

229

Paper 440–Paper 446: Miscellaneous, 1843–1852 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

235

PAPER 305 “The Earthquake”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, and Jon Tafdrup

2

“The Earthquake”

•

P a p e r 305 1843–1845 •

291

Childhood.

305:1

Halb Kinderspiele Halb Gott im Herzen. Göethe.

Youth.

305:2

Beg―that we will not do! Youth on the path of life Vigorously seizes the treasure Chr. Winther

25 yrs old. “. . So laß uns leben Wir beten, sing’n, erzählen uns Geschichten, Und lachen über goldne Schmetterlinge; Wir hören Neuigkeiten von dem Hof Aus armer Schlucker Munde, schwätzen mit, Wer wohl gewinnt, verliert, wer steigt, wer fällt. Wir sprechen von geheimnißvollen Dingen, Als ob wir in das Tiefste sie durchschauten; Und so in unserm Kerker überleben Wir all Secten und Partei’n der Großen, Die mit des Mondes Wechsel sich verändern.” King Lear. It was then the great earthquake occurred, the terrible upheaval that suddenly thrust upon me a new infallible law for the interpretation of all phenomena. It was then I suspected that my father’s great age was not a divine blessing but rather a curse; that our family’s remarkable intellectual abilities existed only in order that we could tear one another apart; 2 Halb . . . Göethe] German, Half children’s play / Half God in the heart. Goethe. 11 So laß uns Leben . . . sich verändern] German, so we’ll live; / And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh / At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues / Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too, / Who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out; / And take upon’s the mystery of things, / In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones, / That ebb and flow by the moon. (See also explanatory note.)

305:3

15

20

25

“The Earthquake”

•

P a p e r 3 0 5 1843–1845

Paper 305:1-3

•

3

4

“The Earthquake”

•

P a p e r 305 1843–1845 •

I felt the stillness of death spreading over me when I saw in my father an unhappy person who would survive us all, a monumental cross on the grave of all his own hopes. A guilt must weigh upon the entire family, a punishment from God must be upon it; it was meant to disappear, expunged by God’s mighty hand, deleted like an unsuccessful attempt, and only occasionally did I find some little solace in the thought that upon my father had fallen the heavy duty of reassuring us with the consolation of religion, administering to us all the last sacrament, so that a better world might still stand open for us even if we lost everything in this one, even if the punishment the Jews always called down upon their foes were to befall us: that all memory of us would be obliterated and no trace found.

292 5

10

15

Torn apart as I was within, with no prospect of leading a life of earthly happiness (“that it might go well with me and I would live long in the land”), without any hope of a happy and pleasant future― which is part and parcel of the historic continuity of domestic family life―what wonder that, in despairing hopelessness, I seized solely upon the intellectual side of man, clung to it, so that the thought of my considerable intellectual abilities was my only consolation, ideas my only joy, people of no consequence for me.

305:4

What has often caused me suffering was that what, in connection with forming a view of the world, my real “I” wished to forget out of doubt, concern, and unrest, my reflective “I” tried, as it were, to impress upon me and preserve, both as a necessary and as an interesting transitional element, for fear that I should have faked a result for myself. Thus, for example, now, when my life seems set in such a way that I appear to be assigned to read for examinations in perpetuum, and that no matter

305:5

37 in perpetuum] Latin, in perpetuity.

20

25

30

35

“The Earthquake”

5

294

10

15

•

P a p e r 305 1843–1845

how long my life lasts, it will in any case progress no further than where I myself once arbitrarily broke it off―just as one sometimes sees deranged people who forget everything that occurred in between and recall only their childhood, or forget everything except one single moment in their lives―that with the idea of being a theology student: I should at the same time be reminded of that happy period of possibilities (which one might call one’s preexistence) and of my stopping there, in a state of mind rather like that of a child that has been given brandy and has had his growth stunted. When my active “I” then tries to forget this in order to act, my reflective “I” would so very much like to keep hold of it because it seems interesting and, as reflection raises itself to the level of a general consciousness, abstracts from my own personal consciousness.

•

5

PAPER 306 Probationary Sermon

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lene Wienecke Andersen, Stine Holst Petersen, and Steen Tullberg

Probationary Sermon

8

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

297

1

a

even in your revelation Look!

b

[c]

2 Cor 10:5

Prayer Father in Heaven! We know well that you dwell in a light and that your essence is to shine; but to us you are also for that very reason obscurea and as a secret that we cannot utter,b then it is our consolation that you see in secret and understand from afar. You then test the hearts yourself and, according to the secret each one’s heart conceals and the way you understand it, also reward him openly in proportion to how he keeps the secret and his love for you.

The apostle Paul knew many and very different ways in which to change his speech about the same truth―in order that he could recommend it to peop. and if possible win some. He absolutely did not do so just for the sake of gain, for he had learned to dispense with and forgo the earthly without missing it; he did it not for the sake of honor and esteem in order that some should name themselves after him and be adherents of Paul; on the contrary, he consoled himself with the thought that he had only baptized one single person and had consequently avoided all occasion for distressing misunderstanding; he did so not with deceit in his heart, for he was open before God. Humbly, he confesses before God and peop. that he was the least of the apostles, untimely born, not worthy of being called an apostle; but when necessary, when the word of the man who knows how to abase himself is not hearkened to or heeded, then he also shows that he is vigorous in word and authoritative in speech, that even though he humbles himself under God’s mighty hand and puts up gladly with the shabby and menial role of an apostle in the world, he has nevertheless not forgotten that he is an apostle who dares to present himself, affirm his worth and the teaching he proclaims in opposition to every boastful, worldly distinction. When the Jewish Christians thought they had an advantage, a firstborn’s right, which

306

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

298 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844

made them more pleasing to God and entitled them to place the fetters of ceremony upon Christian freedom, then P[aul] condemns this inclination to dispute and vainglory, he who himself dared to have confidence in the flesh more than anyone else, who was born of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of the Hebrews, according to the Law a Pharisee who had done what even they had not, persecuted the Christian community―but who nonetheless regarded all this as vanity and bitterly repented the last. If some individuals in the congregation are in too great a hurry, as if perfection were already in their grasp, then the old fighterd joins them out on the race course to let them measure the distance between themselves and the one who still did not think he had grasped perfection, but was only pursuing it.―If the congregation, puffed up in its security as though it could with all ease win what the apostles, as men left to their own, had to work for day and night with no other reward in prospect than to be as refuse in the world and to reap the ingratitude of the congregation, then for a moment he rages to remind them that he who has been swept up into the third heaven, works with fear and trembling in the cause of his own salvation. He acted this way solely out of love, that he might win the people not for himself but for the truth. He incited no one, and in all that he encountered in his long life he found no occasion to arouse unhealthy passions in the believers. Even when he stood in chains before a piteous prince, his words are not intended to arouse bitter feeling, he does not incite, he does not point at his chains in order to condemn, he has forgotten the chains and the world’s injustice against him, forgotten all this for the truth whose witness he is. He would even that this piteous prince were like him, wishes it in so conciliatory a manner that he adds: [“]except without these chains.[”] Similarly with the Gentile Christians: P[aul] had strength enough to keep the teaching from being tossed about by every wind, but in the presentation, in the adaptation, he knew how to exploit every breeze in order that truth’s unchanged words

•

d

aware of who he is

9

1

10

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

might find shelter in one or another heart. He did not rush forward to tear down the pagans’ altars; he did not scorn their wisdom, did not think that this was the way to become memorable for his zeal. He has made use of their poet’s verses, which were on the lips of the people in order that his teaching might reach the heart by this path; he has paused at their altar to interpret the truth of his teaching in the enigmatic inscriptions that were the pagans’ highest truth. But if, when they would misinterpret this loving self-denial, this long-suffering concern, which loved the people and desired their good, when a worldly wisdom wanted to help him to meet them halfway in his explanation, when the exuberant empty-minded life in the towns wanted to take Christianity in vain, as it took everything else, taking one thing with another, then he was again true to himself, to his teaching, to his authority, to his responsibility toward recent times. He did not negotiate, made no vaguely worded compromise, he did not give the doctrine over to be corrupted and degenerated in prolix trafficking with pagan sagacity; he interrupted reflection’s long genealogy which would help him to promote the truth in the world in some way other than that in which it had entered, the way in which he himself had received it. He did not vacillate. He acknowledged that the teaching he proclaimed was an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Even if half the world had risen to mock him, the other little half taken offense, he would have changed nothing, not an iota, even if he then had to take the teaching with him to the grave without having won a single one. He incites no one, looks for no proof for the truth of the teaching, seeing that it is an offense to Jews and foolishness to the Greeks; but he knows that the teaching is truth. For him this is the chief concern; he knows that the other may happen due to this proclamation’s foolishness, since the Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom (I Cor. 1:22). He does not torment himself in desiring this certainty that gloats over the truth of the teaching, over the fact that it always scandalizes someone or arouses someone’s scorn,

299

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

300 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844

as if this were his commission in the world, and as if only by doing this would he have carried it out. Ah! lies and foolishness, too, can arouse offense and scorn. He knows the teaching is the truth, and should all the world accept it, this will not convince him any the more, even though it is the desire of his heart and his prayers; if the opposite happens, that will not weaken his conviction, dampen his enthusiasm, extinguish his spirit. It was especially in the congregation founded in Corinth that P[aul] had to battle in this way. Into this flourishing commercial city, which, owing to its shipping and location, maintained a living connection between East and West, there flocked a great multitude of people from everywhere; with different languages and cultures, they mixed with the inhabitants, and by contact and controversy produced ever greater diversity. This diversity also sought to assert itself in the congregation in factions and parties, and a species of pagan wisdom in particular sought to assert itself as the teacher of the truth. In his first letter to this congregation, from which our recited text is taken, P[aul] fights vigorously against this and seeks no amicable accord with the wisdom with which he neither had nor wanted to have any fellowship. We have heard his words read out. Zealous on behalf of what had been entrusted to him, he does not want the teaching, which was of the truth, to worship strange gods or beg for the assistance of splendid words; he admits that even though he spoke wisdom among the mature, it was not this worldly wisdom that he spoke, not this wisdom of the rulers, which is to be put to shame, but the secret wisdom that from the beginning of the world was hidden from the eyes of the world’s rulers, for they crucified the Lord of glory. If P[aul] had lived in our day! Yes! His concern for people would surely have let him come up with many a means that is hidden from us, but I would like to know whether, when it became necessary, he would have changed the definite, incorruptible word that breaks the peace? I should like to know if someone who was a contemporary of his, and

•

11

12

1

Probationary Sermon

e

or just remain in the forecourt in order to

[f]

ingratiatingly repeating the apostle’s strong words

[g]

a weak voice

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

who was familiar with the times that preceded him, would have missed not only the teaching but also P[aul]? Surely not, but what follows from this for the person who is to speak in the congregation? Is he perhaps to lead you, my listener, out of the holy house, out into the streets and lanese to haggle and bargain with worldly wisdom; not for your sake, for what use would it be for you if it is not in fact true, and not for the sake of truth, for it asks only to be proclaimed pure and unadulterated, but for vanity’s sake, so that the speaker may appear glorious in the eyes of the world[?] Should he, on the other hand, here in the hallowed place where indeed you know that this wisdom is a secret, was a secret, was proclaimed as a secret and consequently continues to be manifest in secrecy, should he try here to mimic the apostle’s strong words and thus foolishly make a noise and clamor, shaming the apostle and himself[?] Praised be the man who knows how to fight for the truth, the man who does not wash his hands and let the truth be crucified, praised be the man who, in real danger, for 40 years, night and day, kept going, in hunger and nakedness, without a fixed place on this earth, renouncing everything, abused, persecuted, scorned, cursed. But that man would be a fool indeed who strove in the same way while his danger was quite another, not that of not fulfilling his apostolic calling, but of not saving himself. Let the apostle keep the strong words of contention that pierce through to fortify the separation; but if we want to repeat his words, would it then not be like a child putting on the mighty one’s armor in order to play warrior, would not the opponent soon discover that it was a child hiding in there; would not the opponent soon discover that there was a weak soul, an impotent thought housed in the powerful words! Would not this be harmful, just as surely it was of benefit that P[aul] began what he would gloriously complete, began a struggle in which no terror would convince him that he had not indeed sufficiently consulted with flesh and blood, had not properly finished with himself, when

5

301 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

302 10

15

20

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

he already wanted to be done with everything in order to begin the battle with the whole world. Let us therefore rather apply the words to ourselves, and each one severally with himself about what he hears, not what relation to the world the teaching adopts, but what the relation is to that secret wisdom. For this would indeed be the most tragic of all, if what was to the Jews an offense, to the Greeks foolishness, for Paul a divine strength for salvation, if to him this about its being an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks were to become an empty sound on his lips, noisy talk in his mouth! Would this not be just as tragic as it would be if he knew about that mystery of godliness, as P[aul] says elsewhere: that God was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, but did not know if he himself believed it. ― So then the discourse will remain in your sphere, my listeners, and will consider Your Relation to the Secret Wisdom

25

30

35

This secret wisdom proclaims what no eye has seen. Did you see it, then, my listener, or was yours the situation not of one who saw it even though offended, not of one who saw it even though mocked, but of one who saw it not at all, or saw it like everything else in the world, something that tempts neither to offense nor to mockery? In that case, although seeing, you were like the one who does not see. Is that how it should be, that what is wondrous had become so natural that there was no moment when offense crept around your soul, when mockery secretly plotted against you to disturb contemplation? Even an apostle was not far from being offended, but he became all the more zealous an apostle because the offense had to work to his benefit, because he loved God. Let us not make the wondrous all too natural; what we speak about may then become no longer wondrous and what we say not what we mean to say. Two wrong paths have been mentioned: offense and mockery, because the wondrous, when it ceases to be the saving factor, either tempts a pers., in defiant cowardice, to lose himself and be offended, or in cowardly

13

14

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

defiance, to assert himself through mockery. For if he demands a sign but the sign is not what is wondrous in human daring but in divine condescension, he is then offended as was Peter and, if he seeks wisdom, then he mocks just as Sarah laughed when the promise was announced. Did you see it, my listener, or do you simply say: Blessed are the eyes that saw it―and, even this, how do you say it? The glory of which we speak was not inviting to the earthly eye, for it was an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. The eye that saw it was not, accordingly, the earthly eye but the eye of faith that looked trustingly through the terror in order to see what the earthly eye did not discover, that of which the seer was unaware, what there was to see, just as the disciples did not see it when they walked to Emmaus, and Mary Magdalene did not see it when she stood by the grave: in order to see what would have troubled the earthly eye if the seer knew what he should see. Now it is certainly the case that the eye of faith is always blessed when it sees the object of faith, but when you count it blessed you are not speaking of seeing what it may indeed have been glorious to have seen, what fortune, what circumstances, grant to one pers. and deny to another the opportunity to see. When you count fortunate the person who saw what it pleases the earthly eye to see, and you do so without envy but benevolently rejoice with the fortunate one, then we extol you for not becoming impatiently covetous, for not becoming envious in want, and in this way your joy over the fortunate one contains your own renown. If, on the other hand, you count the eye of faith blessed because it saw the object of faith, then you may either slyly misunderstand yourself and what you say, as if it were talk of something external, or you may at the same moment feel a secret reproach, that you are speaking as though you had been denied, at the opportune hour, to see what the believer saw in that far-off time, a secret reproach, that you are misusing a word that actually applies to times past, before the arrival of the fullness of time, which demanded to see what the believer saw, but what the believer will not cease seeing if he himself wants to see. You must, if you are honest, feel a dissatisfaction with yourself for using that word as cover for unbelief, as if at some other time in the world you would have seen what only faith can see, as if you, whose tepidness is strong only in misconstrued praise, would have avoided the offense and mockery had that glory about which we speak forced itself on you so that you might see.

5

303

15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

10

304

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

Did you then see it, my listener, and with what? Was it with the help of that beautiful power in the soul that consoles and gladdens the child in us, that beautiful power that calls forth longing’s wished-for form, the beloved image of memory, the more than illusory presence of the past―but also alarms with frightening images of fear and presentiment? This power is certainly capable of much, but what it produces is, after all, your own work even though, as produced, it in turn acts with the power you gave it And what this power produces must of course the earthly eye in one or another way have seen, but the object of faith cannot be seen by the earthly eye and thus neither does it appear in the pictures of the imagination. Would it be desirable for the object of faith to be the sort of form that, as you yourself have in fact experienced, fails to appear when you need it most? For when the security and the silence and the quiet in which the image comes into existence vanish, when struggle and strife begin, then nothing appears except what anxiety and terror conjure forth. And even if such a form appeared, it would still be unable to calm the strife, for all that the imagination forms is a oneness without composition. Thus if you wanted to imagine a king but not dressed in purple (for the imagination can help you even if you have never seen a king) but dressed as a poor man; if you wanted to imagine him not in a palace (for the imagination could help you even if you had never seen its splendor), but among the lowly and despised of the people, and there was no hut so lowly that he could not walk as though upright in it, and in the hut there lived no one so wretched that he did not indeed appear to him as the king, would you be able to picture this? Or would imagination despair at this point? Even if you had read carefully what has been related and preserved in writing, would you not in vain try to picture to yourself the glory that was an offense the Jews, for even if the king had wanted to visit the lowly, which could not disturb matters, he would nonetheless have transformed the poor man’s hut into a palace; the glory that was foolishness to the Greeks, for if it was only by wearing humble clothing that this noble king became unrecognizable and the

15

16

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

human shape as such had not been already a disguise, even he were attired in purple or if the humble clothing had been a distinguishing mark that in another way distinguished him more than all earthly splendor―yes then doubtless a Greek would not mock. But if you now saw this glory of which we speak, then indeed I imagine how you saw it, that you saw it believing. Faith itself, like the object of faith, is an offense to the Jews, because they demand that it be proved by the sign, whereas the wondrous itself wants to be the object of faith; to the Greeks foolishness, because they seek wisdom, whereas faith itself is a secret and only an apparent foolishness. This secret wisdom proclaims what no ear has heard. Have you then heard it, my listener, and how? Was the proclamation perhaps not secret, because the word of which we speak, at one time whispered in remote places, is now proclaimed from the rooftops? Does the secrecy consist in this? If a man confides a secret word to another, and then, owing to the other’s carelessness or his malice, this gets out in the world, then it is indeed revealed, and it would be folly if those two people thought they still had a secret. But the secret wisdom is indeed only for the one who has the ear to hear, for only he hears. Did you then hear it, my listener, or were you― unlike the one who is offended but still heard it, and unlike the one who mocked but still heard it― on the contrary like the one, who hearing, did not hear, heard a wind that went away, which invited as little offense as it did scorn. Then the one who was offended heard better; and the one who scorned did not forget so quickly. For the former indeed came into a relation to what was heard, in an unwilling surrender from which he could not disengage himself, and of course the latter had continually to defend himself with mockery against what he could ward off only in this way. So if you had no sense of offense, even if it was only at the moment

5

10

305

15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

10

306

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844

when, saved in unconditional surrender, you discovered how close it had been, even if you sensed nothing of scorn, even if it was only at the moment when, in blessed absorption, you consented in the secret―then indeed it is doubtful not only whether you were in the proper relation to this word, but whether you were in any relation to it at all. Did you then hear it, my listener, or is it just as if you heard it―do you give ear to it and say: Blessed is the ear that heard it? Yes, fortunate the ear that heard what the earthly ear wishes, but we are not talking about all that. What you desire to hear you have indeed heard; it is heard again and again, it is heard at all times and in many places, and you have no need to say who climbs up to heaven to fetch it down for us. But then it was not the hearing itself that you praised, but perhaps the one you counted blessed was the one who had ears to hear and they heard, for hearing always requires an ear, but the one who has ears to hear with has an inner ear. Yes, fortunate is he whose ear has opened to catch the innermost harmony of the sound, and if you count him happy to whom this is given, then we will again extol you for not having pettily wished that everyone should lack what you lacked. But of this we will not speak. The word was not a magnificent word such as tickles the earthly ear, then how could it be an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks? It was not inflamed speech, glowing with fire, for the Greek more than anyone comprehended the beautiful, and indeed the fervor of enthusiasm inflamed the Jew. So then it was not the earthly ear that heard, but the ear of faith that hearkened, amid the invitations to offense and mockery, to hear the word of faith. Yes, blessed the ear that heard it. But how then can you bless it because it heard what no time and no space prevents anyone who has perceived the proclamation from hearing[?] Did you then hear it, my listener; and how did you keep hold of it? For one who simply hears the sound hears only physically, and even if it were human speech he wanted to hear, he would not really hear it if he did not hear something other, and even

•

17

18

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

if he heard differently but heard nothing as soon as the other stopped speaking, he still did not really hear. Did you keep hold of the word with that honest strength in the soul that adds nothing and takes nothing away but meticulously and unswervingly gives back to you what you have entrusted to its charge[?] Could you wish to entrust the word to this power[?] Yes, it is indeed upright, but when the struggle begins and your soul becomes restless, then you would certainly sense that you resorted to memory, because it, too, suffers in the confusion. And memory does not altogether belong to you; it is in foreign service, dependent on what is not in your power; for time blunts it and, little by little, tricks out of it what was confided to it, until the final hour comes in which you most needed the word of which we speak. Did memory also succeed in preserving what you wished it to preserve? Certainly, this particular word is something past, spoken many centuries ago, and this faculty is indeed able to take hold of the past, as it were, to bring it again to the fore, plain and present as a memory, without omitting anything, but also without forgetting that it is something past. If this is forgotten, then what was entrusted has indeed been changed, as if one distinctly remembered an event but forgot that it is many years since it happened. But that word of which we speak is indeed just as much something present as something past; for otherwise it would not be wrong to bless the ear that heard it many years ago in preference to the believing ear that heard it yesterday. But if you did not hear the word as it cannot be heard, then indeed we know how you heard it, that you heard it with the ear of faith. For faith, just like the word, is an offense to Jews because they demand a sign that heralded the future, but the future is precisely the present; and to the Greeks foolishness, for they seek wisdom, but the present is precisely the past, which nonetheless is present without being a repetition. This secret wisdom proclaims what did not arise in any human heart. Was it then in your heart, my

5

10

307 15

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

10

308 15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844

listener, as that which had not arisen therein, or was it present in such a way that it did not invite offense and mockery, and had never done so? But who has comprehended the human heart! Even the one who was most clearly sensible of it in his own breast, even the one who knew how most assiduously to spy upon and observe every movement and impulse therein, even he would end as he began: nothing is so incomprehensible as the human heart. And if someone were to ask him what it was that could arise in a human heart, he would surely be astonished at the question and would know of no other answer than beg for time to consider―until the time was gone and he still had not answered. But if no one is able to put forth―indeed has it ever occurred to anyone to want to put forth[?]―everything that can arise in a human heart, who then knows whether that wisdom might not have arisen in some person’s heart, whether there might not be or have been some solitary man in an out-of-theway place in the world, whether there might not have been someone in the noise of the city, in whose heart it arose? My listener, we do not speak like this in order to persuade the whole world; we speak only of your relationship to the secret wisdom, and if someone else were to think that one should wait for the decision on this question until every thought that has arisen in anyone’s heart has been explored and interrogated, then this certainly is not your relationship. Was then that secret wisdom in your heart, or are you simply saying: Blessed is the heart that preserved it? Yet you are not doing this, because you well know that what is preserved is the same as that by which it is received, and the means are the same for every person and employable by every pers. who wills it. Was then that secret wisdom in your heart, was it in your heart without having arisen there, but in such a way that you had sensed nothing of the human heart’s suffering opposition in the offense or its active opposition in the mockery, then it would of course be doubtful whether it really was the

•

19

20

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

wisdom of which we speak. Was it perhaps noble-mindedness on your part that you said, as if to honor it, [“]Truly nothing like this has ever arisen in my heart,[”] although this was just a daring, enthusiastic way of acknowledging what you owed to another; whereas there was in fact nothing to prevent its also having arisen in your heart, even though it was certain that this was not the case, and even though it was praiseworthy that you would not ungratefully falsely attribute something to yourself[?] Even if such wisdom did not arise in your heart, it nevertheless came into it in such a way that it was impossible that it encountered, or could have encountered, the misunderstanding of offense or mockery. But of course this impossibility proves precisely that such wisdom is not the wisdom of which we speak. For the possibility of offense and mockery proves, not indeed the wisdom, but the impossibility of its nonetheless having in a deeper sense arisen in your heart even if it came there accidentally through someone else. Then it would perhaps be noble-minded for a person to say it about another wisdom, but with respect to that of which we speak, where would the abundance of noble-mindedness be or the authority to speak in grandiose words[?] For if, when saved, you repose in that wisdom, then the possibility of offense and mockery would indeed have so exhausted human noble-mindedness as to leave nothing, nothing at all, to appeal to, but could only humbly accept what became a divine power unto salvation. Was then that secret wisdom in your heart, my listener, as something that had not arisen in your heart but that perhaps gradually became so natural to you that it was as if it had arisen in your heart? Ah, if a pers. hid in his soul a word that once had saved him in life’s need! Perhaps the word was common and plain, perhaps it became clear to him through pondering over it, perhaps he could explain it to everyone clearly, lucidly, with all the force of language; but one thing he could not do, he could not explain how it arose in him precisely in the hour of need; he could elaborate on all its later effect on his

5

10

309

20

25

30

35

40

Probationary Sermon

5

10

310 15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 306 1844

life, but he could not explain how, precisely when the need was greatest, the help had been nearest him in this word. I wonder whether, even if he grew old and stricken in years, he would ever come, or would want to come, to the point where the word had lost that secret power for him? Or whether, if a pers. had a secret friend, and it was very beautiful to hear him bear witness to how this friend had, in a long life, helped him many times and in many ways, but this he could not explain, namely how that friend had found him, since he himself had searched the wide world in vain―I wonder whether he would ever come or want to come to the point where his secret relationship had lost its wonder? Or, if there were a compassionate pers. to whom you once owed everything, and no one, without being deeply moved, could hear you tell how his indulgence had not only been your salvation but the origin and source of your well-being, though you could not explain how, and every time you thought about it, about your debt, you still always said as you did the first time, it is an impossibility, even if it is true―I wonder whether you would ever come, or want to come, to the point where that wondrous settlement had become less wondrous to you; I wonder whether you would understand, or wish to be able to understand, someone who would help you come to the explanation that you had never been so very indebted, that your debt was only apparent, since its concept had been canceled through the fact that all peop. are indebted in the same way and that your expression of thanks was an illusion? And similarly with that secret wisdom; even if it explained everything to a pers., opened his eyes to see, opened his mouth to speak, expanded his heart to comprehend the depths, I wonder whether it would ever become manifest to a pers. in any other way than in the secret. He would, on the contrary, no doubt distort and corrupt everything for himself by wanting to forget, by mendaciously wanting to cheat the wonder of the origin. And every time he wanted to work his way back to that origin in his soul, he

•

21

22

Probationary Sermon

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

would see once again the offense and the mockery standing by the narrow entrance that is faith’s. But if then that secret wisdom in your heart was as that which did not arise in it, then we do indeed grasp how it was there, that it was in your heart by faith. For faith is, just as to the Jews, an offense, because it will not sow discord in your being but reconcile you with yourself, and, just as to the Greeks, a foolishness, because it will reconcile you with yourself but not by yourself.

5

10

* * * My listener, this discourse has not roamed widely in the world in search of conflict; it has not wanted to conquer anyone, indeed, it has not even wanted to defend anyone, as if there were a fight from without―it has stayed with you, has not intended to want to explain something to you, but has wanted to talk with you in secret about your relation to that secret wisdom. Oh! that nothing might disturb this for you, neither life nor death, not things present, not things to come, not any other creature―not this discourse which, even if it has gained nothing, has nevertheless endeavored, as is indeed of first and last importance, to let you have, as scripture says, the faith as your own conviction before God (Romans 14:22).

15

311

20

25

PAPER 307— PAPER 308 Concerning “In vino veritas”

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

24

Concerning “In vino veritas”

•

P a p e r 307–308 1844 •

315

Report. “In vino veritas” is not working out. I constantly rewrite its various parts, but it does not satisfy me. Basically, I think I have thought about the piece altogether too much, and as a result my mood has become rather unfruitful. It can’t be written here in town, so I must travel. On the other hand, perhaps it’s scarcely worth finishing. The idea of the comic as the erotic was adumbrated in The Concept of Anxiety. The Ladies’ Tailor is a very good character, but the question is whether all this sort of thing isn’t keeping me from attending to more important things. In any case, it must be written quickly. If such a moment does not come, then I won’t do it at all. Recently productivity has failed me, and I continually write only about what I want to write.

307

5

10

15

Aug. 27th 1844.

The purpose of the 5 speakers in “in vino veritas,” all of whom are Karrikaturen des Heiligsten, is to provide an illumination of woman that is essential, yet false. The Young Man grasps only the sexual aspect; Const[antin] Const[antius] considers the psychological factor of faithlessness, i.e., of frivolity; Victor Er[emita] considers the female sex intellectually, with respect to its significance for the man, i.e., that it has none; the Ladies’ Tailor [considers] the sensuous element apart from the genuinely erotic element, in the vanity that has more to do with a woman’s relation to women, for, as an author has said, [“]Women do not deck themselves out for men, but for each other[”]; Joh[annes] the Seducer [considers] the purely sensuous element in relation to eros.

19 Karrikaturen des Heiligsten] German, caricatures of what is most holy. (See also explanatory note.)

308 20

25

30

PAPER 309—PAPER 314 “Minor Items from the 1840s”

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Elise Iuul, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

26

“Minor Items from the 1840s”

•

P a p e r 309–310 1844 •

[in an envelope bearing the inscription:] Minor Items from the 1840s.

319

Dialogue and Setting (could be used in an idyllic operetta)

310

A low comic figure (a sort of happy-go-lucky fellow, not in the worst sense) is sitting outside a tavern at a nicely set table―The Schoolteacher enters.

The Schoolteacher: But why in the world have you come out here, and what are you doing? Here you sit, living like the rich man in the gospel. The Character: Ah, but don’t you know why―you who are the schoolteacher here? It’s a good thing that you have come, so that you and I can make plans―I am here on behalf of the Temperance Society. The Schoolteacher: Then show that you are a worthy member and keep your pledge The Character: Absolutely not, I’m not a member of the Temperance Society, the devil with that, but you know from our younger days that I have always had a hell of a gift of gab, so the Temperance Society has hired me to travel around and sign up members for the group; and in this connection, I have to hand it to the Society; I put everything on its tab: 4 glasses of schnapps a day, plus 2 glasses of punch for every day I hold an edifying gathering, and an extra schnapps for each person I get to join the Society. I help the Society with my talent and the Society helps my talent with innumerable well-distilled egg schnappses.―And you should hear me speak―yes, I’m really enthusiastic about the Society: every time I speak, I think about the 4 schnappses. The Schoolteacher: But is the Society well-served by this[?]

309

5

10

15

20

25

30

“Minor Items from the 1840s” The Character:

320 5

10

311

15

•

P a p e r 310–313 1844–1845 •

Why not? If you want to raise money, you should never sniff it, and what does the butter care about what glazes the cabbage[?] Furthermore, the Society has yet another preacher, the traveling epitome of virtue; wherever I go, he follows after me and convinces all those who have been won over by my talk, but I wouldn’t work for the Society in that capacity, it’s such a sacrifice―but now to the matter at hand, and if you want a glass of punch, then I’m the man who can serve it.

and yet wants so very much to come in; but the attendant is inflexible, will hear nothing about him paying 2 shillings right away, 100 times over, as soon as he comes in. This strange, almost insane contact of two worlds―that of actuality and that of imagination, and then actuality, which is so particular about requiring its 2 shillings.

a

Comic Situation A temple of delights, with an abundance of gold and money— but it costs 2 shillings to enter, and standing there is a person who does not possess these 2 shillings and wants to come in

20

312

25

313

30

27

[On a loose piece of paper:] The Ladies’ Tailor (in Stages) gets the idea of establishing a fashionable clothing shop, [with] one department devoted solely to the clothing of corpses, so that to be a fashionably dressed corpse is the same as being buried in Christian ground, i.e., the latest interpretation.

In the darkness of night, when the wealthy man drives with lights on his carriage, he sees what is just before him better than does the poor person who drives in the dark, but then he does not see the stars: his lights are precisely what prevent him from doing so. That is how it is with all worldly understanding: it sees well what is close at hand but deprives one of a view of the infinite panorama.

a

1

5

28

“Minor Items from the 1840s”

•

P a p e r 314 1845 •

Protagoras’s proposition that the hum. being is the measure of all things is correct; understood in the Greek sense, it is like the whim of a junior officer on the Commons when the market woman did not have a measuring cup handy and the bugle had just sounded “assembly” and there was thus no time to waste: [“]Just give me the bottle, my mouth is the measuring cup.[”]―

314:1

But let us never forget that not everyone who has not lost his senses thereby proves incontestably that he has them.

314:2

*

5

PAPER 315—PAPER 317 Projected Writings

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

30

Projected Writings

•

P a p e r 315 1845 •

323

The Dialectic of Beginning.

315:1

Scene in the Underworld. Characters:

Socrates Hegel.

Socr[ates] is sitting by running water, listening to it in the cool air. Hegel sits at a desk and is reading Trendelenburg’s Logische Untersuchungen: Part 2 p. 198.

315:2

and walks over to Socr. to complain.

Socr.: Should we begin by disagreeing entirely or by agreeing about something that we will call a presupposition[?] H[egel] Socr. what presupposition are you starting from? H. from none whatever. Socr. now you’re talking; so perhaps you do not begin at all. H. I[?], not [begin]―I, who have written 21 volumes[?] Socr. Ye gods, you have sacrificed a hecatomb. H. But I start with nothing S. isn’t that with something[?] H. No―the inverse movement. It becomes clear only at the conclusion of the whole, where I have treat- ed all knowledge, world hist[ory], etc. Socr. How can I overcome this difficulty, for many things must surely have taken place―things that would fascinate me. (the misuse of the oratorical element.) You know that I did not even allow Polus to speak for more than 5 minutes at a time, and you want to speak XXI volumes.

315:3

15

20

25

Projected Writings

•

P a p e r 316 1845 •

324

316:1

3 Moral Tales for children, adults, but especially for childlike souls

most respectfully sent into the world by Hilarius Bookbinder by order.

5

1) Once doesn’t count. 10

15

The fellow who fell from the mast― he did it over again, and so people said: It’s nothing.

2) The tale of the Tease. Perhaps you don’t know what a tease is; it is not a real pers., has a large head, thin legs, carries his head between his shoulders at an angle. 3) The hunter.

4) The gossip monger. A ghost story.

316:2 20

25

to no. 2 These teases are found in various stations in life; one was an author. He arranged things such that whatever stupid people would say against him by way of critique was simply praise. Thus: it was all the same.―he even had one of the characters himself say that this was the difficult part. These teases are not really peop., this is especially noticed by their contemporaries, for they are more spiritually determined; therefore they are at their best after their death.

31

32

Projected Writings

•

P a p e r 317 1845 •

325 1

[a]

First a preface with concerning the Philosophical Fragments.

[b]

5

With the motto from Aristotle’s Rhetoric, vol. 2, chap. 23 (in the little translation, p. 197.), about the priestess who forbade her son to become a popular orator.

1)

Logical problems by Johannes Climacus.

2) Something on godly rhetoric with some reference to Aristotle’s Rhetoric. by Johannes de silentio 3)

4)

God’s judgment a story of suffering psychological experiment.

317

5

10

Writing sampler.

Apprentice test piece. by A. W. A. H. Rosenblad Apprentice author.

15

PAPER 318 Decision to Become an Author

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

34

D e c i s i o n t o B e c o m e a n Au t h o r

•

P a p e r 318 1845 •

329

I suppose it was about 3 years ago that I had the idea that I would try being an author. I remember it quite clearly, it was a Sunday; no, wait a minute―yes, quite right, it was a Sunday afternoon; I was sitting, as usual, in the café in Frederiksberg Gardens, smoking my cigar. I went out without any particular purpose, without being clearly conscious of where I wanted to go, nonetheless, the path, as usual, led me out there, where I find it so good to be, so familiar, so entirely attuning a person to a certain melancholic elevation above the world and what is of the world, where even the envied splendor of royal dignity is what it indeed is: A Queen’s memory of her late lord. For the native Copenhagener, Frederiksberg Gardens easily takes on a melancholic tinge since the death of the old king; and his successor, by choosing not to inhabit this summer residence, has here granted his subjects a beautiful way to feel the loss of the late king, as a good subject misses someone deceased―for a petulant subject does not appreciate a living [monarch] properly or properly sense the loss of one who has died.―But what, indeed, can replace childhood’s unforgettable impression that the king is the king, and that Frederick VI is the king, that in this one case, an appellativum and a proprium is an appellativum. What later age of a person is as capable of embellishing the notion of the king into a superhuman being as is the childlike ignorance that has not yet experienced a change of monarch, that knows nothing in concreto! Without any envy, without any notion of the pains that are a part of royal dignity, without any critique of supposedly good or weak qualities, of whether this is a good or a wise king, the king is an almost indispensable figure for every child who, without having read the Royal Law, spontaneously does what it commands: attributes all things lovable to the majesty. Naturally, such a king lives in an ivory palace with balconies,― ―and so Frederick VI sailed there on Sundays, and he himself steered, and the men who rowed the barge, and the swans, and the reproduction, in actuality, of what the child knew from Nuremberg pictures and his own experiments―the king and the queen, they sailed in a boat and the swans sailed behind them. And this reproduction: how faithful. For what a strong person cannot move a man to do, a child, with his cunning, can, and what the older person, with all his strength, cannot extract from actuality, the child obtains from it, aplenty and in abundance. Yes, Frederick VI, on Sundays in Frederiksberg Gardens, and he himself steered, and then the men who rowed the barge, and then the swans.―it is over, only the scent of the flowers at the en20 appellativum] Latin, common noun. 20 proprium] Latin, proper noun. 24 in concreto] Latin, concrete.

318

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

D e c i s i o n t o B e c o m e a n Au t h o r 330

5

10

15

20

25

30

•

P a p e r 318 1845

trance, only the recollection, remains―and even the best subject is not a subject in the way a child is, and the best subject has a notion of the pain that is a part of the royal dignity, and the royal dignity is not an object of desire, but the child sees the king as the only happy person, alas, and it is a misunderstanding―for it was the child who was the only happy person. See, the king no longer lives there; people leave tumultuous [life?] behind, and the child did not go to the amusements [of Vesterbro?], no, he went to Frederiksberg. The contrast makes it even quieter. A person goes there, a little group gathers there, even at the spring there is no crowd, but the happiness, despite its internal character and its beauty, is like the religious worship of a tolerated sect; the leafy garden and the dark colors of the water make it a place of refuge for a solitary pair of lovers who understand the joy of life, and for a single unhappy person who here walks about with dark thoughts. My eye at one point followed the loving couple, who went through a narrow passage in the background to a secluded part of the garden, away from the noise, in order to find themselves, and then my eye discovered others, like distant sailors, who from far away sought the crowd in order to lose themselves in it. Only at the café is a little crowd gathered. When one has retreated into the fortress of the café, one feels removed from the cheerful life of the crowd, and this distance indicates a difference that is sensed with mixed feelings: a bit of distinction that wants to stand above the separation, and a slightly wistful longing that wants to succumb to the separation, in the manner of that wholesome modesty that characterizes the lives of ordinary people, who must make use of the moment, and who, decked out in their Sunday attire, must make the most of the moment provided by a day off from work. [not finished]

•

35

PAPER 319—PAPER 326 On Godly Eloquence and on Aristotle’s Rhetoric et al.

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter

Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Elise Iuul, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

38

On Godly Eloquence

•

P a p e r 319–321 1845 •

Something on Godly Eloquence The entire erroneous way in which we read the Bible: think of Paul’s apostolic haste encumbered and burdened with 1800 years’ erudition and learning. What a comical misunderstanding, what a lack of a primal, fundamental impression of Paul. Whether or not he was inspired when he wrote, exegetical scholarship and collating are not the way by which one comes closer to what was inspired. A Paul whose life-rhythm had the most vigorous tempo, with every moment precious to him, he writes some lines to a congregation to provide them forward impetus for existing in the faith―it is these lines, no longer rapid messengers and awakening cries, now perished in 18 centuries of learning.

To: Something on Godly Discourse.

333

319

5

10

320

Soon an orthodoxy will emphasize the sacrament’s power, what is conferred in the sacrament, the enormous grace, and new life (the miraculous); soon it will criticize and mock the freethinking that is offended at the scanty means of the Lord. But if faith itself sees the greatness, then it is indeed no wonder that it does not regard it as scanty. but then this is something the faith of course must say and not change the weapons.

15

Thus religious discourse must never be abstract truth, for everyone understands it, and yet they understand nothing. It concerns itself precisely with this and that, one thing and another, Peter and Paul, the potter and the furniture dealer and the chamberlain―aber in order to guide it all (in concreto) over into the absolute. It surely does not mention people by name and say, [“]Mads Sørensen Sondby øster, it is to you I am speaking,[”] but it is so well acquainted with the multiplicity of concrete existences and relativities that it does, in fact, address precisely this person and that.

321

26 aber] German, but. 26 in concreto] Latin, concrete.

20

25

30

On Godly Eloquence

5

10

15

P a p e r 322–323 1845 •

To: Something on Godly Eloquence

322

334

•

An odd climax. . . . I have heard a priest who preached about a miracle, and in order truly to make the report of it credible, he first explained that the disciples had seen it with the eyes of faith, but then, at the final moment, himself dubious about the credibility of this argument, he summoned up all of his facial expressions and eloquence and perspiration-filled efforts: that they had even seen it with their physical eyes. His Reverence seemed to be of the opinion that sense-certainty was higher than the certainty of faith (this is already confusing enough), even with respect to a miracle that, dialectically, is diametrically opposed to the senses―it was a good thing he said [“]Amen,[”] it was the best thing he said, for he really seemed to be as well informed about Christianity as Peer Degn, who had once been able to recite the entire Lord’s Prayer in Greek, but now could remember only that the last word was [“]Amen.[”] It will probably end up with this becoming the definition of a sermon: It is a talk given by a priest that ends with the word: [“]Amen.[”]

Something on Godly Eloquence.

323:1

Examples:

25

30

People say, e.g., that there are two paths―that of pleasure and that of virtue―they describe the former as strewn with flowers, etc., the latter as difficult in the beginning, but little by little . . . . here the priest suddenly forgets himself and the narrow path of virtue, for his depiction of the path of virtue gradually becomes more and more seductive. What then? Then it follows that the voluptuary is not only mad because he does not choose the path of virtue, but that he is a mad voluptuary because he does not choose the path of virtue, if it is as the priest says it is.―Furthermore, the discourse is deceptive, depicting the reward as close at hand instead of speaking of what the obligation is, without getting involved with the reward in the hereafter and here below.

39

40

On Godly Eloquence

•

P a p e r 323 1845 •

Thus people very much want to hear discourse of this sort―for it hinders action.

From another manuscript, but not used there (Concluding Postscript) Everyone is in possession of the art of speaking his mother tongue; in this mother tongue there are words that designate what is highest. Inasmuch, then, as every native can speak the language, he can also say the words. And, on the other hand, if the wise person uses the same words, it looks for a moment as if he had wasted his life―by not having come any further. But the person who understands that one must listen subtly when people speak―he will also discover how much deception there is when people speak and no specific thoughts are attached to the words, something that is not apparent when one merely listens to the individual words, but that is immediately apparent when one hears these words together with others. The simplest person is capable of saying [“]There is a God[”]; the child says God’s name and nonetheless does not grasp that it is a task requiring a thinker’s utmost efforts to attach any definite idea to the word. I could easily write reams if I wanted to cite examples of how peop. speak in such a way that their own words testify to the fact that they are thinking of nothing. Here I will take an example from godly discourse. The notion of God’s house is immediately connected with the impression (in the same way that the notion of a forest, a theater, a fortress, a prison is immediately connected to a genrl impression) of quiet repose, associated with solemnity and devotion. That is indeed as it should be. I have now read and listened to sermons for a score of years and have never found any other talk than this: “The congregation that is gathered here is now resting in the security of devotion.” But the person who concerns himself greatly with religious matters, perhaps reads his sermon every day, goes to church every Sunday: It will also have happened to him that he was distracted―indeed, not only that, but in accordance with the law that spiritual trial increases in proportion to the inwardness of a religious person, he has perhaps been most disturbed when he had hoped to feel secure in the holy place, most disturbed, because he himself was so afraid of becoming disturbed (for the utterly thoughtless person

323:2 5

335 10

15

20

25

30

35

On Godly Eloquence

5

10

15

336

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 323 1845 •

is genrlly free of spiritual trial). On the other hand, the reverse is the case with a man who enters a church now and then: He will be seized with a sensuous, aesthetic impression in which the unfamiliar element plays an essential role, and he will be rather solemn. Therefore, he will also understand perfectly what the priest says about solemnity. The person who is subjected to spiritual trial, who is sometimes unable to be properly attuned, he will struggle and listen and listen, and when, in this manner, he listens and reads, year in and year out, but never hears anything spoken of except that one is solemn: then he will feel himself abandoned, perhaps despairing over himself as trash. Who is rlly being preached to, then? God knows. From the aesthetic point of view, this holds true: the less frequent, the more solemnity. Thus I love the Danish forest―but for that very reason, I would never live in a forested area. If I am to live there and be there every day, then there will be days and times when it does not seem beautiful to me, when I become despondent because it had once seemed beautiful to me, and it seems as if I had lost both it and myself. Thus if the priests want to be consistent, they must recommend that one go to church as infrequently as possible. On the other hand, if I am to occupy myself with the religious every day (which the priest in fact does say once in a while), then something very distressing will happen to me, and nonetheless I am indeed supposed to struggle through. The priest’s task begins here. He is not to preach for the artistic dilettantes and let things get to the point that if there is a man sitting there, spiritually isolated, concerned that, at the moment of devotion, he was not capable of being devout―that he was then also to be excluded by the sermon.―So, then, isn’t it true that in God’s house it is, and must be, solemn? Yes, surely. And whereas every bungler of a priest can say: [“]How solemn!,[”] and the most experienced preacher shall not dare say otherwise, yet there is an infinite difference betw. their words, because the experienced preacher must know how, in the predicate and the predicates, to bring forth what is necessary for the person who is undergoing spiritual trial. An experienced preacher preaches for those undergoing spiritual trial, a preacher who only relates to religion on Saturday evening will best satisfy people who only go to church a couple of times a year. The usual priestly, churchly solemnity is a theater set and a theatrical effect and an accompaniment to the stiffness that reigns at funerals.―What can be the source of this other than that the priest who is preaching insists on a certain abstract notion according to which the norm is that one is to be solemn

41

42

On Godly Eloquence

•

P a p e r 323 1845 •

in just the right manner when one is in God’s house, indeed in a specific manner in connection with a specific holy day (which, as a listener undergoing spiritual trial knows, is often unsuccessful), in brief, the normal situation in God’s house is that those who are gathered there are practically not even hum. beings, but saints (i.e., artistic dilettantes), for they thrive on going to church infrequently. On Saturday evening the priest thinks about one or another theme, and he does not himself exist in his thinking, for then he would get to know something quite different. If he is to preach on spiritual trial, on hum. weakness, he scrapes together a few bits (for in a peculiar way there is always something true about the peasants’ superstitious belief that the priest has a book: except it is not Cyprianus, but a handbook for priests, just as in Germany they even have a handbook for lovers). This, however, he has completely forgotten on the day he speaks of solemnity in God’s house, where, however, imperfect peop. also come.

5

10

15

The priest says: It is good to be here in God’s house, would that we could simply remain here, but we must go forth once again into life’s confusion! Lies and nonsense: the most difficult thing of all is to remain in God’s house day in and day out. The listener is thus led to imagine that the trouble lies in the world’s confusion and not in the listener.

323:3

Just when he is to ponder a sermon on Saturday evening, having read something owing to a chance encounter, or by whatever other random manner, it occurs to a priest that hymn-singing, Eucharist ritual, and similar things have great significance, and that the congregation so frequently treats these things carelessly. So then he preaches about it, he admonishes them not to neglect this portion of the worship service; he expresses regret that, genrlly speaking, people come to church only to hear the sermon; he refers to his own experience, that people come late to church services, etc. So he has preached on this, then. What happens? 14 days later a man gets the idea that what our times especially need is a new hymnal, for it is impossible for the congregation to find edification in the evangelical one. Our priest is immediately supportive, and now it becomes clear to him that this is a long-standing and deeply felt need. Fourteen days ago he himself

323:4

20

30

35

On Godly Eloquence

5

10

324

15

338

20

•

P a p e r 323–324 1845

had noticed that there was in fact an irritating custom of people coming so late, an irritating custom that had quite another basis than dissatisfaction with the prescribed hymnal. This is forgotten entirely. Our priest thinks only in the moment, for otherwise he would have to say: [“]No, wait, let us first get people to come to church and sing hymns, then of course we can always see whether a deep need is displayed, for if it has long been felt, then it has prospects of continuing for a long time; but that this same congregation that is indifferent about the entire worship service, höchstens with the exception of the sermon, feels the need for a new hymnal, feels a deep need for a new hymnal―this is priestly prattle.

see the journal, p. 158n. p. 130.

see journ. p. 158n. p. 130

1) A Little on the Contradictions in the Edifying Discourse. The Relation to Scholarship― which categories may be used. Here a little on my edifying discourses, that they were not sermons. (this is something about which people have raised objections without considering that this was of course why the title did not say that, but edifying discourses). it is equally valuable to be a good speaker and a good listener.

25

30

•

in scholarship as many results as possible. in the religious discourse as few results as possible. equally as strong in what is immed[iate] as in what is reflective, and above all, one must have existed in both. the one is a work of art, the other a piece of scholarship. Situation: that Hegel should have been made to deliver an edifying discourse as punishment for his assassination attempt upon the religious sphere.

10 höchstens] German, at most.

43

44

On Aristotle’s Rhetoric

•

P a p e r 325–326 1850–1845 •

Example of Contradiction in the Rhetorical Address. [“][‘]Your sorrow shall be transformed into joy, and no one shall take it from you.[’] The apostle said this not at the beginning of his life―in that case he would merely have believed it―but at its conclusion, and thus he had experienced it.[”]―As if to believe were less and not indeed more than to experience, as if faith’s certainty were not infinitely greater than the ambivalence of experience; as if it should end with faith’s infinitely concerned (impassioned) certainty being transformed into the assured Summa summarum of worldly wisdom.

Aristotle’s Rhetoric.

325

5

10

326:1

Enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism. Chap. II. Rhetorical proficiency consists in observing what in each thing is suited to awakening belief (πιϑανον). Every other [art] will either instruct or awaken conviction (διδασϰαλιϰη―πειστιϰη). πιστις, in plural, the means whereby one awakens conviction. (thus, active.).

15

339

3 kinds of πιστεις in the discourse 1) those that are inherent in the nature of the speaker (ηϑος) 2) those that put the listener in a specific mood 3) those that are inherent in the discourse itself, proving or appearing to prove.

20

Rhetoric is a collateral branch of dialectics and the part of morals that one can call politics.

25

9 Summa summarum] Latin, sum of sums, sum total. 16 πιϑανον] Greek, that which makes plausible or persuasive. 17 διδασϰαλιϰη―πειστιϰη] Greek, suitable for instruction―suited to convince, produce conviction. 18 πιστις] Greek, belief, trust, confidence, faith, proof, evidence, production of evidence in court, persuasion. 20 πιστεις] Greek, plural of πιστις, i.e., belief, trust, confidence, faith, proof, evidence, production of evidence in court, persuasion. 21 ηϑος] Greek, character or way of speaking.

On Aristotle’s Rhetoric

•

P a p e r 326 1845

45

•

326:2

αιτιον―οὑ αιτιον

Rhetoric Chap. III Listeners are of 3 sorts, therefore [3] speakers.

5

1) to ϑεωρος. (the knower) the artful speech (επιδειϰτιϰος)

2) to the deliberative gatherings (ὁ εϰϰλησιαστης)

the coming time encouraging or discouraging. benefit―harm.

3) to the judge.

time past accusation―defense. justice―injustice.

10

1) the essence of the speaker (ηϑος) 2) the listeners are brought into a certain state 3) the discourse convinces or appears to convince.

326:3 15

1) through deliberative conclusions 2) before the courts. 3) eulogies.

20

340

see bk. 3, 1st chap. noted in my copy of the translation. 25

the present time praise or blame the praiseworthy―the reprehensible

Aristotle does not treat “the listener” at all in his Rhetoric.― only in book 1, chapter 3, right at the beginning is there a little.

1 αιτιον―οὑ αιτιον] Greek, apparently a free citation from Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 2, chap. 23, 1400a 29–31: “ἅμα γὰρ τὸ αἰτίον ϰαὶ οὗ αἰτίον”: “for cause and effect go together.” 4 ϑεωρος] Greek, spectator, listener. 5 επιδειϰτιϰος] Greek, rhetorical, demonstrative, ceremonial oratory. 8 ὁ εϰϰλησιαστης] Greek, member of a deliberative body, e.g., in Athens.

PAPER 327—PAPER 338 “Minor Pieces” from before 1848

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

48

“Minor Pieces” from before 1848

•

P a p e r 327–332 1846 •

343

“Lay in the Bible case, older than 1848:”

327

[In a wrapper marked:] Minor Pieces.

328

When the peasant comes to market with his clean and carefully wrapped food products, it is disgusting to see that the first people who come are not buyers who would surely handle the wares carefully, but some day laborers who tear at the wares and treat them roughly; thus, too, with authors in relation to readers: the first to show up are some reviewers.

329

Just as the gospel about the lilies includes a warning for the poor with respect to worries about money, so too it alludes to the kind of worries that the rich, especially, tend to have. “Which of you . . . can add one cubit unto his stature.” The hypochondriacal worry that one’s heart is not beating properly, that one is constipated, etc.

330

The Gospel about the Son of the Widow of Nain.

331

5

15

He was raised up, Christ said: Arise. But the gospel also says that the people said: God has raised up a great prophet among us. thus: the dead person arose, and thereby a prophet was raised up among the people.

A Figure Such as Miss Päthau Could Be Woven into the Pattern of a Funeral or Bridal Discourse. quiet, modest (domestic), in life, she was everything to parents, and in death, the everything they had lost.―The person who

20

332

25

“Minor Pieces” from before 1848

•

P a p e r 332–335 1846

perhaps rejects, critically, that which is called excellent in life will nonetheless pause by this quiet, hidden, modest incorruptibility in a wedding the collision would be different.

344

333

334

If I should write again about marriage, I must take note of Fischart I find something by him cited in Flögel, Gesch[ichte] der komischen Literatur, vol. 3, pp. 339ff.

The Gospel on the Tax Coin.

Theme: God’s image in us and the emperor’s image on the coin. 15

335

20

25

In the epistle for the same Sunday (Phil 3) it says: Our citizenship is in heaven.

According to the apostolic word, a Christian must live in such a way, his life must express that, were there no immortality, he would actually be the most wretched of all. But if we have gained honor and money, have been in charge of a large undertaking, have enjoyed life: well, then, if there is no immortality, we of course cannot be said to be the most wretched of all. But if we have forsaken all that― yes, then it is quite true that we would indeed be the most wretched of all if that for the sake of which we had forsaken everything failed to appear.

•

49

50

“Minor Pieces” from before 1848

•

P a p e r 336–338 1846 •

A Still Life Piece. The Two Brothers Once there were two brothers; they looked exactly like one another, though with the difference that the shaft of the one’s umbrella had one more pearl button than the other’s black silk umbrella. Thus the two brothers resembled one another entirely, the umbrellas almost so; were the umbrellas to disappear, they would have entirely resembled one another.

One person has superabundance, another is as if superfluous.

336

5

10

345

337

One person has superabundance, another is superfluous.

Conversation A: How is it that you also speak with the pers. from whom you just parted[?] B: Yes, why not; I speak with everyone, and furthermore he is a family relative. A: What? Are you and he in the same family? B: Well, I am indeed not a close relative. The matter is quite simple. You know, of course, that I was engaged to Juliane Madsen, whom I broke up with. A: Yes! B: You see, she has now become engaged to his son: ergo, in a way, we are indeed in the same family. A: By Satan, that was kinship to devilry. B: Yes, I don’t count myself as part of the close family, but nonetheless among the relations.―we form complementary angles.

338

20

25

30

PAPER 339— PAPER 340 “Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

52

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 339–340 1846 •

349

Berlin, May 5th–13th 46.

† A Providence is in no way easier to understand (to grasp) than the redemption: both can only be believed. The idea of Providence is that God concerns himself with the individual and with that which, in the individual, is most individual, which at most can be grasped in the imagination (in abstraction) as an eternal congruence of the infinite and the finite in the realm of immanence―but not in becoming. Redemption is the continuation of Providence, that God will continue to concern himself with the individual and with that which is most individual about the individual, regardless of the fact that this individual has squandered everything. But redemption is, of course, a transformation εις αλλο γενος, and is dialectical with respect to any sign by which it might be known; for Providence is not known by a sign in the sense that Christ’s death is the sign (the sign of the cross). Providence and redemption are categories of despair, that is, I would have to despair if I did not dare believe it. They are not to despair over, but are that which keeps despair at bay. The historical aspect of redemption must be affirmed and must be certain in the same sense as any other historical event, but no more so; otherwise, the spheres become confused. Historical, factual, so-called certainty must be based either upon a contemporary generation seeing-for-itself or upon a subsequent generation’s having received the testimony of a trustworthy man, but if this is overvalued the essence of faith is enervated. Thus, in relation to Providence, I do not have anything of this sort (something sensuous) to cling to, nor some other person to cling to. What I have, moreover, is the unbroken, fearful observation of existence, with all that it knows of the misery of life, against me: then I believe in a Providence. Redemption’s historical, factual presupposition must simply stand fast as all other historical events, but the passion of faith must now determine the result in the same way as with Providence. 14 εις αλλο γενος] Greek, to another kind (or genus).

339

340:1

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

Redemption’s faith in the forgiveness of sins frees the shattered and crushed person from the middle term of anxiety so that the whole of one’s relation to God is to pass through the middle term of punishment. 350

10

15

20

25

30

35

2

)

340:3

1. Father in Heaven! You speak to a person in many ways. You who alone possess wisdom and understanding, you will nonetheless make yourself understandable to him. Ah, even when you are silent, you nonetheless speak to him. For he who is silent in order to examine the pupil―he, too, speaks. He who is silent so as to test the beloved―he, too, speaks. He who is silent so that the moment of understanding, when it comes, might be that much more inward―he, too, speaks. Father in Heaven, is it not so? Oh, in the time of silence, when a person is alone and abandoned, when he does not hear your voice, then it seems to him, indeed, as though the separation is unending. Oh, in the time of silence, when a person languishes in the desert, where he does not hear your voice, then it seems to him as though it has vanished altogether. Father in Heaven, this is indeed only the moment of silence in the inwardness of conversation. So, let this silence, too, be blessed, as is every word you speak to a person; let him never forget that you also speak when you are silent; if he abides with you, then offer him this comfort: that you are silent out of love just as you speak out of love, so whether you are silent or you speak, you are still the same Father, the same fatherliness, whether you lead by your voice or teach through your silence. )

340:2

Father in Heaven, great is your infinite kingdom, you who bear the weight of the heavenly spheres and guide the powers of the world in the enormity of space. Numberless as sand is the number of those who live and have their being only in you. Yet you hear the cry of all, also the cry of human beings, whom you made in this particular way; you hear the cry of all human beings, not all at once in confusion, nor singly, as if you granted preference. You hear not only the voice of the one who has responsibility for many, in whose name he might pray to you because he is of high station; and not only the voice of the one who prays for his loved ones, as though he could get

53

54

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

special attention by having the joyous advantage of having loved ones: no, the most miserable, the most abandoned, the loneliest person―in the desert, in the crowd―he is the one you hear. And if oblivion has separated him from all others, and if he had become unrecognizable in the crowd,1 you know him, you have indeed not forgotten him, you remember his name, you know where he is hidden, where he is hidden in the desert or overlooked in the crowd; and if he sat in anxiety’s outermost darkness with terrible thoughts, abandoned by human beings, almost abandoned by the language people speak: you indeed have not forgotten him, you understand his language, you know how to find the way to him quickly, fast as the speed of sound and light, and if you hesitate it is not from sluggishness but from wisdom, and if you hesitate, it is not from sluggishness, but because you alone know the speed of your help; and if you hesitate, it is not from petty stinginess but from fatherly thrift, that saves what is best for the child in the safest place and for the most opportune moment. Lord God! A person cries out to you in his hour of need; he thanks you in his time of joy. Oh, it is lovely to thank, when a person so readily understands that you give good and perfect gifts, when even hearts of flesh instantaneously understand, and even earthly prudence hastens to agree: but it is more blessed still to thank when life becomes a dark enigma; more blessed still to thank when the heart is anxious, when the mind is darkened; when the understanding betrays with ambiguity and memory deceives in forgetfulness, when self-love shrinks back in fear; when shrewdness rebels, if not in defiance then in dejection―more blessed then to thank God; for the one who thanks in this way loves God, he dares say to you, you all-knowing one: Lord, you know all; you know that I love you.

5

351

10

15

20

25

30

yes, no longer as a person but only as a number in a census

1

)

3

. . . . Save me from becoming a fool who will not accept your discipline, or a defiant fool who will not accept your discipline, a fool who will not accept it as a blessing, a defiant fool who will accept it unto damnation.

340:4

35

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

10

15

20

. . . . For so it is indeed: God gives to one person great joy in life, but makes him mute; from another, God withholds joy, but makes him eloquent. Is this not equality? God makes one person great in the world, but he makes him envied; another he makes lowly, but blessed. Is this not equality? To one person, God gives the beloved, but she clashed with his fantasy; to another, he denies the beloved but allows him to keep his dream. Is this not equality? God gives worldly honor to one person―and, behold, he makes it his own; God makes another despised in the world― and behold, this despised person gives honor to God. Is this not equality? Of course, someone might say: “This is not how things are; this equality is not real; even in the speaker’s voice there is a certain sadness in the mix.” Yes, there certainly is sadness; there has to be. For in speaking about human life on earth, if there is no sadness in the mix, it rings false or makes no sound. Yes, of course there is sadness in it, for the one speaking also dreamt his youthful fairy tale―the old, familiar fairy tales, like the ones children tell in the evening, that far away in the forest there was an old castle where a princess lived―and he did not find the world to be altogether like that, but neither did he find equality in the fairy tale.

In the shared idiom of youth, all words are of common gender; they are pronounced the same; the difference lies only in the gender.

340:6 25

30

35

6. Father in Heaven! As a father sends his child out into the world, so you placed the human being on earth. He is separated from you as if by a world; he does not see you with his eyes; he does not hear your voice with his earthly ears. He stands in the world, then, with the path before him―a path that, in the dull moment of faintheartedness that does not allow itself time, seems so long; a path that, in the tortured moment of impatience that does not allow him time, seems to be impassable. Then you give the child strength of spirit in this wide world, strength of spirit, when the wrong path takes so many forms and the right path is so difficult to recognize; strength of spirit, when anxiety and wor-

)

340:7

•

)

352

P a p e r 340 1846 4.

340:5

5

•

55

56

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

ry seem to be abetted by the destructive raging of the elements, by the horror of events, and by dispiriting human misery: then give him strength of spirit to recollect and to believe that you have placed a human being here on earth just as a father sends his child out in the world.―Merciful God! Just as the prodigal son, when he sought the path home, found everything changed, even his brother’s temperament, and only his father was unchanged, his father, whose love received him, when he returned home, with a feast, and whose fatherliness made him, the prodigal one, strong in spirit through this feast: thus when a human being returns to you, then you give him strength of spirit on the path of conversion, for his return is not joyous like that of a beloved child who returns home; it is heavy when it is the prodigal. Nor is he awaited like this by the loving father who joyously awaits the lovable one―ah, he nonetheless has the strength of spirit to believe that he is awaited by the merciful one who, filled with concern, fears that he is lost.

10

353 15

)

7. Father in Heaven! We know that you are present everywhere, and if someone calls on you at this moment, perhaps from his sickbed, if someone cries out to you from the oceanic depths of need, or from the still greater depths of sin, we know that you are near to him and hear him. But you are also near, here in your house, here where your congregation gathers, many perhaps fleeing heavy thoughts, or with heavy thoughts pursuing them; many living, certainly, a quiet daily life in contentment; some, too, perhaps, with the fulfillment of their dreams, hidden in a grateful heart that is wrapped in joyous thoughts―but all come with the desire to seek you in blessed intimacy, o God, you the friend of the grateful; you the consolation of the weak, in fortifying company; you the refuge of the anxious in secret solace; you the confidante of the sorrowful, whose tears you count; you the last one at the deathbed, when you receive the soul of the dying. Let yourself be found then, o God, also in this hour. You, Father of all, you allow us to find you through the testimony of good gifts offered to each in accordance with need, that the joyous may find in you the strength of spirit to dare properly to rejoice with you over your good gifts, that the grieving may find in you the strength of spirit properly to receive from you your perfect gifts. For us human beings there is indeed a difference between these things, a difference between joy and sorrow, but for you, o God,

5

20

25

30

35

40

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846

there is of course no difference between these things: Everything that comes from you is indeed a good and perfect gift.

5

10

354 15

20

25

30

35

8.

)

340:9

. . . Though it is surely the case that, when one is in mortal danger, one may do many things that one otherwise would not, that on decisive, weighty occasions, one has thoughts one otherwise would not have―without it being impossible to prove from this that this was the right thing to do, the thing one ought to do when circumstances are different and life proceeds as usual. From this, however, it does not follow that the viewpoint governing great, decisive moments is not the essential one in regard to existence. Only actuality’s temporal-sensory haste and the inherent possibility that one could equally well err and do something altogether insignificant and accidental―only this must be warned against―and thus against postponing one’s decisive understanding of life until it is decidedly as good as over. If, by contrast, one is able to experience the essential imprint of decision, the moment of possibility (where there are no further distractions, no evasions, no opportunities to go out and mingle with peop. or gather a group around oneself and reassure oneself by being like others or by coming up with a new project as a way of passing the time―because mortal danger consists precisely in the fact that time is up): this, then, is the right way. If there were, in the most decisive moment of mortal danger, only a single name a person could wish to name, Christ’s name; one comfort he would seek, Jesus Christ; one single vision of the life to come on which he would depend for all encouragement―then this is the proof of its being right. And it is in addition the proof that all understanding―all understanding and speculation and comprehension are inessential, for all such things take a great deal of time. But the decisive understanding of life must be simply and solely that which can satisfy when no more time remains. When the thief on the cross gathered his whole soul in that one wish, that Christ would think of him in his kingdom: this was the eternal decision of inwardness, a decision that simply has no need of understanding’s long time, all the more so because this long time of the understanding is a deceptive invention. The task, then, is to cling to this decision in time, preserving the impression of the decision.

•

57

58

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

† 340:10

The reason that so-called immanent thought has become so fashionable, almost among bartenders, is that it so excellently promotes thoughtlessness concerning existence, and yet flatters it so fulsomely. Once in a while one thinks something at an imaginative distance, an abstract illusion sub specie æterni, which erases all differences―and for daily use one exists in the categories of animality (vegetating happily, making clever small talk with the neighbor and the person across the road, etc.). But in general, at what an infinite distance does the so-called thinking of most people lie from their existence; how seldom it is that even a single person achieves some thoughtful transparency in relation to his thinking existence―how seldom is anyone even aware of it.

340:11

9

340:12

)

Viewed from the perspective of immanence (in abstraction’s medium, imagination) God does not exist, he is. Only for the existing person does God exist, that is, he can only exist in faith. A Providence, an atonement, etc., only exists for an existing person. When everything has reached completion, Providence is in the resting completion, and when everything has reached completion, the atonement is in the reconciled equilibrium, but these do not exist. Faith is thus the anticipation of the eternal, that binds together all the elements, the separations of existence. When an existing individual does not have faith, then God is not, nor does he exist, regardless of the fact that God, eternally understood, eternally is.

The forgiveness of sins cannot occur in such a way that God, as if by a single blow, erases all guilt and cancels its consequences. The desire for this is only a worldly one that does not really know what guilt is. It is of course guilt alone that is forgiven; the remission of sin is nothing more than this. It does not involve becoming a different person under happier circumstances, but becoming a new person with the reassuring awareness that guilt is forgiven even though the consequences of guilt remain. The

19 sub specie æterni] Latin, from the standpoint of eternity.

5

10

355 20

25

30

35

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

5

10

15

20

356 25

30

35

40

P a p e r 340 1846

forgiveness of sin must not be a concocted project of a wishful person who, after having tried his hand at many things, ends up wanting to be a completely different person and hopes to be lucky enough to attain this through the forgiveness of sins. No, only the person who understands that guilt is something completely different and more frightful than the consequences of guilt (viewed as misfortune, as suffering), only he can repent, and he will not invent fables like this.

10

)

340:13

•

Father in Heaven! You are incomprehensible to your creature. You dwell far away in a light that no one can penetrate, and even if you are known through your Providence, our knowledge is indeed but weak and obscures your clarity, you who are incomprehensible in your clarity. Still more incomprehensible, however, are your mercy and your grace. For what is a human being to you who are infinite, that you are mindful of him―and what is the son of a fallen race to you in your holiness, that you nonetheless attend to him; indeed, what is a sinner that your Son came into the world for his sake, not to judge but to save, not to make his dwelling place known so that the lost might seek him, but in order to seek out the lost, without [himself] having a place to rest, as even an animal has, without a stone on which to recline his head, hungering in the desert, thirsting on the cross. Merciful God and Father! What is a human being able to offer in return? He is unable even to thank you―without you. Teach us, then, the humble discernment of true understanding, that just as one crushed and burdened, sighing under his guilt, says in his sorrow, [“]It is impossible; it is impossible that God could have mercy on me[”]―in this same way, the one who in faith embraces this mercy must proclaim in his joy, [“]It is impossible.[”] If death itself seemed determined to separate two lovers, and they were once again united with one another, their first cry in the moment of actual union would surely be: [“]It is impossible.[”] And joy’s message (this joyous message) concerning your merciful heavenly Father―yes, even if a person had heard it from his earliest childhood, did that make it any less incomprehensible!1 Even if a person considered it daily, did it become any less incomprehensible! If the incomprehensibility of your grace were like that of a human being―once present, but then vanished upon closer acquaintance―to be (were it) like the lovers’ happiness―once, long

•

59

60

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

ago, incomprehensible, but now no longer so! O, lazy human judgment, o deceitful earthly wisdom; o, dull thoughts of slumbering faith; o, miserable forgetfulness of a cold heart―no, Lord, keep each of your faithful true to the humble discernment of true understanding and deliver him from evil!

5

Should the incomprehensibility of your grace be like that of a human being[?] 1

)

10 . . . . . People say: [“]God is unchangeable[”]; the atonement teaches that God has become changed―the whole thing is an anthropopathic representation that cannot hold up under examination. In other words: a human being wants to remake himself by making use of the abstract thought of God’s abstract unchangeableness. But let us suppose that a hum. being is not capable of doing this. The trick is that a hum. being, by using abstract thought, wants to make himself as unchanged as God is unchangeable. The atonement’s expression with respect to this objection is therefore as follows: it teaches that God has remained unchanged while hum. beings change, or it proclaims to the hum. being changed by sin that God has remained unchanged. Every objection in fact takes issue with the second proposition (that the hum. being is changed through sin) but gives the misleading appearance of speaking about the first proposition, that God supposedly has changed. People transform the whole matter into a fantastic battle over God’s predicates, instead of simply asking the person objecting whether or not he has changed from what he must be presumed to have been from eternity. If he has in fact been changed, then the proclamation of God’s unchangedness is eo ipso of utmost importance to him. The atonement in no way requires that both parties be changed, for if one party is in the right, then it would of course be madness for him to be changed. If, however, his unchangedness (which is communicated in the atonement) is to be understood as an abstract something, then for another reason it is not an atonement: for in that case, the one party is in no way a party, but is some abstract something, and thus there is an impersonal relation between them. In that case the atonement is an absurdity, just like worshiping the sun. If, for example, in a pagan land where the sun was worshiped, an eclipse suddenly occurred, and if people sought to appease 29 eo ipso] Latin, by that very fact.

340:14 10

15

20

25

357 30

35

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

5

10

15

20

25

358 30

35

40

•

P a p e r 340 1846

it, and it then shone again, and they believed it was reconciled, this would be an absurdity, because the unchangeableness of a natural phenomenon is incommensurable with a personal approach. Therefore, in relation to a natural phenomenon, a hum. being cannot be changed in such a way that this change has some relation to that phenomenon. Whether a hum. being is a sinner is not a change that is commensurable with the relation to the sun or the moon. Between two reconciled parties, the relation must be such that the change in the one party (the hum. being’s, in sin) has a relation to the other party’s (God’s) unchangeableness. Here, too, it is clear that it is, above all, the significance of the change of sin and its reality that must be maintained if everything is not to be confused. Conscience exists in immediacy, and it infinitely accentuates the difference between good and evil. One must now assume (if the objection[1] is to mean anything) that it is possible for a person, by means of abstract thinking, to become so abstract that he no longer has a conscience, or that the ethical has completely evaporated and he has been metaphysically volatilized. But this cannot be done. Just as God has limited a hum. being in relation to the sensory sphere, so has he set limits for him in a spiritual sense, if in no other way than by the fact that he is created, and the hum. being has not created himself. Through imagination a hum. being can see things at a distance of a million miles, but his sensate eyes cannot see so far, and no matter how long he continues to surrender to a figment of his imagination, his eye will never be able to see further. It is the same way with immediacy. A hum. being may remake himself in abstract thinking, in fantasy (though this self-creation, if it succeeded, would precisely be his destruction), but at the same time he continues to exist: thus it of course can never succeed. Even the most insistent, stiff-necked abstraction in a hum. being cannot entirely reject immediacy; on the contrary, he is continually aware of it if for no other reason than in order to abandon it. Immediacy is his foothold, and no matter how far he floats, no matter how profligate in imagination he becomes, he nevertheless can never wholly let go of his foothold.―And this sketch is of course a depiction of the end point of this blind alley; and in order to prevent things from going so [1] The objection thus tends to come from what one might call exploded personalities, who have dizzily made their way out into the infinite (e.g., Adler, who believed that one could not distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of the devil).

•

61

62

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

far, ethics steps forward as early as possible and enjoins a pers. to follow the path of moral immediacy in conscience―and the religious begins. It would be foolishness if someone, in consideration of the fact that he could see so far by virtue of imagination, were to put out his eyes “since it was not worth the trouble to see so little”; but if someone, in view of the fact that God must be unchangeable, were to give up his moral immediacy (i.e., attempt to give it up): ethics condemns this as sin. And he will not succeed in this, whereas it is of course quite possible for him to put out his eyes, for the eyes are just a single thing, but moral immediacy is the hum. being himself in the sense of the limit, but also in the sense of the root and ground.

10

)

11. . . . . Yes, it is indeed marvelous to be a child: so sleep at the mother’s breast and to awaken to the sight of the mother; to be a child, knowing only the mother and the toys. We extol the happiness of childhood, and the sight of it cheers us with its smile―that, indeed, the child, to whom happiness is granted, does not forget it with the years: but, God be praised, this is not the way things are: that this is to be what is highest; one can lack it without forfeiting what is highest, and it can be lost without one’s having lost what is highest. Certainly it is beautiful to be young, to be unable to sleep because of the riot of happy thoughts; and having slept, to awaken early to the singing of the birds and to continued cheerfulness! We praise the happiness of childhood, we rejoice in its joy, we wish youth gratitude for its happiness; and, in the future, we wish it gratitude for what has vanished: but, God be praised, this is not the way things are: that this is to be what is highest; one can lack it without forfeiting what is highest, and it can be lost without one’s having lost what is highest. Certainly it is blissful to love: to have only one wish, regardless of whether everything else is granted or denied: one wish, the beloved; one longing, the beloved; one possession, the beloved! We praise the happiness of love ―oh, that the happy one may be faithful in the daily

5

1

[a]

from smile to smile

15

20

25

30

359 35

40

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

5

10

15

appreciation of domestic life, that the one who was happy may be faithful in recollection’s ongoing gratitude: but God be praised, this is not the way things are, that this is to be what is highest; one can lack it without forfeiting what is highest, and it can be lost without one’s having lost what is highest.―Why do the holy scriptures, why does every godly view display a preference for the lame and the crippled, for the blind and the lepers? Is it because the divine wishes to show feeling only for them? Is it because the divine thinks so poorly of itself that it only wants to be a part, something that is not available to all? Is it because the divine is envious of those who are happy? Ah no, for were this the case, then the divine itself would be divisive,

nihil deest

20

25

30

35

360

then it would be unjust, by giving the sufferers what is best, the only true good, instead of giving them compensation. No, the reason is, of course, that people who have good things comfort themselves so readily with these things that they attend only with difficulty to what is eternal. And people are so reluctant to hear about such things, not only when they are out dancing and feasting but even when they are in church. Let us think of someone who has been unfortunate since birth. Alas, he did not have a happy childhood; for a mother’s love is indeed loyal and tender, but even a mother is a human being. He lay at his mother’s breast and saw that she was sad. She did not look upon him with joy; he saw that she was sorrowful―when he woke he sometimes saw her weeping. Among those who are older it sometimes happens that, when everyone is sitting together, downcast, someone comes walking in the door, someone happily gifted with a light heart and a lively spirit, saying, [“]Here I am. Let the fun begin[”]― then the clouds of sorrow depart. Someone gifted in this way is rare, but even the rarest talent―what 16 nihil deest] Latin, nothing is lacking.

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

63

64

1

[b]

c

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

to be welcome in this way!

and all his useless suffering

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

would he be able to do compared to a child, who in the midst of the terrible pains of birth opens the door and says, “Here I am. Let the fun begin!” Oh, the happiness of childhood.―Then he grew, in his youth, but he did not join in the fun and games, and if anyone asked, “Why won’t you play with the others?” he might well have replied, [“]You know already; don’t dishearten me by asking.[”]―Then he withdrew, but not to die, for he was still a youth.― Then came the time of love, but no one loved him; there were a few, of course, who liked him―but it was out of sympathy and pity.―Then he became a man, but he did not sit with those assembled―then he died, but he was not missed; in the little group that made up his funeral cortege, everyone said, [“]It is fortunate that God took him[”]―and the priest said the same thing―and so he died―and then was forgotten.c There was no joy and celebration when he was born, but anxious consternation; there was no sorrow and pain when he died, only a quiet, melancholy joy. His life went along in this manner, or, rather, it goes along in this way, for, my listener, I am not telling a tale about what happened to an individual in days of yore; the same things happen every day and to many people, even if superficiality and sensuality, even if worldly-wisdom and ungodliness, would like to remain ignorant of it. He participated in life―by living, but he lived at a remove from one thing, from that which in all of life’s relations, just as in love’s desire, spells happiness: the “like for like”:―this he never received, and this he never could give, for he was a suffering object of sympathy and pity. No, he never received “like for like,” nor as a child did he make his mother happy, when, if others had made her downcast, he would only have needed to wake up smiling in order to make her glad. No, he never received “like for like,” for he loved his playmate in a different way than the playmate loved him; no, he never received “like for like,” nor did he find a partner; as a man, he was unable to reciprocate, and so he remained at home and lonely; he did not receive “like for like”

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46” 361

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

in death: to be missed as he had missed those dear to him. He died, but no matter what the mourners and the priest said, God be praised, this is not the way things are, for he was not on this account excluded from what is highest. On the contrary, his life can teach us what the highest is. When a child does not get permission to play with other children, because the parents are perhaps too strict, and a friendly old man comes along, who really feels for the child, and says to it, [“]Come to me, then, my child, and we will play together[”]―ah, yes, at first glance, this seems to be poor recompense. But, look, that friendly old man knows how to win the child over, little by little, so that at the end the child longs for him, for him alone, longs for him more than the happy child for the playmate. It is the same with the religious. The religious does not sympathize in the sense of compassion; it is, above all, equality for the happy, the rich, and the powerful, and for the lame, the blind, and the lepers. My listener: You call yourself a Christian. The one for whom you are named, when you are called your most meaningful name, was he of whom a Roman leader said, “Behold the man!” in order to awaken sympathy and compassion. Do you think any words could be imagined that the sensate person would be more reluctant to have said of himself than these, when they are said in order to awaken pity[?]: Behold the man, see how he stands there, abandoned, he who would raise up the temple in 3 days, he whose mighty words now return as mockery; see how abandoned, he who calls himself king; see how helpless, he who would help others; what an object of mockery, when even the one who wants to save him can say nothing more in his defense than the poor words of pity: Behold the man! Now, I will not direct your thoughts, my listener, to what of course you know of his suffering and death, but even his life up to that point surely included the minimum of the sort of things that a worldly mindset would desire. He was nailed to the cross not only in death, but in life he bore the heavy cross of misunderstanding, a misunderstanding of

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

65

66

1

d

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

into kings, into criminals

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

such magnitude that it was as if his whole life were in vain, as though he had come into the world in vain, unless his death itself were the aim. He who bore the sins of the world in sorrow over the fallen race―he is surrounded by a curious crowd: can a more frightful misunderstanding be imagined than curiosity, a riot in the streets―and then this seriousness of eternity. This was how he walked, alone and abandoned, abandoned by the people, abandoned by them precisely because they had flocked around him curiously, abandoned by people in life just as in death he was even abandoned by God. He who comes with only one thing, but the one thing needful; he who will be only one thing, that which he is, the one thing needful, from him they will accept everything else, food and drink and wine at the wedding―people want to make him into everything possibled! He is unacquainted with friendship, for this is not of course friendship when the one person loves and loves until the end, while the friend is changed and falls away in the time of need, sleeps in the time of spiritual trial, and denies in the time of ridicule. For the ridicule was indeed done in earnest. Do not allow your thoughts to forget this all too hastily, because you know of who he was. No, the ridicule was in earnest when no one wanted to know of it, when even the individual who had some notion of it did not want to know of it; it was in earnest when the scribe only dared approach him stealthily, under cover of darkness, because he of course knew that, in the eyes of everyone, he was walking the forbidden path of contemptibility, and he of course ran the risk of becoming himself an object of contempt.

It is difficult to present a comparison of different times, and a speaker who often does so may easily cause confusion, because by emphasizing a single element in the interest of eloquence, he easily becomes enmeshed in contra-

362 5

10

15

20

25

30

340:16

40

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

5

10

363

15

20

25

35

P a p e r 340 1846

dictions. Nonetheless, sometimes there are readily recognizable tendencies. If you care to notice how death is spoken of in these times, you will see that a great change has occurred in comparison to earlier times. Nowadays, it is almost universally said that a quick and sudden death is desirable. What does this indicate? It indicates that people want to banish from life the thought of death, and death itself, as much as possible. People want to live as if death did not exist, and when it nonetheless must come, then let it come quickly and suddenly, for then, of course, it is almost as though it does not exist. A strange kind of hum. shrewdness, how clever to want to fool death―and how horrible to deceive yourself― for eternity is neither quick nor sudden. By contrast, in the old church prayer, which continues to be the required one, the believer prays, among other things, that God might preserve him from evil and also that he may be protected from: a sudden death. A person who has a long path to walk is of course better served by this. Yes, in relation to what is over in a moment, it might sometimes be right to close one’s eyes and leap―but in relation to the beginning of what is longer than all else, eternity―there, the shrewdness of the leap is not merely foolishness, but the most frightful self-deception.

12. …. Yes, certainly virtue and the good have their reward―it is certain, eternally certain, nothing is as certain, and nothing is more certain, not even that a God exists, for this is the same thing. It has its reward, but when, and how―and surely not in any earthly sense. For, see, virtue has its reward in ingratitude; this is not the reward of which we speak when we say that it is certain that virtue has its reward, but the reward of ingratitude comes first. Virtue has its reward―it is rewarded with death; this is not the reward of which we speak when we say that it is certain that virtue has its reward, but nonetheless this is virtue’s reward, and it comes first . . . )

30

•

•

67

PAPER 341—PAPER 344 “Encomium to Autumn”

Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

70

“ E n c o m i u m t o Au t u m n ”

•

P a p e r 341–344 1846 •

367

[On the wrapper:] Draft.

Encomium to Autumn. 1

[a]

NB. I think this way of making things mysterious will be effective.

341

see Journal JJ p. 216.217.

342

(from the French)

Autumn is: the season of desires, the season of colors, the season of clouds, the season of sounds and tones (sounds travel much faster and seemingly in much livelier fashion than in the oppressive heat of summer) the season of recollections.

5

Long live autumn! With champagne, there is only one glass worth drinking, and with a roast, there is only one cut worth eating, and there is only one time when a girl is worth loving, and rlly only one girl is worth loving that one time: and only autumn is “the season.”

343

Encomium to Autumn. by 5 persons

No. 2. Autumn is the time of clouds

344:1 15

that ends with a Tutti.

To be used as a response by a humorous individuality.

According to Nordic mythology, clouds are formed, as we know, from a giant ’s brain. And truly there is no better symbol of clouds than thoughts and no better image of thoughts than clouds―clouds are thus a figment of the imagination, and what are thoughts other than that[?] You see, this is why one becomes tired of everything else, but never of clouds―at least in autumn, which, in turn, is the season of thought. Exhausted, I have long since given up on the hum. race even though, or precisely because, I have studied it thoroughly. As a youth, I began by loving older men―and became tired of that; afterward I loved slightly older youths, like myself, and became tired of that; and then came the young girls―and the matrons, undeniably the best, but it is sheer vanity even when they as matrons have overcome the hazards of fate. Tired, I turned away from the hum. race to

20

25

“ E n c o m i u m t o Au t u m n ”

368 5

10

15

20

25

30

344:2

•

P a p e r 344 1846 •

71

those creatures who do not, like humans, have pretentions of being the wonder of creation, but instead, and perhaps for that very reason, are very entertaining because they do not pretend so much: I mean cows. And, undeniably, I have made quite as many interesting acquaintances on the commons as any place else―I will never forget that dun-colored one― and the happy hours together, etc.―but nevertheless I became tired of it. But of the clouds―in the autumn, never. One can scarcely recognize the clouds then, so changed are they, and he who has never seen them in the autumn has never seen them. In the winter it is too cold to look at the clouds―in the summer they are too limp, too sleepy―but in the autumn: dreaming. (to be developed).―In the summer they stand still and are bored―in the autumn they rush past like vanishing dreamers. In the summer it is as though they do not care to be suspended up there―in the autumn it is clear that they relish their floating. In the summer, the one can hardly be bothered to step aside for another: in the autumn they play with one another as a blessed way to pass the time, rushing past one another, meeting, separating, longing once again for one another, blending colors with one another (as friends mix their blood), and becoming one even as the particularity of each shines through. Stand still, then, you who call yourself a thinker, observe the clouds―in the autumn. If you have ever thought about something else, then think once again. Consider what you might wish to be―a hum. being? That could scarcely occur to any person. An angel? That is boring. a tree? that is too long-lasting and too peaceful. a cow? That is too solid an existence. No, a cloud―in the autumn. That I would like to be. For the remainder of the year, I will keep myself hidden somewhere, or nowhere, which can also be expressed in this way: I do not want to exist―but every autumn, I want to live out the month. or I will live hidden like a thought, until the autumn came, when I became a cloud. In itself, a cloud is a wholly respectable role (and I certainly would not be some little-bitty mackerel cloud), I would be a large, shapely cloud. But regardless of the size, a cloud is also lightness itself, elastic, and to the degree that it does not have musical sense (which of course it does have) it has color sense; it knows how to bathe itself in color. So long live autumn! With this cup, I salute you, in recollection, you profound but nonetheless so fleeting thinkers, you, my best thoughts, which one can wholly appropriate without plagiarizing. When autumn comes, I jump into a carriage, pull the coach’s leather cover completely up over my head and cover myself in a cloak, so only my eyes remain, with which I reach for you. When the coachman drives as fast as the horses can go (but ah, ah, what is that compared to clouds), then it seems to me as if I had also become a cloud.

No. 3. Autumn is the season of sound. If one imagined a trumpeter who has fallen asleep with the trumpet at his mouth, could one then be said to hear something?―Oh, it must be boring to be Echo in the summertime. The muggy air in the forest chases Echo itself away. But in the autumn. Merely

72

“ E n c o m i u m t o Au t u m n ”

•

P a p e r 344 1846 •

to hear Echo, the voice of the beloved―everything is in love with Echo, merely waiting to respond. For the autumn is elation. When the cry sounds, responses come from countless places. 369

No. 4. Autumn is the season of colors. What is color? that is, what does color mean? Color is visible movement and restlessness, just as tone is its audible counterpart. Everything whose distinguishing trait is peaceful immobility thus cannot have color. A mathematician would not paint a triangle; summer is peace, serenitas, and thus colorless; the constantly blue sky is precisely a lack of color. For what is color? Color is contrast, but contrast is restlessness, motion, even if two contrasts confront each other entirely motionless, the fact that they contrast spells restlessness. Thus the summer it is peace. But then autumn arrives, and with autumn come the passions, and with the passions comes restlessness, and with restlessness comes color, and with the restlessness of passion comes the changing and shifting of color. To change color is of course precisely the expression of restlessness, of the restlessness of passion. And autumn changes color. In contrast to summer we might say that what sets autumn apart is: to change color. If one would argue that autumn lasts longer and that these changes therefore take some time, I would respond: in the autumn, the contrasts are in such vigorous motion that it is like continuous change. One cannot see all the contrasts at once, and thus the alterations appear when the same contrasts are seen along with new contrasts, and so on. The “somber-hued autumn” is thus not merely melancholy but also somewhat heroic― for this is nature’s downfall, its struggle for life. It submits to annihilation. This is what is somber, but here, once again, it is as though for a moment summer’s delights are recollected and resound, but in a far more intensive fashion, because the time is short. Look, the straw withers at your feet, but if you look closely, you will see that every straw has its own color. Meanwhile, the beech tree stands upright. It will not bow, it will not yield; it somberly shakes its head, but then in turn it proudly shakes off what has withered; it would rather have only a few leaves that are not withered than all these that are withered. What is remarkable about a green leaf in summer[?] Who really sees that it is green[?] What poetry is there really in the green of summer, in all the green―it is of course almost like the greens one eats. But in the autumn! When a beech tree stands without leaves and has only a single leaf, a single fresh green leaf on its naked branch: then you see the color, green; you see it by the contrast.

9 serenitas] Latin, serenity.

344:3 5

10

15

20

25

30

“ E n c o m i u m t o Au t u m n ” 344:4

•

P a p e r 344 1846 •

73

No. 5. Autumn is the season of recollections.

370 5

NB. This discourse must be held in the purest



and most noble spirit so as to shape the contrast with what is despairing in those of the others.

It is well known that someone who has thoroughly understood the art of cooking knows how to prepare even what is ill-tasting in a delicate way. The same is true of recollection: what it has prepared, what it serves, is delicious. NB. The tone should be somewhat elevated; otherwise it will not have sufficient feeling.

PAPER 345—PAPER 349 On Corsaren, Town Gossip, Grundtvig, Dansk Kirketidende, et al.

Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Stine Holst Petersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

76

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

•

P a p e r 345 1846 •

373

1

a

in relation to what is despicable in literary terms

A Contribution to the Illumination of the Despicable Misuse of the Comic. If someone were to write, in a despicable newspaper (and no decent paper would accept such things), that my pant legs are narrow and far too short, and afterward were to sketch them: people laugh. Now let’s think: what is comical in this? That a person has pant legs that are narrower than those of others is of course nothing to laugh at,―at most some individual, if he en passant became aware of it, could laugh at it―and if it is true that I have such pant legs, then it is in no way a joke to state this in plain terms. And yet people laugh―when they read it in the paper. What are they laughing about, then? People laugh at reading in print something that can be published only through a breach of all literary decency. Allow me to illuminate this with an analogy―and I certainly have no interesta in searching for something nice and refined once I have found something fitting. Anyone who has ever had the occasion to observe mischievous, ill-mannered boys when they think no one is watching them knows that farting or making an indecent gesture, etc., is seen as enormously entertaining, a witticism that evokes laughter. What is it they laugh at, then? The thing itself is not particularly amusing, even to the boys, but what they are laughing at is that here, among themselves, and for fun, they dare do something that, as an act of indecency, would otherwise be rewarded with a whipping. In the case of these printed witticisms, what is titillating lies in the fact that something is said in print that, if it should be punished at all, could only be punished with a spanking. What is titillating is that the mental notion of an offense by the press must suddenly be exchanged with one about boys on the street―and yet it is in print. Let us take one of our great and famous men―(I choose for the purpose someone whom I myself esteem most profoundly and whom I dare believe is assured of this fact with respect to my own

345

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

374

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

poor person, and because I am certain that he has enough of a statesman’s eye to discern easily that it is a quite serious matter that the simpler class of people and the country’s schoolchildren are being corrupted by this overwhelming and coarse sense of the comic); let us take, then, His Excellency, Ørsted. If it were to be written in one of the despicable papers, “When His Excellency, Ørsted, had dinner today, he spilled some of his porridge on his pants, as can be seen in the following sketch,” people would laugh. And what would they be laughing at? People laugh at reading in print something that can be printed only through a breach of all literary decency, and the titillation is owing to the amazement with which people see it. People laugh―and, of course, not everyone does: it is the same as with the naughtiness of the boys―there are parents who stoop almost as low, they laugh and they think that the ill-mannered boy is a devil of a fellow, so witty. Anyone with even a modicum of cultivation does not laugh, and it is always a sign of weakness of character to laugh at something indecent; it is like admiring the beauty of a prostitute―for if she is a prostitute, then I ought not want to look at her.―Let us consider what decorum is. Even if someone on official business approaches the noble statesman, His Ex[cellency] Ørsted―and he is so unfortunate as to arrive during the Judge’s mealtime―then he turns and leaves. This is not only in order, as is said, to grant a person privacy at mealtimes, but there is a form of modesty on the part of those who do not wish to see great figures outside of their proper and essential sphere. Take this modesty away, let it be regarded as a joke to present in print a famous man in all possible chance combinations in which something human happens to him (whether it be true or simply made up, for this is a matter of indifference), then we see the despicable in its literary form. We see how easy it is to be witty in this way, easy, that is, for all those who find it easy to be impudent, for this witticism is nothing other than impudence. Every serving maid, every farmhand, every schoolboy knows, that it is possible, e.g., that one day His

•

P a p e r 345 1846 •

77

78

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

•

P a p e r 345–346 1846 •

Ex[cellency] Ørsted, might leave his home in his old coat that happened to have a hole in it―make a sketch of him―this is easy enough―and then it is funny. When these despicable literary witticisms appear in a country, two things are necessary: (1) great and famous men are necessary (―let us never forget the truth that every state needs such men!), a great name, whether this greatness has been acquired through rare gifts, or was established in a short time through fortune’s favor, or by a long life of laborious exertion.―This is the first thing that is needed. And in addition, there must also be (2) (and let us never forget how little this constitutes a need; remember it is a mark of shame for a country that such exist) there is a need for some impudent fellows who act on the basis of who they are, namely, that they are despised, and who then, in loathsome fashion, proceed to make money from a great man’s name. But a famous name is required; no one would laugh if such things were told of a woodcutter whom no one knows, or of No. 24 of the Blue Boys, who does not even have a name. The point of the despicable joke presupposes someone’s having a famous name. If a country abandons the excellent and the famous and turns schoolboys, the crowd, into the privileged class, then literary contemptibleness will flourish.

In the newspapers, I see that my full name has been up on the placards, that I’ve been put on stage, and the actor who has done so has here distinguished himself in such masterly fashion that he receives public acclaim. I think I detect an inconsistency―for if I had done this myself, I would scarcely have been greeted with acclamation but with a little pereat―then the likeness would not have been altogether misleading. Incidentally, I have nothing against anyone who, in these straitened times, can exchange me for a little drinking money. Such a person is unlike me, however, for I can attest on the basis of my own experience that, here in Denmark, less than nothing is earned in this way. 35 pereat] Latin, let him die; down with him. Compare vivat, “let him live.” Such expressions of displeasure were commonly used among students.

5

375 10

15

20

25

346

35

40

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

•

P a p e r 347 1846

376

Life in a Market Town A Comedy in 1 Act Cast

347

The scene is Copenhagen 1846. 5

Scene. People sitting around a table. Sophie. 10

15

20

25

30

I think it is indecent to focus attention on such things. Sophus No, the matter has a serious dimension. It is obstinacy on the part of this person to want to go around clothed in this way; it is an insult to public opinion. When public opinion has objected unanimously to a man’s hat, or to his coat, or his vest, or his pants, or his signet ring, or to the fact that he does not put cream in his coffee: then it is an offense against public opinion not to change. Johannes Ah, God knows, it is serious―it is certainly serious when public opinion gets involved and takes it upon itself to pronounce, unanimously, against a man’s vest. But in such cases public opinion must be reasonable, for when, e.g., it is a question of a hat, it can easily be changed, but when it is a question of clothing, assume, for example that it is to last the man for years―then I think that public opinion should accompany its proclamations with a lawful warning and a time limit; his pants, e.g., would expire at some appropriate deadline.

it could also be necessary that public opinion should arrange for exhibitions of hum. clothing, just as there are exhibitions of livestock. The intrigue could be a delicately sketched romance, though not without erotic coloring.

•

79

80

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

•

P a p e r 347 1846 •

A sketch of Johannes appears in the newspaper because of his pants―the strict Sophus is particularly zealous, and he has a hidden, personal relationship to one of the writers for that paper. Then Sophus and the editor have a falling out, and what happens next is that Sophus is depicted in the paper as wearing ridiculous pants. Sophus becomes furious, not so much because he was written about in the paper, he says, as because none of it is true; he knows that his pants were sewn by the most renowned tailor, and they fit perfectly. But now everyone is looking at them―and they note, in amazement, that what was written about them in the papers is not true―and precisely for this reason they pay even more attention. The newspaper persists and explains that at present the man has indeed put on another pair of pants for fear of the paper, but that if people continue to pay attention, he will surely put the others back on again: people become still more attentive. Sophus’s pants thus become interesting by virtue of the fact that what was reported about them in the newspaper is not true. But then, is Cph. a provincial market town―doesn’t it have 120,000 inhab[itants][?] No―but it can become one.

377

5

10

15

20

Scene. Sophus is sitting in his room with a friend. Sophus: It can drive you crazy. Wherever I go, everyone’s eyes are on my pants. Today I was there (gestures) If only there were the least thing to say in response to them Friend: comforts. Johannes enters. Johan.: Well, highly esteemed fellow warrior, how goes it with the pants? Sophus: Oh, it is vile beyond all comparison. If my pants were like yours, then there would be a reason for public opinion to speak out against them―but my pants. What in the devil shall I do? If I put on a pair of foolish pants, they would all laugh at me. and if I keep the normal pants on, then everyone looks to see whether what the newspaper has written is true. Joh. You should borrow my pants. People will soon tire of them when they see that they are as the newspa-

25

30

35

378

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

5

348 10

•

P a p e r 347–349 1846 •

81

per described them―yours are far more interesting. I benefit and entertain my fellow human beings, for every day about 50 people look at my pants as they go by, and silently, internally, they feel better, and they thank God that they are not like me, or more precisely that their pants are not like mine. Can one thank God for such things? Yes, why not, if public opinion can take an interest in such things.

An attempt to transform Cph. into a market town. When small town gossip is to appear in print, that is what it is. Analogies between the circulation of air, so as to have fresh air, and the necessary provision of fresh water in order to bathe.

15

349:1

20

25

Just as it is wrong for a hum. being not to fear what he should fear―God and honor, and those with gray hair So, too, it is wrong to fear what one should not fear, people’s chatter and despicableness and boyish mischief.

Armed Neutrality Perhaps I might with a word shed light on the confusion and give my response. It is certainly a mistaken interpretation of the matter if Hr. N. N. assumes that I have published that entire big book to provide him with the occasion for a few columns printed in order to put forth a wholly unnecessary proof of―his having misunderstood it.

[a]

what is found on Grundtvig, in the folder: Writing Sampler.

1

82 1

5

10

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

20

It is all very well with learned apparatus, but the main thing is the dialectic. People tell the story of a Frenchman, who with national pride showed an Englishman his [detachable] cuffs, as something that only a Frenchman could invent. The Englishman responded: Yes, the invention is yours, but the English have improved upon it by adding the shirt. And the dialectic is to him, the existing person, the shirt; the learned apparatus is the [detachable] cuffs. Dialectically, it has incidentally another side; instead of being impressed that the one swimmer had brought food with him, the other should have recognized that he had the advantage, as the first would be encumbered in his swimming.

[a]

25

A joint-stock company that speculates in hunting seals thus has as its business the hunting of seals, and the yield is the seal blubber that is evenly divided as dividends.

[b]

30

P a p e r 349 1846 •

[a]

b

15

•

Those graduates who cannot write content themselves with being almost-geniuses-by-virtue-ofthe-living-word in lesser circles of old maids and asylum children.

379

Most esteemed gentleman! Your learned apparatus is gigantic. You know the story of the two swimmers who wanted to test their strength against each other, that when they met at the beach, one carried a box under his arm; the other asked what was in it, and the first answered: Food, which I am accustomed to take with me because I swim for several days. At this, the other became so frightened that he capitulated. In the same way, I could almost be tempted to surrender at the sight of all the food, if I dare say it, that you have brought with you. For a dialectician is of course precisely like a swimmer.b

349:2

There is a paper here known as Kirke-Tidende. Just as all other distinctions are gradually disappearing in our day, so, too, is the distinction between what is printed and what is chatted about. In a way, it is a newspaper, but I would rather call it a shareholders’ report. These shareholders speculate on Grundtvig, as indeed, in our time, people speculate on so many things. The speculation is to set an enormous price on Grundtvig as a matchless Ur-genius and afterward maintain a close and tender relation to his skirts so as to secure a certain annual dividend, which consists in being almost-a-genius. There are some theological graduates who become productive upon coming into contact with the Grundtvigian idea-igniter. It goes without saying that this usually results in at most one or two columns in Kirketidende, though the production does not exactly prove to be legitimate. With regard to productivity, they (these graduates) could best be compared with strike-anywhere matchsticks. Take such a graduate―if he has been in contact with Grundtvig―by the legs, turn him just like a matchstick, and strike him against the pages of the Kirketidende. This will yield one, two, at most three columns. Then he’s finished for that round, until a fresh immersion makes a new strike possible.

349:3

5

10

20

25

30

35

40

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

•

P a p e r 349 1846

Siegfried Ley Everything That Can Be Done with Addresses. 380 5

349:4 10

15

20

25

349:5

30

I should add that, if each individual would simply answer for himself, I would happily involve myself with him, but when they want to be 12, I only want to laugh at them, and if they become 24, I will do my best to make them even more ridiculous.

Grundtvig in particular must be viewed as dangerous; because of the various sorts of qualities he unites in his life, he will be able to kill me in at least four different ways. First, in an oriental or, more narrowly defined, Jewish style, he will as “High Priest and Prophet” command the earth to open up and swallow me. Next, in apostolic style, as “Apostle,” he will deliver me over to Satanas, and the devil will take me. Further, as Hero and Bard, in old Nordic style, he will kill me with Thor’s hammer. Finally, he will by virtue of being “matchless” totally annihilate me with the living word. And lastly, as theologian, he will be in a position to turn me into a withered branch, as he did with the entire Greek Church when it became clear that it would not fit his theory. So I will have to wilt, and everyone who did not know me beforehand will be able to vouch for its having happened simply by looking at me, for I am not among the stout.

If a man who was tired of life went out to end his days, and on the way a tile fell from the roof and killed him, he would of course view this as a piece of rare good fortune. And it is the same for me, as an author: Now that I am tired of it, Grundtvig comes along most conveniently and kills me. Johannes Climacus.

•

83

PAPER 350—PAPER 363 Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death

Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

86

Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death

•

P a p e r 350–354 1846–1847 •

383

Eulogy at a graveside: the decisiveness of Death (Wedding: the promise of love for the life that is and for the life that is to come).

Eulogy Business made him rich; Good deeds, unforgettable.

Eulogy for a Girl Who Is Engaged. . . . Yes, the deceased is well off; and here one can say this with genuine emphasis, and in this way characterize the sorrow still more deeply. What more can a deceased person wish than to be preserved in the memory of one living, and so it is here: he who stands closest to the grave will never forget her . . . The deceased has peace in the grave and has her one wish fulfilled: to be remembered; the survivor has unrest in life and has had to give up his one wish: to live with her . . .

A eulogy?―The pattern of the weaving is to be Poul Møller.

350

351 5

352

10

15

353

20

The recollection of the dead is a blessing. It is a blessing upon him from the survivors. And in turn this gratitude becomes a blessing for them.

354

Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death 355

•

P a p e r 355–359 1846–1847 •

87

He did not go away, he was away. Text for a funeral service.

356

At the grave of a suicide.

384

357 5

10

The Thought of Death 3 Discourses (1) Death understood as deception. (2) Death as assured consummation. (3) Death as the final honor. (4) Death’s consolation. (the consolation in the fact that death exists) (5) Death’s hope. (6) Death’s victory.

358

Death’s deception, if we hope only for this life.

359

Death’s consummation.

15

that now a person dares say she is victorious; now there is no longer any danger. An unhappy lover, she remained faithful.

[a]

See Journal JJ p. 296

1

88

Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death

•

P a p e r 360–363 1847 •

Discourse on Death. Introduction: The final honor―even the lowly person, for whom there otherwise is never any talk of honor, is nonetheless shown the final honor.―(Here the theme from 1 Thess. 4:11: to make it a point of honor to live quietly.)

The Final Honor

360

5

361

Eulogy.

A figure in the foreground could be used to establish the contrast, e.g., a man like stage actor Ryge―therefore the final honor as precisely the one that abolishes all differences.

10

385

It occurs to me that, on another piece of paper in the big rectangular box, there may be a bit more on this subject, but I am not certain. Jan 20th 47.

The Consolation of Death.

362 15

363

PAPER 364— PAPER 371 “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication”

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

90

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 364 1847 •

389

364

The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication A Little Draft. As far as I remember, this is from 1847―at any rate, it is not after the publication of Christian Discourses, which was from spring 48.

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 364 1847 •

Paper 364, paper cover wrapped around the lectures on “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication.”

91

92

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

390

The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication.

Introduction. If one were supposed to characterize the waywardness and confusion of modern science, or rather that of the modern age, all concentrated in a single word―particularly now that we have forsaken Kant’s honest path and paid the famous 100 rix-dollars too in order to become theocentric―then one would have to say: it is dishonest. Dishonesty―Lack of Naïveté ―

365:1

365:2

5

10

365:3

More precisely that science has become fantastic (pure knowledge) and, moreover, is always learned—the laughable combinations: in the same book, to treat both pure thinking sub specie aeterni and a privatdocent’s little treatise.

1

5

10

15

[a]

People have fantastically removed all powers from the hum. world, and have gained the bookworld (one becomes an author solely and exclusively by being a reader, instead of through primitiv[it]y, much as one nowadays becomes a hum. being solely and exclusively by aping “the others,” instead of through primitivity―) fantastic abstractions, the audience; the moment one writes, he is no longer a single hum. being to himself, nor is the reader that to him, either.

More precisely

365:4

that we have forgotten what it is to be hum. The Greeks―how they remembered it humanly―and as opposed to the god―no Sophist, not even the most pretentious, was theocentric―as we now are as a matter of habit, to such a degree that no one objects to it.

14 sub specie aeterni] Latin, from an eternal point of view.

20

The Dialectic of Communication 365:5

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

93

that we have forgotten the distinction betw. art and science. Everything has become scientific scholarship, and we understand art only aesthetically, as fine art.

392 5

But there is a whole aspect of what art is that scientific scholarship has taken over, or wants to take over: this is the ethical. The ethical relates to knowledge indifferently, that is: it assumes that every hum. being knows it.

10

15

20

25

30

What is confusing when what is to be communicated as scientific scholarship is communicated as art (scholasticism is an example), but also when what is to be communicated as art is communicated as scientific scholarship―and here is the confusion in the modern age: that we communicate the ethical as scientific scholarship. Let me illustrate with an example. The military presumes that every farm boy who enters military service is in possession of the traits needed to endure it. This is, of course, why he is first inspected, so that no difficulties arise in this respect (similarly, the ethical presumes that every hum. being knows what the ethical is). Now the communication begins. The corporal does not explain to the soldier what it is to drill, etc.; he communicates this to him as an art; he teaches him to use, in a military fashion, the skills and potential proficiency that he already possesses. So, too, must the ethical be communicated. If one is to begin by trying to impart the ethical to the individual by means of a course of instruction, then the commun[ic]ation never becomes ethical, and the relationship is confused from the start.

[a]

see p. 11

1

94 1

5

10

[b]

The Dialectic of Communication

One can perhaps drum science into a hum. being, but one must drum the ethical out of them, just as the corporal, too, precisely because he saw the soldier in the farm boy, needed to say: I shall certainly drum the soldier out of him; whereas when it comes to the communication of the little field manual (what an army is, what guard duty is, etc.), the corporal would perhaps say: yes, that will have to be drummed into them.

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

Here communication means to lure the ethical out of the individual, because it is within the individual. The corporal essentially begins by regarding the farm boy as a soldier, because that is what he is ϰατα δυναμιν. To the corporal (disregarding all of the inequality owing to the military’s hierarchy of subordination) there corresponds an existing ethicist who becomes conscious of himself and, in reflection, turns bac[k] within himself to be what he teaches, and presupposes that every hum. being is that ϰατα δυναμιν. Understood ethically, the entire modern science of the ethical is a diversion.

Ethics has generally been neglected in modern science―but what is especially missing there, in every way, is an existing ethicist. And this has led to the fact that, finally, we have entirely forgotten what seriousness [is]; in all seriousness, we regard what leads to self-knowledge, what tears one away from one’s hallucinations, etc., as mere pranks; whereas every communication of knowledge is regarded as seriousness―and yet every new communication of knowledge merely feeds the sickness. In a certain sense, there is something horrifying in the thought of the whole mass of printers, booksellers, journalists, authors―all of them working day and night in the service of this confusion because hum. beings do not want to become sober and understand that, in order to become truly human, what is needed is comparatively very little knowledge, but all the more self-knowledge.

Communicator―Receiver The Object.

5

10

393

15

20

25

365:6 30

As soon as I think of communication, I immediately divide it into these 3 categories. A few gen. observations about this (that “receiver” is an active word, that we have no passive word).

5 ϰατα δυναμιν] Greek, properly, κατὰ δύναμιν, “according to [his/her/its] potential.” (See also explanatory note.)

35

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

95

(ordinrly there is a teacher―pupil― object of teaching.) by transforming these 3 relations dialectically, [I] will attempt to find the ethical.

365:7

394

15

20

25

30

35

The Object. The object must be a knowledge. all knowledge is either knowledge of something (to be completed―reference to the Greeks―and to the moderns―all the way from the empirical to the highest sciences) (even the so-called knowledge of knowledge is knowledge about something). or self-knowledge (not, fantastically, the pure self-consciousness and the pure I.). Let us assume that a hum. being has driven this to the highest level of self-knowledge; thus, he will know completely who and what he is; but of course he is what he is anyway.―What is ironic and what is serious in this. We are all immortal, and even if one becomes completely immersed in this thought, lives in it, he does not thereby become any more immortal than we all are. Already in self-knowledge, difficulties appear with respect to the dialectic of communication. Let us now perform an experiment and assume that there is an object or a knowledge that had the property that everyone knew it― what would this imply for the dialectical element in communication? It would imply: 1) that the object drops out, for if everyone knows it, then the one hum. being cannot communicate it to another; 2) and, that the concept of communicator drops out; and 3) receiver. The only communicator remaining will be the one who had given all hum. beings this knowledge, and inasmuch as everyone is a receiver, the concept of receiver is abolished. In this way, the dialectic of communication is now essentially changed. But is what we are speaking of here in fact the ethical? Indeed, what is the ethical?―True enough, if I ask in this manner, then I am asking about the ethical un-ethically, then I am asking in the same way as the entire confusion of the modern age asks the question; and then I cannot put a stop to it. The ethical

96

1

The Dialectic of Communication

Prometheus, who gave the ethical to all hum. beings equally.

[a]

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

presupposes that every hum. being knows what the ethical is, and why? Because the ethical indeed requires that every hum. being is to realize the ethical at every moment, but then he must of course know it. The ethical does not begin with ignorance that must be transformed into knowledge, but begins with a knowledge and requires a realization. What matters here is to be unconditionally consistent: one single uncertainty in the attitude―then the modern confusion has caught us. If someone were to say: But of course I must first know what the ethical is. How plausible―particularly given how we are accustomed to debate from childhood. But the ethical would reply, entirely consistently: You scoundrel, you want to create diversions, you are seeking a way out. If someone were to say: But of course there are entirely different concepts of the ethical in different countries and in different ages. How is this doubt to be brought to a halt? As a matter of scientific scholarship, it will fill large volumes and still not be stopped; but the ethical takes hold of the doubter, takes hold of him with ethical consistency, and says: what does this have to do with you? You shall do the ethical at every moment and are ethically responsible for every moment you waste.

5

10

15

20

395

So it is with the ethical. Every hum. being knows the ethical. How, then, is the dialectic of communication changed[?] 1) The object drops out; for if all know it, then there is no object to communicate―wanting to make an attempt to communicate the ethical in this way is precisely un-ethical. 2) The communicator drops out―for if everyone knows it, then of course the one cannot communicate it to the other. 3) The receiver drops out―for if the communicator drops out, so does the receiver. There comes to be only one communicator: God.

365:8

25

30

The Dialectic of Communication 365:9

5

365:10

365:11

396

365:12

20

25

30

P a p e r 365 1847 •

97

Now we have thought through the dialectic of communication as knowledge, and have seen that it is abolished. There now follows a new concept of communication. The difference betw. communicating something as art and communicating as science.

The ethical must be communicated as art, simply because everyone knows it. The corporal and the farm boy.

10

•

The object of communication is thus not a knowing but a realization.

With regard to a commun[ic]ation of an art, it is either the proficiency that makes the teacher or, in addition, the authority.

With regard to [the] ethical, one hum. being cannot in fact have authority in relation to another because, ethically, God is the teach[er], and every hum. being is an apprentice. If one would say to hum. beings: You should perform the ethical, then it is as if, at the same moment, one heard God saying to that important man: Rubbish, my friend―you are the one who must do it. With regard to the ethical, ability cannot constitute the master teacher either. For in a hum. art, a hum. being can become proficient to an extent that it is worth talking about; but ethically, every hum. being relates as an apprentice to God, who is the master teacher, and each is always charged with the task of his own development. If, nonetheless, there is to be talk of the ethical― of instruction in it as in an art―then one additional component must be added to the dialectic of

[a]

1

see pp. 2, 3, 4, 5.

[a]

An example of the misunderstanding by which a lesson in being-able is regarded as a lesson in knowing. A sergeant in the citizens’ corps says to a recruit: “You, there, stand up straight”; R: “Yes, I certainly will”; S: “Yes, and you mustn’t talk during drill”; R: “Oh, may I not do that[?] Fine―just tell me”; S: “By the Devil, don’t talk during drill”; R: “All right, all right, don’t get all upset, if I know I may not do it, I’ll certainly stop talking during drill.[”]

[a]

as with the castellan Petro: Get out―get out―ah, he himself is the one who is to get out.

5

10

15

98

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

communication, and then everything is back in its proper place.

The Indirect Communication The Double-Reflection 1

5

10

[a]

Socrates said that he could not give birth, but could only be a midwife. That is, every hum. being has the ethical, and one cannot give birth again to one who has been born (here is the Christian element: rebirth―which is not the relation between hum. being and hum. being, but between God and hum. being, a new creation).

The Maieutic.

The Indirect Communication.

5

365:13

(The object is, as has been shown, not a knowledge but an art, a realization). At every point, the communicator dares act only indirectly, 1) because, after all, he is to express that he is not himself a master, but an apprentice, whereas God is his and everyone’s master teacher; 2) because, after all, he is to express that the receiver already knows this. 3) because ethically, the task is simply that every hum. being comes to stand alone in the God-relation. The receiver, then, can never become an apprentice, for he already knows it; nor an adherent either, for ethically that would be an abomination.

10

15

397

20

Double-Reflection. Because ethically there is no straightforward relationship, all communication must go through a double reflection; the first is the one in which it is communicated, and the second is the one in which it is taken back. Docendo discimus, a gymnastics teacher exercises himself by teaching others; but that does not apply here. For in gymnastics, or in Latin or Greek, one cannot in fact say that God is the true instructor; but 27 Docendo discimus] Latin, we learn while teaching. (See also explanatory note.)

365:14

25

30

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

99

in the ethical, God is the sole teacher, and accordingly even the so-called teacher shall himself practice what he teaches.

365:15 5

365:16

15

365:17 20

398

365:18

The Maieutic. All indirect communication differs from the direct sort in that the indirect sort has a deception as its starting point, precisely because wanting to communicate the ethical straightforwardly would be to deceive.

Irony―the highest seriousness.―Seriousness is that I, as an individual, relate to God, and so it is with every hum. being.―We stupidly believe that it is seriousness to have many devotees who are willing to die for me, if it came to that.―Stupidity―Seriousness is to help a hum. being to relate to God as an individual. Yet that must be done indirectly, after all, for otherwise the person who has been helped has me as a hindrance.

The maieutic art―the deception’s dialectical consequences―the moral character that is needed in order to be a maieutic―ataraxia―the true heroism―the true humanity―that hum. beings are entirely ignorant of it.

The more precise dialectical determination of all communication in terms of the medium in which the communication occurs.

[a] this deception means that the communicator, first and foremost, does not look like a serious man. (there is actually nothing hum. beings are more eager to do than to ape others― One can never ape an ironist, for he is precisely a Proteus who continually alters the deception.

1

5

100 1

5

10

15

20

[a]

All communication of knowledge is in the medium of imagination; art communication less so, insofar as it is executive. But communication in the ethical can be given only in actuality, such that the communicator or teacher exists in it himself and in the situation of actuality, that he himself is, and, in the situation of actuality is, what he teaches. If someone teaches ataraxia―from a lectern, then that is not ethically true. No, the situation must be such that he himself exhibits ataraxia at the same time―e.g., if someone teaches ataraxia while surrounded by a flock of hum. beings who are insulting him. The situation of actuality rlly belongs here.

[a]

25

The Dialectic of Communication

The vertiginous and unethical in being so busy with communicating that one forgets to be oneself what one is teaching. God is not at a loss. Thus confusion arises from regarding existence in an imaginary light.

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

The Medium of Imagination.

365:19

The deceptive element in teaching young people in the medium of imagination, when everything looks the opposite in the medium of actuality.

The Medium of Actuality. recognizable from the fact that the communicator himself is, and is continually trying to be, what he is communicating.

5

To what extent is it permitted to win over hum. beings (instead of repelling them from oneself in order to win them over for the truth.[)] But the repulsion must have an energetic expression in the action (the qualitative dialectic).

365:20

To what extent must the receiver first be cleansed― The negative element in the maieutic. After all, to communicate can mean to fool out of, a kind of communication that is very dangerous for the communicator; for Socrates indeed says that the hum. beings could become so furious at him that they would gladly have bitten him―when he fooled them out of one or another stupidity.

365:21

The dialectical in the fact that the communicator must work against himself.

365:22

The dialectical in the fact that the communicator must have eyes in the back of his head―with respect to the communication’s actual appropriation.

365:23

10

15

20

25

The Dialectic of Communication 399

The pathos-laden and the dialectical transition.

365:24

First Lecture.

366:1

the dishonesty of the modern age. (Dishonesty― Self-deception―Bewilderment). Lack of Naïveté (the naive and the acquired. It is not maturity to have ceased being naive, or never to have been so. Naïveté must be preserved. E.g., to distinguish between what one understands and what one does not understand―the dominance of the generation. A generation is an abstract concretion, and can never be naive).

5

10

Lack of primitivity (the primitive and the traditional, das Herkomliche.[)] c

literarily 15

20



socially

as viewed by the age when there was only one learned language―the vernacular languages―the periodicals―all media have become sciences. the increase of culture―growing neces- sities―life in the large cities.



•

P a p e r 365–366 1847 •

101

[a]

Every human being shall be naive.―Naïveté is redemptive from fantastic illusions, but also from the spiritlessness of acquired knowledge.

5

[b]

nowadays one becomes an author by reading―not by one’s primitivity; just as one becomes a hum. being by aping the others―not by one’s primitiv[it]y; one does not know that one is a hum. being on one’s own efforts, but by means of a conclusion drawn from the fact that one is like the others. God knows whether any one of us is [human]? And in our age, which has otherwise doubted everything, it occurs to no one to ask this question doubtingly; but God knows whether any of us rlly is a hum. being.

10

15

20

c

An authentic primitive genius is the true general inspector. every primitive existence also contains a review of what is universally human. And every existence should have something of this reviewing element. To lack this reviewing element entirely, and simply to accept everything as customary, along with the idea that what is customary is enough for me: is dishonesty.

25

30

[d]

The tyranny of the daily press, the journals, the brochures; what is written is for “the crowd,” who understand nothing, and by those who understand how to write―for the crowd. [e]

one lives in the moment and, at the most, with the next moment as a perspective. One cannot get any distance.

13 das Herkomliche] German, properly “das Herkömmliche,” “what is conventional” or “what is customary”; related to Herkunft, meaning “heritage, ancestry, or origin.”

1

35

40

102 1

5

The Dialectic of Communication

particularly now that we have forsaken Kant’s honest path and paid, if I dare say it, the famous 100 rix-dollars too in order to become theocentric.

10

15

20

25

30

35

If one who wished to speak had a megaphone so powerful that it could be heard all across the land, he would soon develop the impression that he was not a single hum. being (but something much more, e.g., the voice of the age, etc., an abstraction), and that he was speaking not to one individual or several individual hum. beings, but to the entire world (the race, etc., an abstraction)[.] So it was with the invention of the art of printing, and especially with its further extension. Communication takes place, as it were, through a dreadful megaphone, ergo―yes, even if it were the least significant thing, the height of stupidity, even the mere shouting of “Bless you,” the communicator becomes important to himself and has a fantastic notion of who he is talking to. And now, anonymity. (The persona of antiquity―per sonare― to intensify the voice of the single individual, while it nonetheless remains the single individual’s voice―but anonymity and then the press. What madness![)]

Insane combinations of this: to treat in the same book pure thinking sub specie aeterni and, right afterward, to express regrets that one did not manage to take account of a privatdocent’s little treatise in a newspaper.

We have forgotten what it is to be a human being. The Greeks.―it echoes in their poetry, their philosophy―the mournful―the humane―the God-fearing element in it―Even the most pretentious Sophist was not theocentric, which all of us are now without it even occurring to us―what would a Greek think of our age. Everywhere, instead of human beings, fantastic abstractions. The book-world―the public―as soon as one writes, he is no longer an individual hum. being to himself, nor does he imagine a reader who is an individual hum. being―here the means of communication are at fault, it is far too grandiose.

400

5

366:2 10

15

20

Everything has become objective. The physiologists have observed that the modern hum. being is an abnormal, inhuman development of stomach and brain―thus, too, there is an abnormality in this becoming objective without a corresponding becoming subjective; and this is the source of all the phenomena of spirit that correspond to abdominal complaints that end in apoplexy.

31 persona] Latin, literally, “mask”; figuratively, “character, role, personage.” 31 per sonare] Latin, “to hear through.”

•

imaginary or fantastic (the pure knowing) and confusingly learned (the apparatus).

the historicizing method.

[a]

P a p e r 366 1847

Modern philosophical science has become

[f]

[g]

•

25

30

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 366 1847

Paper 366:1, with addition on adjoining page.

•

103

104

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 366 1847 •

402

The authentic commun[ic]ation and instruction with regard to the ethical and the ethical-religious is upbringing. Through upbringing one becomes what he is essentially considered to be (a horse, when it is brought up, and the teacher knows what he is doing, becomes precisely a horse). Upbringing begins by regarding the one to be brought up as being ϰατα δυναμιν what he shall become, and by focusing on him with this in mind, he [the teacher] brings this out of him. He brings it up,―thus it is there―(to loveup the plant, to bring-up the child). Accordingly, the rule of the method in upbringing is therefore that the one being brought up does the best he can at every moment. Here confusion appears when an upbringer, instead of upbringing, teaches―as if it were knowledge. The Sophistic element then becomes: what’s the good of my doing this now, when I’m doing it so poorly; I must first get to know much more, etc.; but this is nothing but escapism and heresy. The rule is: to do the best one can at every moment, and then to do the best one can again in the next moment, and so on and so forth, in order to continue getting to know it better and better. By contrast, when upbringing is communicated as a knowledge, then one never acquires an upbringing, but always merely gets something to know.

366:3

5

10

15

20

verte. The difference betw. upbringing in regard to the ethical and the ethical-religious is simply that the ethical, without further ado, is the universally hum., while the religious (Christian) upbringing must first communicate a knowledge. Ethically, a hum. being as such is knowledgeable about the ethical, but the hum. being as such is not knowledgeable about the religious in the Christian sense; here there must first be communication of a little knowledge―but then the same relation commences as in the ethical. The instruction, the communication, must not be as of a knowledge, but upbringing, training, art instruction. Here lies my accomplishment by means of the pseudonyms: to have discovered the maieutic withi[n] Xnty. Previously, one gave instruction, from generation to generation, in Christianity as with a knowledge (the first course), and then the second course―once again as with a knowledge.

22 verte] Latin, “Turn!”―i.e., turn the page.

25

30

35

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 366 1847

In addition: to have situated I’s into the middle of life. For what is wholly lacking in our age is that a person says: “I.” To be sure, these I’s are merely poetic I’s; but that is always something, at least.

403

366:4

10

15

366:5 20

25

30

35

I feel the difficulties myself only all too well. We are not dealing with an error that can be cleared up with a wave of the hand, and then it is gone. We are dealing with an error that has ingrained itself from generation to generation: a waywardness in which we are brought up, with which we have merged ourselves entirely, and by virtue of which our entire expression in language is formed. Here the very opposite will be the case: that after having understood the deviation because it has been lectured upon, at that very moment one returns to oneself, one no longer understands it, because everything, everything, from the greatest to the smallest, calls to mind the error and imposes it upon one―and nothing of the truth. (just as if the earth is in motion and the sun stands still.) I know this myself, from my own experience, despite the fact that I have long occupied myself with it.

To stand―alone with the help of another and To stand alone―with the help of another The latter is the maieutic relation, which is why the ironic element is also in the formula; whereas the former is a straightforward relation and a straightforward utterance. Accordingly, there is thus no reason to use the dash in the former case, as it all belongs together. But to stand alone― with another’s help: that is a formula for irony. The first utterance expresses one thing, and what comes after the dash ironically interposes the opposite as the explanation. To stand alone is not, after all, to stand with the help of another, but the aid of the maieutic is concealed, and hence the ironic: [“]to stand alone―with the help of another.[”] But if he is to stand alone―with another’s help, then he must not have any notion of this “other” as advantageous; for otherwise, that advantageous notion would become an impediment to him in standing alone.

•

105

106

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 367 1847 •

404

As soon as I think of communicating, I think of something fourfold: 1) the object 2) the communicator 3) the receiver 4) the communication.

367

1st Distinction. When “the object” is reflected upon “object” Communication of knowing

no “object” Communication of being-able. In regard to communication of being-a[ble], it is the case that there is no object. What this means. But the fact that there is no object shows that there is reflection, and hence also the distinction pointing in the direction of “object,” that is, negatively in the direction of “object,” or away from “object” Subdivision of Being-Able Aesthetic Being-Able Ethical Being-Able, or BeingSupposed-to-Be-Able (where there is unconditionally no object ) Religious Being-Able, or BeingSupposed-to-Be-Able (where there is an object to the same extent that, in the first instance, there is a communication of knowledge).

5

10

15

20

25

2nd Distinction.

30

NB This second and third distinction do not rlly exist in regard to the communication of knowledge, which, being objective, reflects only on “the object,” and therefore also tends toward the impersonal. On the whole, wherever the communication, the communicator, and the receiver are reflected on, there is also―in one way or another―a communication of being-able, and here there is a tendency toward personality.

35

The Dialectic of Communication 405

•

P a p e r 367 1847 •

107

When “the communication” is reflected upon

A “The communication” in the sense of “the medium” 5

10

The medium of fantasy or The medium of actuality imagination The communication of All comm[unication] of being-able is in the mediknowledge is in um of actuality aesthetic the medium of fantasy being-able not uncondior imagination. tional, ethical being-able (possibility). unconditional religious being-able not unconditional, insofar as here there is a communication of knowledge.

15

B If “the communication” is reflected on

20

25

30

35

Direct communication All communication of knowing is direct communication.

All communication of being-able is indirect communication. 1) Comm[unication] of aesthetic being-able is direct comm[unication], but comm[unication] of direct being-able, hence indirect comm[unication]. 2) Comm[unication] of ethical being-able is unconditionally indirect comm[unication]. 3) comm[unication] of religious being-able is direct comm[unication] insofar as there is a comm[unication] of knowledge at first; but essentially indirect comm[unication].

108

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 367 1847 •

3rd Distinction

406

When (in the course of reflection upon the communication, within the definition of communication of being-able) there is reflection upon communicator receiver 5 A. When communicator and receiver are reflected upon equally: communication of aesthetic being-able B If the receiver is chiefly reflected on: 10 communication of ethical being-able (Maieutics. The communicator disappears in a sense, steps aside.) C If the communicator is chiefly reflected on: 15 communication of religious being-able (W[ith] r[espect] t[o] the communication of knowledge, which comes first, the communicator has authority.)

The Dialectic of Communication

Paper 367.

•

P a p e r 367 1847 •

109

The Dialectic of Communication

110

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

408 1

5

1st Part

[a]

Here a sense, a sensibility is presupposed in the receiver, a receptivity; but the emphasis falls mainly not on what he has, but on what he receives: the object. Mathematics relates, e.g., to imagination or fantasyintuition Historical knowing to memory. Philosophical knowing.

Direct communication Communication of knowledge. that “the object” is reflected on This is shown from the lowest empirical knowledge to the highest. It is always “the object” that is reflected on. “Communicator,” “receiver,” “communication” recede completely. (The objective).

[a]

2nd Part

[b]

The communication of being-able. Indirect communication.

Here “the teacher” has capability, virtuosity.

10

15

(This is a problem that can be found intimated on a piece of cardboard lying in the chest of drawers where the older papers are.) On the difference between a dialectical and a pathos-laden transition (the leap). in the communication of knowledge there is only a dialectical transition (in this lies the truth of immanent necessity); in being-able, especially in ethical and religious being-able, the transition is pathos-laden. (In this way, faith is the pathos-laden transition.)

368:1

5

10

368:2

15

What does it mean that there is no “object”[?]

[c]

20

The rule for the communication of being-able is: to begin doing it immediately. If the learner says: [“]I cannot,[”] then the teacher replies: [“]Nonsense―you do it as well as you can.[”] That is how the instruction begins. Its endpoint is: to be able. But it is not knowledge that is communicated.

[a]

Here “the teacher” has capability, virtuosity.

25

[b]

Physical capability (military exercise, dancing, etc.) physical-mental capability, e.g., doing calculations. the higher arts. e.g. acting.

Chapter I

368:3

The communication of being-able in a more ordinary sense. aesthetic being-able.

20

The Dialectic of Communication 409

368:4 5

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

111

Indirect communication as a confinium of direct communication.

Chapter II

[a]

Here “the teacher” has seriousness.

1

Ethical communication. (in the strictest sense indirect communication).

ethical being-able or beingsupposed-to-be-able. 10

In which sense there is―even more precisely―no “object.”c

[b]

For the emphasis must absolutely fall on “You shall,” there can be no communication of knowing at all here; for if there is something I need to know first, then this “shall” is not the first thing, not absolute.

Perhaps one can drum science into a hum. being; but already in regard to aesthetic being-able (precisely because there is no object), and even more so in regard to the ethical (precisely because here, in the strictest sense, there is no object), one must drum it out of him. The corporal sees the soldier ϰατα δυναμιν in the farm boy, and therefore says: I will manage to drum the soldier out of him. By contrast, the soldier is studying a little book called the field manual; when it comes to instruction in that, the corporal might well say: I will manage to drum it into him.

5

c

368:5

15

§1. On “Situation” and a situation’s essential connection to ethical communication.

2 confinium] Latin, “border region.”

10

15

[a]

Instruction in aesthetic being-able is communication of capability in ethical being-able is essential upbringing. The anc. Greek on the extent to which virtue can be taught; here, perhaps, a couple of Plato’s dialogues could be reviewed.

20

112

1

5

10

The Dialectic of Communication

[b]

After all, already in relation to the communication of aesthetic being-able, the teacher and the learner indeed form a situation. In relation to the communication of knowledge, where everything is objective, there is no situation. [a]

aesthetic being-able is not in the medium of actuality in the strictest sense, inasmuch as this being-able does not need to be realized in the existential [setting] of the everyday itself.

The confusion that arises from communicating the ethical in the fantasy-medium. (The rhetorical).

[a]

15

20

25

30

35

40

“Actuality” is the existential reduplication of what is said. To teach in actuality that the truth is ridiculed, etc., is to teach it while being mocked and ridiculed yourself. To teach poverty in actuality is to teach it when you are poor yourself (profiteri―in the sense of professing a science, an art, and profiting from it). Accordingly, all instruction ends in a sort of silence; for if I express it existentially, my speech does not need to be audible. Here, however, we see the relation of the truth to actuality. Suppose that a lecturer has 1000 followers; if he wants to make the same [lesson] into actuality, he may well end up with not getting a single one; they would regard it as “exaggeration.” With regard to “actuality,” nearly all hum. beings have a kind of fear of water. They would prefer that the teacher relate to them like a swimming teacher, who shows them swimming strokes during a safe and “quiet hour” in a dry room. But when he says: [“]Now let’s jump in,[”] they say: [“]No, thanks.[”]

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

§ 2. On “the Medium”

The medium of imagination or fantasy―medium of actuality. All communication of knowledge is in the medium of imagination or fantasy. Of being-able in actuality’s [medium], though aesthetic being-able not in the strictest sense, but ethical being-able in the strictest sense.

§3. On the situation of “actuality” as essential, as the real conditio sine qua non for ethical communication. That the ethical cannot be taught by lecturing, for to lecture about it is to communicate it unethically.

[b]

Another part of “reaching actuality” is what both antiquity and the original Xnty conceived and carried out: to exist for the multitude; to live and teach on the street. Luther says, quite rightly, that preaching should not rlly take place in churches, but on the street. The whole modern concept of a priest as a preacher in a church is nothing but a hallucination, rlly a poet-relationship: the existential is represented at most with a guarantee “that if it were required―then . . .” Only when the ethical and the Christian are again made into actuality in this way (and every other communication is unethical, that is, unethical communication of the ethical) does what I am talking about continually, the double danger, also emerge. 15 profiteri] Latin–Danish, to declare oneself knowledgeable of something, or to declare something (e.g., one’s faith) publicly.

368:6

14 conditio sine qua non] Latin, “indispensable condition.”

410 5

10

368:7

15

20

The Dialectic of Communication 411

368:8

§ 4. On “the Reduplication” Does one have the right to “win” hum. beings[?]

368:9

§ 5. On Double-Reflection.

368:10

§6 On “the Deception.”

368:11 10

§ 7. On Maieutics.

§ 8. 368:12

15

On indirect communication, to what extent is a hum. being entitled to use it, whether there is not something demonic in it. On this there is a great deal in the journals from last summer.

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

113

[a]

Much more is meant by the reduplication than what holds of all instruction: docendo discimus.

1

[a]

The “serious” communicator precisely must not appear serious. To appear serious is straightforward seriousness, but it is not seriousness in the deepest sense. Seriousness is that the communicator is serious―and that the other becomes serious (and this is where the emphasis lies), though not, note well, by means of the immed. impression and by mimicking, but by oneself―and this is precisely why the communicator must not appear serious.

5

10

[a]

re §6. “On the Deception” To “deceive” belongs essentially to the essentially ethical-religious communication. “To deceive into the truth.” That it is a deception is also the expression for the reduplication in which the teacher and the learner are separated from one another in order to exist in it. The ethic[al] communication in character always begins by placing a “deception” in between, and its art consists in withstanding everything while remaining true to the deception’s character, and true to the ethical. But here, too, you will once again see the reduplication. For here in these lectures I do not rlly carry it out; I will show you in straightforward fashion how one carries oneself, but I am not in character; for then I would have to permit myself to relate to youa maieutically, but this I am not doing―in a sense, I am lecturing. a

using nothing but indirect forms.

15

20

25

Paper 369:4–10. Kierkegaard includes the right-hand page for marginal notes

116

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

414

Chapter III 1

[a]

Here the “teacher” has authority w[ith] r[espect] t[o] the element of knowledge that is communicated.

368:13

ethical-religious communication. (Direct-indirect communication) religious being-able or religious being-supposed-to-be-able

[b]

5

Insofar as the ethical could be said to have a knowledge within itself, it is “self-knowledge”; but this is knowledge in an inauthentic sense.

Here there is an element of knowledge, and to that extent an object. But it is simply an initial one. The communication, however, is not essentially a communication of knowledge but of being-able. That there is a moment of knowing applies specifically in regard to Christianity, for a knowledge of Christianity must, after all, be communicated in advance. But this is only something preliminary.

Appendix. [a]

10

15

20

A story is told of an army recruit who was supposed to learn to drill. The sergeant said to him: [“]You, see that you stand up straight.[”] R: [“]Will do.[”] S: “Right, and don’t talk during drill.[”] R: [“]Oh―is that not allowed?[”] S: [“]No, you may not talk during drill.[”] R: [“]All right, all right, as long as I know it.[”] Here the mistake lies with R., who continually wants to transform a communication of being-able into comm[unication] of knowledge. But in modernity the mistake is that we have taught the ethical and ethical-religious by lecturing, given people a knowledge about it. The priest says: the Xn seeks first God’s kingdom. Yes, that’s fine enough; but whether you and I are Xns, that you and I shall first seek God’s kingdom―that he does not discuss. Scientific scholarship says: It does not stop with faith, fair enough; but whether you and I are people of faith, that you and I shall be people of faith: there is no need to talk about that.

That the fundamental confusion of modernity is not merely to have forgotten that there is something called communication of being-able, but that it has meaninglessly transformed communication of being-able and being-supposed-to-be-able into communication of knowledge. The existential has vanished.

5

10

15

368:14

20

25

The Dialectic of Communication 415

369

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 369 1847 •

117

Introduction. If one were to characterize the confusion of modern philosophy, all concentrated in one single word― particularly since the day when, to recall a slogan, it forsook Kant’s “honest path,” and paid, if I dare say it, the famous 100 rix-dollars in order to become theocentric: then I know no better characterization than that it is dishonest. And if scientific scholarship is to be the eye of the generation, then what confusion must there not be in the generation if the eye is confused. But if one were to characterize the confusion of the modern age, then again I know no more characteristic word than: it is dishonest. Dishonesty! Yet I would immediately like to make it clear how this word should be understood and with what justification it can be used. By dishonesty one perhaps first thinks of deliberate deception. And in that sense one cannot rlly call the age dishonest; it is rather a question of whether the age is not confused to such an extent that deliberate deceptiona has rlly gone out of use. Shallow hum. beings, readers of novels, young girls of a certain age are in the habit of having a fantastic notion that in life such shady characters, hypocrites, Jesuits, seducers, etc., are found all around them. Most often, this notion is fantasy. An actual hypocrite is a very rare sight, particularly in these times, for an actual hypocrite is a pers. of character. On the other hand, a different kind of deception is flourishing, concerning which little is said―self-deception. Characterizing self-deception as dishonesty is surely entirely in order from a linguistic point of view. The hypocrite can very well provide himself an account of his dishonesty; but the self-deceived person is in a state of bewilderment, and because, without guilt, one is never in the bewilderment of self-deception with oneself or about oneself, it is entirely correct to use the word dishonesty in this connection. Let us imagine an individual who is what one might call scatterbrained, who has started on seventeen things but has carried none of them

a

―and the truth

1

118

1

5

[b]

The Dialectic of Communication

The naive and the traditional; the acquired. [c] in this way, naïveté already has a place, in order, at every stage of one’s life, to be able to make the Socratic distinction betw. what one understands and what one does not understand.

•

P a p e r 369 1847 •

through to completion; who knows a bit about everything possible, but does not know anything fully; who has decided upon a purpose for his life 17 times and changed it seventeen times, and by this continual bumbling―because, after all, he had also been talented originally, and had worked hectically and diligently on many occasions―he is driven to develop the ability to speak about everything possible, and most often in such a way that it was well worth hearing: in such an individual we thus have an example of the most wretched and terrible, and yet such an apparently innocent, indeed such a glittering, fraud. A life can have been begun under so many suppositions, and can immediately go on to combine them in such incalculable contortions that it is impossible to figure them out: such a life is also dishonesty. It is in this sense that we may speak of the dishonesty of the modern age; and therefore we can, for now, also substitute another, a more lenient expression for it: the modern age’s lack of naïveté. It is by in no way a sign of maturity that we have entirely stopped being naive; even less is a natural hum. existence one that has never been naive. A certain element of naïveté is part of a healthy and honest hum. existence, right up to the end. Yet perhaps someone might say: All right, but how is that supposed to apply to a whole generation[?] Antiquity was naive, but it is self-evident that the modern age cannot be. But here is precisely where we encounter the dishonesty of the modern age. Recent scientific scholarship has wanted to instruct us―and we have all learned only all too much from it―to abolish the category of individuality and establish the generation. This πρωτον ψευδος is what has brought into existence a disquiet―a rushing about―making unavoidable a terrifying bewilderment and, to that extent, the dishonesty as well. But what may now be the bitterest epigram for this dishonesty of the modern age is that it is precisely this age that has come up with the idea― adding even more fuel to the fire under the kettle of this confusion―of wanting to have the distinction 35 πρωτον ψευδος] Greek, properly πρῶτον ψεῦδος, “first falsehood,” i.e., the original mistake.

416 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

417

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

of beginning without any presuppositions. There is nothing more dangerous than when the thief pretends to be the police, nothing more dangerous than when a radical cure fails and ends up working on behalf of the sickness, nothing more dangerous than when one is mired in something and says: now I will make a desperate, ultimate effort to break free, and with that velocity becomes mired even more tightly. It is clear enough that, even before Hegel, the presuppositions had grown to be too much for hum. beings; but then, by means of that grandiose enterprise, to increase even more the confusion of the presuppositions: this is the most corrupting thing of all, both because the confusion increased and because people concealed this from themselves by imagining and by hallucinating that now, once and for all, one had overcome the bewilderment of the presuppositions. There is doubtless nothing more terrible than when what evokes everyone’s astonishment―a gigantic effort to stop the sickness― feeds the sickness: and Hegel’s enormous push to overcome the presuppositions was influenced precisely by the idea of the presuppositions themselves and was a quantitative elimination rather than a qualitative one. When it comes to the confusion of thought in self-reflection, ethics is the only salvation; and ethics was precisely what Hegel did not understand. But the sickness simply welcomes every other medicine, because they feed it. Rather than saying that the dishonesty of the modern age is a lack of naïveté, one could also say that it is a lack of primitivity―and this is the word that I would most like to dwell upon. If I were to imagine a hum. being who was brought up in such a way, and then lived in such a way, that he never received an impression of himself, but always lived in comparisons: that would be an example of dishonesty. And this is precisely how things are in the modern age. The history of the generation runs its course, that is true; but every single individual nonetheless should have his primitive impression of existence―in order to be a hum. being. And as with every hum. being, so also

•

P a p e r 369 1847 •

119

120

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 369 1847 •

with every thinker―in order to be a thinker. But the thinker who sacrifices his primitivity or aborts it, as one aborts a fetus, in order to be understood in a flash by his contemporaries, and in a flash to gain a bit of influence, and in a flash to hop aboard the generation’s train, which is departing right this moment: he is worse than the girl who sacrifices her virtue for base profit, and he actually sins against God, and he is just as repulsive and just as much of an inhum. as the mother who aborts the fetus. Look, if this is how things are, then the watchword is given, then the dishonesty is unleashed; the confusion grows with every second. Since Hegel it has become especially frightful, because he discovered the historicizing method that abolished all primitivity entirely, and rlly just makes arrangements. What rushing about, what confusion, as in an earthquake. Young people, almost children, are aware of how deceptive everything is, and what nothingness it is to be a hum. being, how all that matters is to cling fast to the generation, to keep up with the demands of the age―although these are always changing. In this way the generation’s life seethes or bubbles without interruption; even though everything is a whirlwind, a signal shot, the ringing of bells is heard, which tells the individual that now, now this second, you must hurry up, throw everything away―afterthoughts, quiet meditation, the calming thought of eternity―or you will arrive too late, so that you will not be able to join the generation’s expedition, which is departing at this very moment―and then, then, what a horror. Alas, yes: what a horror. And yet everything, everything is calculated to feed the confusion, the unholy rush of this wild hunt. The means of communication may become ever more excellent, printing is done faster and faster, with unbelievable speed―but what is communicated becomes ever more hurried and ever more confusing. And if, both in the name of primitivity and of God, someone dares oppose this: woe is he. Just as the individual, wanting to be understood immediately, is caught up in the whirlwind of impatience, so too is the generation

5

418 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

419

370

15

20

25

30

35

domineering in wanting to understand the individual immediately. Look, this is what produces the dishonesty: the concepts come to a halt, the language is confused, people fight one another anywhere and everywhere. There could never be more promising conditions for all the windbags, for the genrl confusion conceals their confusion. It is the golden age for the windbags.

The Primitive―The Traditional. Let us now, from a somewhat more remote point of departure, make a step-by-step attempt, in a crescendo, to present an account of this confusion. There was a time when there was only one scholarly language in Europe. Even if this had its drawback[s], it was nonetheless a great benefit. First and foremost, this ensured that not everyone could get into the literature; next, that mutual communication was made easy, that there was hope [of] a more or less stable and fixed terminology through which we in turn were in continuity with antiquity; and finally, that the years of [a] hum. being’s life in which his primitivity was to develop were not all too weighed down with apparatus. The national individualities came to consciousness; the mother tongue was granted its rights. But people had not forgotten the idea [of] a European literature or of a knowledge of the European literature from that vanished age. People did not want to give that up; and now the task has grown to the fourth power, that is, 64 times as great. First, a portion of primitivity’s period of competence must be spent learning 3 or 4 languages. But one never learns a foreign language quite as well as one’s mother tongue; whereas in relation to the language that is one’s mother tongue, everyone believes that he is fully entitled to do with it as he pleases. (whereas a common, learned, but dead language provided for equality for all.). If one then attempts

•

P a p e r 369–370 1847 •

121

122

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 370 1847 •

[to] rediscover and pursue the concepts in the nuances that they have in so many different languages, then, naturally, one is enriched, in a certain sense, with a staggering abundance of reflections―but this becomes precisely the difficulty, since from now on a consistent terminology is practically unthinkable. While the communication then grows to the fourth power, this only becomes an increase of the confusion, for the more that is communicated when nothing stands firm, the more terrible the confusion becomes, the more inhuman and superhuman the task that is assigned to the individual. This was the first step toward developing oneself extensively rather than intensively. Now the glorious discovery was made in Europe that something needed to be done in order to maintain an overview. In other words, people themselves recognized that the confusion was under way, and they hoped to put an end to it by means of one or another discovery that was itself in the service of the confusion. Imagine an office where one had begun keeping a daily record; but look, it took up so much room that a new office needed be set up just to keep the records; 〈however〉 they themselves sense that this is not sufficient―what do they do then[?]―they set up a new office to keep records of the records, etc.; and every time they do something of this sort, they do it―in order to maintain an overview; but they do not notice that, with every step, that becomes more and more impossible. And so the learned periodicals emerged. The idea behind the periodicals was to help maintain the overview; but in this way the periodicals became an independent literature. That is now the misfortune of the modern age from start to finish. The periodicals become more and more ephemeral; the demands of the age ultimately become the demands of the moment. Then the daily press drags along with it a mass of hum. beings who constitute nothing other than a hindrance in relation to literature. But this mass becomes insubordinate, and ultimately real literature has to grant it concessions. (This is entirely the same feud as betw. patricians and plebeians.).

5

10

420 15

20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

421

20

25

30

35

40

Alongside the periodicals, there now also arose what is rlly the middle rank of authors, i.e., of non-authors, people who understand everything more or less, to a certain extent, but nothing fully, the most horrible of all peoples. Yet the daily press enjoys the power of the moment and the power of pervasiveness. Owing to the financial interests of the publisher, real literature must then make concessions. With this, finally, the relationship is reversed. The daily newspaper’s [“]literature[”] delivers the criticism―and writes for the mass. The mass understands nothing, and the journalists know how to write for the mass. This produces dejection in the real authorial literature. The author despairs of getting his message through; he sees the slovenliness in this order of things, but lacks the power to endure: so he writes brochures―in order at least to come as close as he can to the moment; he publishes his books in installments; in order at least to ensure that he will be noticed, he hints at what he plans to do already long in advance. Every protest against this monstrosity in the name of true literature is to no avail: the journalist points defiantly at his thousands of subscribers and his power at the moment. Nor is there any salvific prospect for the next moment, for the journalist, after all, has become a type: the individual dies, but the journalist never dies; there only come to be more and more. One may imagine the superhuman labor that the already-developed world situation has imposed upon an author; and now, amid all this, he is to see how existence is confused. Everything becomes sick with the lust for domination. So it is with literature. But it is the same with society. Owing to the increasingly superficial education and culture, hum. beings are crammed together in the great cities. Right from earliest childhood, the hum. being receives no impression of himself. In the great cities, one gets more of an impression of a cow than of a hum. being, for in the country there are 2 or 3 cows, or more, to every hum. being, whereas in the great cities there are 1000 hum. beings for every cow. So it is with the confusion of the modern age. Dreadfully, it drags the mass of tradition along with

•

P a p e r 370 1847 •

[a]

123

If one now adds to this a new potentiating factor, namely, that everything that previously was a mere medium has now become science (language has become science―the N.T. is no longer a medium, but it has been made critically dialectical in every possible way, etc.; that a new comparative science will again arise that will treat the relation among these sciences about the media), then one obtains a notion of the superhum. labor involved.

1

5

10

124

1

5

10

15

20

25

The Dialectic of Communication

[a]#

Happy in a certain sense is he who relates to the scientific character of a given age without further ado; who simply has to read and study what is given, then present it in a form improved by his thinking, at one or another point, to others who immediately take it up, as they relate essentially to the same line of thinking and mode of representation. Happy is he in a certain sense. He is entirely free of what I would call the torments of delay, which are bound up with the more primitive thinking that first endures for a long time in quiet deliberation, isolated from the very start, without support in the given―dejected, often close to despair, noting worriedly how easily others have it with communicating and being understood; and when it finally reaches the point where he believes he can attempt to communicate, he is doomed from the instant it has uttered the first word to bear

•

P a p e r 370–371 1847 •

it; the generation is caught in the bewilderment of existence as never before. That is the dishonesty of this age. If I were to characterize it in more clever fashion, I would say: it is like scurvy―and what medicine can be found against it? Only one: green primitivity. But not even that enormous project of boring artesian wells is as difficult as acquiring primitivity in such an age, and getting it to break through. It will require sacrificial victims, and these will be among the most painful martyrdoms. If this sophism has always been so ready at hand for people: [“]What good does it do for an individual to want something[?”]―What is he supposed to accomplish[?] O, ye gods, now this sophism is so deeply entrenched that under such circumstances, without the least exaggeration, it is practically insanity to want to believe in God and primitivity, and yet primitivity is precisely what is needed, that is, the single individual. And no bargaining, none; for let us imagine that an eminent genius perceived this, but instead of wanting―faithful to God―to sacrifice to the uttermost, he erred and wanted―in hum. prudence―to do a little: no one could do greater damage than he, precisely because he was so close to the truth, and became the most dangerous of all sophists. This must make an impression on the individual who wants to believe in being able to break through, an impression as if he were going insane; and on the other side, his own times will also discover it, and they will, if possible, do everything they can to stifle him: not power, for they do not have the passion for that, but stupidity, envy, lethargy, and mockery, etc.

1st Lecture.

5

10

15

20

422

25

30

371:1 [a]

It is not without many misgivings, and much reservation, that I begin this venture. Here I am thinking not only about what every lecturer would surely think about―namely, whether he is now going to succeed in satisfying the listeners, himself,

35

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

20

423 25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

125

and the object of discussion, taken entirely in general. No, precisely because I will fundamentally come to occupy [myself] with presenting the sort of communication concerning which it is the case, either unconditionally or in fact conditionally, that there is no object―that, dialectically, this is the case, and that that which is bound up with it dialectically, that that which follows from it dialectically, is precisely the total idea behind these lectures―for this reason I immediately come to wonder whether the fact that I am now about to begin, from a lectern, to lecture upon what I intend to lecture about―whether this is not in contradiction with what I want to lecture about. In other words, what I intend to lecture about is something present to me, and thereby something of which I am aware: that coming to know truth―in particular, ethical and ethical-religious truth―involves a situation, and the same thing also applies to communicating ethical and ethical-religious truth. And then this is the misgiving: Is the lectern the adequate situation[?] What I intend to lecture about is something present to me, and is something of which I am aware: thatb to know and apprehend ethical and ethical-religious truth is to reduplicate existentially what is known―now the misgiving is as follows: does a lecture ex cathedra then include a reduplication, can it include such a reduplication[?] The misgiving is whether the whole venture itself reduplicates existentially everything that I have to say, so that I do not, in a single lecture, come to treat of what reduplication is and of its close connection to ethical and ethical-religious knowledge of truth and communication of truth, but rather that the entire venture reproduces what will be lectured upon. c But enough about this. I also intend to spend this hour on a number of particular comments regarding the entire venture and myself in general. First of all, I ask you to direct your attention to an observation that I have long felt a need to make, even though I am presumably known to most of you as an author. What is regarded in life as pride can also be fear of God; it can be fear of God, more I do not say. Let me illustrate this as follows. Everyone,

the tedious label of the eccentric, the odd―which makes peop. averse to engaging with him, because the eccentric and strange is of course immediately a sign to them that nothing is there, or surely a sign that this would require a certain resignation and a certain exertion, to which people are perhaps not inclined. I count myself, if you will, among these unhappy, more primitive thinkers―so much the worse for myself. Unfortunately for me, simply from the very first word in this first, introductory lecture, you will surely be able to see that this is the case. But in truth, I do dare testify about myself that for many years now, I have, with great patience, continued to think; I ask you, my listener, to have patience too for some few hours.

26 ex cathedra] Latin, from the chair, i.e., with authority.

25 in medias res] Latin, in the midst of the thing, i.e., into a situation that is already under way. (See also explanatory note.)

b

1

5

10

15

20

in truth

c

In a certain sense, this can serve to draw you in in medias res, because the reservations relate to the total thought of the entire enterprise. Later, more than once, the point will also come at which you yourself will become aware of the problem that has given rise to my reservations; then you will remember that I myself made you aware of it right away on the first da[y].

25

30

126

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

after all, will agree with me that a hum. being is obliged by God to present the truth in the truest form. Good. But, now, it will be true for every hum. being that, to the extent to which he has the ability to make the form of the truth truer―if he goes on and does that: then to that same extent he will win over fewer. (This is illustrated by showing―though very briefly, as this point will be developed more fully in its proper place―the difference betw. the communication of ethical-religious truth in the form of possibility and in the form of actuality, or making it into actuality.) If, now, a hum. being does not have an essential God-relationship, does not have it daily and present to him: then he lets his prudence guide him. He says: this cannot lead to anything; familiarity with practical life teaches me that I must settle for less. So he settles for less, uses the less true form, says the same thing, but in a less true form―and wins many. If, on the other hand, he does have an essential God-relationship, then it will seem to him as if God said to him: [“]Stupid hum. being, what does he think, does he want to play Providence, just make sure he does his duty, and exactly that.[”] Every truth-witness who has been misunderstood by his contemporaries, judged harshly or indeed put to death, has experienced this collision: he has had it in his power to put the truth in a form that is less true, while to all appearances saying the same thing, in order to succeed in the world, to win people―or, to be resented and judged when, in unconditional obedience to God, he expresses that God’s Providence shall guide him and that he will not let his own prudence be Providence. Thus he does not settle for less; he stands firm and as strongly as he can―and of course he wins over practically no one, and is accused of pride. Here you will immediately have an example of reduplication. If I say to a large gathering of people what I have said here, and in this same way, then perhaps it will touch one or another of them, and why? Because it is straightforward communication, I am not reduplicating what I am lecturing about, I am not carrying it out, I am not what I say, I am not giving the

5

10

15

20

424 25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

20

25

425 30

35

40

truest form to the truth presented here, so that, existentially, I am what is said: I am speaking about it. As soon as I carry it out, reduplicate it existentially, then I repel people, and one or another person says: this is pride. In the one case I confide to others that I am confused, torn betw. two alternatives: whether I should hold to God absolutely, unconditionally, or whether I should adapt myself to them―this is already the admission proving that I am not holding to God unconditionally―and one or another person, or rather the crowd, approves. In the other case, I seriously hold unconditionally to God, and accordingly I give the truest form to the truth that I am privileged to understand; and the crowd says: that is outrageous pride. For, on every point, what is the basic confusion in modern life on all points other than this: that in every truth-communication, we make hum. beings into the authority, instead of God being the authority, particularly with regard to ethical-religious communication. In so doing, we have given the entire ethical-religious communication an incorrect form; we are fully in the habit of thinking that, if we are to settle for less, then we must do so by discounting God’s requirement, and if concessions are to be made, then they must be with respect to the hum. arbiter. And because this is how it is, and how it has been in so many, many ages, it can be so easy―indeed, it cannot be avoided―to commit the error of regarding as pride that which is perhaps fear of God. This is what I have wanted to call to mind. In the lecture itself, no doubt, cases will arise where it would have been possible for me to win you over to my presentation a bit more by slackening its form, but where I did not dare do so―and immediately, perhaps, someone or other will judge me and find this strange or prideful. But I have a different doubt: I have doubted whether I am even entitled to say what I am saying here, whether I am entitled to say that it is out of fear of God that I am doing what I am doing. For saying this is already an attempt to make hum. beings into the arbiter, to conciliate them so that they, in turn, will treat me more leniently. By

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

127

128

1

5

10

15

20

25

[d]

The Dialectic of Communication

After all, not being afraid of hum. beings (and making hum. beings into the arbiter is indeed actlly the expression for fear of hum. beings), which is regarded as pride, can also be an even greater fear of God, because for such a person, it is as if God said to him: How dare you be so defiant as to be afraid of hum. beings―you will content yourself simply with being only and solely afraid of me. Is it not as when a father says to his child: How dare you dare like this, as to be afraid of your playmates―you will see to it that you are only and solely afraid of me. It does not follow from this that the child is not, after all, afraid of his playmates anyway; but he does not dare express this―out of fear of the father. Strict upbringing! Playmates grow angry with him and say it is pride, and no doubt do not leave his pride unpunished; ah, and then, out of fear of his father, he does not dare be afraid of them!

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

contrast, unconditional obedience would clearly be not to say a word about it, but to act. And in truth, if a hum. being, believing every minute, was able to maintain that God is very near him, then he would also do the same. But the moment it seems to a person as if God were far away, and that one must help oneself―then he immediately gives in; and if God is infinitely far away, then indeed, and without further ado, in modern fashion one makes hum. beings into the arbiter. Hence what is regarded as pride in the world― that can be the fear of God. I now wish to give you, quite briefly, a sense of what you can expect from these lectures, in order, if possible, to make you more receptive to their impression and at any rate in order, if possible, to ward off expectations that are all too numerous and would be all too deeply disappointed. This will not be a podium lecture in the strictest sense. If it should resemble anything in this regard, it will most resemble, at times, a physics lecture supplemented by demonstrations of experiments. On occasion, I will try to let what is presented take place before you, and on one single occasion, I will perhaps permit myself, quite gently, to involve you, in a way, in the exposition, for which I ask your indulgence; I hereby give you advance notice of this.―This lecture will attempt, as far as possible, to make everything present, if possible, to convey to you the impression that you are thinking the most contrary thoughts at the same time. Accordingly, it will not have the straightforwardness of a strict podium-lecture, which assigns a specific place for treating each individual point, which is not discussed either before or after this. No, the lecture will continually be plagued, if I may put it that way, by the memory of what has been said at other points. Reflections will crisscross it, with an eye to recalling what has been covered and what is yet to come, in order, if possible, to maintain the impression that everything is present at the same time, which in a certain sense can indeed contribute more than the usual podium lecture can to holding the attention

5

10

15

20

25

30

426

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

427

40

of the listener; but this can perhaps also agitate him and tire him, and at times almost make him furious. The idea, of course, is not that I want to persist continually in tumultuously or kaleidoscopically mixing together all the individual determinations of thought, so that there is no sequence of places in which each individual determination of thought can find its more accurate and thorough development. The intention is simply that, if possible, every point will bear the mark of what has been said at the other points, all in order to bring forth, if possible without interruption, the simultaneity of what is present. In that way, there will be nothinge to be regarded as being so completely finished that it no longer needed to be discussed or kept in mind; on the contrary, references to it will strive to call it to mind, either straightforwardly or by means of contradiction, and in any case, if possible, the way in which a subsequent point is discussed will indirectly be a discussion of what has been completed. That I have taken this as my task is not―as you yourselves will no doubt realize―peculiar. For the entirety of what I intend to lecture upon is one thought, and I will not bring the least bit of learned apparatus to bear upon it. More straightforward communication (what is to be understood by this, and also by its opposite, indirect communication, will [be] treated thoroughly in the lecture itself) it will be more straightforward communication, while the object, for the most part, is: about the indirect communication, or about what essentially canf only be communicated by indirect communication. Concerning what in the strictest sense can only be communicated in the situation of actuality and in character―(indirect communication)― I will here show you in a more straightforward fashion how it takes place: making you aware, in straightforward communication, of the indirect communication. Seriousness will not be lacking in the lecture, but in keeping with the relationship itself, the type of seriousness employed will differ from that of the stricter podium-lecture. The stricter podium-lecture

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

e

129

even after having found its more comprehensive presentation

f

or can only partially

1

130

1

5

10

15

The Dialectic of Communication

g

(absolutely in relation to ethical comm[unication], and partially in relation to ethical-religious communication), merely to mention this

Note Namely, with respect to the ethical it is unconditionally the case that it cannot be taught by lecturing. The teaching lecture treats an object―and ethically, it is precisely the case that there is no object (on this see the lecture itself). There is discussion about this object. But the lecture itself does not existentially express that the teacher exists in it; nor does the lecture prompt the listeners to exist in it. But all this is treated in the lectures themselves. h

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

is, after all, genrlly regarded as real seriousness. This is so also the case in relation to communicating, e.g., mathematics, philology, history, philosophical science, etc.―in brief, this is so in relation to what is usually lectured upon ex cathedra. But in relation to what is different, the seriousness involved is also of a different kind, and indeed I freely admit that it is also out of order that I lecture ex cathedra on what I have to lecture about. Seriousness in relation to ethical and ethical-religious communication, which in a certain sense cannot actlly be communicated ex cathedra, is of an entirely different sort. The ethic[al] and ethical-religious must be communicated existentially and toward the existential. The correct seriousness willg contain much more of the ironic and all that belongs to irony, than I dare allow in the presentation of this lecture series. To most people, genuine seriousness, especially in relation to ethical communication, would doubtless seem like complete jest, and at most they would perhaps find that there still was some seriousness in the presentation of this lecture series.h But this is not in fact how things are. The presentation will adopt a tone that is approximately midway betw. the stricter podium-lecture and what in the strictest sense is seriousness with respect to ethical communication, which cannot be otherwise, as soon as I am to lecture ex cathedra. In the books published by me pseudonymously, the seriousness is stricter, and this is so precisely at the points where the presentation would appear to most as sheer jest. So far as I am aware, up to now this has never been understood at all; perhaps, through the sort of lecture that I intend to employ here, I will contribute to making it possible for this to be better understood. But, as stated, this is not attained by this lecture being more serious, but precisely by the fact that it has less of the stricter sort of seriousness. I must certainly offer an apology for the way in which I use “I” in these lectures. Yet I must add that, however willing I may be to make this apology, from my own point of view it is an accommodation. To my way of thinking, it is my own weakness and

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

428 40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

429

imperfection, in part a consequence of the fact that I am groaning under the weight of das Herkomliche, that I am not bolder in daring to use my I. One of modernity’s misfortunes is precisely that of having abolished “the I,” the personal I. And it is indeed for this reason that the real ethical-religious communication has as if disappeared from the world. For the ethical-religious truth relates essentially to personality, can only be communicated by an I to an I. But that means that as soon as the communication becomes objective, then the truth has become untruth. It is to personality that we must turn. And I accordingly regard it as my own accomplishment that, by introducing poetically invented personalities who say I in the midst of life’s actuality (my pseudonyms), I have contributed to accustoming contemporaries once again, if possible, to hearing an I speak, a personal I (not that fantastic pure I and its ventriloquism). But precisely because the entire development of the world has been as far as possible from this acknowledgment of personality, it must be done poetically. The poetic personality always possesses something that makes him more palatable to a world that has become completely unaccustomed to hearing an I. And I certainly do not expect to come further than this. I doubtless will never dare use my own I entirely straightforwardly. But of this I am certain: that the time will come when an I will stand tall in the world, an I that says I without further ado, and speaks in the first person. Only then will he indeed truly communicate ethical and ethical-religious truth in the strictest sense. If someone were to ask me how I see these lectures in relation to my entire efforts qua auth., I would answer: I see them as a necessary concession for which I believe I bear responsibility. You will recall what was stated at the beginning of this hour, that every hum. being is bound by a duty to God in relation to the truth that he has understood, that if he wants to communicate it, he must communicate it in the truest form. If it subsequently seems to him that, by doing so, he produces no effect, then it might be his duty to select a second form, at least by

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

131

132

1

i

The Dialectic of Communication

(and in one sense ought to be regarded as an even greater concession.)

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

way of experiment; but perhaps this is also only an impatience on his part: that he demands to see a result too quickly, rather than have faith. Thus he assumes a responsibility; and in any case, were he now to produce a great effect by means of the new form he had chosen, it would become his duty to take care to remember that there is an NB here, for it was of course precisely because he used the less strict form. Especially in regard to communication of ethical truth, also partly in regard to communication of ethical-religious truth, the indirect communication is the strictest form. Nevertheless, a more straightforward communication that follows its own path parallel to this can also be necessary in order to reinforce that by which it itself, in another sense, is supported. This is something I have understood from the very start of my activity as an author. Accordingly, the pseudonyms were continually accompanied by straightforward communication in the form of edifying discourses, and in the past few years I have employed straightforward communication almost exclusively. And these lectures are in straightforward communication as well.i But I am not a lecturer in the stricter sense; that would also be all too satirical: a lecturer―in ethical-religious communication, i.e., in what neither can nor shall be taught by lecturing, because it must not become a scholarly science, but is to relate itself to existence. Were I to give myself a title, I would rather say that I am a kind of teacher in the style of classical antiquity; and if an audience were amenable to it, I would have nothing against occasionally converting the lecture into conversation. But as to how many, how great, and how dialectically convoluted the problems are that are bound up with this enterprise―this, I believe, I daresay I know. And one thing I believe that I may definitely promise the listener is that if he will grant me his attention, then at the close of this lecture series he will have become aware of and acquainted with difficulties that had not previously existed for him in this way. This does not seem so very tempting― particularly against the backdrop of what is other-

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

430 5

10

15

371:2

wisej promised and announced ex cathedra―and yet it is perhaps tempting and inspiring after all; for as a pseudonym has said: the task must be made difficult―for only difficulty inspires the noble-hearted one, or as he puts it in more detail: What our age needs is an honest seriousness that lovingly safeguards the tasks, that does not make hum. beings anxious, so that they want to rush into the highest, but keeps the tasks young and beautiful, pleasant to the sight and beckoning to all, and nonetheless also difficult and inspiring for the noble; for the noble nature is inspired only by what is difficult. My gentlemen, how did I dare be so discourteous as to call into question that I would succeed in inspiring you―for the difficulties: those I have ready at hand.

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

j

133

in these times philosophice

2nd Lecture Communication of Knowledge and Communication of Being-Able.

20

25

30

35

Here, as everywhere, I feel myself abandoned to my own thoughts. No matter in what direction I turn my eye, I encounter: sciences. As far as I can judge, I see that each of these are extraord. developed, almost everywhere an enormous apparatus that is being worked through and reworked again and again. Yet I also find that what people are occupied with everywhere is the What that is to be communicated. What occupies me, by contrast, is: what does it mean to communicate. I do not believe I have actlly read even the slightest bit about this in the modern age’s productions, nor have I heard anyone speak about it. It is only far back in time, in antiquity, essentially in Greece, that I find that people occupied themselves with this problem. Modernity has―and I take this to be one of its fundamental flaws―abolished personality and made everything objective. Accordingly, we do not come 1 philosophice] Latin, philosophically with respect to philosophy.

1

134

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

to dwell on the thought of what it means to communicate; rather, we hurry immediately to the what that we wish to communicate. And because nearly every such What reveals itself, already at first glance, to be something frightfully diffuse, as time progresses there comes to be even less opportunity or space for consideration of what it means to communicate. A philosopher, a dogmatician, a priest, etc.: they all begin immediately with the What that they want to communicate, with studies and preliminary outlines of it. And because, as noted, there is an enormous apparatus everywhere, this nearly overwhelms them, and in any case they soon have a great quantity to communicate. They are, to recall an expression used in the previous hour, “happily redeemed from the torments of delay.” When, instead of becoming objective, everything becomes personal, then the delay begins. And if everything becomes personal, then the emphasis immediately also falls on what it means to communicate. This, once again, is a fate that hovers over the more primitive thinking: that it has such a destitute look. Allow me to use myself as an example. I, too, know what every more cultivated person knows about China, Eastern philosophy, Greek philosophy, modern philosophy from Descartes to Hegel, the newest German philosophy from Kant to the younger Fichte. If I want to speak about this, I have a great deal to say. But this problem of delay―of what it is to communicate―about which no books at all have been written, yes, it has such a destitute look. It would also look destitute if, instead of lecturing on the history of states and the human race, a person had the curious idea of occupying oneself with the problem of what it is to be a hum. being, of whether we really are hum. beings, of whether you or I really are hum. beings. There is a fate hovering over the more primitiv[e] thinking―that keeps ruminating on certain fundamental questions that otherwise are so much

5

431

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

432 15

20

25

30

35

40

assumed to be given that it does not occur to any hum. being to dwell upon them. So far is the primitive from being what one might believe―that it is ahead of other hum. beings―that it is continually far behind. Let us gather examples from other situations. A hum. being in whom there is not much primitivity, he will likely come to consider the question of which girl he should marry; he will hold the view: There is a choice, and the issue is, which girl? The more primitive person will perhaps immerse himself to such a degree in the question of the extent to which marrying possesses reality that he never gets married. A hum. being in whom there is not much primitivity will perhaps deliberate on which office he should seek, or if he has chosen a particular career, then, e.g., which position he should seek, whether in Jutland or in Funen or in the capital. The more primitive person will perhaps immerse himself to such a degree in the question of whether this mode of existence is essential for a hum. being that he never obtains any position. A person in whom there is not much primitivity will presumably assume that it is self-evident that he is a Christian, and will then occupy himself with the question of putting the Church’s affairs in order. A more primitive person will perhaps plunge himself to such a degree into the question of whether or not he should embrace Xnty that he will not end up with time to reform the Church. Take the highest. How would life probably be for the person who approached Xnty’s commandment first to seek the kingdom of God even just a little bit seriously? Would he not soon find himself abandoned and infinitely far, far behind all the others! For the others, they take hold, each takes his own piece of the finite, and presumably takes it first, but he, that poor, pious, plodding Peter, he immerses himself more and more into this [“]first the kingdom of God.[”] And even if he does not grasp God’s kingdom, it will always have the consequence that his life will be tried in the Christian spiritual trials; for soon enough, soon enough, he will be mocked, pitied, ridiculed, he who became nothing―and that is what

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

135

[a]

The primitive lies not before, but behind

1

[b]

As the song goes: everyone takes his, so I take mine, and the others get nothing, except that here it is the others who each get theirs, and the primitive who gets nothing.

5

136

1

The Dialectic of Communication

c

from which it follows naturally that the real primitive questions never arise.

d

5

and let it be sufficient that it is customary usage,

[e]

for this drawing of distinctions arises in proportion to how reflection falls variously on each of these 4 points.

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

one becomes, quite certainly, by seriously seeking God’s kingdom first―and won nothing, namely, nothing finite―and that he can be entirely sure of, if he seriously seeks the kingdom of God first―. But this first seeking the kingdom of God is nonetheless, in fact, the real primitivity. But just as modernity’s fundamental defect is to make everything objective, so is the modern age’s basic misfortune that it lacks primitivity.c And therein lies what I would like to call the dishonesty of the modern age. All in all, it is undeniably the most comfortable and safest course to throw in one’s lot with the traditional; to do as the others do; to believe, think, speak like the others; and to seek the finite goals, the sooner the better. But Governance has never held the view that this should be the case. Every hum. existence shall have primitivity. But the primitive existence always contains an inspection or review of the fundamental. One sees this most clearly in a primitive genius. What is the significance of a primitive genius? It is not so much to bring about bringing forth anything absolutely new, for there is actlly nothing new under the sun; rather, it is to reexamine what is universally-hum., the fundamental questions. This is honesty in the deepest sense. And to lack primitivity―and thus the reexamination― entirely, to accept, entirely as a matter of course,d everything as customary usage and thus to deny responsibility for the fact that one is going along with it: that is dishonesty. Similarly, I also regard it as dishonesty that the question: [“]What it is to communicate[”] has not come up at all. I now intend to proceed as simply as possible in treating this poverty-stricken question. As soon as I think of communicating, I think of four things: 1) the object 2) the communicator 3) the receiver 4) the communication. With the help of these, I will now show you the entire structure of the lectures;[e] I mainly divide it as follows: reflection is either upon the object or upon communication. This distinction is decisive for my entire undertaking, for

5

10

15

433 20

25

30

35

40

The Dialectic of Communication

5

10

15

20

434

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

137

indeed, as has been developed, precisely this is modernity’s fundamental error, that we are everywhere occupied with the What that we are to communicate―not with: what communication is. If the object is reflected on, then we have communication of knowledge. If, on the other hand, there is no “object” (how this is to be understood remains to be developed), then it is thus impossible to reflect on the object, but the communication is reflected upon, so we have, in contrast to communication of knowing: communication of being-able. And this, once again, is modernity’s error: to have forgotten entirely that there is a communication that is called communication of being-able, to have abolished this completely, or even, meaninglessly, to have communicated as knowledge what ought to be communicated as being-able (all this remains to be completed). We will now proceed to define communication of being-able more closely. And this is what the entire lecture is actlly about, the complement to modernity, which has entirely forgotten this. The Communication of Being-Able.

25

30

35

40

If in the reflection upon the communication, communicator and receiver are reflected upon equally, then we have communication of being-able in the ordinary sense, instruction in art, and everything that belongs to this. If in the reflection upon the communication, the receiver is reflected upon, then we have ethical communication. Maieutics. The communicator vanishes, as it were, placing himself merely in service, in order to help the other to become. Ethical communication is communication of being-able, though more precisely: being-supposed-tobe-able, but the communication is not in the direction of knowledge, but of being-able. If the ethical communication also has a moment of knowledge in it as its first element, then we have ethical-religious, in specie Christian communication. 41 in specie] Latin, specifically.

[f]

Receiver and communicator stand equally before one another, e.g., a teacher of an art and the learner.

1

[g]

the communication of aesthetic being-able.

[h]

[i]

ethical being-able.

religious being-able.

5

138

The Dialectic of Communication

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

By this element of knowledge, it distinguishes itself from ethical communication in the stricter sense. For the most part, however, it is not classified under comm[unication] of knowledge, but under comm[unication] of being-able, more precisely under being-supposed-to-be-able, the communication is not in the direction of knowledge, but of being-able, the knowledge that is communicated is, in this communication, something initial. To the main division into comm[unication] of knowledge and communication of being-able there in turn corresponds the main division: Direct Comm[unication] and Indirect Comm[unication]

1

5

[j]

And here, once again, it is naturally modernity’s error that all comm[unication] is direct, that it is forgotten that indirect comm[unication] also exists.

All communication of knowledge is direct comm[unication]. All comm[unication] of being-able is more or less indirect communication. First comes what I have called the real art-communication: it is indirect, or at least essentially indirect. Then ethical comm[unication]: this is unconditionally indirect. Then ethical-religious comm[unication], namely Christian: this is direct-indirect.

5

10

15

20

25

PAPER 372— PAPER 377 On Rosenkilde, Mynster, Goldschmidt, et al.

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

140

On Mynster

•

P a p e r 372 1847 •

# 437

Curiously enough, that time (this one thing after another, the succession) is, or at any rate can be, the hum. being’s worst enemy is also expressed in language’s many suggestive turns of phrase: to kill time, to put time to death―and, conversely, that time is deadly long for a person. this could be a psychologically accurate retort by a suicide at the last moment before he shot himself: With this shot I am killing time, I am putting time to death.

372:1

That it might occur to some hum. being, qua idyllic poet, to identify himself or what it is to be hum. with animal life (the idyll in which ducks, geese, cows are types of a blissful and perfect life): to me this is inconceivable. Purely humoristically, there is great enjoyment in contemplating animals, one can stand and watch them for days at a time; the humoristic element increases the stupider the animals are: thus, for example, especially ducks, geese, pigs, cows.

372:2

The Dialectic of Authority.

5

10

372:3

Authority is a specific quality that enters in from elsewhere, precisely when the content of the utterance is regarded as a matter of indifference as something aesthetic. (When the one who has authority says, “Go”―and the one who does not have authority says, “Go,” the utterance is certainly the same, it is said equally well, but the authority makes all the difference.)

20

Examples: a king’s authority (it does not befit a king to be brilliant, learned― and why not?), a police officer’s. a teacher’s authority (if it is simply the reduplication of the fact that his teaching is competent and profound, then he in fact has no authority at all).

25

Christ taught with authority.

On Rosenkilde 438

373:1

•

P a p e r 373 1847 •

Rosenkilde as “Hummer.” An Attempt at a Memoir by a Grateful One.

373:2

Intro. On many occasions I have thought about the thanklessness of being an actor―the mediocre criticism―to be completed.

10

373:3

15

20

25

this is an attempt at recollection. It has been at least 2 years since I last saw him perform as Hummer; during that time, in order not to disturb the recollection of him in my memory, I have in fact not wanted to see him perform.

1) in the play, he is what one might call “devilishness,” as the simple man uses that word―referring not to the diabolical, but to a peculiar kind of torment. just as the simple man says of gout that it’s a rotten devilishness. 2) his costume. leather breeches―an umbrella―seems overdone―during the summertime―is not. Hummer is a type, a “public face” an eternal figure, and such a one must also be stereotypical in his dress, designed for every season: i.e., for him there is no season―the sad and the comic in this―he has no time to go home and get an umbrella, but walks eternally with an umbrella―ad modum the eternal Jew. 3) his voice. it is good-natured, almost whiningly beneficent. The comic element consists in this, as he himself is an instrument of the law, dira necessitas. The contradiction in that the voice seems to reveal sympathy, but he cannot do so: “Duty is 24 ad modum] Latin, in the manner of. 28 dira necessitas] Latin, dire necessity. (See also explanatory note.)

141

142

On Rosenkilde and Mynster

•

P a p e r 373–375 1847 •

strict.” It is as if a guillotine could speak, and said with good-natured beneficence: [“]I cannot.[”]― Hummer is not evil. He is cunningly mischievous, good-natured above all―but is now so used to being the dira necessitas that it has become his second nature. More or less as when an executioner has become accustomed to putting many people to death so that, as objective as he has become, he cannot understand the individual, and therefore says, with all good will: It’s nothing more than putting your head on the chopping-block, then you’re executed. It can be full of so much pathos to have to be dire necessity despite all feelings and sympathies; here it is superbly low-comic, for Hummer is nothing less than an unusual hum. being. His gesture of sinking down into the knees, separating his legs, and then standing up again, bowlegged.

Mynster’s Most Recent Sermons.

439 5

10

15

374

A few words in review. was not used.

Mynster’s Serm[ons] When a young pers. wants to be old, it is a sign of immaturity; when an old man wants to be young, it is a sign of immaturity. When, on the other hand, a young pers. himself says, with lovable honesty: [“]After all, Lord God, I am still only young now[”]―that is precisely a sign that he is not young in the sense of immaturity. Ah, when an old man himself says that he is an old man―that is nothing other than a sign that, in an essential sense, he has not grown old or enfeebled, but is young. Thus it is with Bishop M. We have―no, far be it from us to say that we have long expected that he himself would say it―but we have hoped continually that Governance, by permitting him to become an old man, would give him the opportunity here, too, to exhibit the health that is so emblematic of his noble life. that the para-

375

30

35

On Mynster

5

440

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 375 1847 •

digm could become perfect, not defective in any of the cases. I, and doubtless many with me, would have felt a deeply sad sense of having been betrayed by life had Bishop M. died without becoming an old man. Believing in the extraord. always involves courage, and therefore there certainly are always some who do not believe. When a stripling of 20 years produces a masterpiece, it takes courage to believe it. Oh, and when an old man of 72 years is as vigorous at heart as a stripling, it takes courage to believe it. It is far easier to yield to the habit and small-mindedness that believe that 72 is enough―then he is lost. But precisely because it takes courage to believe this, the person who is exceptional in this way must make a concession to peop. It is not to his years of age that Bishop M. makes the concession, for these have not weakened him―it is to the hum. weakness that is so reluctant to believe the extraord. He says that how this collection is received will determine whether it is to be continued. Here, too, is the old man’s health. A man who felt his power unabated would hardly make such a concession. But an old man who (and this is indeed the unusual situation, which could require something) feels his strength essentially unabated―he is so lenient, so compassionately gentle and kind, that he gladly grants peop. relief―for it is certainly a relief for some that they have, as it were, been given permission by the auth[or]. himself to say: Now he is old. Old, for that matter, he has not become―merely that he, the old man, has been what he has been during a long series of years, and in such a way that, amazingly enough, throughout this long life he has moved many people with what is old, and that after his death many will long for this old man and what is old, as in the summer heat one can long for the coolness of the wellspring. So ends this little review. For the many who, by reading again this little collection for their edification, happily satisfy themselves that he is the old man―for them, it is surely the happiest thing of all that in his 72nd year he still is the old man―for them, after all, it is nothing new that he is old, for he became that many years ago―from which one concludes that, in the 72nd year, he is the old man. By contrast, the person who only now discovers that he is old, he must in one or another way have made a mistake about Bishop M. far earlier by assuming that he was young. For this is precisely what is worthy of admiration, this is the maturity in this man: he grew old early, and hence in the 72nd year he is the old man―the same throughout an entire life, throughout

143

144

On Goldschmidt

•

P a p e r 375–376 1847 •

more than a hum. generation. Yes, it is true that he has only now risen to the 1st class in rank. But the one who discovers that this has only just happened, he too must in some way or another have made a mistake―for that is where he [Mynster] has been for a long time.

Goldschmidt. In his program he gives the definite impression of a confirmation candidate, or of someone who is to stand up next Sunday and be examined, he has everything at his fingertips―about what a free state is―all the homework, which anyone can do. It is the prose of a university graduate―or like an essay written for the preliminary examination for Danish law and veterinary students. It is unbelievable what difference there is between the cocksure G., secure in privileged contemptibleness, and the shy little G. It is as when one now sees in polite society, standing there and adjusting his scarf, a person who once was the center of attention at all the dance halls and pubs. As a mother says to her child who has been mischievous, but who is behaving properly again: Now I cannot recognize you anymore Yet Mr. G. has help. The main thing, perhaps, is his connections, his European connections, his connections throughout the whole of Europe. He himself says: After all, they have insisted that their articles for Mr. G. may subsequently be published in foreign journals. Joy over Denmark! What, by means of his ministers, the king of D[enmark] has scarcely managed to secure for D[enmark]―to be the premier state of Europe―this G. has achieved with his travels “from which he has recently returned.”―If only we can hold on to G., so that a sudden request does not come for him to join the European conference in Neuchatel (where he has been; see). Alas, alas. Unless he decides not to go in person, but to attend by proxy in the usual fashion (as kings are represented by ministers)―thus he is represented by a rascal.―In that case we would hold on to him and have the benefit of his powerful connections abroad, across the whole of Europe: his friends in Ger., Eng., Fr., Italy, Switzerland, etc. Yes, we are benefited―unless these friends turn out to be counterparts to the ones Geert W. (who also traveled abroad) met on his jour-

5

441

376

10

15

20

25

30

35

On Goldschmidt

•

P a p e r 376–377 1847 •

ney: a hatter’s apprentice, a hearty young man, the executioner that he drank Du’s with, etc.

377 5

442

15

20

25

30

35

The subscription-relationship has, according to what I have ascertained, the following good features. 1) it contributes not insignificantly to the books’ being read. The sight of a book, particularly a large book, has a remarkable, albeit entirely hum., effect on many people. One has bought and paid for the large book, and believes that in so doing one has already made a patriotic sacrifice. Yet when one then looks at the book, one cringes at this protracted task, and it does not even occur to a person to begin reading it; it is put away on the shelf. On others it has a different effect. The sight of the large book evokes a certain fantastic-solemn mood: “Indeed I shall,” a person says to himself, “indeed I shall someday get serious about reading this book assiduously all the way through[”]―and then the book is put away. In the meantime, a little book is published, and another little book, which of course do not give the impression of solemnity; these are read―and the large book remains lying on the shelf solemnly unread. As is known, there is nothing more dangerous than coming into contact with something solemn, and perhaps there is nothing more thankless than to be regarded as something extraord. A man who has lived outside the country for a longer period and has acquired a famous name, returns to his homeland and seeks a position. He applies to the government; the response is, “But of course, something extraordinary must be done for him”―and by the end of that year, and by the end of the next year, various things have indeed been done for a great many less important people―but for him, yes for him, the extraord. has been done, namely, that nothing at all has been done. Indeed, the extraordinary one ought to count himself happy if things do not go worse than in Henrich’s account, in Holberg, of the people of rank: They are seated highest at the table but get the worst cut of the meat. And so the large book is bound and placed in the shelf― but it does not get read. With the aid of a subscription, on the other hand, the reader receives the large book in smaller parts―and the large book gets read. 2) it contributes to bringing a certain calm to the relation betw. reader and author.

145

146

On Goldschmidt

•

P a p e r 377 1847 •

An author assumes duties toward the readers; but on the other hand, it is also as if the subscribers were the ones who had these duties toward themselves with respect to this author to whose writings they have indeed subscribed. The relationship is indeed not like that between a congregation and its assigned teacher, but is like that between a congregation and the teacher whom they have themselves chosen. In any case, the relationship falls into place naturally and easily―many of the disturbances that would otherwise bring unrest to the relation betw. reader and author are avoided. The subscriber is exempt from monitoring whether anything new has come from the author; the subscr. is not occasioned to want first to wait in order to hear, out of curiosity, what others have to say; the author does not begin back at the beginning with each new piece of writing as is otherwise the case. No: the subscriber receives his copy, finds it proper that he read it, feels no occasion to ask others whether he should buy and read the book, and perhaps is most likely to have read what is published before the onset of the ruinous period in which the chatter about the book has gone into full swing. Oh, and even if this chatter, at times, includes one or another true observation, what one benevolently might wish for every reader, and what the auth. might wish for himself, is that the individual reader would do his reading as uninfluenced by others as possible, that he be himself when he begins to read. It is unavoidable that there is always a certain inquisitiveness connected with a new book, and a bit of sensation that is only a burden to the author (even though, in this context, this is a matter of indifference), but from which the reader derives no benefit whatever; this is largely avoided, I believe, by having subscribers. Therefore I have decided to publish a journal starting July 1st of this year.

5

10

15

443 20

25

30

PAPER 378—PAPER 380 An Apology

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Stine Holst Petersen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

148

An Apology

•

P a p e r 378–379 1847 •

Preface. It is my request that everyone will read this little apology with the quickness to listen that is so desirable; with the slowness to judge that is so lovable; with the good will and good-naturedness that do indeed dwell within every hum. being, even within the one who, as if by a magic spell, knows only the passions of embitterment, but does not know himself. This is my request, and it is for my own sake that I am asking in this manner; yet it is also relevant to the one whom I am addressing, for to judge hastily, frivolously, poorly, judgmentally of another person is certainly worst for oneself; and even though people are otherw. told to be cautious in so many ways, as when one warns them against deceivers and seducers and the world and hum. beings: then let us not forget how important it is that it be said to the individual: Watch out for yourself.

Preface. This apology is written so that everyone can understand it. Accordingly, by no means do I dare demand that everyone is to read it; but because I am writing it precisely for the sake of peace and in order to mollify, there also seems to be a certain reasonableness in my request, namely, that given that there have been so many who have had neither the time nor the desire to read my books, who have had both the time and the desire to listen to and read every possible misunderstanding, slander, and attack directed at me: that they would show respect for themselves by nevertheless also, just for once, listening to the person so frequently discussed when he himself speaks. With regard to those particular individuals who, in the service of literary contemptibleness, strive to make a mess of everything: just as I shall never know how to make peace with them and shall take joy in being mocked by them, so too shall I, by contrast, do everything my cause requires in order to maintain a good and sympathetic understanding with the many peop. with whom it has never occurred to me have a conflict.

447

378

5

10

15

379

20

25

30

An Apology 380:1

5

448

10

15

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 380 1847

The difficulty for me in writing a defense speech―for it is as Socrates says in the Apology: my accusers are invisible―gossip, rumors. The difficulty lies also in the situations themselves, in the fact that in Cph. there are two stages, and one must perform on both of them. Cph. is not large enough to have two stages that are kept separate from one another. These two stages are not as when one priest preaches in 2 churches; no, they relate in precisely the opposite way: what is pleasing on the one stage is absolutely displeasing on the other. In such a situation, of which I have been aware from an early point, the only right thing is to steer by the stars. This is how I have lived as an author for 5 to 6 years now―and have kept silent; but the chatter about me has never kept silent.―Cph. a market town―one’s clothing is attacked―If a stranger saw this, he would be amazed, and even more so when he realized that Cph., out of eagerness to imitate a big city, was actlly in the process of becoming a market town. Until now I have kept silent, but gradually the invisible attacks have actlly also attacked the idea that I serve, and in this respect I must now deliver a defense speech that I request be read with the good will that is normally shown by everyone who has respect for his own judgment. With respect to stage A (the public, the common man, etc.) : in what sense I have spoken about that single individual, not in the sense of arrogance, but in the sense of humility. With respect to stage B (the aristocrats) a defense of my public life, in contrast to their coterie. That I walk the streets so much is here explained as vanity, as a pathological insistence upon display. What is false in this.

•

149

[a]

From time to time I have said to myself with half-pathetic, half-ironic sensibility: Your life has fundamentally been wasted, in reality you have become something or are considered something, and in Denmark one only lives happily if one is nothing. This should instead be used at the conclusion.

1

5

10

[b]

What is being done to me is not suited for eliciting a defense; but now, when the attacks on me actually want to distort the idea that I, humbly before God, am proud to have the honor to serve, now I must not consider myself too exalted to shed light on the true facts of the matter.

15

150

An Apology

•

P a p e r 380 1847 •

Conclusion

380:2

A little word to the people. This should have been said a long time ago and by others, but if no one else will do it, then let me do it. The way in which a country treats its men of excellence ought to be in proportion to the recognition it can offer them: if the reward is great, then a little attack can also find its place.

5

I remain convinced that those whom I call the people of excellence and authority in our literature would willingly concede a talent beyond the ordinary. I also suspect that one or another of these people might well have the desire to give me a little dig, if he could be allowed to do so along with the partiality that he possibly has for me. That is to say, it is as when a father might himself in fact have a wish to discipline the son he truly cares for, but cannot abide that others do so. I would ask such people to consider that, precisely in order to serve the good cause, I have felt myself called to break as definitively and resolutely as possible with all the tricks of the throng, with the result that I am surrounded by plenty of scorn. It is self-evident that every negative word uttered about me by a person of authority will immediately be taken advantage of by all of these bandits and will be thrown in my face time and again. Therefore, I ask the person of authority, whose judgment I respect, to consider this situation so that he does not find that his words about me― by being uttered under such circumstances―which, though strict, were well-intended, are suddenly distorted into something else.

449

It had always been my intention to conclude my arduous authorial work with a quiet retreat to a parsonage out in the country in order to sorrow over my sins and for whatever trespasses I may have committed personally. This is why I have

10

15

20

25

30

35

An Apology

5

•

P a p e r 380 1847

isolated myself so absolutely in the literature.―Now I assume that my calling is to remain at the post assigned me and instead to use the powers granted me as penance in order to fulfill the place that has been assigned to me.

•

151

PAPER 381—PAPER 384 Invitation to Lectures on the Writings and to a Subscription to Installments of “Edifying Reading” et al.

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

154

Invitation

•

P a p e r 381–382 1848 •

Invitation. The undersigned intends to hold a short course of lectures on: the organizing tendency throughout the whole of my work as an author and its relation to the modern age, illustrated with reference to antiquity. I think of the audience as primarily theology graduates or at any rate advanced students. I presuppose that the auditor is well acquainted with the writings, and I will ask in advance that anyone for whom this is not the case disregard this invitation. I will also state in advance that these lectures will by no means be a pleasure, but rather work, and thus I by no means wish to entice anyone; and this work will involve periods in which, in the sense of the moment and of impatience, it is outright boring (something that to my way of thinking is inseparable from every deeper understanding), which is why I warn everyone against taking part. If I do succeed in being understood, then the listener will gain the advantage that his life will have been made significantly more difficult than ever, for which reason I encourage no one to accept this invitation. As soon as 10 have signed up, I will begin; I do not want to have more than 20, as I wish to have the sort of relation to the listeners in which the lectures could, if necessary, become colloquia. The fee is 5 rd., one registers with me.

Invitation. Inasmuch as I have discovered to my delight that my edifying writings, which address themselves to the single individual, are still being read by many individuals, I have intended to oblige these readers of mine―and perhaps to win still more individuals as readers―by publishing such upbuilding writings from now on in smaller sections and by subscription. Doing so might provide the advantage, first of all, that the books are read better when they are read in smaller sections; next, that a sort of tacit understanding is established between reader and author, so that one need not make a fresh start every

453

381

5

10

15

20

382 25

30

35

Invitation

454

5

•

P a p e r 382 1848

time; last, that the publication process can properly take place entirely quietly and without attracting notice, avoiding all extraneous attention. Starting on July 1 of this y[ear], then, I intend, under the more general title

Edifying Reading

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

to publish a booklet of 96, at most 128 pages every three months[.] In order, however, that time’s chance subdivisions not interfere arbitrarily, making the reader sometimes wait three months for a sequel, or for the conclusion of a sequel, I have thought of rounding off each booklet lyrically or epically into a small whole of its own, so that it can be regarded and read as a separate book. In my view, it is as far as possible from being the case that cultivation makes edification superfluous; rather, it makes it more and more needful. Not that cultivation in and of itself entails this, or that it leads directly to it, but because the cultivated person, if he understands himself (and after all, his cultivation would otherwise be a fantasy that―since the continuation is rarely absent―would give rise to new and worse fantasy), he will become aware that what people call cultivation leaves an entire side of the soul unsatisfied, without nourishment or care; and accordingly he, aware of this, will succumb to the craving that he notices emerging―concerned, he will take care that this craving for upbuilding grows at a pace equal to that of his increasing cultivation. Namely: in relation to cultivation, the craving is immediate, and the immediate that perhaps not everyone has; in relation to edification, the task is precisely to develop the craving, which everyone should have, to make it deeper and deeper.―By contrast, for the simpler person, who is favored neither by the times nor by circumstances in attending to the cultivation of his spirit, that which is edifying is and remains what is cultivating, which cultivates him truly and nobly, though he remains uninitiated into what cultivates a person intellectually and aesthetically.―In true cultivation, one never out-

•

155

156

Invitation

•

P a p e r 382–383 1848 •

grows edification as something a person needs less and less, but rather grows into edification as something one needs more and more; through edification one can be cultivated in the absence of all other cultivation; without edification, all other cultivation is, understood eternally, malformation. For what is edifying―indeed, just as little as love, even though it always requires two, wants to sow dissension, and just as little as the ocean wants to separate: just so little does what is edifying want to entrench the difference between one person and another. Rather, as love, what is edifying wants to unite in the essential truth those who differ most. And because this is so, I hope and wish that a good many individuals will join in as participants, for the sake of this endeavor, for my sake―and indeed for their own sakes as well. For me, naturally, it would be a great and encouraging joy if I were granted the power and stamina to keep this up for a longer time, and if―assuming this were the case― then the support from others were to continue, that in our native land there might be one more visible expression of the fact that people need edification, that edification is one of life’s necessities. Certainly, this can also be seen in the fact that many edifying writings are published in the course of the year; but what is of more decisive importance, indeed, is that there continue to be a journal devoted to edifying reading (especially if it were read by many)―one journal among the many devoted to light reading.

January 1848.

455 5

10

15

20

25

30

S. Kierkegaard.

at the close of the annual volume: main title, table of contents, list of the subscribers.

Fortunate (Backward) Present Age! Fortunate present age, a time when a country’s few authors are the only ones in the country who

383

Invitation

5

456

10

15

20

25

30

•

P a p e r 383–384 1848

understand nothing, or concerning whom is at any rate doubtful whether they understand anything. The authors write the books. These books the journalists judge―for the authors do not understand what they are writing about, or it is at any rate doubtful to what extent they understand it. But that the journalists understand it, that is at any rate certainly beyond doubt―–after all, they judge the authors. Next, the journalists submit the matter to the judgment of a highly respected, cultivated public―for the authors do not understand what they are writing about, or it is indeed doubtful to what extent they understand it. But that the public, whose judgment is “the judgment,” understands it, that is indeed indubitable. Ergo the few authors are the only ones in the land who understand nothing, or with regard to whom it is at any rate doubtful to what extent they understand anything. Happy present age. Everyone knows everything, with the exception of the country’s few authors; if they could simply stop writing and in so doing reveal their ignorance, then everyone in this country would know everything. If these few authors could simply decide to stop writing, then perfection would be achieved, then everyone would know everything. Backward present age! If an author is the teacher, then the situation is backward, for then the journalists and the public obviously ought to be authors, for certainly the most knowledgeable one ought to be the author. If the journalists and the public are the ones who are to learn, then the relation is backward,1 for then they ought not judge the authors, just as little as the disciple ought to judge the teacher. then it is nonsense, this judging.

1

384

One or another little book should, after all, be dedicated to the late Spang

•

157

PAPER 385—PAPER 399 Miscellaneous Jottings, Ideas, and Drafts, 1848–1850

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

160

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 385–386 1848 •

459

Leporello. One could have imagined an entirely different L. He is a demon; yet his mask would have been far from that of this old, furrowed figure; no, a young man―but one could still sense, even in a single instant, the demon peeking out of the incognito of the coward and of the simpleton. Take the scene in the cemetery, when he invites the Commendatore: he is not himself the coward; basically, he mocks D. G.’s courage.―The scene at the banquet, when he sings “that spirits keep their word and come at night.” It ought to have been that the moral shone through to D. G. “You should be careful nonetheless, for―unter uns―spirits keep their word.”―Similarly earlier, when D. G. tells him how he intends to trick Elvira, and that his conversion is only a mask: here the simplicity ought, in a single flash, have the support of the demon who understands D. G. only all too well. On the whole, at such a single moment L. ought to have in him an element of the pedantic, also in the sense in which the common folk regard the malicious: something sharp, deep, penetrating, and in addition prickly.

Geert Westphaler. The actor who plays Geert should no doubt be more attentive, in the individual soliloquies (“the stories”) Geert has, to support them more with mimicking and keep the tone more talkative. When Geert tells the story of Emperor Augustus and the pope, it should be indicated that Geert is as present as if he had been there personally. That is, he mimics involuntarily; in Geert one sees a fantastic reflection of “Emperor August,” one hears voices, almost as one does with Master Jackel. With this, the comedy becomes crazier. Geert, after all, is the caricature of truly “inhabiting the story.” He has indeed inhabited the story, it is alive for him―but it is madness. Yet one may also imagine that Geert is ready to serve with his stories not only when someone else wants to hear them, but also that even when he is alone, he is in the habit of telling himself the same stories several times each day. And here, instantly, the mimicry appears. One could even imagine that when Geert is by himself, he has a bit of costume to aid him, e.g., a beard to put on when it is the pope speaking; a helmet or the like when it is Augustus. Foersom was able to move a bit in this direction; but it would be worth a try to take Geert a few steps farther into insanity, and that Phister was then given the role.

10 unter uns] German, between us.

385

5

10

15

386

20

25

30

Miscellaneous Jottings 387

460 5

10

15

388

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 387–388 1848 •

161

An Aesthetic Remark. There is a certain class of hum. beings, partly consisting of authors (novelists, short story writers, and the like), whose entire lives are essentially consumed in dealing with the relationship with the opposite sex. What is more, these authors regard themselves as possessing intellectuality and hold that the category that truly matters is the interesting: the time is past when what was decisive was being beautiful or the like. All the same, on inspection, these people turn out to be extremely meticulous about their outward appearance, they dress well, etc. In other words, they do have a touch of intellectuality, but they have no faith in it. Even as they insist that it is actually only intellect that matters, they would despair of achieving anything if, for example, they were deformed or even if they were not dressed in the latest fashion. They are dabblers, shallow and sleepy individuals. Saint-Aubain could serve as a model of this type. It is a duplicity that could be psychologically interesting to portray. However, it would be understood only by few. In the realm of the erotic such individualities are what “docents” are in relation to “scholarly work”: they imagine that they possess “intellect,” and yet if they actually did come into contact with intellect, they would become anxious and afraid―or else they would find it to be a ridiculous exaggeration.

An Ethical Verdict on the Recent Activity of Student Goldschmidt, or on His Transition to This Recent Activity. by S.K. His first period of activity was, as is known, The Corsair: an endeavor that continued over the course of 6 years, and which, as one of my pseudonyms has also put it quite expressively, can be compared with the―contemptibleness―of prostitutes; and then to earn much money, a surely luxurious life―an endeavor that actlly ought in fact be regarded, if not as the source, then at any rate as the symptom, of the disintegration in Denmark; an endeavor that gave Denmark the “rabble,” that strove to demoralize the working class, the student youth, embittering one social class against the other, and thereby rendering more difficult the Christian solution to the problem of “the neighbor”; an endeavor that was not as dangerous for what was written as it was for those for whom it was written, when a pair of desperate talents who―despairing of gaining a position of greater significance within the bounds of literary honor―chose to become heroes for a public such as this, which was now abused in every way. On a small scale, when everything otherwise (the financial advantage, the power of dissemination, etc.), is favorable for

162

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 388 1848 •

contemptibleness, then―if the situation is not to become wholly insane―it is all the more important that the verdict [“]Contemptible, Contemptibleness,[”] truly comes to mean something, gets an appropriately weighty emphasis. If that is not done, then the country has signed its own death warrant. But what is worse, people of character are so few in number that this verdict will easily fail to mean much, it gets trivially thrown together with other things―and becomes meaningless. It is contemptible, people say―and then subscribe; it is contemptible, they say―and then read it; it is contemptible, they say―and they themselves recount the contents; he is a contemptible person―and then people enter into company with him. At the time, because no one else wanted to do it, I chose to accentuate matters ethically. Still, it is nonetheless important that a little bit of care be taken ethically when such a contemptible person tries to make the transition to a new, i.e., more respectable life. While that is certainly a happy occasion, care must also be taken that this takes place in an ethical manner. A transition from contemptibleness to respectability cannot be made without further ado, so that one fine morning the contemptible person becomes respectable. But even less can it be done in the manner that Student Goldschmidt has done it. Namely: he explained that The Corsair was a transitional phase in his development. This is temerity in a different sense, namely, it is not temerity as The Corsair itself was, but temerity in how he has regarded his vita ante acta. It is as if someone who underwent his confirmation in a penitentiary wanted to call his term of imprisonment there a moment in his life-development. No, the transition must be made ethically. That must be demanded. First, an apology. And this apology must be formulated in the most rigorous ethical terms. Next, considering that the guilty act was committed by means of the press, and thus was widely disseminated and went on for 6 years, it must be demanded that this apology appear in print, if possible, every week in all of the country’s newspapers for half a year. Last, it could be asked whether (if, in other respects, the author wishes to be reckoned among respectable people) it would not be appropriate that he at least make an attempt to repay a bit of the money he had earned so basely: after all, even Judas was honorable enough that he gave the money back. Given that this has not happened, given that the opposite has happened, that Student G. has become guilty of new temerity by

26 vita ante acta] Latin, life before the events, previous life.

5

461 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

462

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 388 1848 •

reinterpreting his vita ante acta, then there is nothing to say about him other than the old things. He is to be regarded as a phenomenon of disintegration in Denmark. Without character. As editor of The Corsair, he was a force, he commanded the rabble (what is understood by this). As editor of Nord og Syd, he is an insignificance, precisely because in relation to that effort, he seems to want to have pretensions of propriety. What is dangerous is that there is no firm judgment upon him. If people want to view him and attack him as an author, then all they can say is that he is contemptible―for whatever that is worth. If people start from the premise that contemptibleness can go so far that it must be forcibly opposed, then it is said [“]In his youth, he suffered so much as a Jew, he depicted it so movingly in A Jew[”], thus people have sympathy for him. This is what is dangerous. I saw it immediately at the time he published A Jew: that he would have become dangerous if he had stayed longer with The Corsair, for he had become the object of sympathy by means of the Ach vey mir! that the Jew was. Accustomed as he was to enjoying the privilegium flebile of contemptibleness that permitted him to do anything whatever, because he would have positioned himself not merely beneath all parties but beneath all criticism, this has then enabled him to imagine vainly that he holds a position above all parties, now that he is much less than he was as editor of The Corsair. For, as stated, it was the demoralization in Denmark―and as can be the case precisely in Denmark, a servile spirit of pettiness and gossip and libel―that found its hero (indeed, it is so poetically true) in a Jew, just as in France where, as is well-known, the goddess of reason was a prostitute. This I have regarded as my duty to God, to my native land, to the truth, to every honorable endeavor hereabouts, to myself. Now it is clear that, this time, the matter cannot easily become dangerous. For if Student G. were to write against me in a respectable venue and in his own name, then there is no danger. This can of course also be seen in ordinary life. Take a man who is a devilish wit and a ferocious fellow in a dance hall: when the double-doors are opened for him to enter the brilliantly lit banquet hall, where the gaze of everyone present reflects the requirements of honor―then he has very little to say: he would rather hide along the wall or seek support from the waiter to see if he cannot help him find the way out again. G. was courageous for 6 years, courageous, that is, in the sense that one can be more cowardly than being a coward; for what is still more cowardly than 18 Ach vey mir] Yiddish, alas, woe is me. 19 privilegium flebile] Latin, privilege of the miserable.

163

164

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 388–389 1848 •

being a coward is to be courageous―behind the back of a rogue. That in the dance hall he was far stronger than I was: yes, I knew that. In truth, had I not been religiously determined, it never would even have occurred to me to march onto the dance floor in order to expose the formidable Golds. And he did win, he, the courageous one, who was so far superior to me: Hidden behind the rogue, he displayed courage amid the cheers of all these thousands who believed that he showed great courage. Now, however, he is named in another place, one that is comparatively more respectable; now we could of course get to see these great powers and this extraordinary courage. What goes around comes around! When, at the time, I helped him get carried away, my goal was merely to protect myself against him. The punishment will surely come; but I will not attack a rogue. Now I believe that the moment has arrived to let him receive the judgment that all that is honorable and respectable in my little native land should have demanded long ago.

Could Become a Pseudonymous Little Article.

5

10

463 15

389

20

Who Shall Proclaim the Truth? Yes, in order to proclaim the truth, God himself climbs down from heaven. But now let us be hum. beings. The truth is indeed a blessedness, the highest―but in this world, the truth is like a cruelty, so cold and rigorous is it: it requires the sacrifice of everything that a hum. being naturally values so highly. Who shall now proclaim it[?] Even the one who has understood it, if he is a hum. being, Lord God, then he wishes, after all―and this is natural for a hum. being―he wishes, after all, also for a bit of hum. joy in life―alas, and then he does not dare represent it rightly in its loftiness, with all its requirements for renunciation and sacrifice. Who, then, is to Proclaim the Truth?

25

30

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

10

15

464 20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 389 1848 •

Let me attempt a thought experiment. Lord God, in these times there are so many who indeed succeed with thought experiments, so let me, too, try one. Imagine a hum. being with the most extraordinary capabilities, a truly eminent genius. But in his youth he went astray, he sank deeply, humanly speaking, though without sustaining damage to his heart. Imagine him, and now he is in possession of the most eminent abilities―and at any rate, such a situation can of course be imagined. In the Middle Ages, he would no doubt have gone into a monastery and done penance. But now, in our age, how should he now do penance―the only thing that occupies him. Then it dawns on him. He is deeply humbled, indescribably deeply humbled. If the poorest gooseherd girl were to grant him her love, then he would say: [“]Surely I am in possession of the goods of happiness (for let us imagine that, too) and am so extraord. talented that even the loveliest girl would be proud to have me; but alas, I am so profoundly a sinner that even marriage with you would by far, by far, be a mésalliance.[”] If one of the inmates at the workhouse offered him his friendship, he would say: [“]Alas, no, I cannot be your friend, for that would be an indignity for you.[”] This is the sort of thing he would say, or at any rate think in his heart of hearts.1 And this hum. being was an eminent genius of the highest rank. He was not a psychological contradiction at all, for indeed this infinite grief, particularly as it is hidden in quiet inwardness, would correspond entirely to what is eminent. He regarded it as his task, as his only consolation, simply as a penance―to proclaim the truth. Where there was a danger with the truth, or a danger for the truth, and where the others perhaps saw it, too―but alas, they had (and this is hum.) many considerations, many wishes for this life, and thus they veered aside―but this was precisely the task for him. For the sake of the truth―but not with an eager desire, no, with a penitent’s anguished conscience―to suffer everything for the sake of the truth, to be mocked, ridiculed, taunted, spat upon, put to death―that beckoned to him, alas, to him the repentant one―that beckoned to him just as, in other cases, glory and honor and the love of the beautiful girl beckons to another. It animated him in the same way as, long ago, whippings animated the penitent.

165

Miscellaneous Jottings

166

•

P a p e r 389–390 1848–1849 •

Oh, humanly speaking, the truth, the absolute truth is cruel. In order to proclaim it, there must almost either be a God―or a sinner, who hates himself and does penance in this way. “For me,” he would say, “there is only one hope: to be saved someday. This life is dedicated to penance. But a part of penance and serving the truth is also that peop. do not come to know of this, for then they would like me. No, for the person who truly is to proclaim the truth, the first duty, humanly speaking, is to hate oneself, for only thus can be acquired the heedlessness―humanly speaking, the cruelty―that is the truth.”

1

5

10

Who Is to Proclaim Xnty?

Could Become a Pseudonymous Little Article.

Either God himself, an apostle―or an essential sinner. An essential sinner, one who understands essentially that he is a sinner―rather than a preacher’s bromide about univ. hum. imperfection―his only passion is repentance; from the hum. point of view he is in despair, but Christianly he is saved, for he is a believer; humanly, repentance is his only passion, but the atonement provides consolation; just as the hungry person swallows the bread greedily, so too does the hunger of repentance within him swallow the atonement; just as, for someone who is hungry, it is a matter of life or death if he does not get food, so too is it a matter of life and death here if he does not hear the atonement. Such a sinner, his life is rigorous. For example, he cannot marry. Or perhaps, if he should join with a girl in romantic love in order to repent jointly, then that should be the meaning of the marriage. And then, if one’s only passion is repentance―then to give life to a child, a child who ought to take joy in life innocently and be permitted to do so. No, he will say, if Christianity had commanded marriage it would have been madness. I know well that hum. beings, who (and this is hum.) take so lively an interest in romantic infatuation, have gotten Xnty to take an interest in it as well; but that Xnty does not command marriage, that is easy to see. And thus he is the one who can proclaim Christianity! But now assume that he―yes, how should I put this; shall I say that it is something beautiful in him, or that, Christianly, it is an imperfection―assume that he has a keen eye for what is beautiful in the ordinary hum. life as it is lived, lovingly, in a sort of innocence. He sees well that they are not rlly living in Christian categories, but he does not have the heart to disturb them. Look, here lies the monastery, not as something distinguished, but as a sort of penal institution. He wished to enter into something of this sort and remain silent―and yet, Christianly understood, he is precisely the one who can proclaim Xnty. It is as if Xnty did not fit into the world.

390

465

20

25

30

35

Miscellaneous Jottings

391

•

P a p e r 391 1848–1849 •

167

“The Priest” and the Schoolmaster. A Sort of Idyll.

5

10

15

20

466

25

30

35

A summer house in the country, a table set for lunch. The schoolmaster and Peer Hansen. Sch. So tell me now, P. H.: what in all the world are you doing out here in our area? P. H. No, first things first: a schnapps to open the meal and the heart. (drinks a glass of schnapps) Well, you see, to make matters short, I’m here on business for the Temperance Society. Sch. Then I understand, at least, why you needed to have the schnapps “first,” for if you had said that first, then I wouldn’t even have been able to offer you a schnapps. P. H. Understand me right, understand me right. I have by no means joined the Temperance Society, on the contrary: I will drink the second schnapps in honor of the Temperance S., and I always do that; I always drink the second schnapps in honor of the T. S. (They clink their schnapps glasses, both drink, and say: Long live the T. S.) Now to business. You see, it is well known about me that from my earliest days I have been in possession of wholly extraordinary speaking talents, a hell of a talker. It was these talents of mine that the T. S. became aware of, and which in the Society’s interests have intended not to let go to waste: in short, I have received a call and an appointment as “priest” at the T. S.a The board of the Temperance Society has held and holds the following view: What difference does it make if the priest, as I am genrlly called, drinks a schnapps or two or 4 or, in a word, drinks―what difference does it make, as long as he is capable, by means of his talents, of winning scores of members for the Society, members who do not drink[?] Sch. Yes, fair enough, the Society is indeed right about that: even the strictest teetotaler must after all consider every

a

You will see that this is as different as possible from my having come in as a member, for I have been engaged to do just the opposite: to go forth from the Temperance Society.

1

5

168

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 391 1848–1849 •

such schnapps for the priest well invested. on the assumption that you gain members for the Society, and your situation does not turn out like that of the man who said, [“]It will pay off in the long run,[”] when he fed pork to his sow, but he miscalculated, because he fed it three sides of pork and got only two back again. P. H. Ah, that’s how you think! I am of course entirely convinced that it is correct, and if I had not already done so, I would drink a second schnapps in honor of the T. S. I have even―to continue my tale―reached an agreement with the Society, whose work concerns diet, that I have my own diet: 4 schnappses every day, 2 glasses of punch, and an extra swig for each one who signs up as a member. It all goes on the expense account, and just as I believe the Society is satisfied with me, am I, too, satisfied with it―truly I don’t wish for any change or separation: like Peer Degn, it pains me to think of leaving a congregation that I love and respect, and that loves and respects me in return. Sch. You, who indeed in addition are more than Degn, have become a “priest” and something great in the world. And so there is one thing you can tell me; for I have often imagined myself in the priest’s position, but now I can learn from you what it is like to be a priest. But it must be something strange to stand and preach the very opposite of what one oneself does―after all, you cannot feel anything of what you are saying. P. H. Shouldn’t I be able to feel what I am saying? I can assure you―and every one of my many, many listeners will attest to this―that at times I am so moved that I can hardly speak for sheer emotion. To begin with, I think of the 4 swigs, the two glasses of punch, and an extra swig, and also the fact that I really have reached a good place in the world, and have gotten a good living―isn’t that indeed moving! Next, I think of my beneficial work, so rich in blessings. While I stand and speak, I look at my audience and I can read in their eyes: There sits someone who, as sure as my name is P. H., will go straight from the meeting to sign up as a member, and I am so moved by this that I begin to cry―and this, in turn, has such a powerful effect that I can tell that his neighbor will do the same―if that isn’t moving, then I don’t know what is moving. If I were a saint, wouldn’t it be nearly as moving that I produced such an effect? Isn’t it true?

5

10

15

20

25

467

35

40

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

10

•

P a p e r 391 1848–1849 •

Sch. Perhaps―but isn’t it untrue, after all, that you call yourself a priest? P. H. Hardly.1 If a person can proclaim the doctrine that we should not seek earthly honor, esteem, wealth―if one can proclaim that in such a manner that he convinces the peop., so that they live their lives accordingly: isn’t it all the same if he himself does the very opposite[?] Or isn’t this simply the best proof of what extraord. speaking talents he has, that he is truly a great orator if, even though he does the very opposite, he can still bring about such an enormous effect? What is a priest? A priest is someone who is paid by the state to proclaim the doctrine of poverty. A priest is a person who is respected, who enjoys honor and esteem in society in exchange for proclaiming that we should not seek earthly honor, esteem, wealth. The state reasons as follows (and curiously enough, when I mentioned earlier that the Temperance S. thinks this way, then you found that the Temperance S. was right): if the priest can get the congregation to act in accordance with his teaching, then what difference does it make if the priest is the exception[?] There once was a time when people required that the priest do it, and exempted the congregation; the state makes a more accurate calculation: it exempts the priest, just as long as he keeps watch over the congregation.

1

15

20

25

30

468 35

Sch. But doesn’t it ever happen that someone raises an objection to the fact that you yourself are not a member, and reproaches you for this? P. H. Yes, of course, but then I dismiss it, I declare the objection to be an attack on my person, an offensive personal attack; it is my job to preach, and one should stick to the facts. That shuts people up.

After this it ends with P. H. saying to the schoolmaster: Just listen, I’ll give a speech the way I usually give it. This speech is delivered in style, with a certain appearance of pathos, though with a bit of fantasy, yet nonetheless as it could actually have been given by someone not lacking in talent. He speaks of the high-mindedness involved in reaching a decision at all,

169

170

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 391–393 1848–1849 •

especially this one; portrays what takes place in the soul of one who decides to become a member of the Temperance Society. This makes such a deep impression on the schoolmaster that he decides to become a member―and P. H. pours himself an extra swig.

5

End.

No, no, Goldschmidt; it was not because you were a Jew that you were shut out. It was because, year after year, you kept wanting to earn the wages of contemptibleness and live on its bounty, because you―(and now a few features to describe The Corsair). That is why those in this country who were to sustain the standards of honor, at least to some extent, simply had to shut you out, exclude you; or, rather, that you had excluded yourself, even while, in another sense, you had gotten away with it all too easily, namely, by having a large audience. Then, perhaps, the passage from the discourse in Works of Love, in the discourse “Love Hides a Multitude of Sins,” that passage could be cited: [“]Ah, there are crimes that the world does not punish, etc.[”], the one about slander.

Friendly Appeal to Contemporaries. Exposed as I have been to the most varied, the most unjust, the most foolish judgments, until now I have persevered with my work as an author in silence. Nevertheless, it has occurred to me that, at some point, I ought to say a few words quite straightforwardly in this connection. For even if I can persevere in living this way, it is certain that there will always be a group of contemporaries who could benefit more from me than they have until now, if they did not let themselves be seduced by such judgments, or indeed be seduced into joining in making such judgments themselves. As for most of what is summarily judged to be eccentricity, pride, etc., I dare solemnly assert that a very great deal of it is in any case very carefully considered and thought through, and that much of it is simply Xnty, but that people in genrl do not have nearly as keen an understanding of Christianity as I do. Even the most superficial consideration of the matter will easily be capable of perceiving that I receive no earthly reward for my industriousness and my efforts. I earn no money as an author; sometimes I support it with my own money, even though it is clear that hardly anyone of the younger generation has such brilliant prospects as myself, if I wanted

392 10

15

20

393

25

469

35

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

10

15

394

•

P a p e r 393–394 1849

30

35

470

171

to serve the moment; but is it, then, a crime: that at my own expense I provide this little country with an author whose writings will endure when the productions of the moment are forgotten! I have exposed myself to abuse by the vulgarity and crudity of the mob, have also been persecuted by the envious intrigues of many of the more respectable people: what earthly reward could I have, then; even if I had been showered with marks of honor and distinction, what would that have helped me―every time, the vulgarity of the mob would simply find a new occasion for abuse: indeed, it would almost welcome it, simply in order to resume with renewed interest what it had once begun. But given that this is how things are (that I receive no earthly reward for my industriousness and my efforts), then at least every more honest and serious person ought to recognize―not, to be sure, that it is thereby decided that I serve the truth, but that people must judge a bit more slowly; that, however one twists or turns the matter, there must be something to learn from me. Probably this step, too, will be misunderstood by many; nevertheless, it is my hope that it will perhaps also be understood and taken into consideration by a number of individuals; and in any case my consolation is that I have done my part and perhaps have done what seemed to me most difficult to do.

A Straightforward Word about Myself as an Aut[hor]

20

25

•

From the beginning, it was never my thought that I should be an author for many years, nor was that something I could afford―and it has been 7 costly years from me, in both the one sense and another, years in which I have been an author in the language that, as I hope and console myself, will nonetheless not be ashamed that I have had the honor of writing in it. My decision was to stop with Concluding Postscript. At first, I understood the rage of the mob’s vulgarity against me as an obligation that I continue for a while. Given the size of The Corsair’s present circulation, with such editors as the present ones, I no longer regard it as dangerous, not least because there is so much afoot in Denmark. On the other hand, I remain entirely convinced that with the almost insanely disproportionate prevalence that it had in

[a]

Here, perhaps, the saying of Thomas a Kempis about Paul could be used as a motto: He defended himself, at times, so that the weak would not be scandalized on account of his silence. 3rd book, chap. 36.

1

5

172 1

Miscellaneous Jottings

[b]

with the beguiling power of the new

c

5

who has now admitted in passing, in Nord og Syd from March or February 1848, that he was the author of The Corsair. d

that I might see through him and get to know him thoroughly

[e]

10

15

20

25

I was perhaps the only one in this country, or any rate one of the few, who truly and in a good sense had hopes for G.―thus, I did him wrong: I had, at the outset, thought too highly of him: f

If I were to complain about anything, it would have to be that a country could be so shameless as to impose such inverted terms: that I had to spend money to be an author, and collected riches only in the form of mockery, while at the same time, in Danish literature, “contemptibleness” was unconditionally the most illustrious of all ways of making a living, almost the shining path to high esteem. g

30

35

40

forgetting that at that moment (even while, understood purely personally, I acted religiously), I acted magnanimously, though without forgetting their envy, with which they had followed my endeavor in silence without daring to take a stand, then happy to watch as I myself leapt into a double danger―which, however, had only arisen because of this treachery that denied the interpretation of my action, making it seem as if it were a senseless act, a kind of madness.

•

P a p e r 394 1849–1850 •

its day, with a talent like G. and such a schemer as P. L. M. as editors, it was extremely, extremely dangerous. It is my judgment that there were others more obligated than me to act under such circumstances: that they remained silent remains their responsibility. About Gc I cannot complain. The trap that was set was of the sort that if he fell into it,d it would necessarily be revealed that he had contempt for himself. He did so; and I certainly cannot complain about that.[e] That I may have been the only one in this country, or at any rate one of the few, who had hopes for G.in a good sense―and that I was deceived: well, I certainly cannot complain about that either. That, further, to the best of his abilities, he did everything to rile up the mob against me: I have absolutely no reason to complain about that. f If there were anyone I ought to complain about, it would have to be about the authors and journalists of honor and esteem, who after preaching long enough in private or in conversation that this odiousness with The Corsair was intolerable, that something ought to be done―that when I finally acted, they remained silent and betrayed me.g I do not deny it, I complain about it. I “complain” in the present tense: in the historical present tense. In a higher, godly sense, however, I do not complain about it, no, far from it: by acting decisively and daring to enter into danger alone, betrayed by those for whose sake1 I did what I had intended to do anyway, primarily for my own inner reasons, I succeeded in becoming aware of Xnty as I would never otherwise have become aware of it―an eternal gain. Note: this is also pointed out explicitly in that first article against P. L. Møller 1

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Miscellaneous Jottings 471

5

10

15

20

395

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 394–395 1849–1850

At the end of ’47 and the beginning of ’48, I once again had the thought of bringing things to a conclusionh with Christian Discourses, of which the last section is “Discourses at the Communion on Fridays,” of which two were preached in the Church of Our Lady: then came the year 1848―for me incomparably the richest and most fruitful year I have experienced as an author. I have not yet published the productivity from 1848 except for the little work by the new pseudonym Anti-Cl., The Sickness unto Death, part of which, however, is from before the catastrophe of ’48. The rest of the productivity is all ready for publication as soon as I understand that the moment has arrived. Judge, now, for yourselves how I have been treated as an author: I will not do that. If I have been treated unreasonably: that is a matter for the unreasonable ones and is rlly none of my concern. What does concern me, on the other hand, and what gives me so much joy, is thati

A Frank Word about Myself. My situation as an author in Denmark is such that I can certainly conceive that to most people it must seem odd and strange that I even want to persist; and given this, I can also well understand that certain people blame me for wanting to persist, it is “odd and strange.”a I will not speak of the naughty ones who surely, by their sheer impertinence, long ago wanted me to stop as an author, even less so inasmuch as the happy event has occurred: that at least one of the naughty ones has become quite proper, and for his good behavior he now receives almost every month, or every week, a grade of “very good” or at any rate a grade of “very good?”. Here, then, is my reply. It is my judgment―and indeed, in fact, my rather well-grounded judgment―that the way in which Xnty is ordinarily preached in Christendom is ensnared in a multi-

•

173

h

as an author, in order then to become a country priest, which has continually been my wish, to end

1

i

what concerns me is to give thanks for the concern, good will, and receptiveness that has been shown me―genrlly, or by the single individual―as an author.

a

This point will be a note.

5

174

1

Miscellaneous Jottings

b

with a readiness to be willing to strain myself to the utmost

c

5

(the further away the better, to the degree that one wants the opposite, the un-Christian, to emerge)

d

(the totally earnest, festive diversion at the quiet place in a quiet, quiet, quiet Sunday hour) e

10

15

20

25

and the same thing, this one and the same thing, nonetheless becomes infinitely different, has an appearance that is precisely inverse in proportion to the degree to which it is implemented existentially in actuality, or it is kept at bay in possibility by a speaker whose personal existence perhaps even expresses the opposite of what he proclaims, a speaker who, in addition, takes good care not to approach his listeners too closely, as if he wanted to obligate them to express existentially the content of what he said, in brief, a speaker who cautiously keeps himself at a theatrical distance from actuality. [f]

30

35

Personally, I occupy myself unconditionally with one thing: expressing my gratitude as strongly as possible toward the Governance that, from the first moment and until now, has done so indescribably much more for me than I had ever expected, could have expected, dared expect.

•

P a p e r 395 1849–1850 •

tude of illusions, and has reinforced people in their illusions, so that for many years now, the business of preaching Christianity has served not so much to bring Xnty closer, as it has to smuggle Xnty away, bit by bit. To this, then, attention must be drawn. My life, the daily existing, to some extent articulates the essential collision of Xnty. Equipped with spirit’s capacities of being able,b I serve the truth. But I receive no reward for this―quite right, for if I received a reward for this, if I earned money from it, then my life would not express the essential collision of Xnty; furthermore, I am regarded as odd, queer, am mocked, ridiculed―quite right, for if by my efforts I earned honor and esteem, my life would not express the essential collision of Christianity. The essential collision of Christianity, or indeed the collision of what is essentially Christian, which emerges immediately whenever what is Xn is implemented in actuality―whereas the opposite, the un-Christian, emerges when what is Xn is preached far, far far away from actualityc in a quiet, quiet, quiet Sunday hour―then what is required merely that one be a handsome man in a fitting priestly vestment, who knows his business, item, can declaim: and the preaching of Xnty will furnish one with money, honor, and esteem; it is by means of this preachingd that Xnty has been smuggled out of Xndom. Even if what was, in other respects, one thinge Look, this is why I have wanted to persist in this extremely strenuous and very thankless life I have lived as an author. I have wanted to persist in this for a period that is approximately as long as befits the category: to make aware. More I have not wanted to do and perhaps have not even been able to do; I have never in the least way made myself out to be an apostle, a reformer, and the like; ah, far from it― from the moment I began, I have emphasized and repeated unchangingly: “I am without authority.” It has reached my ears that a number of the strict Christians hereabouts find that my presentation of Χnty is altogether too exaggerated, too lofty, su25 item] Latin, as well as, also.

472 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

473

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

•

P a p e r 395–396 1849–1850

perhuman. Excellent!1 I attest before God that, compared to the gospel’s own presentation, I am aware that I have knocked off 35%, often 50%, in comparison to ideality―and then “the strict Christians” find that my presentation is too ideal. Look, Christianity has been forgotten to such a degree that existences which, if one were to go through them criticallyg ! Excellent proof that my judgment of Christendom is accurate! 1

Reflections.

396

•

g

would presumably be found to be essentially worldly, with a tiny little addition of Christianity: that those in “Christendom” (where all are Xns) are regarded as the strict and serious Christians who judge a presentation to be an exaggeration, a presentation whose author often considered his responsibilities in fear and trembling, concerning whether he was permitted to reduce it by so much. Yet my faith is not, in fact, in the “strict Christians”; rather, my faith is that there live among us a number who will earnestly enter into Christianity, provided that it is presented at least to some extent as the power and the ideal that it is.

1 )

15

20

474 25

In the name of truth, a poet cracks the whip of satire over the fallen race, and thereby makes himself worthy of being regarded almost as a witness to the truth. It is particularly the powers of the moment, and most especially the journalists in effigie, that he targets. What happens? All around the country, from all the journals, there come speeches of praise for the ethical seriousness of this work of poetry―and the poet remains silent. What is this, then? Yes, it is a false alarm. And what advantage does the poet gain from this behavior? A double one: first, that he is regarded almost as a witness to the truth, and in addition that he enjoys the admiration, praise, and honor of the demoralized moment―it is refinement, or it is stupidity, or it is cowardice. And what harm does the poet cause with such behavior? The irreparable harm of transforming true seriousness into a kind of laughable exaggeration. For if his behavior is seriousness, then of course pandering is seriousness, pandering that pretends a person is striking a

15 in effigie] Latin, in effigy.

175

1

5

10

15

176

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 396 1849–1850 •

blow, but does not in fact strike; and if pandering is seriousness, then true seriousness, that actually strikes, is exaggeration.

)

2

In the magnificent cathedral, a handsome Senior Court Preacher, the cultivated public’s chosen one, steps forth in front of a select circle of the distinguished and respected and select, and preaches on the passage: God has chosen the lowly and despised of the world―and no one laughs! (No―they weep!) 3

5

10

) It is one thing to profess (profiteri) an art, a science, a doctrine; it is another thing to profit from it (―is this not truly Prof. Martensen.)

)

4.

“Clothed in purple and costly linen,” with more than one star of a royal order shining on his breast, His Eminence steps forward into a circle where all bow respectfully before his high rank and in admiration of his talent. He preaches about how the truth is mocked in the world; and as he preaches, he weeps, he almost sobs.―I owe it to the truth to admit that I dare believe I understood the speech; there is only one thing that I did not understand; when I left, I came to think about it and later was unable to let go of this thought: but why does he cry? There was of course absolutely no reason for him to cry. If anything, he ought to have laughed, or if he did not wish to do that, then at least have added in a calmer tone: [“]As for myself, I owe it to the truth to admit that this doctrine about how the truth is mocked has helped me make a brilliant career for myself, as you yourselves indeed can see.[”] But why, then, does he cry? And yet, I do understand it: crying is part of it; if he had not cried, he would not have been such a great success; the very fact that he cries is what makes the comedy complete, or makes it completely into comedy. He beats his breast, there where the stars sparkle with their worldly splendor; he says: [“]Paul was free, though he stood in chains[”]―and I admit it, the arm movement is masterly, his 11 profiteri] Latin, to claim, profess.

15

20

25

30

475 35

Miscellaneous Jottings

5

•

P a p e r 396–397 1849–1850 •

figure a work of art, I am not surprised that a young woman sitting nearby stood up just then in order to regard His Eminence more closely through her pince-nez―incidentally, he seems to me not to bear the faintest resemblance to Paul―not because he was not in chains, for of course (and this is the difference) Paul stood free in chains; whereas His free Eminence is precisely captive in chains, chained in all these vain considerations of worldliness to which he is enslaved. 5 )

10

15

397

25

Out there in the country, in an idyllic calm where everything smiles, everything is peace: there lives His Reverence, the one called “our Father” by the congregation, esteemed and honored as if he were more than a human being. He preaches about how the true Christian is mocked and derided by the world―look, this is indeed comedy. And then, when His Reverence has truly and thoroughly preached about it, has pleased himself by playing the martyr, then the congregation makes still more plentiful offerings to him, bows down to him yet again, still more deeply―and the comedy is perfect.

(Ein, Zwei, Drei or 3 Aphorisms.)

Reflections.

most respectfully dedicated to a most esteemed audience by the author, who requests an indulgent judgment of this, his first attempt, the imperfection of which no one―with the exception, of course, of a highly esteemed audience, which knows everything―knows better than the author.

1 )

30

476

Geniuses are like thunderstorms: they go against the wind; terrify people; clear the air. The “established order” has invented a number of lightning rods against geniuses, or for them: they are effective―so much the worse for the established order; for if it succeeds once, twice,

20 Ein, Zwei, Drei] German, one, two, three.

177

178

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 397 1849–1850 •

three times―“the next thunderstorm” will be all the more frightful. Of geniuses there are two kinds. The characteristic of the first is the rumbling of thunder; by contrast, the lightning is infrequent and strikes rarely. The second kind have a quality of reflection, by which they restrain themselves or hold the thunder back. But then the lightning is all the more intense; with lightning’s speed and certainty, the selected individual points are hit―and lethally.

5

2

10

) “Did the apostle Paul have any formal office?” No, Paul did not have any formal office. “Did he have a livelihood?” No, he did not have a livelihood. “Wasn’t he married, at least?” No, he was not married. “But then Paul was hardly a serious man!” No, Paul was not a serious man

15

)

3

When a man has a toothache, the world says: Poor man! When a man is in financial trouble, the world says: Poor man! When a man’s wife is unfaithful to him, the world says: Poor man!― When God allows himself to be born, become a human being, and suffer, the world says: Poor person! When an apostle on a divine commission has the honor of suffering for the truth, the world says: Poor person!―― Poor world!!!

20

4. ) In the magnificent cathedral, a handsome Senior Court Preacher, the cultivated public’s chosen one, steps forth in front of a select circle of the select, and preaches movingly―I say “movingly,” I do not say “dryly”―no, he preaches movingly about the words of the apostle: God has chosen the lowly and despised of the world―and no one laughs!

5. ) It is one thing to profess (profiteri) an art, a science, a faith―it is another thing to profit from it.

25

30

477

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 397–398 1849–1850 •

6. )

5

10

When someone asks a man, “Do you know this and that,” and he immediately answers Yes or No, then this answer is a popular answer, showing that he is a simple person, a student at a teachers’ college, etc. But, on the other hand, if it takes, e.g., 10 years before the answer comes; if it comes in the form of a comprehensive dissertation that sticks strictly to the tempo, just as Holophernes says: “Ein, Zwei, Drei”; and then at the end of the comprehensive dissertation, if it is not quite clear whether he knows it or not―then that is an authentic speculative answer, proving that the person asked is a professor of speculation and proves that the one who was asked is a professor of speculation, or at least is so artful that he ought to be one. 7. )

15

20

398

25

The reflection that is found under no. 1 of the reflections lying on a loose sheet in the writing desk, which is about a poet who wants to be mistaken for a witness to the truth.

Most respectfully Victorin Victorius Victor.

(Most respectfully, Johannes de silentio.)

Ein, Zwei, Drei or 3 and ½ Aphorisms. No. 1. The one about geniuses and thunderstorms perhaps under the title: A Meteorological Observation No. 2 The one that ends: ergo Paul was not a serious man. perhaps under the title: A Cemetery Flower Planted Respectfully on the Grave of “The Established Christendom.”

478

No. 3. The one that ends with: Poor world. perhaps under the title: For the Jews’ harp.

179

180

Miscellaneous Jottings

•

P a p e r 398–399 1849–1850 •

No. 4) According to their own view, the most terrifying punishment with which the prophets threatened the Jewish people is this: Boys shall rule over you― ― ― ―this is only half an aphorism; the consequent phrase is missing.

# If someone were to say, “But after all, the pseudonym has actlly written a satire upon the whole of Xndom,” then I would answer Yes; and then I would add, But he has not named one single actual hum. being; the only person who is sufficiently close to the pseudonym to be affected by this is myself. Regarded in the light of ideality, generally speaking, every hum. being is a wretch. For this reason, precisely this reason, one hum. being (having started out by making it seem, presumptuously, as if he himself were the ideal) is not permitted to place another hum. being in that light. The pseudonym is permitted to do it to me and has my consent to do so; I find peace in my fate, for I want only one thing, to have space for the ideals. I am willing to make the greatest possible concession to every hum. being regarding my own imperfection. A passerby, it does not matter who, a drunk peddler-woman―were she to say to me in passing: [“]I am better than you[”]―then I would answer, perhaps not without a tear in my eye: [“]I believe it.[”] But woe to the hum. being who wants to lecture me about depicting the demands of the infinite. I hope to God that none of the people I love, by some lamentable misunderstanding, ever crosses me in that way.

399

10

15

20

25

PAPER 400—PAPER 420 “Loose Papers from ’48 That Lay in the Bible Case”

Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Stine Holst Petersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

182

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 400–402 1848 •

Loose Papers from ’48 That Lay in the Bible Case

481

400

This is faith’s ascent, or coming to faith. And here, too, lies the absurd. Luther speaks (in the sermon about the centurion of Capernaum) of how his faith increased: first he believed that Christ could help if only he would come, but when Christ would not do that, he believed nonetheless, he believed that Christ could also help without coming.

401:1

In an older theology, much was said about how, because the sin was against God, it was therefore so great, which was why the punishments of hell had to be eternal. In a later age, this was considered foolish; for after all, the sin was just as great whether or not it was against God. Fundamentally, this is indeed the most spiritless and materialistic view. For if sin is an external fact, then is it not also a notion, does not the person who has a developed notion of sin, sin more than the person who has an obscure notion of it? And does not the person who perseveres in sin, despite having a mature notion of it, sin most deeply?

401:2

Something about the Forgiveness of Sins. Psychologically, the difficulty here lies at a point entirely different from what people usually imagine. The difficulty is: to which immediacy does the one who believes in it return; or which is the immediacy that follows upon this belief―how does it relate to what people otherwise call immed[iacy][?] To believe in the forgiveness of sins is a paradox, the absurd, etc., etc.; that is not what I am speaking about, but something else. I assume, then, that a person has had the enormous courage of faith truly to believe that God has

5

15

20

402

25

30

Loose Papers from ‘48

482

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 402 1848

literally forgotten his sin―a courage that is perhaps not even found in ten in each generation, this insane courage―after having developed a mature notion of God, then to have faith in this: that God can quite literally forget. But I assume this? What then[?] Now all is forgotten; he is like a new person. But does this leave no trace at all behind, that is, should it be possible that a person could come to live in the carefree fashion of a youth―impossible! And precisely from this I demonstrate that it is an indescribably problematic matter to bring up a child rigorously in Xnty; for the life of such a person becomes confused on the most frightful scale until some point in his mid-thirties. How should it be possible for the person who has believed in the forgiveness of his sins then to become young enough to fall in love erotically[?] Here is my own life’s difficulty. I was brought up with enormous rigor in Xnty by an old man. That is why my life is frightfully confused for me; that is why I have been brought into collisions that no one imagines, let alone speaks about. And it is only now, now in my 35th year, that―with the help of heavy sufferings, and with the bitterness of repentance―I have perhaps learned to die away from the world sufficiently for there truly to be any talk of my finding my entire life and salvation through faith in the forgiveness of sins. But if truth be told, although spiritually I am as strong as ever, I am now much too old for falling in love with a woman and anything of that sort. One must be worn with age in order rlly to feel a need for Xnty. If it is forced upon a person before that time, it rlly drives him crazy. In the child and the youth there is something that is so naturally a part of them that it can only be said that God himself has willed them to be such; the child and the youth are, essentially, solely determined psychically, neither more or less. Xnty is spirit. To view a child rigorously under the determination “spirit” is cruelty, is like killing him, and has never been Xnty’s intention.

•

183

184

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 402–404 1848 •

And this is why the whole of Xnty in Xndom has for the most part become chitchat: because children are brought up in it. For seldom, very seldom, is a child brought up in it with monstrous rigor; which, however―crazy as it may be―is far better than the alternative, even if it kills his childhood and his youth; most often he is brought up with chitchat, and then things go entirely awry. Yet it is always better to have endured all these torments in childhood and youth by being stretched out (as on the rack) under the category of spirit―that which one is not yet―to have endured all of these torments, so that one’s childhood became sheer wretchedness― and then finally to understand, in full blessedness: See, now I can put it to use; now Xnty exists for me and is everything: for after all, this is better than having, in chitchat, been neither the one nor the other.

“Your sins are forgiven”―this is the Christians’ cry to one another; with this cry, Christianity advances through the world; by that language it is known, just as a people, a nation, is always known by the language it speaks. The one cries out this phrase to the other just as a series of night watchmen shout out a watchword to one another, etc.

5

483

10

15

403 20

25

see Luther’s sermon on the gospel for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, the conclusion

I have always maintained that all hum. beings have equal access to passion and feeling; it has been my consolation. But now one also sees what is dubious. A bumbling idiot like Pastor Boiesen dismisses Dr. Rudelbach’s erudition, etc., for he (Boiesen) is a patriot! Bravo. What a monstrous lie. Just by being a patriot, just by yelling about it, a person becomes everything. I had thought that one became a patriot by being a patriot, and that was that.

404:1 30

Loose Papers from ‘48 404:2

5

484 10

405 15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 404–405 1848

In these times, spirit becomes a superfluity; art, science, and the like become luxury. The other day there was a lady who was agitatedly complaining about the fact that the man who lived across the street from her ran a bowling alley; she found it an affront to patriotism that anyone runs a bowling alley in these times. Just as a pitiable man of this sort will now presumably walk about downcast, not daring to raise his eyes because he’s not a patriot―but runs a bowling alley: so, too, must we poor auth[ors], item artists, etc., take note that that this not go any further and that (in the seriousness of the age!) we, like prostitutes, become an abomination, etc.

Of all tyrannies, a people’s government is the most excruciating, the most devoid of spirit, absolutely the downfall of all that is great and lofty. A tyrant is still hum., or an individual hum. being. Ordinarily he at least has an idea, even if it is the most unreasonable. Then one can consider on one’s own whether the idea is worth the trouble of letting oneself be put to death if it collides with one’s own ideas, or if it is not worth the trouble. And so one arranges things and lives.―But in a people’s government, who is the ruler? An X, or the everlasting chitchat: whatever is or has the majority at any moment―the craziest of all arrangements. When one knows how a majority is actually obtained, and how it can fluctuate―and then that this nonsense is the ruling power. A tyrant, after all, is only a single person; thus if one prefers, one can arrange things so as to avoid him, live far away from him, etc. But in a people’s government, how shall I escape the tyrant[?] In a certain sense, of course, every hum. being is the tyrant, as long as he obtains a mob, a majority. As an individual hum. being, a tyrant is so elevated above a person, so distant, that one can be allowed to live one’s private life as one wants. Never in all eternity can it occur to an emperor to concern himself with me, with how I live, when I get up in the morning, what I read, etc.―ordinarily, he does not even know that I exist. But in a people’s gov9 item] Latin, as well as, also.

•

185

186

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 405–406 1848 •

ernment “one’s equal” is the ruler. Such things do occupy him: whether my beard is like his, whether I go to Deer Park at the same times he does, whether I am just like him and the others. And if not, then yes, it is a crime―a political crime, a crime against the state! At most, a people’s government will be able to make some martyrs from whom it will benefit as Joseph’s brothers did from Joseph. Living under such a government is the most cultivating for eternity, but is the greatest torment as long as it persists. A person can have only one longing: that Socratic one to die and to be dead. For Socrates, he endured this spiritlessness: that numerus is the government, that we are not all equal before God (for what does one care about God in a people’s government!), but all are equal before the number! And the number is precisely the evil, as is also used pointedly in the Book of Revelation. A people’s government is the true picture of hell. For even if one were to survive its torment, it would still be a relief if one were allowed to be alone; but what is tormenting is precisely that “the others” tyrannize a person.

5

10

485

15

20

25

Nowadays, when the priest preaches about God and Xt and eternity, etc., then the congregation listens―as usual. But if he simply says, “in these times, now that the war . . .”―then, instantaneously, the congregants prick up their ears, that’s something to preach about, people straighten up to catch every word, the women take off their hats so they won’t miss a thing―with what is said about God and Xt, the details don’t matter as much.

406:1

30

35

naturally, the reality of my authorial activity is now nothing, less than nothing, will soon become a crime. Ultimately, in order to be rewarded by the state and gain respect as a patriot, I will be forced 14 numerus] Latin, number, amount.

406:2

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 406–407 1848

to offer Fædrelandet my services as a messenger by delivering papers.

406:3 5

10

486

15

The God-relationship is the only thing that grants significance. One sees this eminently in the life of Xt. It was a day, a day that presumably had also had its own great event about which everyone talked as something enormously important―on that day a woman anointed Xt’s head―what insignificance: and yet everything else has been forgotten, and she alone is remembered. To me, however, it seems that never does the dignity of divinity, the consciousness of being God, emerge more powerfully in the life of Xt, not even when he performs a miracle, than when he shows what infinite reality his life had: that such an insignificant event deserves to be remembered eternally; that an unknown woman, a vanishing nothing, becomes immortal merely because one day she anointed his head!

20

407

25

30

35

True enough, there is talk from time to time of how, from time to time, there also lived truly extraordinary ones who were not persecuted, but were highly honored and esteemed. Perhaps. But let us look at the matter a bit more closely. Because a person is great, e.g., as an artist, a poet, an actor, an orator, etc., it does not yet follow that he is ethically great. Perhaps, despite his aesthetic greatness, he was weak enough to want to be honored and esteemed in the world, and in an untrue manner, also by speaking flatteringly of evil, or indeed by avoiding dangers that he should have dared face. Look, this is something different. Let us imagine a poet. Now, I do not deny that he is, in truth, great as a poet; but that is clearly not why he became so highly esteemed and admired by contemporaries. No, he was also a weak character, cowardly; he kept up good relations with the organs of envy, buttressed himself

•

187

188

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 407–408 1848 •

through alliances with others, etc.―look, that is why he lived honored and esteemed. But this is certain: never has a person who was ethically great been honored or esteemed as long as he was alive; for in that case the world would also have had to be good. It is only by dishonorable means that one truly manages to become esteemed and honored as long as one is alive; actually being a genius does not help. Had that poet been an ethicist as well, he would not have been honored and esteemed.

Unless You See Signs and Wonders, You Will Not Believe. Here we see the correctness of making faith into its own sphere. For if what people in genrl call having faith ([believing that there exists a God, a Providence, etc.) which is nothing other than knowing, or the immediacy that certainly can be managed by means of thinking, but that is not tested in spiritual trials, is not worn out to the point of the absurd] were having faith, then the word of Xt would become an anticlimax, and Christ would come to say the opposite. For that quasi faith that thinks that it has faith―but cannot manage anything concerning miracles and the like; it believes, as is said, in God and Christ, but leaves the miracle out of it. By contrast, Xt organizes the situation in the opposite way: first comes the faith that believes in miracles, believes because it sees miracles; and then, next, the faith that believes even though no miracle takes place. These two qualifications are those of faith, and the absurd, the hallmarks of offense, are present. First, to believe that God will allow something to happen that completely contradicts our reason and understanding. That is absurd. And then, when one has believed this, that this will take place, then nonetheless to believe despite the fact that it does not occur. But if one removes the first qualification of faith―to believe because one sees

5

10

487

408

15

20

25

30

35

Loose Papers from ‘48

5

10

409:1

15

488

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 408–409 1848

signs and wonders―then the spheres are confused, for then knowledge and the highest form of faith come to resemble one another. For when knowledge is allowed to call itself faith, it requires no miracle; on the contrary, it would rather be free of it, for the miracle is precisely an offense to it. But faith’s highest form, of course, is to believe without seeing signs and wonders. Here one sees an example of how everything is confused when we do not take care to make faith into a sphere of its own.

Something about the Forgiveness of Sins.

To have faith in one’s sins being forgiven is the decisive crisis through which a hum. being becomes spirit; the person who does not believe this is not spirit. This is the maturity of spirit: it means that all the immediacy has been lost, that the hum. being not only achieves nothing by himself, but manages only to harm himself. But how many do, in truth, have the experience, truly personally, of understanding that they themselves have been brought to this extreme point[?] (Here lies the absurd. Offense. The paradox. The forgiveness of sins.) Most hum. beings never become spirit, never experience becoming spirit. The development: child, youth, adult, old person―this they do undergo, no thanks to themselves, it is not merit on their part, or their Zuthat, it is the vegetative or vegetative-animal process. But becoming spirit is something they never experience. Indeed, the forgiveness of sins does not concern some particular thing―as if one were entirely good (this is childishness, for the child always asks forgiveness for some particular thing, something that it did yesterday and forgot today, etc.; it could never occur to the child―indeed the child could not even get into its head―that it is evil at all); no, precisely the opposite, it concerns not so much the individual 29 Zuthat] German, addition. (See also explanatory note.)

•

189

190

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 409 1848 •

things as it does the totality, it pertains to one’s entire self, which is sinful and corrupts everything as soon as it comes into the slightest contact with it. The person who in truth has experienced and experiences having faith in the forgiveness of his sins, he has certainly then become a different hum. being, all is forgotten―but nonetheless with him it is not as it is with the child, who after having received forgiveness essentially becomes the same child again. No, he has become an eternity older; for he has now become spirit: the whole of immediacy and its egoism, its selfish attachment to the world and to himself, has been lost. Humanly speaking, he is now old, enormously old; but eternally he is young.

5

10

15

From time to time one finds expositions of the forgiveness of sins which relate that the author believes in it, and in his exposition one sees precisely the opposite, that he actlly is offended by it. Thus, e.g., in a sermon by Löffler (see Handbuch deutscher Beredsamkeit by Dr. O.L.B. Wolff. Leipzig. Weber. 1845. 1st part p. 189.)

The great deal of talk about how God certainly forgives sins, but not the sin’s natural consequences . . . perhaps the sting of conscience is not removed either―what, then, is the forgiveness of sins?

Were not the words to the paralytic: Stand up and walk. But the sermon twists itself into sheer contradiction; it cannot actlly preach on that gospel, for it does not have faith, so instead it makes itself a doctrine, and this is supposed to be the forgiveness of sins and is nothing other than rationalist nonsense―yet the forgiveness of sins is supposedly “the most profound and most important doctrine in Xnty.”

409:2

20

25

30

Loose Papers from ‘48 410

5

10

15

20

25

•

P a p e r 410–412 1848

Something about the Forgiveness of Sins As the first impression of truly and deeply falling in love is the feeling of one’s own unworthiness, so too is the need for forgiveness of sins the mark that one loves God. Yet, left to his own devices, no hum. being can ever come up with the notion that God loves him. That must be proclaimed to the hum. being. This is the gospel, revelation. But precisely because, left to his own devices, no hum. being can discern that God loves him, neither can any hum. being, left to his own devices, discern how great a sinner he is. As a consequence of this, the Augsburg Confession teaches that it must be revealed to a hum. being how great a sinner he is. For without the divine criterion, no hum. being is the great sinner (this he is only―before God). But both parts correspond to one another: if the hum. being does not comprehend how great a sinner he is, then he cannot love God; and if he does not (by it having been proclaimed to him how deeply God loves him) love God, then he cannot comprehend how great a sinner he is. The inwardness of the consciousness of sin is precisely the passion of love. For the Law does indeed make one into a sinner―but love makes one into a far greater sinner; the person who fears God and trembles may well feel himself to be a sinner, but the person who in truth loves, feels himself to be an even greater sinner.

490

411

It is a true saying by Luther (somewhere in his Postille) that when the brave and strong ones become afraid, then God has to make use of the weak ones.

412

This too is an eternal image (see Journal NB4, somewhere toward the end): a hedge that forms the border of a park, a brook runs along it―it is morning―a young lady in morning dress strolling alone

35

•

191

192

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 412–413 1848 •

A scene that expresses this completely will be found along Ladegaard Brook.

Let us talk like this. Imagine that, owing to good fortune, you were in possession of every possible good, and moreover a taste, a genius, for making use of them, an inventiveness in enjoying― yes, as if your entire life were arranged in poetic enchantment; and everyone who visited you from the most distant places, even travelers from the lands bordering most closely on the realm of fantasy. All of them, all of them, were unanimous in admiring your mind and spirit, and speechless with wonder at your happiness. What would you lack, then? Perhaps you think I would say: You lack someone with whom to share your happiness. Not at all; this, too, is conceded, for in my hands, the wish is most accommodating in everything. Accordingly, you would have a beloved, the epitome of all charm; she would be as comely as that rose in the Song of Solomon, even more lovely, blushing more deeply than Eastern voluptuousness, more demure than Northern womanliness; she would be more entertaining than a Scheherazade (in 1001 Nights) and for more than 1001 nights. What would you then be missing? Perhaps you think I will speak of how everything is still so uncertain, that happiness changes so often―that you lack assurance that it would continue. Not at all; this too is granted you. What, then, did you lack? You are thinking that perhaps I will say: [“]Death is so―uncertain―no, it is always certain―this is what is so disturbing.[”] Not at all, this, too, is granted you. To you are granted 70 years, with complete certainty―what then would you be lacking? You would lack having God and his governance to wonder at; for after all, you would be the architect of your own happiness, your own Providence. Behold, in that wishful young man’s palace, one window was missing. From all the other windows, the view was enchanting― but this window, which he (for let us imagine it like this) rightly understood that he could not complete―the view from this window looked out onto God, onto God’s Providence. Oh, and is it not true that you would be better off if we turned the entire matter around: instead of that enormous palace with the 23 windows, you had anything but a palace, you had a little room with only one window, and even that was not entirely completed―but that was the window through which you looked out onto God.

413 5

10

15

20

25

30

491

35

40

Loose Papers from ‘48 414

5

10

15

415 20

25

492

35

•

P a p e r 414–415 1848

Mixed Feelings. Under this title I could wish to sketch out a bit of lyric. Naturally, the point should be that by making use of purely dialectical calculations and by combinations of overlapping feelings and passions, what one could call the combined numbers would be found. “The mixture” will thus signify the intensity, for the more mixing into unity, the more intensive it is, the more contradictions―and nonetheless the harmony is all the richer. On the whole, it would be interesting to calculate the whole area of feelings and passions in this manner, something no one has thought of, even less that the secret is simply that it must be done dialectically: not lyrically, but rather dialectically and then lyrically. As an example of a number of mixed feelings, the draft “Something about Loving” could be used.

Something about Loving. Which hum. being, considered ideally, can be loved the most? The one who makes me unhappy, but in such a way that I am deeply convinced that he does so in accordance with his best conviction, that he genuinely intends, in truth, what is best. The one who should be loved most must set all of love’s factors in motion, and that is only the case in the formula described here. I love such a hum. being because I feel the love in him; but my sympathy is awakened by the fact that he made me unhappy by doing something he intended to do in my best interests―and I love him even more. In sorrowing over my own unhappiness, if I then consider how difficult it must be for the one who loves to have made the beloved unhappy: in sorrow over this I love him once again. This is the most perfect formula for loving. I have never seen it presented. It contains the striking para-

•

193

194

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 415–416 1848 •

dox that I love the most―precisely because he made me unhappy. In this formula there is more of reflected sympathy than what people otherwise think of. This is the scale. 1) To love someone because he makes me happy―is egotism. 2) to love―without adding anything further, which is higher than 1) in the same sense that a general is higher than a major general. The simple form is higher than the gradations. The identity of the simple and the superlative. (because is like “major” added to “general”: it subtracts) 3) to love―and in addition, to love even more― because he made me unhappy. Now, if in relation to loving, a “because” is regarded as a plus (as in no. 1), then it subtracts from it and is a minus; but if in relation to loving, a “because” seems to be a minus (that he made me unhappy is indeed like a subtraction), then it is a plus, the only, the absolutely inwardly moving plus in relation to loving.

One Single Vote, Absolute, without any Further Addition

1

[a]

cannot even shave people, but only pester them

[b]

that as a drifter and an idler, he slouches around at dance halls

5

c

that belongs in the cellar of literature

As a political author, Sibbern differs from Geert W. only in that he never shaves anyone’s beard off, but only pesters people with his chatter. This is something to sorrow over, for in the fact that a man who holds such a highly regarded position in the state, a teacher at the university, a man who accordingly is obligated with the responsibility to set a good example for youth―that as an author he fools around in a certain class of newspapersc like a low-comedy character who fools around in dance halls and other such places.c Yet as far as S. is concerned, one certainly is obliged to cease feeling sorrowful. In a recent issue of Aftenbladet, he orients us for the 37th time about the domestic political situa-

5

10

15

20

416

25

30

493

35

Loose Papers from ‘48

5

10

15

20

25

30

494

40

•

P a p e r 416 1848

tion―for Sib. always feels called upon to provide orientation. In a slightly more fantastic costume than the utterly slovenly mix of old and new in which he usually appears, he reveals himself as a prophet. He warns of a reaction against the ministry currently in office, a frightful reaction, as frightful as can possibly be, i.e., from all 4 corners of the world. First comes the first corner―that things are functioning in an orderly manner is quite laudable. The second corner is quite remarkable: Nord og Syd―if it is to be a corner, especially a corner of the world, this North and South is a remarkable corner indeed. And because 2 more corners are added, it thus ends up becoming 6 corners. What a frightful whirlwind! How fortunate that S. knows how to find comfort amid the confusion that could possibly arise at the frightful moment when the storm begins to rage all at once from all 4 of the world’s―6 corners. In that regard, he trusts in “the editor of Adresseavisen and Flyveposten.” One can call this orientation with respect to the situation, but in all of Sibbernism it has never been demonstrated clearly that he has received a calling to orient, and that is precisely why we have emphasized this. And in any case, this little account of Sibbernism may perhaps suffice, once and for all, to orient with regard to Sibbern: that he, as a political vagrant, is a complete Geert W., similar to him also in having ended up drinking “Du’s” with the executioner: the worn-out, wretched tool of literary contemptibleness and envy―or as Sibbern, his Du’s-brother, calls him: the youthful genius, Student Goldschmidt. These two understand each other―naturally not that lovable, noteworthy thinker, Councillor of State Sibbern, but the political Peter-the-Fool Sibbern―and Goldschm., the naughty boy of literature, who have made a practice of complimenting one another― they, what a wonder―have already received honor from one another many times.

•

195

196

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 417–419 1848 •

One shouldn’t despise the leap. In it there is something extraord. Therefore, among almost all peoples a legend about a leap in which innocence was saved, while the evil plunged into the abyss―a leap that only innocence can make.

417

5

Now, in our times, so much is said about how an individuality develops itself, undergoes many phases of development, that this sort of thing has become nonsensical enough to become popular at the cellar level of society. Right now Goldschmidt is all the rage, he is the admired individuality who goes through many phases of development. His first phase is The Corsair. He himself does not seem to know fully, and his audience even less so, that there in fact are certain developments that have been brought to a full stop. His first phase of development is more or less as if one were to say: My first phase of development was 7 years in a house of correction―or I became a prostitute: that was the first phase. To others, such developments are assumed to be subtractions.

418

In a certain sense, the world is so sly that it sort of half-understands that a martyr would be the most dangerous hum. being of all. This is why there is so much talk of how nowadays no one becomes a martyr anymore. The world in fact fears the strain involved if a hum. being were to put his life at stake for the truth, fears that it will come very close: then all prudence involving [“]to a certain extent[”] goes out the window. But an immed. enthusiast will no longer be able to become a martyr, that is to say, even if he did so, the world would protest it and would deny it. Accordingly, now the art is: a reflective martyr, one who with the clearest consciousness tends in that direction from the very beginning, making use of everything (which otherwise is used to gain earthly advantage) in order to take hold of everything in such a way that people cannot get rid of him―and then he becomes a martyr. This is a slow and difficult operation, to do all this and endure it year after year, simply in order to fall, though, to be sure, also to fall in such a manner that the truth has a decisive victory.

419

10

15

25

30

495

Loose Papers from ‘48

5

420:1 10

420:2

15

20

25

30

496

•

P a p e r 419–420 1848 •

197

This is the ultimate means for getting people out of the self-satisfied bewitchments of “prudence.” Such a martyr I would call “the truth’s spy.” This is the ultimate power a hum. being has over others―he can say: Yes, yes, you shall come to kill me, or to treat me in such a manner that you yourselves will regret it.

Alas, in the theater we all laugh at The Comrades, but in actuality we all laugh at the single individual, who literally does not want in any way be a part of any camaraderie. For if he does not want to do this, and if he were someone who otherwise could, then he loses all worldly advantages, but this indeed is ridiculous of him―he who could have them

Literary Hallucination. This could become a study of Martin Hamerich, though not a newspaper article; for to communicate truth in a newspaper is to use the broadcast medium of the lie.

First of all, it is the case: that no actuality, no actual something, awakens anywhere near as much sensation as does a bagatelle that ends up like these, which chatter can get hold of. Next: that industrialists, or at any rate those who seek finite advantages, are especially busy with finite business. This is precisely how M. H. ought to be regarded, because he so readily deceives us, though in his case it is indeed not money he is seeking, but rather his desire to be something in the literary world―which he simply isn’t. He writes not books, but trifles of a sort especially calculated to be talked about. An official school program, every year, with a little essay by the good Magister. Naturally, a school program is nothing other than an expense borne by the school; just as during examination season there is a lunch buffet set up for all the teachers, so too must the school pay up the 30 or 40 rix-dollars that a program costs. And that is how he sees it, too. A very large print run is made―and all the parents, all the school’s donors, all of his friends (to such an extent that even I get one) get their individual copies. All of these hum. beings are now quite pleased: a present is always pleasant. They all speak well of it, and there really is talk about these pathetic 8 to 10 to 20 pages, as is only natural when one has guaranteed that 400 to 500 peop. or more will talk about it―if only simply to say that they have received a free copy. After this, the program is perhaps reviewed very positively in Berlingske T.

198

Loose Papers from ‘48

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

by one of the school’s teachers or by a benefactor. If someone wished to set forth a proper critique and with its help prove that the whole thing was obviously a writing-sample by a university graduate, written in the prose of a university graduate, then the game would be up. All of those who had received free copies would feel insulted. And not only that, but the author would step forth and say: One cannot exhaust a subject in such a little article in a program, etc. Someone gives a speech at the Scandinavian Society. There are thus many who listen― and there is much to talk about: who was there that evening, etc., etc. And then the newspapers report on that evening in the Scandinavian Society, and mention the lecture, too, which is praised, indeed is described in more flowery terms than many a great book that is the fruit of long exertion. This is read by many; quite naturally, a person is eager to read about an evening where he himself had been present. But even that is not enough: then it is published. “Now is the moment”―how so “now”[?]: Yes, now Parliament has been convened, and every member receives a free copy―And then it says in the book that the author had first thought of producing yet another essay. If that had appeared, there would not have been nearly as much to talk about. But the fact that he has intentions of doing so naturally gives the chatter enough to think about and talk about. “Now is the moment for it,” says the auth. For what? Yes, indeed, it is self-explanatory― he himself says it, too: to publish this lecture. And what is this lecture, then? A little insignificance, a laughable bagatelle, containing a number of quite amusing curiosities regarding the use of loanwords in the Danish language, but in which not even the slightest attempt is made at an actual investigation or an exposition of what this confinium between foreign languages at all means, etc. and etc., etc. But now is the moment for it! If, without saying a word, someone had come up with a plan of founding a new monastic order with the aim of saving the world, if possible, and had everything ready, his associates already united in the intention to join his cause, and then, then in this moment of confusion, he was to say: Now is the moment for it―that would be heard. Or if someone had a complete and thoroughly elaborated plan for the defense of Denmark and were to say: Now is the moment. But Mag. M. H. says, Now is the moment for it. As if, in accordance with the heavenly decree, it had been decided that one day God would permit himself to be born, and it was merely a matter of waiting for the moment―and then it came, and it was said: Now is the moment for it. “Now is the moment for it,” how full of pathos; one gets an impression of thorough and well-tested preparatory work undertaken over a long period of time, an impression that the matter has now been fully exhausted―it was merely a matter of waiting for the moment― Now is the moment for it! Is there any trace of meaning in this[?] Yet perhaps, satirically enough, the man is right: Now is the moment for it, the moment when one can puff up tomfoolery and trifles into earnestness and the most extraordinary earnestness. Perhaps this is how that passage can be explained. It has in fact happened that one of the meetings of Parliament wasted time and the country’s money on setting forth meaningless remarks about language. Then it dawns on Mag. M. H.: Now is the moment. Further. Perhaps Mag. H. wishes to achieve something in Parliament, perhaps he wants to join a committee. The ordinary lobbying and hocus-pocus do not suffice. So more must be done. Now, a person 22 confinium] Latin, border region.

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Loose Papers from ‘48

497

10

15

20

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

199

could of course arrange a gala dinner or two. But that is expensive. Assuming that there are only 50 attendees, it would cost―even if one cut corners―at least 80 or 90 rix-dollars. Furthermore, it does not flatter people sufficiently. People of course express gratitude for food and drink, but after all, there are so many who can manage that. No, but making a present of―a book. Capital: it costs only höchsten 30 rix-dollars, and then you have ca. 2000 presents. Then every member of Parliament gets his own copy. Oh, the seriousness of Parliament! Prayers are said for it in every church, its demeanor has until now been that of the utmost seriousness, particularly on that unforgettable language-day, when the speed-writers and stenographers recorded these eternally memorable words that cost the country ca. 600 rix-dollars. But never has the demeanor of Parliament been as earnest as it was on the day after Mag. H.’s book was published. There were congratulations all around; everyone said thank you. Much sensation has already arisen. And now what people euphemistically call the book has made its way into the newspapers. 150 people―not ordinary menfolk, but members of Parliament―plus a great many others, are in a sense obligated to have a good opinion of it: ergo, it will be trumpeted in the newspapers―for now is the moment for it. Ordinarily, we can assume that that there will be no objections, and the industrious, vain wretch of an author will garner honor and esteem―for he will not earn money, that is true (he has of course spent 30 rix-dollars to be able to give it away as a present); but as the tailor said, what goes around, comes around. If, on the other hand, someone raised an objection to it and demonstrated the little thing’s nullity, then the author would step forward and say: [“]It is indeed very peculiar to apply such a standard to a casual little trifle, a lecture a person was asked to give, a little bagatelle”―concerning its publication, however, it was said: Now is the moment for it.

5 höchsten] German, at most.

PAPER 421— PAPER 423 “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.’: 7 Discourses”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Stine Holst Petersen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

202

“Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.”

•

P a p e r 421–422 1849 •

501

“Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.”

421

7 Discourses. To be treated here are the finest, in human terms the most endearing, forms of despair (which are precisely the “poet’s” most elevated)―e.g., unhappy love, grief over one who has died, sorrow at not having reached one’s destiny in life. Perhaps the 3 or 4 themes left over from “Moods in the Strife of Suffering,” which are somewhere in a journal, could be combined with these. Each discourse would first develop or describe the particular sorrow it is to treat; then it would utter the cautionary: Let not the heart in sorrow sin―consider: and then the theme, e.g., over one who has died―description―let not the heart in sorrow sin, consider: the joy in [“]at last[”] and [“]in a little while[”] are one and the same (however this is used lyrically in another piece, “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself”); or consider this: the joy in its being out of joy that one does not believe the highest. etc. But perhaps it would be more correct to focus attention (instead of using joyful thoughts to entice back) continually on the infinite distinction betw. sorrow and sin, after each discourse also had first separately shown how this sorrow is sin, or can become that by a hair’s breadth.

Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin

5

10

15

20

422

Introduction. Perhaps, my listener, you almost shudder at these words; an anxiety seizes you, that of all sins this sin might well be the most frightful; to you it seems almost superfluous, you involuntarily look around to see if there should be anyone like this, you think of the peop. with whom you have become acquainted, whether among them there could be anyone like this, who secretly bore this sin on his conscience. If you do, you are mistaken. There is perhaps no sin as common as precisely this one, which the ancient poet has described so excellently that he had no need to say more in order to be remembered; it is indeed a very rare pers. who has not once in his life (if not his whole life) sinned in time of sorrow in this way―and sorrow is of course something everyone has in this life. But not only that―this

25

30

35

502

“Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.”

5

10

423

Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin.

No. 1 Let not the heart in s[orrow] s[in] then you abandon faith in God No. 2 L[et] not the h[eart] in s. s. then you abandon faith in hum. beings

20

25

No. 3 L. n[ot] the h. in s. s. then you abandon eternity’s hope No. 4 L. n. the h. in s. s. then you abandon hope for this life No. 5 L. n. the h. in s. s. then you abandon the love of God

30

P a p e r 422–423 1849

sin is also so well-regarded among peop. as even to be praised and extolled. Ask the “poet” just what it is that inspires him to songs praising the heroes and heroines: it is precisely this sin of the heart in sorrow. In fact it is the highest form of despair. When Juliet kills herself, or Brutus, or, if it doesn’t go that far, when the mood in a pers. is nevertheless such that every word of his betrays that, for himself and his pain, for his sorrow, there is, as he sees it, no cure, none, neither in heaven nor on earth, neither from God nor from hum. beings, neither in time nor in eternity; it is then, just then, that he inspires the poet, and it is then, just then, that he has allowed the heart to sin in sorrow.

7 Discourses.

15

•

No. 6 L. n. the h. in s. s. then you abandon love of hum. beings No. 7 L. n. the h. in s. s. then you abandon love of yourself

•

203

PAPER 424—PAPER 430 “ ‘The Story of Suffering’! Christian Discourses”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, and Jon Tafdrup

206

“The Story of Suffering”

•

P a p e r 424–425 1850 •

505

“The Story of Suffering”!

424

Christian Discourses. Placed as an introduction there might be an entire examination of what it is that makes Christ’s suffering differ infinitely in quality from every pers.’s suffering. There is one thing and another on this here and there in the journals. This intro. could be headed: The Story of Suffering! or what is implied in its being the only one of its kind. The emphatic. The individual discourses are to constitute the prominent points in the narrative. e.g. No. 1. “There they had sung the hymn of praise” “at that moment the cock crowed for the third time―and Xt looked at Peter.”

5

10

15

and so on with the individual points.

To “The Story of Suffering!” In hum. terms, speaking purely humanly, to the extent that one may speak in this way, one might say that Xt had one relief, that he, who of his own free will took it upon himself to suffer (came to suffer), knew with the certainty of eternity that it was what he should do, so then there was no, no, absolutely no wavering with regard to the task and no suffering flowing from that. Still, we must be reminded of the words: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me―where this suffering is intimated. In the journals there is quite a lot on this, sure enough particularly in the one from spring last year.

425

20

25

“The Story of Suffering” 426

To

•

P a p e r 426–427 1850

“The Story of Suffering” There is a beautiful verse by Liguori that is also to be found cited in the journal NB11 or NB10, it goes like this:

506

10

427

15

20

25

Süßer Jesus, um zu sterben Gehst Du hin aus Lieb’ zu mir Um das Leben zu erwerben, Laß mich sterben Herr mit Dir This verse could be printed on the reverse side of the title page.

Prayer. You, who came to the world in order to suffer, so that you bore the heaviest of all sufferings: to bear, from your life’s first moment, the awareness in advance―increased in the heaviest of all pains inasmuch as you suffered voluntarily, at every moment having it in your power to prevent the suffering: you, who then suffered your whole life through, finally the ignominious death: have thanks that you have sanctified suffering, that with your holy life and its course you have blessedly transfigured what is as sheer darkness for the natural hum. being: to suffer. Have thanks therefore; that never a sufferer might forget this, which can console and strengthen and transfigure beyond all measure; but that neither may the sufferer presumptuously forget the difference that humbles: that you suffered as the innocent for the guilty―this difference, which yet again consoles beyond measure: that your death was that of the atonement.

5 Süßer Jesus . . . mit Dir] German, Sweet Jesus, you go forth to die for love of me; may I die with you, Lord, that I might gain life.

•

207

208

“The Story of Suffering”

•

P a p e r 428 1850 •

To the Story of Suffering

428

Introduction.

)

The Story of Suffering! 1 The Christian View. However gently and affectionately Xnty invites people, yes all peop., to itself, this invitation is of course not to be understood quite so directly; and it is obvious, too, that when considered in a purely hum. way, Xnty, the life of Xt, particularly his suffering and death, is so horrific and appalling that nothing more dreadful can be imagined, yes, that other than this, nothing so dreadful can be conceived. In hum. terms, all consolation and wisdom is contained in the following thought: Abandon the earthly and worldly, deny yourself, constrain all the self-love in you, be altogether love―then it is impossible for you, in your life, to clash with any single pers. For the fact is that the clash betw. one pers. and another rests in the self-love that in turn relates to the worldly and the earthly; but when you become altogether love and altogether abandon the earthly and worldly, become sheer self-denial and sacrifice―in short, become altogether love―then the clash is impossible. If it occurs nonetheless, then it must be because you still failed to give up your selflove altogether. So much for the purely hum. perspective, this is where it stops. Xnty now comes along and proclaims that Jesus Xt, who was “the love,” that he nonetheless clashed, and clashed fearfully, with the world, that he was persecuted, hated, finally mocked, spat upon, treated as so abominable a criminal that Barrabas in comparison became a sort of upright pers., and then finally crucified.― and he was love, he was of love from eternity, he was―from the moment he let himself be born and in every moment of his life, until the last―love; he

5

10

507

20

25

30

35

“The Story of Suffering”

5

10

15

508

20

25

30

35

was “love.”a 1Merciful God, what does this mean: the purely hum. view must despair, and if it is to involve itself with this Christianity, it can only get this insane consolation out of it: Yes, thank God, I for my part am still far from being “the love,” or love; I still have a good portion of self-love in me, so for me things will even go quite wellb; just let me take care not to give up self-love to too great an extent, then I should likely both be spared the agonizing temptations of the spirit and also get on quite well in this world―which crucifies love and intercedes for Barrabas.c That is to say, from the purely hum. view it is Xt who horrifies, Barrabas who encourages. 1

New Conclusion.

So much for the purely hum. view of Xt’s life, suffering, and death. But then what does this mean in a Christian way? It means that the world is not justd mediocre, petty, selfish, but that it is evil, yes, that it is not just evil, but that it is devilish. And it further means that from a purely hum. perspective, the life, suffering, and death of Xt are terrifying and discouraging, yes, terror itself; in a Christian way it means that only the consciousness of sin and the agonies of this consciousness, if I may put it thus, so dig the spurs into a hum. being’s side as (in spite of the purely hum. view of Xnty, and in spite of the fact that in the purely hum. view, Xnty is insanity) to compel peop. over to Xt; it means that every pers. who is pressed into involving himself with Xnty and Xt for any reason other than the agonies of the consciousness of sin is involved in a misunderstanding, a delusion, with regard to what Xnty is. But if, on the other hand, this is the case, if the agonies of sin-consciousness are what press a pers. over to Xt: then he is in the process of becoming a Xn, and for him Xnty and what is Christian are then transformed from being the most terrifying and discouraging thing into the most affectionately invit-

•

P a p e r 428 1850 •

209

New Conclusion All the hum. element, including also the consolation of Jewish piety, is contained in the following thought, which can be expressed in the words of the O.T., where the experienced, devout, pious wise man speaks “I have been young and become old, yet I have not seen the cause of the righteous forsaken by God”―and Xnty then comes along and proclaims that Xt, who indeed was the holy and righteous like no other, that early on, his cause was as if lost, humanly speaking, and thus, humanly speaking, forsaken by God, and finally, Xt himself (the holy and righteous, the only holy, righteous one who has lived) sighs, he sighs: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. a

1

5

10

15

20

b

and, presumably, neither will I be tried in the agony that is reserved solely for the only holy and righteous one: to be forsaken by God― and which is no doubt reserved for a person more or less in proportion to how a person gets more or less close to becoming purer and more righteous. c

and then I no doubt also avoid being tried in the agony

d

incomplete, weak,

25

30

210 1

5

10

15

20

[e]

“The Story of Suffering”

striving to emulate the Exemplar by dying for Xnty when he simply believes that Xt has died for him, Xt’s death the atonement for his sins: he is then a Xn. fully as much as the one who sacrifices his life for Xnty, which then also, even though he sacrificed his life for Xnty, would fully as much require that Xt had died for him. This to prevent once and for all the misunderstanding, as if the suffering and death of Xt were essentially that of the Exemplar, whereas what is essential is the atonement, and only thereafter that of the Exemplar, only then can the suffering and death of the Exemplar be used in a genrl way for the edification of the sufferers who suffer in the same way that Xt did, suffer in this world.

•

P a p e r 428–429 1850 •

ing and the most blessed consolation; for then Xnty explains that the death of Xt, even if, incidentally, it is also that of the Exemplar, is nevertheless essentially that of the atonement, the death of atonement also for his sins, even if he did not go as far as [e]

To the Story of Suffering!

5

429

)

2 The Difference betw. Xt’s and a purely hum. Suffering. see Luther’s sermon on the epistle for the second Sunday after Easter p. 228. Christ’s difference: 1) he has left us all an example. 2) he has suffered for us 3) he has suffered altogether innocently. incidentally, the discourse on Good Friday in the epistle sermons can also be gone over.

10

509 15

Under this section are also treated what I would call: the superhuman sufferings. Piety has had a horror of getting involved in depicting Xt’s sufferings; but that is no doubt also because it lacks the psychological preconditions even merely to begin doing so. For the bodily aspect of his suffering is something it has been busily enough presenting; in an earlier time men and women who later

20

“The Story of Suffering”

•

P a p e r 429–430 1850

became saints came to know, through revelations of Xt, how many tormentors had been involved in scourging (according to the information of one from revelation: 60) and how terribly big the whips were etc.

430

10

15

20

To the Story of Suffering! Introduction. Christ is the Exemplar, but as the Exemplar he raises the requirement higher even than the Law. He says to peop.: If this is the way you are, if this is how you are love, etc.―you resemble me; and even if you may in good and happy days have a little love etc., that is not being like me. No, when everything goes against you and hates and persecutes you etc., if then you are love as I am, then you are like me. Peop. then despair. But in that very moment the Exemplar transforms himself and is also “the Savior” who reaches out a saving hand to help him to resemble the Exemplar. He throws himself into the Exemplar’s arms. But then he shrinks back again, he is after all a sinner. But the Exemplar transforms himself again and is the Redeemer. This is the love in Xt Jesus; as far as striving is concerned, he is the Exemplar whom one is to resemble, but the Exemplar is also the Savior and Redeemer who helps the Xn to resemble the Exemplar.

•

211

PAPER 431—PAPER 432 “In Adresseavisen”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

“In Adresseavisen”

214

•

P a p e r 431 1851 •

513

The matter referred to is in Adresseavisen for 18 Sept. 1851 under the heading: Literature.

1

a

, some with, others without, petty jealousy, some now with, now without b

5

, and the brush-maker, and yet another brush-maker not without a little bit of jealousy

c

the esteemed, most respected,

d

in bold type

e

10

15

, and yet again with lapidary style and crosswise, with arms outstretched: the esteemed, the most highly respected cultivated and cultivated most highly esteemed precious public etc. f

as I have actually done.

author of The Invalid. In this latter one may agree with him; for the two propositions he presents in his notice are invalid, so as author of this notice he can then rightly be called auth. of The Invalid. g

20

h

in itself

431

In Adresseavisen.

Among us there is, as we know, a newspaper―for “thinkers.” The reader may be taken aback, stare at me in astonishment, asking “what sort of newspaper is that?” But it also has another name, and everyone knows it as soon as I mention it. I mean Adresseavisen. And yet it is true that if not a paper for thinkers, then it is a paper for speculators. This is the place where that numerous, respected class in society, “the tradesmen,” speculates and speculates―on the publica; here the grocer speculates on the public, and the milliner and the greengrocer and the bookseller and the shoemaker, etc. on the publicb etc. And just as the cherished child has many names, so has this cherished child, the public, many, many names: the esteemed, most highly esteemed,c most highly esteemed, esteemed cultivated, the genteel, the select, the great, the enlightened and yet againd the esteemed, the most highly esteemed, the most highly esteemed cultivated, and the cultivated most highly esteemede. This is everyday usage in Adresseavisen, where speculators speculate on the public. But yesterday a thinker has appeared in Adresseavisen―presumably he was of the opinion that it is a paper “for thinkers,” especially for thinkers who think about the concept of “the public,”f He presents two propositions and then signs himself:g Invalid. That is no brilliant departure! Yet maybe the two propositions he presents are true to such a degree that in giving birth to something so trueh he has been enfeebled and made an invalid. No, that cannot explain the signature. On the other hand, there is some meaning to it all if one is ensured that the two propositions presented are altogether invalid―then it is quite in order that they are by an invalid. His first proposition is: if some one pers. maintains that the public is wrong he makes himself ridiculous. How so? Well, assuming that the public

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

“In Adresseavisen”

514

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 431 1851

is wrong once―and indeed the public is not infallible―then this one pers. may not say it―this is clearly the author’s opinion―so it must be said in the public’s name, then one takes it upon himself to call himself “the public” and says―in the public’s name!―the public is in the wrong. It is not in fact ridiculous. I thought there is an eternal consistency, that the proposition “the public is untruth” can only―consistently―be said by one pers., without it following from this that every person who says it is right. But it cannot be said in the public’s name because, said in the public’s name, what is said is of course: The public is in the right. The next proposition is: And then assume that no one buys the book (by this one who declared that the public is wrong), what then? The author, or thinker, in Adresseavisen says no more, he no doubt thinks that everyone, that anyone and everyone, and especially an esteemed, most highly respected cultivated and genteel public, will be able to answer the question for itself. As for me, I, too, can do that, but my answer is perhaps not what he thinks. Suppose that it really is the case that absolutely no one buys the book, what does that prove? absolutely nothing. Yes, if its author had appealed to the public, there would then be something to the objection (assuming it is true) that no one buys his book. But the author in fact maintains (according to what the thinker in Adresseavisen declares) that the public is wrong―so then it is perfectly in order for the public not to buy, no refutation of the author. Clearly the thinker in Adresseavisen believes wholly and firmly in the public. Whether something is true is decided by whether it secures the publici. Now one propounds the proposition: the public is wrong. Whether this is the truth, says the thinker in Adresseavisen, is something we shall come to see. For if, in fact, this book sells well―then the man is right. Yes, good enough; but then the public is not wrong, and that was what the man said―so the man is wrong and the public right, and his proposition about the public being in the wrong was not proved by rapid sales for it, but refuted.

•

i

215

a proposition that is obviously suspect, whereas the one that is Adresseavisen’s main and basic principle can be entirely true: that the amount of profit bound up with something depends on the extent to which it has the public.

1

5

216

1

j

k

, that is quite true. the tradesmen

New conclusion But a propos: is it, then, also certain that the book referred to in the notice―that, as the thinker says―it does not sell well, not sell at all, that “all” find it strange, that “no one” buys it[?] Suppose this were untrue. Yes, something occurs to me, yes, what if it indeed sells―and hence this notice. Suppose the auth. of the notice knows this―perhaps it is precisely for this reason that he speaks so vehemently about not being “alone” in maintaining that the public is wrong; perhaps he thinks (as has scarcely occurred to that auth.) that there is some profit to be had here, that one could well be two, perhaps even “several,” involved in this profit, that for a change the public might be won over to the proposition that the public―and then for sure the thinker in Adresseavisen will join in.

[l]

5

10

15

20

25

“In Adresseavisen”

m

by peddling her body

•

P a p e r 431 1851 •

When it comes down to it, this man in Adresseavisen is not, after all, rlly a thinker, he is decidedly just a speculator, perhaps a literary tradesman who speculates on the public and forgets that a book’s sales do not determine whether the author is right or wrong, but only whether or not he makes a profit. And this, Adresseavisen’s main and basic principle: that the amount of profit bound up with something depends on how far it has the publicj. And, God knows, it is to my mind an entirely honest matter that a tradesman is enterprising. It is quite another thing when one wants to apply this entire view of life to the question of truth. Yet this is not something of which that numerous, worthy class in societyk is normally guilty.[l] That there are despicable tradesmen proves nothing against this class’s respectability, any more than does the fact that there are harlots show that the Danish woman is not chaste. Truly not! But would that society might by and by learn with the same certainty how to expel the literary prostitutes as civil society expels the prostitutes. There is, however, no comparison between the harm a prostitute doesm and the harm these literary prostitutes do by peddling their spirit.

515 5

10

15

20

“In Adresseavisen” 432:1

•

P a p e r 432 1851 •

217

In Adresse-Avisen.

516

432:2

5

10

15

I had tossed off this little article right after reading the newspaper. There was this and that in it that could arouse conjecture about its being directed at me ((this about the public; that the book cost 4 marks (as does For Self-Examination) the signature “the invalid.” etc.)). And in a certain sense it might not have been so unfortunate for once to have an opportunity to cast light on the public as opposed to―Adresseavisen. Naturally, however, I had to make sure. So I asked Gjødwad what it was. He knew immediately: the notice is by Lector Buchvald, who really has written a book titled The Invalid, which costs 4 marks. Naturally, this is a relief. Incidentally, since I did not know there was an actual book called The Invalid, it was quite natural that I should come to think of what Goldschmidt once brought up in The Corsair and has also referred to subsequently, that I was supposed to have become an “invalid” in the fight with the public; thus, in ending publication of Nord og Syd, there was something about it being a matter of leaving off at the right time so as not to become an invalid of one’s own ideas.

PAPER 433 “The Income Tax— The Temporary”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

220

“ T h e I n c o m e Ta x — T h e Te m p o r a r y ”

•

P a p e r 433 1851 •

519

The Income Tax―The Temporary― The finance minister has presented the income tax plan in parliament. He believes this money is needed; that is the economic side of the matter. He believes that an income tax will be a suitable way of procuring the money and also thinks that peop. will be much more willing to accept it because it is only to be temporary. It is the error of this idea that I wanted to make evident. It is a quite common notion and manner of speech, occurring in matters great and small, that if someone proposes one or another change, he then thinks it will be easier to get the person or persons concerned to accept the proposed change if he adds: the change is to be only temporary. There is also much good sense in this. But, as in all things hum., here, too, there is a limit; if this is exceeded, there is no longer any sense in this talk of its being only temporary. Defining the limit is not difficult. Wherever a restitutio in integrum is possible at any moment, or possible at the end of the interim period, or at any rate somewhat possible, there is sense in this talk that people can be better disposed to go along with the proposed request because it is only temporary. Where, on the other hand, this restitutio in integrum is difficult, very difficult, impossible, this talk makes no sense―as if, e.g., one would hang oneself temporarily, thinking that hanging, which can otherwise be a very serious matter and a step that one should not take without mature consideration, was not so dangerous a matter if one did it temporarily. Or take a lesser example. A man offers to marry a girl; perhaps she thinks the match unsuitable for her but decides to take the matter into consideration. Another suitor then appears, a young man in a hurry, a refined and gallant lad, a devil of a fellow. He proposes, and adds that he suspects that she will be the more inclined to go in for it because he believes the marriage should only be temporary. A tem22 restitutio in integrum] Latin, restoration to the original situation.

433

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

520

“ T h e I n c o m e Ta x — T h e Te m p o r a r y ”

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

521

porary marriage! I think the girl will answer: No, thank you, even if I were not otherwise hesitant to enter into this marriage, if it is to be only temporary I must most decidedly answer No. The circumstance that it should be only temporary thus proved to have the precisely opposite effect; instead of making the girl more inclined toward this change, it set her more decidedly against it. And why? Because a marriage is so decisive a step, bringing with it such consequences that when it is done there is no possible restitutio in integrum. And if no restitutio in integrum is possible, it is humbug, frivolity, thoughtlessness to talk about the matter not being so dangerous because it is only to be temporary, for then it is not temporary, no matter whether someone says it 10 times in order to get the person in question to acquiesce or be lured into the trap. A moralist could no doubt glean much profit from showing the wanton misuse of “the temporary” that is so characteristic of our time. Instead of bringing mind and reflection to bear on the serious decision―and then let it be serious, something quite novel has been thought up: that the most serious and most sweeping changes are those that one can enter into as though they were nothing “seeing that it is to be only temporary.” Oh you sophists! In the case of decisions whose nature is such that no restitutio in integrum is possible, what then? So it is with the income tax, and especially in Denmark, where things are on a small scale and where pettiness is always close at hand. It is truly a decision of utmost importance, a sweeping change in the whole of our social life―if it is done, it cannot be undone again in one generation. And then the finance minister thinks that one can agree to it all the more easily seeing that it is only temporary. Everyone who has any sound thought at his disposal will quite certainly take the opposite view―if it is only to be temporary, then positively No! There will always be so much to object to in an income tax; but eh bien, if it is necessary, then let the matter

42 eh bien] French, oh well.

•

P a p e r 433 1851 •

221

222

“ T h e I n c o m e Ta x — T h e Te m p o r a r y ”

•

P a p e r 433 1851 •

be set forth in all seriousness and in earnest; but if it is only to be temporary, then it is truly meaningless. The finance minister may perhaps be right in calling the tax temporary; for possibly it can be dropped in a few years. But the fact of there having been an income tax―this cannot be dropped. The change in our social situation has taken place―if the income tax lasted only 14 days, it will have happened all the same. Here, if one gives sound thought to situations of this kind, we again see that, where a restitutio in integrum is impossible, being temporary has the opposite effect: the very fact that it is only to be temporary means that one must protest all the more definitely. With respect to what is, after all, only supposed to be temporary, there is really nothing like this to set such motives in motion. My thought is quite simple: that precisely what the finance minister has thought would make the matter acceptable―or rather has frivolously used in order to get things moving and pass it off onto people, perhaps also to entrap people―that this is precisely what should be protested against. And I think this will happen if there is a predominance of sound thinking in the parliament. Let it just be decided in earnest and in all seriousness whether we should have an income tax; but let us not make ourselves ridiculous like that suitor who thought that the girl would so much more easily decide to marry him because his idea was that the marriage would only be temporary, or like that man who thought that hanging himself was not such a decisive step because his thought was only to do it―temporarily.

5

10

15

20

25

30

PAPER 434 “ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand.’ ”

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

224

“ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand’ ”

•

P a p e r 434 1852 •

The gospel: the Good Shepherd see Journal NB25 p. 214.

525

434

“The Shepherd”―“The Hired Hand.” 1

5

[a]

# or That the difference between “the shepherd” and “the hired hand” is only really recognizable―when the wolves come.

#[a]

However much the metaphor of “a shepherd” is used, it is nonetheless never used up; however misused it is, however well-nigh ridiculed in sentimental exaggeration, however profaned it has become since its first solemn meaning, it nonetheless is and remains a lovely metaphor: a shepherd. A shepherd! Yonder in the valley, at the foot of the mountains there lives the shepherd. (to be worked out a bit). Calm, unvaried, idyllic life. Rural innocence. There lives the shepherd, known by the sheep, if not understood by them, nevertheless loved by them; and just as they have the fodder and spring water they need, this one thing more, to hear the shepherd’s voice, the good, the trusty shepherd whose voice warns them of every danger; and should they be endangered without warning, simply hearing his voice would give them hope, he the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. A hired hand. Imagine a blushing youth, or still more tender, a young woman’s bashfulness―it would then be the most awful thing to be a hired hand. Alas, that is how it is with youth: how easy to tell the difference between a shepherd and a hired hand. But in the workaday world―perhaps that blushing youth ended up being a hired hand and happy being one, as long as the hire or pay is properly paid out, and likewise the girl. In youth one flees guilt in order not to blush―in education for the workaday world we are taught not to blush or blanch at any guilt. In the workaday world the shepherd and the hired hand, too, are not so easily distinguishable for us practical peop., we who have lost so much of the primitive shyness that makes the distinction so easy;

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

“ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand’ ”

526 5

10

it is unlike the difference between black and red, which one detects straightaway with half an eye. But there is another difficulty. Naturally, the hired hand himself does not say: I am a hired hand. Oh, far, far from it. Nothing, nothing is more important for him than keeping it hidden in deepest secrecy. And further, it is an entire task, a long, long study, and the fruit of a long, long study, that he resemble “the shepherd” as closely as possible, resemble him in voice, speech, form etc.―but still he is a hired hand. Let us then consider that the difference between “the shepherd” and “the hired hand” can only really be seen― when the wolves come.

15

20

25

30

35

40

There was a time in Xnty’s early days when the howling of the wolves was heard day and night. Being a Xn was attended with mortal danger (to be worked out). But then everything changed. Where before danger threatened, there now beckoned worldly reward―prsmbly, the wolves had been expelled from the civilized world (to be worked out). The difference between the shepherd and the hired hand now became almost indiscernible except for the one who knows the heart. This whole state of affairs (everyone a Xn―the entire world Xndom) was sure enough also a fruit of the striving of the hired hands, who saw very well that in this indiscernibility, this darkness, there was no difference between shepherd and hired hand. But―when the wolves come! Yet this is something that the shepherd wants to prevent with all his might; so when you see someone up early and late taking care that the wolves do not come, you can be sure it is a shepherd. Perhaps. But it might also be a hired hand. For here, too, there can be a deceptive similarity. The hired hand may be quite as eager as the shepherd to prevent the wolves coming―he has at least several reasons for being so. What characterizes the shepherd, naturally, is love of the sheep; and what gives him peace is the good

•

P a p e r 434 1852 •

[b]

225

He gives assurances, assuring that he is willing to give his life for the sheep, he assures it with tears― alas, they are perhaps artificial tears, in any case only a momentary mood, like the sheen of false metal―and the sheep believe him. Yes, the really good shepherd, who knows in himself that he will give his life, he indeed would not even talk about such things when there is no danger and will therefore be regarded by the sheep as a less good shepherd, not loved in the way of this artificial hired hand who knows how to exploit the opportunity to play shepherd. [c]

also tender virgins gave their lives.

1

5

10

15

226

“ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand’ ”

•

P a p e r 434 1852 •

awareness of knowing within himself that he is willing to sacrifice his life for the sheep. Otherwise with the hired hand; he has, as mentioned, still more reasons to fear the arrival of the wolves. He fears for himself―that he should lose his livelihood etc. And not simply that, he is also afraid because he knows that the coming of the wolves will make it obvious that he is a hired hand. Imagine an older pers., long perfected beyond measure in the art of resembling a shepherd―and the good sheep have loved, honored him as a shepherd, the good shepherd―and that it should now become obvious that he was a hired hand! Frightful. The hired hand is almost tempted to give his life to prevent this if in doing so he could prevent the wolves from coming―but it is not from love of the sheep. You see, then, that one cannot unconditionally conclude from this great eagerness to prevent the wolves coming that this is a shepherd―it can precisely also be a hired hand, a wolf who has successfully practiced as a shepherd―and now fears the peril that will make it obvious who he is. For it is precisely a shepherd who could perhaps act in just the opposite way for the sake of the sheep. In the scripture we read: the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. People have ingeniously turned these words around and have come with a not inappropriate description of the situation in “Xndom”: the laborers are many, the harvest small. Shepherds, paid shepherds, there are enough of―whether they are shepherds or hired hands, yes, it will only be apparent―when the wolves come. This shepherd might then think like this: might it not be best to send for the wolves in order to see for once which is which. True, it will also affect the sheep, but on the other hand, it is also ruinous for the sheep that they should become accustomed to this confusion in which the hired hands are taken to be shepherds. Yet, no, I cannot find it in my heart to do it, I dare not venture to call the wolves. But if they were to come, I say it will be to our advantage

527

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

“ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand’ ”

5

that they come, nor will I make so much commotion to prevent the wolves from coming. I myself am willing to give my life for the sheep―but, given the way things are, just let the wolves come so that we can get to see who is shepherd and who hired hand, and that the sheep can open their eyes to see the difference themselves.

•

P a p e r 434 1852 •

227

PAPER 435—PAPER 439 Drafts of Two Sermons

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

230

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

•

P a p e r 435–436 1852 •

531

Drafts of two sermons: Trinity Sunday and the 2nd Sunday after Trinity. Draft or hint toward a piece: The Kingdom of Heaven resembles.

435

Trinity Sunday.

436

Nicodemus or Established Xndom. That all of us, yes, that precisely “the established Xndom,” is like Nicodemus―we come to Xt by night. 1) We come to him, not indeed hidden by the night, but by what is, if possible, an even better concealment: illusion. It has all become a big illusion in which we conceal ourselves―and then we live again in the illusion that we come to Xt openly by day. (that we are baptized as children, confirmed as children etc., from this we prove that we are Xns; that we live in a Christian society, from this we prove that we are Xns etc. sheer illusion.[)] 2) In Xndom we have done away with the danger that is connected to confessing Xt―because we have done away with confession of Xt being possible only through works― ―is not this, again, something Nicodemian: coming by night[?] God is spirit; therefore he cannot truly be worshiped with poems (even if they were masterpieces). For God this sort of thing is like cake or candy, it does not please him. No, if you want to worship God truly, it must be in deed―naturally, not in such a way that you become self-important and conceited through this deed of yours, as though it were something meritorious, for this worship is then disgusting. But works, action, is the offering, which nevertheless is to be proffered in humility, faith. Similarly with confessing Xt; one can only confess Xt through action. To sing poetically in his praise (even if the songs were masterpieces), to declaim wonderfully, beautifully, in praise of him (even if it were astounding in its mastery) is not to confess Xt, he is opposed to such things, as to candy. No: action, your life, is to confess him. But if it does that―then comes the danger, too. See, this has been abolished in Xndom; so is it not again like letting Nicodemus come to Xt by night? For what does it rlly mean, this about the night? It means: to want to adhere to

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

532

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 436 1852 •

Xt―but to want to be rid of the danger, wanting to adhere to Xt under cover, hidden, yes, like Nicodemus; hidden, yes, like the established Xndom in which we all adhere to Xt in hidden inwardness. Whether we do this―now, this is something I know nothing about, but if we do―its being “hidden” inwardness makes us after all like Nicodemus, not a whit better, and as far as that goes, worse, for he was after all just a single man, but here there is a whole scrap heap of an establishment with livings upon livings―and all of this is sheer Nicodemian Xnty. The Nicodemian way has now become the establishment―oh, depth of confusion. Nicodemus, after all, had to suffer the realization that coming by night was malingering; but now, nowadays, being Nicodemian is the official line, so that we expose ourselves to nothing whatever―“for of course we come openly to Xt, not like Nicodemus, ugh no, we are not like such peop., no, we come to Xt openly”―yes, after having secretly or openly made the entire establishment into drivel, and after having taken away all the danger of confessing Xt, by changing confessing Xt into something quite different. It was possible for Nicodemus, after all, that someone could have checked up on him; he had to be prepared for that―but no one can check up on us, for our deception is absolute, we come openly to Xt―and yet do not come to him, we come to him by day in broad daylight―and yet by night. Is it then my opinion, so that I, too, am to talk of what there is so much talk about now, that I want to have state and Church separated, and by external measures? No, no! I think the State Church, established Xndom, is an illusion. What I want to do now is draw attention to the fact that it is an illusion, want to have people become aware of its being an illusion―want to have people take note of it―and then I want an inward deepening in Xnty. But this can well be achieved regardless of the illusion remaining; indeed, the deepest form of inwardness is always this: to preserve inwardness in spite of the illusion. The external decision is suspect; it can easily lead to an even greater illusion. A man has taken to drink, now promises himself that he will stop―and to that end he then begins by breaking the bottle and glass to pieces (a symbolic

231

232

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

•

P a p e r 436–438 1852 •

action)―so now I know that he will never drink again―Perhaps! Better, though, to be able have bottle and glass standing in front of oneself―and not to drink. The girl who burns the letters from the unfaithful one; then I know she has forgotten him. But suppose that on the same day she turns a little off her usual path on the street―in order to see him. No, it is safer to be able to see the letters from him―but continue to forget him. This is my opinion. But, in any case, if the State and Church are to be separated, this is then so specifically religious an action that there must be a man of character (almost an apostle, at least a witness to the truth) to do it; it must not happen with the help of lower forms (drivel and the ballot). To this extent I intend to defend the establishment, to hold matters in abeyance until that man arrives, and especially to take polemical aim at all the driveling reformations.

The Second Sunday after Trinity. That it was the invited―who did not come.

5

533

10

15

437 20

This gospel is quite certainly one of the most disquieting for established Xndom, or for those of us in it, for what it proclaims is that it was precisely the invited who did not come along. 1) We hum. beings are only all too inclined to place great value on being invited, to take comfort in being invited (“we have Abraham as our father”).

25

2) God is of precisely the opposite opinion: the greatest danger is to be invited, an enormously responsible situation to be in, to live in―not being invited at all is much to be preferred.

“What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it?” (Lk 13:18).

438

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

•

P a p e r 438–439 1852

The Kingdom of Heaven Resembles?

•

[a]

The Holy Writ has only one statistical indication concerning this kingdom of heaven: the gate is narrow.

Christian Discourses. 534 5

10

15

20

25

439 30

233

In an introduction it is shown first that this kingdom is not of this world, and yet is to be in this world, yes, that in a certain sense it needs this world (in opposition to which it is) precisely in order to be recognizable, but is nevertheless not of this world. That the Holy Scriptures divide things into two, which is shown in the parables: either the kingdom of God is in heaven― or it is in you. The parables are arranged accordingly. (In the copy of the N.T. from which a page has been torn there is an observation on the passage in Matthew where the parables are). But that, regardless of the kingdom of God being in a pers. in this way, this still is not absolute indiscernibility, identical with its not being there at all. Nor was Xt incognito in that way, not to the degree that there was never anything that indicated that he was the God-Man, even in the guise of the poor servant, e.g., he performed miracles. But this is not straightforward discernibility; so too with the kingdom of God that is within you. Straightforward discernibility exists in proportion to what relates commensurably to externality, thus to an earthly kingdom―it has no higher inwardness than its externality. The parables are arranged according to the following categories: 1) The kingdom of God is on earth, thus the parable of the catch of fish, a man who sowed good seed in his field, etc. 2) the kingdom of God is within you, see that passage in Matthew, 3) the kingdom of God is in heaven.

The Night and The Day or Nicodemus and Stephen or Established Christendom and the Church Militant. For Self-Examination Recommended to the Age. The draft of Nicodemus is in an envelope on quarto sheets with the draft of the sermon, which is edgewise on one of the shelves in

1

234

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

•

P a p e r 439 1852 •

the chest of drawers. Nicodemus may not be written on the envelope but, rather, Trinity Sunday (“the long Trinity,” as it is called, begins quite characteristically with “Nicodemus”). The draft of Stephen is right at the beginning of this year’s journal. It is probably NB25.

5

PAPER 440—PAPER 446 Diverse, 1843–1852

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Lena Wienecke Andersen, Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Rasmus Sevelsted, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

236

Diverse, 1843–1852

•

P a p e r 440–443 1844–1848 •

537

Lavendelstrædet 83 to the courtyard Hansen.

440

The difference between το ειναι―and το ον. The confusing of these in Hegelian philosophy, a correct observation on this by R. Nielsen in his Propaedeutic Logic.

441

At the Cemetery. . . . and when you go out there earlier in the forenoon, when the sun peeps animatedly between the branches, you will find everything so neat and tidy. The small families have each their little piece of about the same size. For in life it can indeed happen that a family has had to limit itself, but in death all have to do so; and in life a mighty pers. can indeed succeed in spreading himself, but in death they must all limit themselves. Yet there is still a little difference, like a playful reminder of the difference that was so enormously great in the world; here, if there is a difference, it is an ell or an ell-and-a-half that the one has more than the other. To have a flower on the grave is already a great difference and to have a tree on it is prosperity―alas, thus does life return in death, for indeed in childhood owning a flower was already much, and to own a tree was extraordinary. Even in the midst of the serious contemplation of death, one must smile not at the equality of all, but that there will nonetheless be difference.

5

442 10

15

20

25

I beg my reader’s indulgence: keep me assured that everyone can understand me if he wants to; I make just one precondition: this, that one agrees with me that Denmark is a small country. Should anyone assume that Denmark is just as great as France, England, is one the great powers in Europe, then I am at a loss as to how to make myself understood to him.

4 το ειναι . . . το ον] Greek, being . . . that which is.

443

30

P a p e r 311 P a p e r 440 1844 1848 •

•

•

Above, Paper 440; below Paper 311.

237

238

Diverse, 1843–1852

•

P a p e r 443 1847–1848 •

Denmark’s inner misfortune rlly its only.

That in D[enmark] there is no absolute distinction made betw. public opinion and town gossip. Public opinion is an authority: even if one disagrees with it, a certain respect should be shown to it―wholly to scorn it and show this scorn is a crime. But just the opposite is the case with respect to town gossip printed and read and disseminated by thousands upon thousands; this is something for which one should show the most profound contempt, and it is an act of charity, especially in D[enmark], where such a huge mass of empty chatter is consumed that it will rlly be D’s ruin to perish in and be suffocated by empty chatter, pettiness, when all D has been merged with Cph. and Cph. has become a market town.―Fearful ambiguity, that owing to the characterlessness of things, something that is an act of kindness can be regarded as a crime.

5

538

10

15

The press that spreads empty chatter, town gossip, slander― the literary prostitution. The one who has seen what a demoralizing effect it has―youth―the servant class―penetrating into all situations. The one who has seen what abominations have been perpetrated in all silence by this malpractice by this press.―the one who has seen― well, yes, the man attacked; he proudly held his head high, but the wife―he who has seen what the wife suffered in silence! He who has seen―well, yes, husband and wife found in their union the strength to rise above it, and perhaps not least it was the wife’s contribution to the union that sustained them: but the children―he who has seen what the children suffered in silence, the hurt, to hear the parents talked about in that way. He who has seen, as is said of the look on the face of one drowning, that almost glazed look of an unfortunate who vainly begs humanity for justice, vainly, he was sacrificed to provoke, through his suffering―merciful God―to provoke laughter. He who has seen― no, this I have not in fact seen, I have not yet seen the graves open up, but I have seen the grave closed over one whom the press had murdered. It goes without saying that nothing was said of this at the graveside. The medical certificate spoke of a natural death and its cause. Oh, these victims of the press, they are not

20

25

30

35

Diverse, 1843–1852

5

10

540

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 443 1847–1848 •

bloody, it is not like when someone is attacked on a country road and murdered, where it becomes public knowledge that it was murder, the police rush to the scene etc., where the physician can see that the wound was mortal, rather than the victims of the press in fact making a mockery of the medical arts with respect to the cause of death. But if there is a question of any guilt, society bears the responsibility, then, precisely for the victims of the press. An anonymous wretch is in fact making contemporaries into the guilty ones; it is not he but they who are killing the unfortunate. Yes, in truth, everyone who has subscribed to the persecution that murdered him, everyone who has read it, everyone who has passed it on is accessory to his murder. The one who has seen it, he understands that it would be a good deed to do everything to bring it to a halt. Oh, wretched Goldschmidt! One can become heated, do injustice: but should I have to admit that I myself had, at any single time in my life, concealed behind a scoundrelly common laborer―mind this well: behind the back of a common laborer!― injured a single pers.: then I would die of shame. And then for 6 years, once a week; for 6 years―oh, as one speaks of a horseman who rides many horses to death, letting one laborer fall after the other in this way, always a new laborer, always the same wretched G. behind the next common laborer! For 6 years! And now he wants, without further ado, to be a respectable author! Righteous God; a woman, perhaps charmed by flattery, perhaps even seduced by a promise of marriage, though it amounts to the same thing, she is seduced―and now her life here on earth is forever wasted. Oh, and after 6 such years a person thinks of himself as becoming a respectable person without further ado. And what is a press of that sort doing in Denmark? Take a French, an English, in short a European statesman, imagine Guizot, Lamartine, (in short) whomever you will, and talk with him about what people in the European states call literary prostitution, and you shall hear him say: let us not touch upon that, it is rlly Partie honteuse, a necessary evil. Then tell him that, up there in the north, there lies a land blessed by nature in every way, a happy, talented little people―though this is not relevant to the matter―tell him, that up in the north there is a little land that essentially had had no knowledge of such a thing, but took a long look at it until it was decided―to introduce it into the country―to introduce it!!! People got the idea that they were not properly a state if it was not included, and it was introduced― 36 Partie honteuse] French, a private part.

239

240

Diverse, 1843–1852

•

P a p e r 443–444 1847–1849 •

people studied it abroad to see how one establishes such a thing―and then there was someone who, to the land’s great joy, saw to the whole matter of literary prostitution, we got prostitutes, a pimp who bought young peop. in order to sacrifice their little bit of talent in this way etc.: Would not that statesman think it was a lunatic asylum[?] And what is the consequence? The consequence is that we got the rabble; it is something D[enmark] never had before. Oh, that I were now able, as I wished, to move every single Dane to at least love his native land so as not to will its ruin with diabolical violence and power. But if no one else will speak, then to my other crimes against Denmark I will continue to add this: to want, with every sacrifice, to open Danish eyes to what must become the nation’s ruin. The land is a little land―good nature is conditio sine qua non. As soon as one applies the proportions of a large country, Denmark is exploded. We must prevent in every way the spread of empty chatter and town gossip, precisely in order to rescue something that could be called public opinion. If the opposite happens, if chatter and gossip become public opinion, then Denmark is done for. I, for my part, am not conscious of ever having previously collided with pub. opinion. But with respect to town gossip and empty chatter, to my knowledge (to my blessed joy and my indescribable consolation in the moment of my death) I have honestly and uprightly not so much knocked it on the head as struck it on the forehead: i.e., I have done Denmark an act of kindness. If I should ever come to collide with public opinion, I shall always know how to give expression to what it is, that it is an authority, even if possibly mistaken.

An entire book could be written if I wanted to tell how inventive I have been in fooling people about my way of life. During the time I was proofreading Either/Or and writing the edifying discourses, I had practically no time to go walking in the street. So I used another method. Every evening when I left home worn out and had eaten at Mini’s, I was in the theater for 10 minutes―not a minute more. Well known as I was, I reckoned on there surely being several gossips at the theater who would then tell: He goes to the theater every single night, he does noth-

15 conditio sine qua non] Latin, the necessary and indispensable condition.

5

10

541 15

20

25

30

444

35

Diverse, 1843–1852

5

•

P a p e r 444–445 1847–1849 •

241

ing else. Oh you dear gossips, how I thank you, without you I would never have achieved what I wanted. It was also for the sake of my former betrothed that I did this. It was my melancholic wish to be mocked if I could, simply in order to serve her, simply so that she could put up proper resistance to me. Thus from every quarter there was a blessed unanimity in my soul with respect to wanting to weaken the impression of myself in this way.

542 [a]

Hinted at in an earlier journal.

445 10

15

20

25

30

35

A Sort of Fable or a Simple Story. There once lived, in a market town, a society of tightrope dancers. Most of them were quite ordinary dancers who, in jumping high, were able to rise about this high from the rope. But there was one who could rise this high . He was considered by everyone the first dancer, the object of admiration who was always hailed with jubilation, always reaped a storm of applause. Then there was another dancer in that society, in that market town; in jumping high he could rise roughly so high from the rope. However, not only was he not the first dancer―no, he was not even a dancer, but only an extra and even in that capacity he was used as rarely as possible, for the director of the company hardly dared use him. As soon as he came forward and made his leap, the audience from orchestra to balcony hooted and yelled and whistled at him, flung at him fruit and whatever else they had at hand, all with the idea that his performance was a sort of madness or possession, that the man really ought to be confined as mentally ill. That this dancer’s performance, that precisely he was the extraordinary one, this the crowd, with its best will, could not get into its head. That something so extremely different from the ordinary, something as different as day and night from the performance of that dancer whom all

1

242 1

b

Diverse, 1843–1852

that this should be what was extraordinary

[c]

or make faces

•

P a p e r 445 1849 •

regarded as the first dancer and admired:b no, this the crowd could not grasp; this sort of thing, the crowd concluded, must be madness. And nor was there anyone who sought to enlighten the crowd on its error. The so-called first dancer (whom we will call A, as opposed to this other dancer, whom we will call B) had in fact been close to doing so, but he took care not to―for good reasons. Dancer A said to himself: “I see very well that B’s performance is extraordinary; but I would be mad to draw people’s attention to this. At times I myself feel that it is a kind of betrayal on my part; but here it is not a matter of something trivial, everything is at stake. If people take notice of him and that he is the extraordinary one, then I am as good as nothing instead of, as now (praise be to the folly of the crowd and the invention that the crowd is the judge), being everything―and he some half-mad, crazy something or other. True enough, even my having achieved more distinction than the other dancers I owe to him or to having learned from him. But no one knows that―and it must be kept quiet. That is also easily done if I only stay silent, for he is too proud to say a word or even hint at it―a dead man would be more likely to tell tales out of school[c] than he to say a single word or give away the least thing with a look. Then, too, even if he did say it, the crowd would not understand him. Oddly enough, it was he himself who made me aware of this―in order to show me how safe and secure I can be in the deception. Altogether, I need only ask him what is the shrewdest thing for me to do (which is the most harmful to him), and he would tell me this himself; and no one knows this as he does. In his innermost being he doubtless secretly despises me, but his innermost being is as though outside of this world, it is as if a man in China despised me. And, finally, he is too great and proud to bother about any kind of recognition, or more properly, great enough and proud enough simply to find satisfaction in this insane situation. I profit from that; and who knows, perhaps in his innermost being he is

5

543 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Diverse, 1843–1852

5

544

15

20

25

30

35

40

•

P a p e r 445 1849

too elevated even to despise me; but it is certain that he always deals with me in a very friendly fashion.” Dancer B., on the other hand, said to himself: “It is obvious that I have it in my power to hold back so that I rise only halfway up from the roped―then I would be the object of admiration. It would also be a deserved punishment for the traitor who by suppressing the truth, is now No. 1. But dancing is my art, and being able to do it is my genius, the gift of a higher power, a gift that must be honorably and honestly expressed for what it is, the opposite is treason against Providence.”―“In view of the fact that I live in a market town,” he said to himself, “it could almost, humanly speaking, be called a duty toward myself to hold back a little; indeed, I could also hold back so much that I would become the admired first dancer and then little by little accustom the people to understand the extraordinary one. But, no, this is a contemptible shrewdness with which one does not devoutly love his genius, but cravenly and wretchedly loves oneself.” He then remained true to himself in upholding his extraordinariness― so he lived and so he died―alas, even a dancer can become a martyr.

•

243

d

that is, just a shade higher than A

1

Moral. The straightforward comparatives: greater, greatest―this greater, greatest is what counts for success in this world, is the object of admiration, etc., for this greater, greatest is just a difference of degree, quantitative distinctions within the quality and standard common to the majority of people―and the people’s admiration ise essentially self-love. The extraordinary is: the qualitatively different. The extraordinary naturally has it in his power, in a craven, worldly way, to hide what extraordinary capacities it has, to hold itself back enough to become the greatest of all in relation to greatest; if it does not do this, if it loves God and the truth, if in gratitude it honors God by being wholly and fully what it is, then it is eo ipso a martyr. This is always the way with the extraordinary one in a market town―and what after all is this 39 eo ipso] Latin, by that very fact.

e

, like everything human,

[f]

it has it in its power to take into shrewd consideration the fact that it is the contemporaries who constitute the court that judges the extraordinary; it has it in its power to represent itself falsely by abandoning what, in a serving capacity, corresponds ethically to the extraordinary: the recklessness of elevation and self-denial.

5

10

244

1

5

10

g

Diverse, 1843–1852

In this world the collision is not as though the world hated the extraordinary―no, but the world’s envy is invariably directed against every person who simultaneously is and wants to be the extraordinary, that is, against the extraordinary one, against the contemporary extraordinary; yet the world’s envy naturally has the merit of truth, that it contributes to making it obvious when someone unjustifiably wants to be the extraordinary.

•

P a p e r 445 1849 •

whole world but a market town, where the crowd, which understands nothing and has no standard of measure, least of all for the extraordinary one, is the authority; and where, in self-love and in conspiracy with the ignorant crowd, the individuals who occupy the positions of greater and greatest betray the extraordinary person. Yet in fairness, more cannot reasonably be demanded of the greater and greatest; for that person who―when he himself is “greater” or “greatest”―truly acknowledges the extraordinary, has―an extraordinary resignation and was thus himself the extraordinary one in another sphere. In the world of ideality, in the imagination of youth, there is no collision. There the question is: Are you the extraordinary one―then you simply strove quite carefully to be that, so that there is in all eternity no doubt that you will also count as the extraordinary one. It is otherwise in this world, where a youth who is the extraordinary one would come into a tragic misunderstanding: he would exert himself more and more, sacrifice himself more and more on the assumption that he would thereby achieve recognition, lovably ignorant of the fact that he is undermining himself, simply hastening more and more his own ruin, because in this world the extraordinary one has only one way to success and recognition: to hold back.g The collision is in this world, and it is that the extraordinary one collides with the egotism of the ignorant crowd and with the egotism that is the envy of the somewhat more knowing. And this conspiracy―the crowd’s ignorance with the envy of those who know―is the martyrdom of the extraordinary. Generally, the ignorant crowd becomes the obviously guilty party, who scorns, persecutes, kills the extraordinary one; but the envy of the knowing, who in a hidden betrayal slyly ally themselves with the ignorance of the crowd, is a far more frightful guilt. For the crowd there must be―and truly―prayed: Forgive them, for they know not what they do. But to pray for those who know, those who, sure enough, do not do it, but who know very well what the crowd does and do not prevent it!

5

10

545

15

20

25

30

35

40

Diverse, 1843–1852 446

5

546 10

15

20

25

•

P a p e r 446 1850 •

An Urgent Appeal by S. K. I have once and for all time solemnly asked if people would not observe this: that insofar as anyone at all wants to quote from my works, if it is a pseudonymous work―that people will cite the pseudonym. Concerned, I bear a great responsibility as an author, therefore I am so willing to do all that I can to ensure that the communication remains true. And, on the other hand, it is so easy to comply with, so I think one could readily humor me in this. Why and where I use pseudonyms is the fruit of long deliberation: I could willingly write whole books about it. But if this distinction is not observed in bringing citations, it produces confusion, sometimes meaninglessness. The responsibility for objecting every time it happened despite this is one that I thought for a moment I could surely take upon myself, both because Danish literature is so small, and because I have in a way stood and have been placed outside the literature. But for one thing, of course making the appeal after the event cannot in fact help, for when it is done it is done, and for another, I realize full well that one cannot take a responsibility of this sort upon oneself. So I confine myself to a repeated urgent appeal. The matter is very much on my mind, and I beg in all earnest that the appeal be taken into account.

245

LOOSE PAPERS, 1852–1855

Paper 447–Paper 468: After the Final Change of Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

249

Paper 469–Paper 550: Toward the Battle with the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

301

Paper 551–Paper 591: During the Publication of The Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . .

359

PAPER 447—PAPER 468 After the Final Change of Address October 1852–October 1853

Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

250

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 447–448 1852 •

551

Indulgence. The first example of indulgence is no doubt under Cyprian, the letters of indulgence they received that allowed them to avoid the persecution. Consider how much Xnty had already moderated at that point in relation to its beginning―and consider it now, when Xnty is presented as that which, as they say, gives joys their proper taste, that is, as supporting us in the enjoyment of life. Ergo Xnty simply does not exist. If the teaching that came into the world in such a way as to require of the hum. being that he should infinitely sacrifice everything, if that teaching has been brought to the point where now it has to serve as support for a hum. being in the enjoyment of life: then it is no longer the teaching, or that original teaching then no longer exists.

“Grace.” We are all saved by grace. Excellent! But even if God is ever so infinitely gracious, oh, as infinitely gracious as only divine grace is―I wonder if there is still not one thing that he wants, indeed, that he must require, because it is in the nature of the case: that the one to whose lot grace falls at least have a reasonably true notion of how great the requirement was? But now, it will be easy to show that the official proclamation of Xnty to some extent keeps quiet about how infinitely great is the requirement for being a Xn (the requirement to imitate Xt, to forsake the world, to die away from the world, and what then follows from this, to have to suffer for this teaching―whereas the official preaching brings in

447

5

10

15

448:1

25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

552 5

10

448:2 15

20

25

30

35

“grace” on a basis of, at most, public, civic morality, as if this were more or less the requirement). But if someone does not have the true conception of the magnitude of the requirement, then neither can he have a true conception of the magnitude of the grace, he rlly takes the grace in vain. Is he then indeed saved by grace? Or, even though the sentence reads: “All are saved by grace,” must there not always remain one exception: except the person who takes grace in vain. Or, if one says of a rich man that he fed all his people, did he also feed the man who left the food untouched and did not eat it?

“Grace.” We speak of a government being able to hold on for another 20 to 30 years by easing up―then imagine if the requirement for being a Xn as it is found in the N.T. were put into effect, this infinite requirement that infinitely requires everything: one would think that with this God had made sure there was enough to ease up on for as long as the world should last. And yet how long did it take before the requirement was substantially, substantially lowered[?] And now we are all Xns in a way that the only thing we hear anything about is grace, but about what is required, how infinitely much―that we do not hear, not even in such a way as to become aware of how infinitely much has been given us. Soon no doubt the very opposite will be reached, that we regard “grace” as our right, that we turn the relationship around entirely, perhaps even pursue our rights vis-à-vis God and initiate a lawsuit against him concerning grace.

•

P a p e r 448 1852 •

251

252

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 448–449 1852 •

“Grace.” There was once a noble family that possessed vast tracts. The peasants were impoverished―and one of the forefathers of this noble family had not only released them from all debt, but also from future payments; yes, he had even sent servants to them to set them at ease by assuring them that the debt and payments had been canceled. At first, the peasants themselves indeed knew well how much had been cancelled. Later on, however, the nobleman’s servants reminded them of it. But eventually, people understood it in quite brief terms―people knew, with all possible torpidity, that it had been cancelled, but how much it was nobody knew and nobody cared. Thus had it gone from generation to generation. Then there came one of that noble family who declared: No, this ought not be tolerated. Like my forefathers, I will gladly release them from all of it― but this shamelessness, taking a person’s generosity almost as a right.

Bishop M.

1

a

―merely humanly understood―

If Bishop M. were an insignificant personality, if―well, yes, it should readily be shown that what he represents is, after all, not rlly Xnty. But the misfortune, in a godly sense, is precisely that what he puts in the place of the decisively Christian isa so fascinating―oh, so fascinating, so admirable―oh, so admirable. And again, in a godly sense, it is my own misfortune that I have so much of the aesthetic, the poetic in me that I am only all too captivated in my relation to this fascinating and admirable aspect, so that I cannot speak of how fervently I feel myself drawn in filial piety to this significant personality.

448:3

5

553

10

15

20

449 25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

554

10

15

20

25

30

450

35

Alas, if this had been my task, to describe what is excellent, glorious, admirable in this manb how easily would I breathe and how happy I would feel. Now, on the other hand, when the opposite (showing that all this is not rlly what is decisively Christian) became my sad task, I am myself like a deluded spirit, and deluded again because I know I will distress many, even if perhaps not one single one of these many could become angry with me on that account, since he will more or less clearly understand that there is a Providence involved here, and more or less will be or will become aware of the fact that Bishop M., too, is to blame for this collision, so that even if it ended in the most complete victory for Bishop M. and my most complete defeat, I would still have suffered an injustice on the part of Bishop M. insofar as he is to blame for this collision. But now to the matter. Bishop M. does not position Xnty in actuality but at the remove of imagination from actuality (the poetic); he substitutes the artistic for what is decisively Christian: instead of Christian dignity he introduces the most beautiful and enchanting edition of hum. refinement; instead of Christian recklessness, the most refined consideration of the most refined prudence; instead of Christian heterogeneity with this world, the most tasteful worldly cultivation; instead of renunciation and self-denial, a rare, rarely refined enjoyment of this world and this life.

•

P a p e r 449–450 1852 •

b

253

to dare sit down, as it were, and embroider

The Man of God―And the Man of God. According to the Xnty of the N.T., the man of God is the one who is hated by peop., of whom it is therefore said: to him shall befall all possible misfortune and evil. In “Christendom” the man of God is the one of whom it is said: the man of God, he is the one who will really have the best slice of the roast, the most delicate, and the highest place at the table, etc.

1

254

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 450–451 1852 •

Once this is achieved, has not Xnty then become the exact opposite of what it is in the N.T.? Is this then Xnty? Or is it then not rather: Xnty simply does not exist? Or perhaps still more correctly: Xnty simply does not exist, but what exists is even the opposite of Xnty―the greatest possible distance from Xnty.

5

555

To Sew without Tying a Knot on the Thread or “It Is the Numbers That Do It”

451

10

It was, as we all know, Eulenspiegel who called together all tailors to announce the latest wisdom. They came. He then climbed up in a tree and said that they must not forget to tie a knot on the thread, for otherwise they would lose the first stitch. Calling the tailors and seamstresses together is not my intention. No! Nor do I altogether agree with Eulenspiegel that by not tying a knot on the thread one loses only the first [stitch], but if one does not tie knots, one then loses the next one, and so forth, and the whole thing becomes nonsense. What I will talk about is proclaiming Xnty―without tying a knot on the thread. Imagine a speaker excellently equipped in every respect, he preaches on this genuine Christian theme: self-denial, renunciation of the world. Wonderful, matchless. He grips them, captivates and fascinates quite peerlessly. Among those assembled there was a rich man; he goes home touched, gripped, profoundly moved, and he says to his wife: [“]It was incomparable; I will also thank the speaker by giving him a present: an exceedingly expensive fruit bowl.[”] Likewise, another enraptured rich man, he, deeply gripped, grips deep down in his pocket: a gold snuffbox etc. etc.―and the speaker accepts them most obligingly. Here, you see, there was no Christian knot tied on the thread. In Xnty’s view the “sermon” comes on Monday, when the speaker returns the gifts and

15

20

25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

556 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

says: I of course teach self-denial―ergo I cannot accept such things, or else I would of course also easily run the risk that what would excite me to talk of self-denial the next time would be the prospect of a landau. Look, this is how one sews without tying a knot on the thread―and how it becomes nonsense. And that is how we are all Xns: each individual is not, but all of us are―a Christian nation. “It is the numbers that do it.” Strange that we all laugh when we hear the story of an innkeeper who sold beer at a shilling under cost price, that when asked how it could pay, said “It is the numbers that do it.” That is, that one bottle of beer costing him 4 shillings, sold for 3 shillings, that is a loss, he agreed; but that 100,000 bottles of beer each costing him 4 shillings and selling for 3 shillings―it is his unassailable opinion that this is a profit. Thus with being a Xn. Each individual is perhaps indeed not unwilling to admit that he is not exactly a Xn―but “the numbers do it.” Care must be taken here not to do me wrong by a misunderstanding. Can it in any way be my intention to envy that speaker the fruit bowl, the gilded snuffbox, the embroidered armchairs, the many turtle banquets, where he sits at the head of the table (as thanks for his sermon on self-denial), the landau, silk, velvet, gold and silver: no, no, that is not how I take Xnty. I for my own part would, if I could afford it, with pleasure do a proper turtle feast where 10 kinds of wine were drunk, etc.―but one thing occupies me infinitely. On entering the hall with the guests to go to table, and―for I would also have dinner music― like Jeppe, shout: “Strike up the music”―I would then say to myself quite softly: [“]God in heaven, this is not in Xnty,[”] or I would say to the guests: [“]My friends, permit me just one thing. In the old days it was the custom to say a prayer at table― could you have anything against instead of saying grace my saying just these words: My friends, this is not Xnty[?”]

•

P a p e r 451 1852 •

255

256 1

5

[a]

I believe that God will put up with our fragility, because we have indeed been pampered from childhood by being coddled with Christian candy and sweet Christian baby food with jam in it.

[b]

10

15

20

After the Final Change of Address

the child want to go to Frederiksberg to read his lessons, to be serious, not to play, then the father would probably say: Give me the mark, you scamp, you are going to stay at home, you can go hungry and learn the index in Riise’s Geography by heart. No, the end is to be tied in Christian fashion, so that it shall not all be nonsense, we must either once again have character that really forsakes the world, or we must at least make admissions, and above all, we must come out from under our cover: that it is numbers that do it.

•

P a p e r 451–452 1852 •

That is the way I believe it can be done.[a] There are therefore two things in particular that I must require of such a speaker. 1) That he not look so dreadfully serious. For to get silver vases, etc., etc. is not so dreadfully serious. Nor to speak for 3 quarters of an hour when it is rewarded in this way. 2) That he does not weep, even less sob. For, after all, there is nothing really to weep over. Yes, were he to receive no presents, if he did not go to any banquets; were he to live instead in want and poverty (which, according to the N.T.―on which of course the speaker always bases his discourse―God has reserved to himself the right to require): then it would not be improper for a man to weep over such things; but to me it seems that there was, all the same, a kind of reason for doing so. In the other case, however, there is really no reason for it, and there is, on the contrary, such an exceedingly easy reason for the audience to break out in laughter. Imagine a father and a child. The child would so rather go out to Frederiksberg and play pirates with his friends. “Go with God, my child, and enjoy yourself, and there you have 1 mark to buy fruit or whatever you want.” But should [b]

5

557

10

15

20

25

Hypocrisy. A hymn after all is a product of a poet, and composing one probably proceeds in the following fashion: He is caught up in the mood, he lets himself be carried away Let us now assume that the content of such a hymn is: love of his Savior, how the soul loves him, gives up the whole world to have him etc., and this is presented in the most glowing turns of phrase.

452

30

After the Final Change of Address

5

558

15

20

25

30

35

Well, that can be enough. But now this hymn is be sung by the congregation. There is always “I” in the hymn; thus it is I myself who sing. Can I now, in the remotest way, truly say anything like this of myself? No. So I must either then sit mindlessly so that I take note of nothing at all, or it is as if I should be forced into hypocrisy. The law in general for all godly communication is: that it be true. Why is this so? because in a godly context there must be a turn toward action, toward acting accordingly, and it is precisely this turning that separates the godly from the aesthetic. The aesthetic leads ins Blaue hinein, comes like a sneeze and goes like a sneeze. The aesthetic is the moment and in the moment; for the godly, the next moment is precisely what is decisive, for then I have to act, and if I do not watch out, I have transformed that moment in church or during the hymn singing into aesthetic enjoyment. That is why it is so important that everything that is said and sung in church be true, not that it be beautiful, grand, glorious, enrapturing, etc., not that I come to weep while my heart beats violently, no, what matters is that it concern itself as closely as possible with acting accordingly. In church people simply speak directly of the way things go in the actual world. “But this is inappropriate.” What?―that this is how things go in the actual world, I admit: but for that very reason it should be spoken of in church, so that things can go otherwise. The law is always: the more true, the truer, the better, not the more solemn the better. From a godly standpoint, solemnity means that one acts accordingly. For godliness, the solemnity with trombone and trumpet, or the solemnity in silk and velvet, is a misunderstanding, a solemnity that neither seems [b]

13 ins Blaue hinein] German, into the blue yonder, to any random place.

•

P a p e r 452 1852 •

257

[a]

e.g., 595 in Mynster’s Supplement. vol. 2.

1

[b]

to be borne by, nor to convey the view: God is spirit. As soon as one moves in the direction of having a special ceremony for what it is appropriate to speak of in church or, rather, for which expressions are appropriate in church, which forms of expression are solemn enough to be used in church, it is so easy to enter into shadow boxing, or into hypocrisy. For God knows this, that in the life out there, nothing takes place with solemnity, and yet this is what should be aimed at.

5

10

15

258

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 453 1853 •

Mood.

1

[a]

―for I am speaking only of us Danes, so far as I can know―

O, Luther! . . . And yet in one sense a happy situation, for at least then there were 95 theses; but now there is just one thesis: Xnty simply does not exist. Christianity simply does not exist; but we[a] are―by having the objective doctrine―more or less tranquilized into an enormous illusion that we are Christians. Yet I―who indeed have said from the beginning, and again and again and continually, that I am without authority―I accuse no one, not a single one, either lay or priest, while I believe that every person who claims to be a Christian, item that every person who has undertaken to be a teacher in Xnty has a responsibility before God. But I judge no one. If I were to judge anyone it would have to be myself: that I may have let far too much time pass before I took this step, or that, when now that it is finally happening, I perhaps am nonetheless not taking it emphatically enough. For what indeed is more the object of the crowd’s craving than the glory of daring to say oneself: much was entrusted to me; this is something I dare with good conscience say of myself before God; it no doubt would also be pleasing for me if the other side―“. . . of him shall much also be required!”― did not fall upon my troubled conscience with more than a hundredweight. And it could appear glorious to dare say cheerfully of oneself: I have faith to lift a mountain―and this I dare say before God in good conscience; but it is not joyous for the other side of the matter, this other side from which I must see it: tension of anxiety unto death lest the faith did not suffice and the mountain that I lift fall upon me, then the faith I had was no doubt the one that dares say to a mountain “lift yourself”― ―and it lifted itself― ―and fell upon me―and then it would of course have been infinitely, infinitely better after all not to have had such a faith.

14 item] Latin, as well as, furthermore.

453

5

559

15

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

560 15

20

In order to reach the point that has now been reached, I have made use of everything: time, abilities, capital. In addition, in order to gain for myself the necessary recognition, I have voluntarily exposed myself to ridicule. I have done service as a caricature in Cph.b have been known under nicknames, even in books in that manner, etc. etc. In so doing, what has been gained is that we can now come to the matter. If I imagined anotherc starting straight off with the thesis: Xnty simply does not exist―he would have to be prepared to be held back at least two or three years until all had laughed at him sufficiently, and all that can be said by way of fun and games etc. had been heard and heard again. This is something that, as a perspicacious man, I have put more or less in order, so that even at this moment there may be not so very many who laugh when they hear the thesis: Xnty simply does not exist.

P a p e r 453 1853

•

•

b

, played in the comedy,

c

someone unknown

259

1

Bishop M.

25

30

35

40

“Why should it be put so pointedly?” Because it is a godly cause. All politics are so to speak “to a certain degree.” Godly causes are: Either/Or.d If contemporaries will have confidence in me and take a calm attitude while I complete my project: then not the slightest inconvenience will be occasioned, for it is only a movement of inwardness that is to be made―and in that case, for me, there can be such a joyful life as I have truly never imagined; and I dare accept it with good conscience, for I have first redeemed my relation to God, I have posited my thesis: Christianity simply does not exist. If, on the other hand, my contemporaries oppose me: this I make no secret of at all, it is indeed far, far stronger than I, a single pers., I who, furthermore, have not used my time to protect myself by forming a party but, on the contrary, have done everything to weaken myself, have repelled those who would join with me and have thereby embittered them―I have

d

But it is of course just this that in the religious domain has given rise to the enormous illusion: this, that people―I assume this is the case― have piously served the cause of Xnty in a political, worldly-shrewd manner, so that we have after all gotten “some Xnty” and after all, “something is better than nothing”―yes, politically, but from a Christian standpoint this is an enormous error.

5

10

260

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 453–454 1853 •

voluntarily exposed myself to ridicule etc. Then it is easy to see that in that case, my life, which hitherto has not been exactly carefree, will become so burdensome that no one will envy me it: in God’s name, I have, however, honored my God-relationship, I have set forth my thesis: Xnty simply does not exist.

This about Bishop Mynster.

1

[a]

so eloquent,

I am known by many, and I know many; I am not aware of having any enemies but am in various ways devoted and well-disposed to the many: but there is only one man among my contemporaries, one alone, of whom in particular I feel just now the need to speak: the right reverend old man, Zealand’s admired bishop. Let me speak as I feel! Rare, rare good fortune to be so young, when Bishop M. is as old as he is! How instructive to see a man preserving himself in this way; for what is it to preserve oneself? It is, in the days of youth, when the blood etc. Yes, truly, through more than a generation he is a teacher; for when is a girl to marry? Olden time answers: when she is a girl in age and a wife in understanding; and when is a man to be teacher? When he is an adult in age, but an old man in discretion; and when is he at his best? when in age and discretion he is an old man but young at heart, as he himself is, this old man who has never made a pretense of having anything new to offer; no, from the first it was the old familiar things that nevertheless found in him so fresh, so rich, so powerful, so impressive an expression that throughout a long life he stirs many with what is old and, when he is dead, many would long for that which is old and for this old man, as in the heat of summer one can long for the coolness of spring water. All honor to him, this old one!

5

454

10

561

15

20

25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

562

20

25

30

35

40

How this man will judge my effort is of the utmost importance to me. Were it possible for him, with all his soul, fully and wholly, to declare himself in agreement: Give me a kingdom so that I can present it to the one who brings me these tidings! So important is Bishop M. for me for my own sake, so precious for the sake of a deceased father. But should this not happen, if Bishop M. nevertheless remains entirely still, silent, I shall not ask for more. In either case, I assume that my effort has affected him with respect to what is surely the deep religious inwardness that is in him. But if my effort affects Bishop M. in another way, in the way of his worldly wisdom, which, as far as that goes, I can very well admire, even though I would not for any price dareb let it count, then something else will doubtless happen. Bishop M. will say to himself something like this: [“]In a certain very lofty sense what this man is saying can be quite true―that I acknowledge, but, but, it is too lofty, it does not fit into this world: he might have the effect of discouraging peop. from Xnty instead of drawing them to it. In order to get peop. to enter into Xnty there has to be accommodation to this world, and I consider this precisely to be a religious duty, and therefore I dare not let it pass in silence but must bear witness against this pers.―in this world; for I recognize that in a certain sense what he is saying is quite true.” If this happens,―and even if it was only a tiny little remark by Bishop M, almost accidentally tossed off, from which nevertheless it is evident that he disapproves of this turn: at that very instant everything is changed and I will see it as my task to go to the extreme opposite. Yes, if the weapon I bear is nonetheless already sharp, I will pray to God to provide me with an even sharper weapon, and even if the thrust I deliver is nonetheless already sure, I pray to God to make this thrust of mine even surer when it directs this even sharper weapon against Bishop M.; for worldly wisdom in defense of Xnty is, yes, for Xnty it is the most dangerous thing of all. It is precisely this that shall be brought to aware-

•

b

P a p e r 454 1853 •

, in godly fashion,

261

1

262

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 454–455 1853 •

ness, for the worldly wisdom that defends Xnty is precisely what creates the illusions. What is to be brought to awareness is that 10 talented people and five geniuses who attack Xnty to the utmost of their ability, even if it were with demonic passion, are not nearly as dangerous as a man who uses worldly wisdom to defend Xnty when it is he, precisely he, who commits lèse-majesté against Xnty. For Xnty is God’s cause. It is not in embarrassed circumstances; it does not have to conquer, for it has conquered infinitely at every moment, and, if I may put it in Lutheran fashion, our Lord cares not a pin for talents and geniuses, for Caesars and Popes and the Public. Nor was it the case at that time when―to speak as we hum. beings say things―when times were rough, when Xnty was to come into the world, it was not the case that they sent for wise men and fortune-tellers, diplomats: no, a couple of fishermen were given orders to take care of the matter. Let us never forget this; it is so decisive. If Xnty were humanity’s cause, a hum. cause: yes, then it would be right that it be served by hum. wisdom, worldly wisdom―and if Bishop M. were the wisest man in the world, then he would, if he applied all his wisdom, be the one who deserves greatest credit in this matter, and I would be of all fools the most foolish if instead of exulting in admiration, I fooled about in his way with protests. If, however, Xnty is God’s cause, then―it is easy to see―then, if it is served entirely by worldly wisdom, then―yes, I stand by my thesis―then Xnty simply does not exist.

Catholicism―Protestantism.

Are not C[atholicism] and P[rotestantism] rlly related to each other as―it might seem strange but this is how it is in the physical world―as in the physical world: a building that cannot stand is

5

10

15

563

25

30

455

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

564 25

30

35

40

related to a buttress that cannot stand alone, while the whole of it can stand, be even very stable and secure, when it is put together: the building and the buttress that gives it stability. In other words, is not Protestant[ism] or Lutheranism rlly a corrective, and has not a great confusion been brought about in Protest[antism] by its having been made into the normative? So long as L[uther] lived, it was not possible for this to be properly seen, for he stood constantly both in the tension of combat, exerting himself as a polemicist, and in the smoke and steam of battle, for it is true also of battles of the spirit that as long as the struggle lasts there is something corresponding to smoke and steam that makes it impossible for one entirely to find the time, quiet, or clarity to see if what one has replaced it with can be carried through. L[utheranism], as is said, fought in a constant polemic against C[atholicism]: it cannot be done in this way; then it is shown how it should be done, but there is no time to dwell on it, for we now come to the next point, we fight: it cannot be done in this way, etc. and so it goes on. Then things become calmer. And now it will become clear whether Protestantism can stand on its own. Perhaps it cannot even be seen whether or not this is possible in a country where C. stands alongside P., for although they do not fight but each looks after its own, there will still be in many ways a reciprocal relationship. In order to determine properly whether, and to what extent, P. can stand on its own, it would be desirable for there to be a country in which there was no C. It must be evident there whether P.―assuming that it degenerates―leads to a corruption to which C.―assuming that it degenerates―nevertheless does not lead, and whether this does not indicate that P. is not suited to stand alone. Let us take a close look at this. It was after a heavy yoke had for a long, long time rested on peop.’s shoulders, after people had, from generation to generation been anxious about death and judgment and hell and been frightened into starving and flagellating themselves, etc.: it was then that

•

P a p e r 455 1853 •

263

264

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 455 1853 •

the bow broke. It was out of a monastery cell he broke, the man Luther. Let us now be careful not to separate what belong together, the background and the foreground, so that we don’t have a landscape without background or come to something meaningless. The fact is that, given this presupposition, what L. ventured was the truth; for the opposite had been brought to a false over-tension. So then L. broke out of the monastery. But there was not such a good opportunity to see, with human level-headedness, how much truth lay in the opposite position when it was not over-tensioned. L. indeed did not himself know for certain, and thus it was more a matter of exploiting the advantage of having broken out so as to inflict on the opponent a wound that was as incurable as possible. Consider now the situation when L. broke out: it was untruth. Completely remove this presupposition for L., and the Lutheran position is utterly meaningless. Think of it in this way: that what L., in extreme tension, grasped as the ultimate thus becomes a kind of result, so that people entirely omit the tension―then the Lutheran position is utter nonsense. Imagine a country far removed from all Cath. into which the Lutheran result has been brought; there lives a generation that has never heard a single, solitary word about the side of the matter that finds expression in the monastery, asceticism, etc., the side that the Middle Ages exaggerated―but on the contrary, they have been coddled and spoiled from childhood by the Lutheran position about reassurance for the troubled conscience―but, note well, there is no one who has troubled his or her conscience in even the remotest way: so what then is the Lutheran position? Is there any sense in reassurance for troubled consciences when the presupposition, troubled consciences, is not there? Does not the Lutheran view then become meaningless; yes, what is worse, will it not become a refinement that comes to signify the difference between degenerate Protestantism and the corruption of degenerate C[atholicism][?]

5

10

15

20

25

565

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

25

30

566

35

40

And this was exactly what I wanted to point out, along with this showing that Protest. is not qualified to stand alone. When C. degenerates, what form of corruption is likely to appear? The answer is easy: superficial sanctity. When P. degenerates, what form of corruption will appear? The answer is not difficult: spiritless worldliness. Let us then pit them against each other: superficial sanctity and spiritless worldliness; but then I claim that, as a bonus, a refinement will appear that cannot appear in C., and this is the consequence of the fact that Protestantism rests upon a presupposition. It is this refinement that I will demonstrate. Let us make it quite simple. Imagine a Catholic prelate completely secularized―not to the extreme that could be punished by law or that would be avenged by Nature itself―no, he is all too worldly to be that stupid; no, the whole thing is so artfully conceived in terms ofa shrewd enjoyment and then, in turn, of enjoyment of his own shrewdness, and in this way his whole life has as much or more of all possible enjoyment as that of the most secularized, worldly-wise Epicurean. How then will the Catholic judge him? Now, I assume (as is indeed fitting) that he will say: It is not up to me to judge the high-ranking clergy. But aside from that, the Catholic will easily see that this is worldliness. And why will he see this easily? Because C. at the same time sees an entirely different aspect of Xnty expressed― the cause of which the high prelate must also resign himself to coming to terms with: that beside him there walks a person who lives in poverty, and that the Catholic has a pathos-filled conception of this that is truer than the prelate’s, for, alas, it is only worldliness. Imagine now, on the other hand, a Protestant country where there is no thought of C., where the Lutheran view was accepted long, long ago but without its presupposition, where people long, long ago rid themselves of ascetics and people who fast and monks and those who proclaim Christ in poverty: rid themselves of them, and not only this,

P a p e r 455 1853

•

a

•

265

―and this is the worldliest of all―

1

266

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 455 1853 •

but rid themselves of them also as ridiculous and foolish, so that if any such were to appear, people would then burst into laughter as they would on seeing an outlandish animal, rid themselves of them as something inferior and imperfect―imagine that in this Protestant country there lived a high Protestant cleric, quite the counterpart of the Catholic prelate: what then? Well, the Protestant prelate has a refinement―ah, a refinement for which the Catholic yearns in vain. Because among his contemporaries there is not a living soul with a pathos-filled conception of forsaking the world (the kind of godliness that, incidentally, even though it is exaggerated in the Middle Ages, still has its truth), because all the land’s religiosity is built and rests upon Luther’s result (without his presupposition): that religiosity is exactly the open-hearted cheerfulness of rejoicing in life (which indeed is wonderful when one has Luther’s fear and trembling and spiritual trials): so this Protestant cleric enjoys a refinement―well I’m damned, the Catholic prelate would perhaps say, well I’m damned!―the refinement that his contemporaries understand his worldliness and worldly enjoyment of life as―religiousness! Look, says one contemporary to another (for in C. the situation for the prelate was that people said to one another, [“]Let us not look at this or dwell upon it, it is only worldliness[”])―look at that Lutheran openness, see him at his turtle soup banquet, there is no one who knows better how to get the best out of life, see how he can suck enjoyment out of every situation in life, and how shrewd he is concerning his own advantage―and admire, then, this Lutheran open-hearted cheerfulness! He rides high―in Lutheran open-hearted cheerfulness―high above this inferior and imperfect business of going into a monastery, fasting, proclaiming Christ in poverty; he rides above all this in freedom of spirit and Lutheran open-hearted cheerfulness! The great thing is not to emigrate from the world, to flee: no, the authentically Lutheran position, yes, it is like the prelate, for this is godliness; contemporaries not only tolerate

5

10

15

20

25

30

567

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

it or make no effort to ignore it, they look upon it admiringly, and as―godliness. Luther has set forth the highest spiritual principle―inwardness alone. It can become so dangerous that we can sink to the very lowest levels of paganism (though the highest and the lowest do in fact resemble one another) where sensuous debauchery is honored as worship, so that in Protestantism it can come to the point where worldliness is honored and venerated as―godliness. And this―I maintain―cannot happen in C. But why can it not happen in C? Because C. has, as a genrl[b]

•

P a p e r 455–456 1853 •

267

[b]

assumption, that we human beings are a pack of scoundrels. And why can it happen in Protestantism? Because P’s principle relates to a special presupposition: a human being sitting in mortal anxiety, in fear and trembling and great spiritual trial―and there are not many of these in any generation. It is not my intention here to bring in the monastery, even if I could; I am merely trying to contribute to our coming to an understanding of truth with the assistance of admissions.

456

20

568 25

Luther. Just as one can get used to doing something, e.g., used to taking a walk every blessed day along some path―one tires of it and says to oneself, “For once you are going to go another way”―one puts on one’s hat and coat and, before knowing it, is off again on the same path―so, too, in matters of the spirit. There is something one has thought over, at first only thought of it occasionally, then later has considered it properly and it has received the appropriate amount of time, then one again puts it aside, but one cannot get rid of it and says to oneself, “You must really stop constantly coming back to the point” it doesn’t help.

1

5

10

15

[a]

In conclusion, or as a comment corresponding to the heading “Luther,” there should be: It is not my aim with this to restore the monastery even if I could; my proposal is simply that we become conscious of what truth there can be in it, that by making admissions we see to it that we come into relationship with what is true.

20

25

268

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 456 1853 •

This is how it has been with me with respect to a certain thought concerning Luther. Has not L. really given rise to a great confusion, however innocent in a certain sense that honest man was? Let us see how things went with L.! After a score of years in fear and trembling and spiritual trial, so terrible that―mind this well!―in every generation there is scarcely one individual who experiences anything like it: human nature, if you will, reacts in him and this fear and trembling transfigures itself into the most blissful, the most blessed open-heartedness and joy: wonderful! But now what happens? In Protestantism this principle is made into the universal: it is in this way and only in this way (for only this is true Xnty) that Xnty is to be presented, this extremely effective means of reassurance that Luther, in fear and trembling and spiritual trials, fighting unto death, discovered in his extreme angst―it is this that is to be proclaimed as the only means for everyone―and yet in every generation there is not a single individual who is put to the test in this way―and yet it all too easily becomes a falsehood, a frightful falsehood, if we take away this presupposition, this frightful antecedent, this fear and trembling and spiritual trial. For it is true that if this fear and trembling and spiritual trial are present, then this open-heartedness to be able to rejoice in this life is wonderful. But now suppose that this fear and trembling and spiritual trial (and in every generation there is not a single individual who experiences this as Luther did) [is not there], is there anything so wonderful about―wanting to enjoy this life; and can it not very easily become a dreadful deception if everyone it pleases to enjoy this life gets leave (and we cannot verify this) to appropriate dishonestly this Lutheran inwardness? Does it make any sense that something that is based to such a degree on a particular situation (for such is the case with fear and trembling and spiritual trials, particularly to the extent to which Luther

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

569

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

25

457

30

35

experienced them) should be made into a principle for everyone? In L. it was the truth; but was it for that reason also correct to make it universal? I wonder though―and let us be honest―whether we do not come considerably closer to actuality by assuming that the original situation (the foreground or the background, as you wish) is indolence, sensuality, lack of fear and trembling―but this indeed changes the matter infinitely; then awakening thus becomes precisely that which the message ordinarily ought to represent. Further―I wonder whether we rlly do not come considerably closer to actuality by assuming thatb the original situation (and this, after all, determines how in general the proclaiming ought to go about the matter) is not only indolence, sensuousness, etc., but that it―yes, so it is with us all, except perhaps Luther―is alloyed with a certain tendency to hypocrisy, but then is it not terribly dangerous to generalize what was true of Luther, to give such support to that swindler within us, that what he needs is to be reassured, aha!! is this not enormously dangerous―and it happens easily when what was true for L. becomes the genrl principle― almost tempting us hum. beings into pretending that what we need [c]

Sunday―Monday. There is something historical I want to relate. In the Middle Ages there lived a famous theologian Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. He fell into conflict with the king of England. Let me first present the matter in a few words. At that time England had already long been Christianized. There were something like―yes, I know it makes no difference, so I make a quite rough estimate,―there were something like 150 bishops in England. Prsmbly the bishops themselves didn’t preach, but each bishop represented―let us say―70

•

P a p e r 456–457 1853 •

b

269

ordinarily

[c] is reassurance, because this―after a score of years of spiritual trials such as not one in every generation experiences―was this what Luther needed? Was society really served by having a man who was so honest―indeed, he was honesty itself―so honest that it could not occur to him that anyone could want to steal; was society―or only just the thieves?―served by his writing laws that naturally bore the mark of his assumption that theft does not happen―in the same way that the Lutheran position presupposes the thought of fear and trembling and spiritual trial, that it is these under which peop. suffer: therefore console, console them, reassure them, reassure them so that no such poor Christian pers. sits in mortal anxiety and despairs of his salvation, oh, I know it, I know what this means, therefore reassure them: O, dear Luther, where are these Christian peop. of whom you speak? And even if, quite rarely, such an individual is to be found, can and should this be made into the genrl principle as we swindlers have done, by taking advantage of L.[?]

1

5

10

15

20

25

30

270

1

[a]

After the Final Change of Address

see Böhringer 2nd vol., 1st sec[tion], p. 295.

•

P a p e r 457–458 1853 •

priests. That amounts to 10,500 priests. Then, in his congregation on Sundays, each of these priests held forth (admonishingly, instructively, moved, stirringly, ravishingly, inspiringly, delightfully, wonderfully, breathlessly, with open-hearted exultation etc.) on this: that it is blessed, it is blessed to put your trust in God alone, and that it is every hum. being’s duty to do so, and that the Christian does so. Back now to Anselm. As mentioned, he comes into conflict with King William. It looks unsettling; he ventures to do something. He calls together the bishops to negotiate with them. These say “If, as up to now, you want to cling to God alone . . . then we could not cling to you.” “On God alone. I build all my trust etc.[”] This hymn is to be found in the authorized hymnal. Perhaps it was also found in the English hymnal. We all sing it; and 10,500 priests preach: On God alone I build all my trust, blessed, blessed, blessed it is, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed― ―on Mondays (yes, for the other was on Sunday, I forgot to say that) on Mondays the bishops say: should you―who up to now will cling to God alone―then we could not cling to you. There can certainly be some truth in this, for after all Anselm could not in truth properly come to cling to God alone if all the bishops were to cling to him. But how is it that there was a Christian country, and a Christian people, where there is this difference between Sunday and Monday[?] Then apply it―but, as I constantly propose, only in order to come into relation to the truth by making admissions.

570

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

That the Principle of Works Is Simpler Than the Principle of Faith. In my mentioning “works” our thought is directed to Catholicism. In order not to be misunderstood

458

After the Final Change of Address

571 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

I will note what perhaps is not necessary, and in any case ought not be necessary, that naturally everything C[atholicism] has come up with concerning the meritoriousness of works is to be unconditionally rejected. But then I say that the principle of works is simpler than the principle of faith. And why? Because the principle of works begins with the beginning and begins with what is univrsl among us hum. beings; the principle of faith begins so far ahead that in every generation there are not many who come that far, so this principle must become quite meaningless if one wants with to begin with it without further ado. The principle of works begins with the beginning and with what is genrlly accepted as true, that we ought therefore―yes, that it is to our advantage― that we are dealt with on that level. A scoundrel is treated like this―quite simply: May I see your works[?] If he comes and protests that in hidden inwardness he is willing to sacrifice everything, in hidden inwardness he longs to sit and sing hymns and fast in the stillness of the monastery, while to all external appearances he reaps profit and is the focus of attraction on social occasions, then one says to him―this is the simplicity of it―No, my good Morten Fredriksen, you must excuse us, we say just as Hummer says to Klister when the latter assures him that he has the money, [“]Do you have it here,[”] and when Klister replies, [“]I don’t have it here,[”] Hummer says: [“]Yes [a very long drawn out yes], yes, I see![”] Similarly we say: May we see the deeds. Alas, for us hum. beings this is sorely needed! O, dear Luther! Are they not two quite different things; a scholar who after devoting the twenty most vigorous years of his life (the years during which one indeed rlly studies) in the most strenuous study, and when in his 48th year, standing at the pinnacle of his scholarship, still has not found the satisfaction he looked for, when, suddenly as it were, though brought to the end of his tether and thereby to the opposite extreme, he closes his

•

P a p e r 458 1853 •

271

272

1

After the Final Change of Address

a takes what has been said as a result

•

P a p e r 458 1853 •

books and says: [“]No, scholarship is not what matters[”]―does this not differ altogether from when the innkeeper who happened to walk by just then and heard the scholar say it (for he roomed there, the windows were open and in his passion the scholar said it very loudly), an innkeeper who could not even write his own name, could hardly read it when someone else wrote it: Is it not something entirely different when he now goes on his waya and says: Scholarship is not what matters. The discipline that Luther underwent, and it was indeed carried to an immoderate extreme, is precisely what guarantees that what he says about his inwardness can be the truth. But it is infinitely high and thus not simple, for it is infinitely high to dare be so certain of one’s inwardness that keeping worldly things does not signify one’s wanting to keep them, no, but that one wants to do something still higher than giving them away. Yet, where there are such guarantees, yes, well, that is something else, a man like that knows what it is to renounce this world, he has tried it, he is convinced within himself and with God that he can do it; yes, this is something else. But is it not something quite different when without further ado someone wants to begin (not where L. began, because many years earlier L. had quite simply begun at the beginning, the works) where, so to speak, L. ended in order to begin the new beginning, this new beginning that, if it is to be in any way true, must always presuppose that the simple beginning has gone before. And just as I would then―if I were an innkeeper who could neither read nor write, just as I would then, because I was aware of not having the preconditions of that scholar, preconditions that of course were exactly what gave him the right to say “Scholarship is not what matters”―not dare to take it as a result and repeat it, so much the less (for this matter is far more important) would I take the Lutheran principle as a result, since I know in myself that I am completely untested in what might be called the precondition that can give the Lutheran principle truth in me.

572 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

573

5

10

15

25

30

35

40

P a p e r 458 1853 •

273

When the gospel requires that we renounce this world (nowhere in the gospel does it say anything about this being meritorious: this is a mendacious invention, but it is also a treacherous invention that in the eagerness to impress upon us that meritoriousness is an ungodly hum. invention, it is forgotten that renouncing this world is quite literally required in the gospel), then the simple thing is to do it. Next after that, if one does not do it, the simple thing is to confess that this is because one is too weak to do it, still clings too much to this world. But it is enormously high to keep it, to make it one’s own, and then dare maintain that one is like the person who does not possess it, that indeed the person who fasts, the ascetic, is only a lower standpoint. #[b]

20

•

It is not my intention―were I able to do so―to occasion anyone to attempt literally to renounce everything: no, I merely wish to contribute to our coming into relationship with the truth by means of admissions, if possible. I cling to No. 2, this simple thing: that if one does not do it, one admits that it is because one does not have the strength to do it, is too weak, clings too much to the world. At an infinitely costly price L. purchased a rewarding situation: infinitely high price, for fear and trembling and spiritual trials such as his are indeed frightfully costly―a rewarding situation, inasmuch as worldlinessc received him with open arms as the most welcome of persons. One whose task is to bring the Christian requirements to mind can no doubt buy at a far cheaper price, a far cheaper price because he has no need to be tested by spiritual trials in this way; but then again, he comes into the more thankless situation of not being made welcome―that people, despite the fact that this is surely a misunderstanding, will consider it to be rigorousness, whereas it is only what every pers. who does not fancy himself a hero and will not

[b]

# And is it not likewise also the simpler case that, in consideration that we are, as we no doubt generally are, incessantly being stopped and checked on our way to eternity by the scrutinizing question of works―instead of being allowed to wander off as if every one of us were a hero who dared believe himself to be at this infinite height: in hidden inwardness, etc. And is it not rlly for this reason that we are a little afraid of the principle of works, for it will prevent us―ah, but in truth the real danger is precisely that we are permitted to do so―will prevent us from imagining undisturbed all sorts of things concerning our inwardness, while undisturbed we live for the earthly. c

(even if this was a misunderstanding)

1

5

10

15

20

274

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 458–459 1853 •

permit himself to fancy himself a hero must wish for himself. 574

The Mynsterian Government’s Shrewdness The time when power was so sure of itself that it could be shrewd in exercising power is long gone. The tactic had to be changed. The trick became: the shrewd prevention of movement. Just as Bishop M. has remarkably had good fortune with him in everything, so too in the fact that the man, rlly the only one, to represent movement during the time that M. has had power―that this man (whatever else can be said in his praise especially earlier on) had exactly the talents and turned the matter in just such a way as to allow M. to come out of it well. For Grundtvig’s strength was in being bluntly vehement, and what he wanted to fight against was the doctrine. Oh, a stroke of luck for a shrewd man; for blunt vehemence is something for which shrewdness can well be a match, especially in shrewd times, when blunt vehemence finds no support in the notions of the day. And it is wellnigh impossible to get a shrewd man to engage in conflicts over doctrine. Just as shrewdness in fact demands that one not be so much a friend of someone than that one could not be an enemy tomorrow, if need be; and, if possible, not be so much an enemy of someone than that one could not be friends with him tomorrow, if need be: so does shrewdness demand that one never make the points of the doctrine that one delivers, whether all of them or some individual point, so fixed that one could not, if need be, take up, if not the opposite, then at least 2/5 of the opposite position as one’s own. Let us take a physical image. How does a draft of air come about? Through two air currents crossing, one current gives no draft. But where there is no draft neither is there a flame; and where there is

459 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

575

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

no flame, neither is there conflagration, and where there is no conflagration, neither will there be the great conflagration of Copenhagen. Let, now, the one party take a particular point of doctrine and insist upon it with all possible vehemence―there is no draft; only when the other party takes up the exact opposite, then there will be a draft, but if he doesn’t, there is no draft, and when there is no draft, neither will there be a flame, and when there is no flame there will be no outbreak of fire, there will be no ringing of bells, the citizens won’t come running, the fire hoses remain at rest: in short, it will be so far as possible from Copenhagen’s great conflagration that it will not come to be a conflagration; on the contrary, the commotion does produce some animation in the animated game L’ombre that people play that evening. Shrewdness is never hot-headed, never in a hurry, no, no let’s sleep on it first, let’s see if it comes to anything, so that in doing something we ourselves are not so foolish as to go and make something of it. A definite point of the doctrine is emphasized polemically with absolute intensity. “Does it awaken any attention―above all, any participatory attention?” “No, not yet, it seems.” “Yes, then everything is fine, then it will come to nothing, and the wise thing is to do nothing.” For whether or not the matter itself was right makes no difference to shrewdness; what a pure concern for the truth could come up with if, seeing that an objection had not been advanced vigorously enough, one were to advance one’s own argument for it―that sort of thing does not enter a shrewd head, it is indeed also madness. Still, it won’t go away, in fact attention seems drawn toward it; besides, a couple of new talented people have appeared. Well, eh bien, something must be done. What does shrewdness do? It takes 2/5 of the objection and makes it its own and then says: But, good Lord, we are basically in agreement; we are saying essentially the same. To a certain degree I, too, say what that man is saying; since we are in agreement, it’s just that man’s combativeness.

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

275

276

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

There was no draft. What was it that shrewdness was to prevent? That the point of disagreement becomes popular. When someone proposes the Creed as the principle and someone else proposes the exact opposite, the principle of scripture, then the point of disagreement can become recognizable, the common man takes note of it, there can then be a draft, maybe a flame, maybe an outbreak of fire, maybe it can become C[openhagen]’s great conflagration. But when, instead of proposing the direct opposite, the opponent takes 2/5 of the other’s position and says: the Creed is also part of it to some extent: it becomes so fine a point that it cannot attract popular attention; it actually seems to people that the two are, after all, essentially in agreement, but that the one is a man of piety and peace, the other of an aggressive and combative disposition. Assume that a question that is already in itself much more difficult becomes popular: Let someone propose the principle that faith is a paradox―should the other propose the contrary and maintain it in direct opposition, it would not be impossible for it to become a popular, recognizable point of disagreement. But shrewdness demands that the other party take 2/5 of the former’s position and advance it as his own―then everyone can see that we are basically agreed, that faith is to some extent a paradox, that rlly we are saying the same thing, but that the other party is a friend of tricks and exaggerations―we, on the contrary, are friends of the sound and true teaching. For this “to a certain degree,” is always what is popular, and shrewdness, on the other hand, has its strength precisely in never going further than to a certain degree. It is the art of strangling movement. To get on good terms with M. one must go about things in quite another way, not use blunt vehemence and above all take care that there is no conflict about doctrine, for on the one hand that is not where his weakness rlly lies, and on the other he has not made the individual propositions of his teaching any more fixed than that he is always able, in the event of sensation, to adopt the opposite standpoint to a certain degree.

5

576

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

577

15

20

25

30

35

40

No, it would have to begin so that he hardly suspects that this is the preliminary to the conflict― while terrain is still being won, while, though quite far off, an awareness, an illumination, is nonetheless being brought forth. One then has to move forward, but always so that shrewdness may say that what is happening here can just as well serve me, be to my advantage, as it can harm me, precisely just as well: it is just as shrewd, precisely just as shrewd, to do something in opposition to it as to refrain from doing anything. A man in whom there is character is not brought to a standstill by this, since for him there will always be that something left that is what character demands be done. But if shrewdness is the only thing there is in a man, this will be calculated to let him suffocate in his own shrewdness. This is the way it must advance, step by step. And the single point must always be arranged in such a way that even though it is a fact, in print and to that extent unchanged, yet a year later it looks quite different, so the shrewd person will then perhaps say of it: It would have been wisest after all to have acted against it―while the next point after that is calculated in such a way that it is equally wise to do something and not do something, for which reason nothing is done, while a year later it is seen that it would after all have been wisest to do something―for, like devilry, this illumination continually comes closer, That is how it must be done. The worldly wise might indeed have to say: [“]I have a fatal, faroff intimation of becoming as though transparent. Far off, far off light is beginning to be shed on the illusions; what I could venture in complete safety 15 years ago cannot be done now, even if no one else sees anything, I am as though moved by something. What furthermore is strange about the matter is the infinite deference and veneration that the pers. actually has for me―one could be tempted to laugh, for it is rlly ridiculous when one knows the illusions for what they are as he does, then to have the infinite respect and veneration for me, as he actually does. Yes he really has it; for he has not escaped

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

277

278

1

a

After the Final Change of Address

, if I were to do anything in that direction,

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

my attention, I have looked at that pers., I have looked at him closely, and this I know, that I am in fact the sharpest observer among us; but he has quite certainly in all honesty this infinite resp. and veneration for me. Now, he is supposed to be a sort of genius; in any case he has what is inseparable from every genius: madness. No one except myself sees the true state of affairs: for him it is hidden in madness, the crowd sees nothing; and the matter of transparency is so remote that the wisest thing, naturally, is to do nothing.” So things had to go further. But, again, in such a way that it must seem to the shrewd man that just as much, altogether exactly, precisely as much, speaks for doing something as for doing nothing, or that one can equally well say: [“]the pers. is defending me[”] as [“]the pers. is attacking me.[”] Perhaps the shrewd person has said to himself: That which―were I, contrary to my custom, in this case to come to the recognition that the wisest thing was to do something―would that make it so very difficult for me to come to act, so that it would be unwise after all, is that in the common perception it is assumed that this pers. is defending me, even defending me enthusiastically. If I were then to say [“]No,[”] I would not be understood, particularly when he would probably then concur with the genrl perception and say: [“]I am of course defending that man.[”] Then I do not prevail, for it is only my superior wisdom that can see that in the sense commonly believed, he is not defending me. But if I cannot make myself understood in this respect because understanding it requires a shrewdness of the sort that I have, then I willa of course get into what is the most preposterous situation for a shrewd man and look like someone who sees ghosts in the daytime. Accordingly, the wisest thing is to do nothing. So it has to continue, but again in such a way that it must be presented to the shrewd person like this: There is just as much, precisely just as much, that speaks for doing something as for doing nothing. And so on. Step by step. Then perhaps there comes a moment when the shrewd person would

5

578

15

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

579

15

20

25

30

35

40

have to say to himself: “There is something strange here; it is as if that pers. had taken possession of my thought while I seem to have been brought to the exact opposite position. What I have always said to myself: the shrewd thing is to do nothing, to prevent movement―it looks almost as if it were this that guides this person’s onward march. And I, on the contrary, will soon surely be brought to the point where I will have to say: If only I could get movement, if only it could come to a decision and the shrewd thing would be that I do anything, the most desperate thing, when, after all, doing something becomes shrewder than this enormous shrewdness ‘not to do anything.’ A direct attack, it would not be so dangerous for me at this moment. But I cannot get him to do that. To attack him myself, yes, there is much that speaks for that, but, after all, there is just as much that speaks against it. For the question becomes this, about what my shrewdness can see, about what is genrlly seen. But if it is not genrlly seen, then it is not shrewd for me to attack him, for then the view that he defends will be widely held, and I will come into an awkward situation. So that nonetheless is and will remain the shrewdest.” So it had to be done step by step. But who now should do it? It looks as if more shrewdness than that of the shrewd person is called for. Yes, that is the way it seems. But I do not think it can be done in that way; I can think of a much simpler and yet surer way. This other pers. is not the shrewd person. No, he is actually devoted to that shrewd person; he sees what is Christian as his duty, and it is infinitely dear to him to do it, and he is perhaps also occasioned to see in that shrewd person something quite other than the shrewd person: he believes that that shrewd person is, in addition to being the shrewd person, also the noble, elevated character―that is what he believes, it inspires him, this faith is something he will not let go of. Thus he proceeds step by step in quite carefree fashion, indeed cheerfully; if the matter is as he believes it to be, then he is actually benefiting the shrewd man,

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

279

280

1

b

After the Final Change of Address

here there is no talk of noble and elevated character, for then everything would be in his favor, but only about having character

•

P a p e r 459 1853 •

for what danger indeed is there in being transparent when one then gets to see the noble, elevated character! Yes, if the shrewd one is merely shrewd―yes, that alters the matter. But this the other pers. does not believe, he does not want to believe it.―This is how it is with this other pers. He is thus not the shrewd one. On the other hand I imagine there is a shrewdness that comes into play, the shrewdness of Governance. This latter, in its shrewdness, has so arranged matters that these two come to be related to each other in such a way that if the shrewd one is merely the shrewd one, it will be most dangerous for him―and nonetheless the other pers. is not the shrewd one. The shrewd person then sees how fatal it can be for him, but he does not have the characterb to―the earlier the better―let the matter come to a decision. For no price will the other pers. drop the thought that in hidden inwardness this shrewd person is the noble and elevated character. And why had it to be done in this way? Because what is suspect with things Mynsterian rests not at all in the teaching but in his having wrapped himself, and his proclamation of Xnty, and us, in an illusion. But one must proceed cautiously with illusions. Begin straightway with a direct attack, then the opposite party will protect itself by producing a new illusion, and that at the moment when there still cannot be any thought of having the time and the peace to invalidate even one of his original illusions. One must therefore proceed in this way: 2/3 of the strength is used to ward off the decision, and 1/3 is used to consume yet again one little piece of illusion. Then 2/3 of the strength is again used to ward off the decision, and 1/3 to consume yet another little piece of illusion. When that has been carried out, what is achieved is, first, that no new illusion is put into circulation, thereby letting a person come to a decision, whereas the quintessence of illusion that at the beginning had been taken on as inventory will now be consumed. When that has happened, there is nothing further to fight about. If someone now wants to make use of the illusions he may of course do so―but they are transparent; hiding oneself in such an illusion is

5

10

580

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 459–460 1853 •

281

just as fatal as “being carried in a bottomless sedan chair”: to be carried in a bottomless s[edan chair] is to walk, to hide oneself in a transparent illusion is to be made manifest. 5

460

10

581

15

20

25

30

35

40

The Consequence of the Mynsterian Proclamation of Christianity. When a surgeon has drawn the knife there is no more time for beating around the bush. Perhaps up to now he has done everything to prevent it coming to this point; done it perhaps for his own sake, because he knows that this operation is extremely strenuous work, so that he would infinitely rather not go to it, perhaps also for the other’s sake since it was a rather dangerous operation. It has been to no avail. The other person, who cannot in every case be called the invalid, since one need not always be ill to want to undergo a surgical operation, this other person now does not want to have things otherwise, presumably he is coercing the surgeon―perhaps (we can indeed imagine this complicated case), perhaps also because he clandestinely wants to ruin the surgeon, and he assumes that he cannot go through with this operation, so that it is just a matter of getting him to start upon it, and then his reputation will be ruined. Perhaps that is how it is, perhaps. But in any case, from the moment the surgeon has drawn the knife there is no more time for beating around the bush. Now, it is only a question of slashing away, of whether the knife is sharp, and he is quite sure of his talents, supple in his wrist, fully in the incision that is made, steady in the temper with which it is made. The consequence of Bishop M’s proc[lamation] of Xnty is: that, if actual Xnty is to be introduced in Denmark, it must first be prepared to put up with being found laughable. And why is this the consequence? Because Bish. M. has served Xnty without character, has nota been in the character of what is proclaimed. Proclaiming

a

in a Christian way

1

282

1

After the Final Change of Address

b

gesture, facial expression, figure, posture, [c]

5

employed in order, shrewdly, to make one’s life profitable and full of enjoyment.

d

10

15

Moreover, Bish. M’s p[roclamation] of Xnty has made objectivity into earnest, the objective doctrine; instead of what is truly Christian being that the earnest is personality, the Mynsterian earnest is to withdraw one’s personality; what is truly Christian is having to come fully forward in one’s person, without the least change of clothes, as an individual.

e

when the idea requires it

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

Xnty has become identical with everything worldly, a career, a brilliant career, a path to the enjoyment of life like no other, something whereby, as in everything else, a person strives to get ahead in the world in order to a reach a finite goal etc. What his proclamation has emphasized, then, and what he can be said to have brought us to respect is: talent, gifts, beautiful form, fine cultivation,b artistic virtuosity, and the like.[c] It is here that the emphasis has fallen and thereby become what is “earnest,” a quite different concept of earnest from the Christian one, which is that earnest is actually giving up the world, not losing the earthly and the temporal owing to some singular mishap that deprives you of it in spite of all the shrewdness devoted to it, but wanting to go down the path of which the gospel predicts―what he indeed knows―that down that path he will miss what is earthly and temporal. If now, once this other has become the “earnest,” this is to be made known and put into effect, still in the mild form that I propose: that we admit to ourselves the true state of affairs and then have recourse to grace―then everyone brought up in the Mynsterian manner cannot help but laugh. For if the Mynsterian position is earnest, then this other is just a ridiculous exaggeration, and after all, the genrlly accepted positon is that the M[ynsterian] is earnest. The p[roclamation] of true Xnty. thusd becomes laughable. So it will become laughable. I would like to throw more light on this. Altogether, I cannot at all emphasize enough that someone who, in our time, is to accomplish something must have thorough knowledge of ridicule and its object, must have the courage and assurance to associate with it, even to the extent of seeing exactly where he is to expose himself to the laughter, and then calmly doing so. In an age of common sense, laughter is rlly the weapon that is used; it is therefore a matter both of being able to use it and of being unconditionally unafraid of it. He whoe does not dare expose himself to the laughter is an unseasoned hand. This is how

5

10

15

582

20

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

583 20

25

30

35

40

I have understood it from the first. I have also acted accordingly. I therefore dared, if I may speak in a heathen way, put in a sort of a proud word about myself, so that the gods would have said: “that pers. certainly knows how to deal with what is laughable . . . and yet it is not to his advantage, it is because we have kept what we originally promised him” (see Either/Or―last diapsalm). Enough on this. Now to the light that here needs to be thrown on the laughable. The laughable relates to the clash between: the common―and the special. Examples. A cow of a particular though not very common breed is not laughable, why? Because, regardless of its not being like cows in genrl, it still belongs to a subordinate generality, i.e., it does not count as special, for to be special is to be the particular specimen or individual alienated from every more general category, however narrow, however uncommon, under which it can hide. Thus, if a cow is born with a horse’s tail, this is to be special, and the laughter comes involuntarily.―In hum. situations, in turn, not being like others is as if the signal to be laughed at. That is why people laugh at bodily defects, fortuitous circumstances etc., and in order to avoid this dangerous collision of the general with the special, people are so much inclined to want, if possible, to be several in everything they do, because being “several” about something is after all already on the way to constituting a small generality. Iff, at a certain time, something has become the genrl and then the individual wants to assert something that is incompatible with the genrl, and as an individual (unprotected by there being several about it): especially in times of common sense, this will relate to laughter; especially in times of common sense, for in passionate times it may be a struggle of life and death. Now to my proposition, that if, after the M[ynsterian] proclamation of Xnty, actual Xnty is to be brought in, it will have to put up with being laughed at. Let us first make the counterproof. If in those early times of Christianity, when the martyrs bled, when proclaiming Xnty was actlly to let

P a p e r 460 1853

•

•

f

283

(to stay with matters of the spirit)

1

284

1

g

After the Final Change of Address

(the objective, since he stipulated a fee and also that he was to be kept out of it) the objective teaching

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

oneself be put to death, thrown to the wild animals etc., if at that time there had lived a man who had first made a thorough study of the paragons of eloquence among the classical ancient orators, then disciplined himself strictly in facial expression, gesture, posture, expression etc., and finally, made closer acquaintance with the Old Testament writings and whatever writings he could get hold of by the Xns―if, then, he were to have approached those peop. and had offered, in a quiet hour, in a beautifully prepared lecture that was to be splendidly delivered, to lecture them on the objective doctrineg, believing this to be Xnty’s proclamation: I wonder if those glorious ones would not―so that I am to say it as satirically as it is―would―if it were not done in another way―would not die of laughter over this sort of proclamation of Xnty, which at that time would undeniably have been something special in relation to what was general. Now the converse. What M[ynster]’s p[roclamation] of Xnty has come to is that enjoying life has become the true Christian earnest, even proclaiming that Xnty teaches self-denial and renunciation, even this has become the path to enjoyment, yes, not only this, but that fact, that it has become that path, precisely that, has been made into what it is to be Christian in earnest. That is the way the matter has been turned while attention, on the other hand, is directed at―and we ourselves are absorbed in―all this about what elevated gifts are required to be able to depict it in this way, to be able to be an orator in this way, what cultivation, what scholarly cultivation, yes scholarship, yes, without scholarship proclaiming Xnty is quite impossible etc. etc. This is the common conception. How laughable it is, then, when one is to bring what is truly Christian to bear, that proclaiming Xnty is to want to suffer in this world, not to have profit from proclaiming self-denial, but to deny oneself when one is to introduce it, even in the gentlest and weakest form, as I, a weak person, propose it, let us at least admit the true state of affairs.―M. has furthermore contrived to proclaim Xnty objectively, the objective teaching as true

5

10

15

20

584

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

Paper 460.

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

285

286

1

h

and also not be guilty of embarrassing others

i

5

After the Final Change of Address

it must be done by a particular individual, and just as little can it be done, except meaninglessly, by several,

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

Christian earnest, so, as the jurist says, one’s personality is “surrendered entirely to one’s disposal;”h thus Bishop M. has not merely proclaimed Xnty― no, he has managed to get proclaiming it in this way made into Christian earnest. How laughable then, when someone―alas, and this damned well, by Satan, cannot be made objectivei―is to bring in the true Xnty: that Christian earnest is precisely to take it upon oneself, one’s own personality, to be the single individual―how laughable must it not be when this is to be introduced even in the mild, mild form that I, as a weak person, propose: let us at least admit the true state of affairs. Here is the collision between the general and the special, and the special person does not so understand the matter to mean that he must try to sneak off and then hope that peop. are not so cruel as to laugh at his being special; no, it is precisely that he must keep a bit of a hold on his being special; a bit of a hold, when, e.g., he is as weak as I am, for the one who is truly strong must hold on to his specialness infinitely. Insofar as I can now have the task of bringing to bear what is truly Christian, even in the mildest form, how lucky for me, then, that I was aware in time of the laughter and as a careful man have taken my precautionary measures. Think of another person, let him have quite different abilities, be a quite different, noble, and high-minded soul―but he will straightaway confess: Oh, dear, you have overlooked one thing, that you will first be delayed, maybe one two, three years, until all have laughed at you; and by then you may have come off the boil and it will come to nothing. No, I am nevertheless― but this I also need, since I do not have his abilities or his noble and high-minded soul―I am nevertheless luckier, for I have, in advance, passed the laughter-test’s great entrance examination. After all, it is well known by the entire population that some years ago I voluntarily asked to be castigated or ridiculed by Bishop M.’s present protégé, The Corsair’s G[oldschmidt]. With all his might, that is what I became. I have therefore served my time as caricature in Cph., been known under

5

10

15

20

586 25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

587 25

30

35

40

nicknames, appearing so named even in books, I am also played in comedy. All have laughed at me, some good-naturedly, others maliciously; in short, in widely different ways―but they have all laughed. One should think it would never end, but everything comes to an end. When the watchmen blow their whistles and shout fire and one hears this sound throughout the town, it is as if it will never come to an end; and yet there comes a moment when the watchman farthest from the fire, the watchman far off in Søndervoldsstræde, there comes a moment when he has blown his whistle for the last time―then it is over. ; and when he has set himself to rest, if then an hour later he is roused and asked, Where was the fire? He wakes up in confusion and says: The fire, is there a fire, where is it[?]―so much has he forgotten that there was an outbreak of fire. Similarly with the laughter. When the last man farthest out past Amagerbro, when he too has convinced himself j that there was reason to laugh, has seen and laughed,k then it stops.l And now we have probably come to the point that the laughter has stopped, or at least has come to mean something elsem, just at the same time that this was to be introduced: that Xnty rlly does not exist, that the consequence of Bishop M’s proclamation of Christianity is that, when what is more truly Christian is to be brought in, it must first become ridiculous. Perhaps there is no one disposed to laugh―however, one must remember that my proposal is the mildest: Let us admit to each other the true state of affairs. But if I had not luckily enough passed the laughter examination beforehand, and if I had not chosen―something my weakness then forces on me―the mildest form: then the laughter would surely have been inescapable. Bishop M. himself seems to have been aware of something like this. It was no doubt for that reason that, as one speaks of summoning the troops, he summoned G. in order to have someone who could get the laughter going when it showed itself to be what was laughable: true Christianity―seen from the point of view of

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

287

j

―what is written in the newspapers is of course indeed to be relied upon―

1

k

and when he then has gone home, happy to live in a time when one has the papers that tell the truth

5

l

Or if it does not stop, then at any rate the laughter changes, it comes to mean something else, perhaps more correctly, it comes to mean nothing, or perhaps it even comes to do the pers. some good, so that contemporaries say: It is not to hurt him that we have laughed at him, but rather to do him good; and basically, it was after all something nonsensical we were laughing at, something we could scarcely be seen doing, while on the other hand he may have been basically right.

m

so it can even do me good

10

15

20

288

1

n

After the Final Change of Address

as consequence of the M[ynsterian] p[roclamation] of Ch[ristianity]

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

this earnest, Bishop M’s Christian earnest. It must now be seen whether this is to be tested, whether it will succeed, or whether it is to end with Bishop M. getting G hanging on to him―as a remembrance, a kind of decoration that he comes to bear in the time to come. Yet, whatever happens, and even if, having luckily avoided laughter’s sharp edges, I should succeed in escaping the laughter and thereby, on the contrary, gain pathos for my cause by having been aware in time of the laughable: it therefore became just as true that the consequence of the M[ynsterian] p[roclamation] of Chris[tianity] is that, when what is truly Christian is to be brought to bear, it must first be made laughable. And is it no less true that the consequence of the M[ynsterian] p[roclamation] of Chris[tianity] is that what is first and foremost necessary is to work in order to gain respect for Xnty. “How you babble. After all, even the most outraged pers. must admit that as far as reputation goes, M. is the only one in Denmark?” Certainly, it is at least my opinion that I know no one who has enjoyed, and enjoys, such high regard as does Bishop M., and it is also my opinion that in hum. terms it is merited. But that is not what I was talking about, I did not say that Bishop M. did not have respect; I said it was necessaryn to work at getting respect for Xnty; inherent in this is that Bishop M’s p[roclamation] has not gained respect for Xnty. Let us understand one another. Xnty goes the same way as everything else; one can serve a cause in such a way that it is oneself who receives the respect and in such a way that the cause, the other, the object, is what receives it. Take an example. Think of someone who―however strange this way of speaking could seem―is so much in love that one sees how infinitely clever it was of him to choose just that girl, of just that family, with those connections etc.: how this marriage will thus pave the way for his making a brilliant career. Now let him be married, a number of years have passed, yes, he has attained it: naturally he becomes the object of a certain admiration. The girl,

5

10

15

20

25

588 30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

25

589

on the other hand, occasions no high thoughts in anyone; nor does his marriage occasion any higher thoughts about marriage than those generally held. Think, on the other hand, of someone who is infatuated in such a way that, as people indeed say, He behaves as though he were mado; yes, he will definitely not be an object of admiration―but on the other hand, one may get an idea of the girl; for, one says, since the pers. is otherwise a sensible hum. being, then this must surely be a rare, an uncommon girl, because the infatuation can have such a strong effect on him. Perhaps someone or other is occasioned to conceive rather loftier notions of love and of marriage than he has had hitherto. Likewise with Xnty. When someone proclaims Xnty in such a way that one sees how infinitely shrewdly the proclaimer knows how to proclaim Xnty for the sake of his career and in this way achieve everything: well, of course, one admires; but one does not admire Xnty―in fact it makes one think poorly of Xnty, almost look at Xnty as at every other path in life that brings some profit, and even if, on the other hand, one might say that Xnty is the path that gives most splendid profit. Oh, this is precisely what it is to think poorly of Xnty. If on the other hand, Xnty is proclaimed in such a way that everyone can see that the proclaimer gains no advantage from it, comes to nothing, achieves nothing except that everyone can see that he is mad: then he will doubtless not be an object of admiration. On the other hand, perhaps someone or other takes greater note of Xnty, gets a higher notion of it than he had previouslyp

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

289

o

and even after he was married it overwhelms him still in such a way that he behaves as though he were mad

1

p

5

and says: Christianity must indeed be a great power, given that it has such an effect upon a pers.―Or let someone proclaim Xnty in such a way that people see how shrewdly he knows how to employ every means in order to gain respect for Xnty: Yes, people admire his shrewdness, but does Xnty really win respect in this way? Is it not in fact more that people merely get a notion of Xnty―that it is a power, like a worldly power, that needs to be protected by wise men and fortune-tellers―ah, this is thinking about Xnty in infinitely petty fashion! But let someone proclaim Xnty in such a way that, as if in a rage, he belittles everything that could be called shrewdness―which shrewd people could rightly find laughable: Now he does not become the object of admiration, but on the other hand, perhaps someone or other takes note of Xnty, for he says [“]That person is indeed behaving like a worshiper.[”]

10

15

20

25

30

290

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 461 1853 •

Service with Character―Respect for Xnty.

1

5

a “. . . and through such ridiculous exaggeration a proclaimer of this sort naturally deserves it when, even with the best will in the world, people can respect neither him nor Xnty.” b

,want to attach themselves to Xnty entirely, etc.

This is what is Christian: to renounce the world, to give up the world―this teaching. So when someone then proclaims this in such a way that he actually gives up the world, then that is Christianity. Imagine such a one―he actually gives up his salary, the profit: that indeed is splendid! “It no doubt will also be appreciated.” Now, if it was finally appreciated, he must then himself surely try to see to it that there did not prove to be an advantage here, a reward that he did not renounce. On the other hand there will surely be no need for anything to be done on his part, since actually giving up salary and profit is far from being esteemed by the times: it is precisely the way in which a pers. causes all possible troubles for himself in this life. When this about Xnty as renunciation of the world is proclaimed in a way that the proclaimer actually renounces the world―and otherwise it is not in fact Xnty―then Xnty becomes a disturbing force that one must guard against if in no other way then at least by passing negative judgment on it, that this is unchristian exaggeration etc.a If, on the other hand, the Christian teaching (renunciation of the world) is proclaimed in a way that pays off splendidly for the proclaimer, das ist was Anders! Xnty now gains prestige, people take note of it―respect for Xnty, more and more go in for it, feel drawn to Xntyb etc. Imagine now that a preacher has success to a quite unusual degree with this sort of proclamation: imagine what progress Xnty makes in this way, what respect and prestige! Even the stingiest of all businessmen says: “That man indeed instills respect for Xnty! It’s so clear to me, and the more I consider it, the clearer it is that neither wheat nor butter, pork, herring, salt, brandy, in short, no article, nor speculating in government bonds, gives such splendid returns or yields as much as Xnty. You have to hand it to that man, he knows how to gain respect for Xnty. And then it isn’t just a matter of financial 27 das ist was Anders!] German, that is something else!

461

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

590

40

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

profit, but the honor and prestige. As to my views on that, if honor and prestige have to be bought by renouncing the monetary advantage, then that is far too high a price to pay. But when it is possible also to have that, then I―who am indeed called Butter Jensen because I deal in butter and do big business in butter―I am not so miserly or so stupid that I wouldn’t take the prestige along with the rest. If, e.g., I could arrange things so that I could run my butter business in the name of our Lord Jesus Xt in such a way, please note, in such a way that I had the same financial advantage that I have now, perhaps a bit more―then it would certainly be splendid to have the pleasure of it no longer being, as now, that I almost have to bow to the vendors who buy my butter, but that they would come with a deep bow, along with their money, embarrassed at mentioning money in my honored presence―naturally, we damn well have toc to do that, that I get the money!―bowing in front of me, this most honorable man of God.―Likewise sitting at the head of the table at social events. I quite agree with Holberg’s Henrich, that when being the most distinguished guest who sits at the head of the table simply means that one gets the first, the worst slice of roast, the trial cup of coffee, yes, then I much prefer being the well-to-do guest who sits at the far end of the table but gets the best slice of roast and the best cup of coffee. But when they can be combined, when one can be the well-to-do gentleman who gets the best slice of roast and is also first, then I am not so coarse or so stupid as not to know how to value honor―when, please note, one also has the profit.” “This, you see, is why I have respectd for that man and for Xnty, for there is indeed no one for whom I take off my hat with such respect as for that man, and for what he in turn teaches me to respect: Christianity.”

P a p e r 461 1853

•

•

291

c

take care

d

and instill respect in my children

1

292

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 462 1853 •

Estimate. . . . You are now 30 years old; so perhaps you still have 40 years to live, perhaps only 10, perhaps only a day. You can fill this time with becoming just like the others, a really likeable pers.―right there, above all, wherever it is a matter of having an advantage in life; there, whenever pleasure beckons; also there, that is, fleeing along with others wherever danger frightens them away―let us assume that you succeed in this kind of life (for it is of course possible that, in spite of all your eagerness and effort, you could nonetheless fail); then you die. You desire, after all, to be saved. Far be it from me, who am without authority, to doubt it. I assume it, then. But have you never pondered over this―is it really true what the glass-raising preachers assure us, that “in eternity there is sheer joy and happiness”―as far as that is concerned, I cannot doubt that the priest is right―“every suffering and pain is forgotten”: do you believe that, too? I do not believe it. The N.T. makes the most specific exception of one sort of suffering: having suffered for the truth. Or do you believe that in all eternity what Christ suffered is forgotten? And by the same token, neither is the suffering of his witnesses forgotten (a terrible injustice if it were!), no, it is very much remembered, and the memory of it (divine justice!) is precisely the halo of the glorious ones. And it is with these glorious ones that you are going to live with for eternity, you who were no doubt put to the test in business dealings, experienced in enjoyments and pleasures, nimbly avoiding danger and loss (something contemporaries could not admire enough)―and thereby also avoiding this: to have suffered, even so much as a tiny little bit, to have suffered for the truth! Consequently: an eternity in this heavenly company; 70 years at most, maybe only 10, maybe only a day in this earthly company: is, then, the choice to conform to this earthly society a choice made in

591

462

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

592

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 462–463 1853 •

293

consequence of a reasonable estimate, so that you do not become an aberration here―thereby coming to make yourself an aberration for all eternity[?]

463 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Actuality―Not Attaining Actuality How is actuality reached? Quite simply, by talking about something specific, and then talking to those specific peop. with whom you live. Take an example. In every age there are crimes that the authorities punish. There are also―it seems that it is exactly these that, as the world becomes more and more depraved, gain the upper hand― those of the sort that the authorities do not punish. Thus, especially in our own times,a in every larger city there prevails a vice called slander. Imagine, now, a priest. If one such is to make himself useful he must also witness against the vices of the time. Yet probably most priests would shirk this―anyone who does that, yes, he does not attain actuality. But then there was one, he was the zealous man, neither does he seem to have anything against being honored in this way. He wants to witness against this vice. Now wait a little. When slander has taken the upper hand in such widespread fashion, there must of course be some particular persons who are the originators of it. In order to attain actuality it is important to aim specifically at these in particular and without further ado direct one’s attack at them, thereby exposing oneself to what of course cannot be avoided: that these specific people will, in the most specific sort of retaliation, direct all the force of slander against this specific man: this is how actuality is attained. But our Right Reverend does not conduct himself in this way―for let me now show how one can produce an appearance of something becoming actual, and yet remain at the farthest possible distance fromb actuality.

a

first and foremost

b

attaining

1

294

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 463–464 1853 •

There was, in this city―something that is rather rare, that should have helped the Right Reverend had he truly wanted to attain actuality―precisely one specific person of whom it was commonly known that here was the originator. Is the matter not then easy enough? Yes, if one actually wants to attain actuality. What, then, does our Right Reverend do? This specific person flatters the Right Reverend, pays him public compliments―and then the Right Reverend preaches “on slander.” It was fine, and in addition it was a frightful distance from “attaining actuality.” The Right Reverend wins esteem as the zealous man who witnesses against the vices of the time, fearlessly, even against the vice that is doubtless the most dangerous to witness against: “slander.” At the same time he secures for himself the friendship of the slanderer and is thus also no doubt sure that he does not take it into his head to attack this Right Reverend. This, you see, is what it is not to attain actuality! Look at it as yet another example of the objective proclaiming of Xnty.

That Scholarship Is the Most Dangerous of All for What Is Christian, May Become the Dissolution.

1

a

to witness to the teaching as a missionary among the heathen or in “Xndom”

This is doubtless the situation. In Jesus Xt the forgiveness of your sins, grace, eternal blessedness are proclaimed―just believe it. If you then feel no deeper need to become involved with Xnty, then in God’s name make sure to get out into the world, fill your days and your time with one or another profitable hum. enterprise, work, earn, get married, etc. If, however, you feel a deeper need to involve yourself with Xnty, well, then: get out in the character of what is Christian, in charactera in the strictest sense of the word: to suffer for the teaching, to become a martyr.

593

10

15

20

464 25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

594 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

In both cases the divine brevity of the Holy Scripture in its message, commandments, promises, and assurances is not distorted; for the ordinary Xn occupies his days and his time with other things and consequently does not have time to burden the Holy Scripture with verbosity, and neither does the witness to the truth have time for that. But then a third alternative asserts itself: occupying oneself with the N.T. in a scholarly way. And, yet in former times the propriety was observed that the person who devoted himself to the N.T. in this way was more strictly in the character of Xnty, as he was an ascetic, etc. But in our times the professor is quite as much a man of the world as a prof. of history, mathematics, Greek, etc.―in no way is he in the stricter sense of the word (than the ordinary Xn who, of course, is not in the stricter sense in the character of Xnty) in the character of Xnty. But he researches learnedly in the N.T. And look, the divine brevity of the Word in message and commandment, in promise and assurance, dissolves into an infinite prolixity of pro und contra;b And yet this scholarship insists not merely on being higher, in a Christian sense, than the ordinary Xn (which, however, is false, since it is to his Christian credit that if he is not, in the stricter sense, willing to step into the character of what is Christian, he at least does not burden it with prolixities), but higher even than the―unlearned―witnesses to the truth. The consequence of this scholarliness is that the ordinary Xn also gets wind of the learned and now is no longer satisfied with his own situation, though without being able to become learned―so for him it becomes rubbish. Alternatively, the consequence is that someone who feels a need to become more deeply engaged with Xnty and then to emerge in the character of what is Christian―that he is induced to want first to get involved with scholarship, that is to say, he never emerges in the character of what is Xn, but perishes in the scholarly nonsense.

23 pro und contra] Latin and German, for and against.

•

b

P a p e r 464 1853 •

295

the limitless host of doubtful questions arises and engenders new matters of doubt; just as the “attorney” procures cases, so does the “professor” develop a need for more and more professors in order to survey it all, finally, perhaps, simply in order to be able to maintain a survey over those whose business it is to make surveys. Truly, brevity is divine: this―yes, this is long-winded!

1

5

10

296

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 464–465 1853 •

This is the putrefaction of Christianity. But there is a hypocritical appearance over it all, as if precisely this were what it is to have a profoundly earnest interest in Xnty. And people take good care to ensure the continuation of the corruption, so if anyone wanted to try to have it removed by showing the scholarship the door, the cry goes up: What impiety, for God in Heaven’s sake do not take away the scholarship, this that is truly Xn, the pride of our age.

5

10

595

Concerning My Relationship to Bishop Mynster

Perhaps it is, after all, best if I explain in a few words how I now understand my relationship to Bishop M.; it will always be of interest to my reader. And since much is being done in public―in secret perhaps much more―in opposition to my efforts, such an explanation is always helpful. As I now see the relationship, I must regard Bishop M. as my most dangerous and most zealous opponent. “But how did that come about? What outrageous injustice have you done him to bring this about?” No, not like that, for even if that was the case, if I had done Bishop M. the most outrageous injustice, I would still not on that account see him as my most zealous opponent, oh no, Bishop M. is a proud man, and a proud man can forgive even an outrageous wrong. Only one thing, in only one case, can he not forgive. What I now add is not something of my own, the remark is attributed to one of the most distinguished, very experienced and tested as well, no doubt, one of the noblest observers of whom the French nation can boast, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld. He says: One forgives the one who does one a wrong―and especially in proportion to one’s pride―but one never forgives the person whom one

465

15

20

25

30

35

After the Final Change of Address

5

10

596 15

20

25

30

466

has oneself wronged. No, one does not forgive him; he is in fact also more dangerous to you than your worst enemy. For what is the most that the worst enemy can do? He can do me wrong, nothing else, and the prouder one is, the less he concerns himself about it. No, but this person, who is a worrisome reminder that I did him wrong―him I will never forgive. Yes, there have no doubt been cases of a proud man who, having done wrong, then became so embittered with the person he wronged that he then used all possible means to plunge that pers. into vice and crime, thereby as if to manage―as if the subsequent act had retroactive power!―to feel that he was in the right in doing the wrong that he had originally done him. No, one never forgives the person one has oneself wronged. Alas, I poor pers.a―for I am in the situation that Bishop M. has wronged me; I, poor pers., and poor yet again in my unaltered devotion to Bishop M. To place The Corsair’s Goldschmidt and me on a par as au[thors] (and this is what Bishop M. did in his latest book ) it was, and Bishop M. himself senses it, an injustice, and he will never forgive me. I think there is only one situation in which Bishop M. might forgive me for his having wronged me: if the whole affair would pass off unnoticed. But if that cannot be done, if it is touched upon―Bishop M. will become more and more unfavorable toward me each time; he will never forgive me, for he himself no doubt feels it was basically an enormous wrong I did Mag. K., and in doing so I exposed myself frightfully―ergo, I will never forgive him for it .

•

P a p e r 465–466 1853 •

297

a

so I thus have in Bishop M. my most zealous opponent

1

What Qualities Must That Person Have Who Is to Produce a “Halting” Effect in Matters of Spirit?

35

He must have sorrowfulness to move with the help of the idealsa the thousands upon thousands who are busily engaged in the service of mediocrity―they could only be brought to a halt through the ideals.

a

; sorrowfulness to be able engagingly to move those who still are receptive and are willing to devote themselves entirely―brought to a halt.

5

298

1

After the Final Change of Address

b

; satire to be able to strike mordantly at mediocrity’s incessant busyness―halted.

c

, a weakness

•

P a p e r 466 1853 •

He must have satire, again with the help of the idealsb This is the power he must have, a twofold power, yet viewed more profoundly, one and the same. But he himself must not be any sort of a power; for then, instead simply of having the effect of bringing things to a halt, he could perhaps come to start something new, or do both things halfway. No, as sorrowfulness and satire, this one and the same doubleness is the power of bringing to a halt, so the pers. in whom this power exists, the person who brings to a halt, must not be a power but impotencec―a poet, and then, naturally, without connection, not merely to any party but neither to any single hum. being. And then if such a poet is―understood in the godly sense―a weakness, then he is forced, whether he will it not; and if, furthermore, he is in the godly sense a weakness in unconditional obedience to the power that compels him: then he is the halting. *

5

d

who breed Xns,

5

10

597 15

20

*

And “the halting” is the first thing awaiting Christendom; just as when, with the sun’s breaking through in the morning, all nocturnal specters and mountain sprites and the whole fantastic throng disappear, so will the ideals cast their light into this no less fantastic nonsense with these millions and millions of Xnsd, this throng of Xns who rush back and forth among one another, and where we are all Xns―the ideals would cast their light: and look, it vanished, there simply were no Xns at all. God is interested in the ideals: the hum. being believes―for it is the most comfortable thing for the hum. being―that one can please him with the help of a surrogate, the numerical, by procuring for him more and more millions of―non-Xns; instead of oneself striving to the utmost in the direction of the ideal, a person prefers, each according to his situation, to procure for God 10 or 100 or 1000 or 100000 or a million non-Xns who have become― how meritoriously―non-Xns through the influence

25

30

35

40

After the Final Change of Address of that man who for his own part excused himself from striving to the utmost.

467:1 5

10

If the “priest” is bound by oath to the N.T., he cannot defend being salaried, as is done now, because it is thoroughly un-Christian for a third power to intervene between priest and congregation, compelling the congregation to pay a certain amount, to use the police to enforce payment etc.―this the priest cannot defend if he is to be bound by oath to the N.T. But if he will not bind himself by oath to the N.T., then no doubt the state will not pay him.

598

467:2 15

20

468

30

Either the priest―who in the name of the state and on its responsibility, preaches something that must be called an approximation of Xnty, roughly what is now being preached in the name of Xnty― must be altogether excused from taking an oath on the N.T., or the priest’s proclamation (the Word) and his preaching (existence) must, in an entirely different manner, be in the character and spirit of the N.T.; entirely different, for the present situation is not, if you will, weak and imperfect, but is dead set against the character and spirit of the N.T.

According to the N.T. there is strife between God and hum. beings. Xnty is of course opposed to all that strives to work hum. beings into a compact mass vis-à-vis God―and therefore to everything called State Church, People’s Church, Christian nation, etc. etc. But as a rule this is the direction in which all efforts are being made; it is thus not a weak striving in the direction of Christianity, but a striving directed against Xnty.

•

P a p e r 466–468 1853 •

299

300

After the Final Change of Address

•

P a p e r 468 1853 •

But then of course, if there is no State Church, People’s Church, Christian nation etc. etc., then we won’t have the large livings, no high-ranking officials, nor do we get the whole load of equivocations and excuses and illusions in which we live in an altogether pagan way―and that, please note, is what we call Xnty.

5

PAPER 469— PAPER 550 Toward the Battle with the Church March–December 1854

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg

302

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

A Quite Simple Calculation. That Xnty in the New T. is anything but a way of making a living, a thing along the lines of “long live profit,” that―on the contrary―according to the New T., Xnty is the diametrical opposite, is renunciation of this world and of what is of this world: Certainly even a child can see this. But now, when the government comes up with the notion of appointing 1000 royal officials whose career and source of income is preaching: Isn’t this the most dangerous way of making Xnty impossible[?] For these peop., who make their living from Xnty―they cannot, by Satan, preach that Xnty is not a way of making a living. So that’s how it stays: Xnty is a way of making a living. But according to Christianity this is infinitely more dangerous than if there never were heard a word concerning Xnty, for silence, unconditional silence, does not falsify Xnty, but this does falsify Xnty. Every hum. being is naturally only altogether too liable to understand his situation as one in which he is permitted to strive to fill his life with every possible advantage and enjoyment. Xnty should be there in order to awaken, to direct attention to something higher―aber it is presented in a manner that emphasizes the aspect, precisely the aspect, that it should oppose. And, all the while, what is maintained is the appearance that we are a Christian people, a Christian country, have Christian priests. I wonder whether the most desperate revolt against Christianity is as dangerous to it as is this order of things. Indeed, an assassination is generally held to be the greatest of dangers, and this is, if possible, even more dangerous than an assassination, for Xnty is murdered in such a way that it―that is to say, its appearance―continues to exist. Violence precipitates an immediate outcry; thus, violence is not so dangerous; assassination is more dangerous, for it seeks to avoid any outcry: but this sort of assassination―which, indeed, in a certain sense almost performs miracles―makes true the words “Kill me, 25 aber] German, but.

601

469

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Toward the Battle with the Church

602 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

and let me live.” This assassination, which kills Christianity but nonetheless lets it live, which of course is of the greatest importance, for the priests must in turn live off it―this assassination has done everything to prevent an outcry. I have long been aware that this is the situation here in this country. But precisely because I have a notion of the sort of Christian honesty and openness with which I am dealing―precisely for this reason, I have had to go about my task with such enormous caution, so that the outcry does not come so soon that the honesty can smother it right at its birth. Nonetheless, I have made known what the situation is here in this country―and I was understood by, for example, the now-deceased Bishop Mynster. It’s absolutely certain that he was a virtuoso in the art of dressing up “Long Live Profit” in dignity and with solemnity upon solemnity―yes, he was a virtuoso. He also became spiteful toward me to a degree that I never would have believed Bishop M. could. He became spiteful: now, simply to go down the street and stick out his tongue at me and encourage boys in the street to do likewise―this was something that, however much it tempted him, he realized could not be done. So he figured out how to do the same thing in a finer fashion: by boosting The Corsair’s Goldschmidt and placing me on the same level as him. O profound, fervent Christian seriousness! What wonder, then, that Bishop Martensen, in his eulogy of Bishop Mynster, interred him as a witness to the truth, one of the true witnesses to the truth, whose loss is irreplaceable―even though it seems obvious that, merely by means of this eulogy, Bishop Martensen shows himself capable of replacing Bishop Mynster as a witness to the truth. But perhaps someone will say: In general, what you are saying about the state of Christianity in this country is only altogether too true―the whole business with Xnty is make-believe, is disguised worldliness―but we mustn’t lump them all together: We do, after all, have a Christian opposition whose

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

303

304

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

deep, solemn voice has not, indeed, prevailed, but that nonetheless ought to be respected. Ah, I understand it! Yes, we have: Grundtvig. And he is a man: He has, with profound Christian seriousness, he has raised the apostolic objection to this entire monstrosity of the State Church―which, with respect to character, is expressed as follows: For his part, Pastor G. has secured himself the most comfortable and very advantageous priestly call in the State Church, where there is very little that must be done, there are large revenues, and where, in summer, one can appoint a chaplain so that one can properly relish the joys of summer. And all the while one is acclaimed as the profound man of seriousness, an apostle of the North, acclaimed as such by younger theologians who, married or betrothed, look forward with longing to the day when they, too, can unite a juicy position with apostolic dignity. To my way of thinking, this business about the opposition is indeed much worse than all the rest of the worldliness, because the opposition has in fact also profited from: wanting to be respected as apostles. Shall I take yet another example? Now, then, let me take a man who has in various ways qualified himself to be mentioned here: Lic. theol. Pastor Kierkegaard. At the moment there is a vacant professorial post at the university. Pastor K. is a member of the Grundtvigian group who could wish that he be appointed to the university. Immediately we see a newspaper editorial by Dr. Rørdam, also a Grundtvigian. Dr. Rørdam’s article is, like Herr Dr. himself, profound seriousness, a seriousness that is expressed in life by the Herr Dr. having taken good care to get appointed to a good living (in order to preach that Xnty is renunciation), and he will certainly, without encouragement from me, take good care to be on the lookout in the event a more lucrative position might become vacant. But, to the matter. According to Dr. R’s article, the matter of who becomes a professor is a very serious question―and Pastor K. (this man of seriousness, with whom younger theologians and Grundtvigians have

5

603

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

604 15

20

25

30

35

always busied themselves), he is of the same opinion: he regards the matter as so serious that he must stipulate a salary of 2000 rix-dollars―otherwise it would presumably indicate a lack of seriousness on his part to accept the position―that is how serious the matter is. And this is how it is everywhere. Everywhere, under the name of Xnty: Long live profit. And it is not merely the fact that people take this profit, but that it gives rise to a far more dangerous confusion. Naturally, the average run of peop. are so worldly that they do not understand anyone if he does not make a profit, and making a profit is viewed by them as something that is respectable and estimable. When someone works without pay, peop. regard it as madness, and on other hand, the more profit his efforts bring him, the more they respect him. This worldliness is precisely what Xnty wants to root out―but it is utterly impossible because the priests not only make a profit, but, together with worldliness, they conspire against Xnty and are respected and esteemed precisely because they do what Xnty most opposes. This is something my life can illuminate. Year after year, I have worked without the least pay. This is regarded as a sort of madness. The fact that I have the New Testament on my side: Ah, God preserve us, that is of no importance whatever in this matter. The fact that I am reckless, lacking in seriousness, or―as Pastor K. presented it in his address to the Conventicle (subsequently printed)―that I represent ecstasy, whereas Bishop M[artensen] represents sober-mindedness (there must also be very significant tithes accruing to the bishopric of Zealand): this is something everyone can see. If I want to be understood, I must see to it to garner myself a profit, and the more profit I garner for myself, the better I will be understood.

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

305

[a] which Pastor K. understands very well,

1

306

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 470–471 1854 •

A Little Note to the Bishop of Zealand. Naturally, it would not occur to me to doubt that you, dear Bishop M[artensen], have sufficient eye to see that Xnty simply does not exist, that this whole business with 1000 royal officials and persons of rank whose living and career is preaching, on which they live along with their families―that this has not the faintest similarity to the Xnty of the New Testament, nor, in the least way, can it be called a striving: unless one wanted to add “in the direction away from the Xnty of the New T.[”] Thus I believe that I am entirely in agreement with you. But now, what I want to ask you is: Don’t you, like me, believe that the simplest, the only proper thing, the only thing well-pleasing to God, is that we honestly and straightforwardly admit the true state of affairs[?] It seems to me that it is unworthy of us hum. beings, since we in fact strive so little in the direction of the New T., that we do not, after all, have the open-hearted cheerfulness to admit it. And, it seems to me, what God must most of all oppose is that we do not admit the truth, but instead sneak, conceal, slink about, or treat him as a fool. Now, answer completely candidly: isn’t this your opinion as well? If it is, I am very happy that you have become bishop. Because this was the point concerning which I was in such disagreement with the late bishop. My view was that the religion he proclaimed, that sort of Xnty (sit venia verbo), was quite appropriate for us hum. beings, but of course, it was not by any means whatever the Xnty of the New T. Yes, I know that had I contacted him in connection with making this admission, he would have said: [“]For the sake of God in Heaven, let us never start this sort of thing, which would be the most dangerous, most demoralizing business.[”] Inconceivable that it should be the most dangerous, most demoralizing business to make a truthful admission, and that this is supposed to be Xnty: to conceal the truth.

Was Mynster a Pers. of Character? I will pose the question in such a way that everyone can answer the question for himself. 1) Will anyone deny that Bishop M’s preaching tends toward praise of having character as one’s basis, or that in this

24 sit venia verbo] Latin, excuse the word. (See also explanatory note.)

470

5

10

15

605

20

25

30

471

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 471–472 1854

connection he made powerful gestures, both orally and in writing, to the effect that he was a pers. of character?

5

10

15

606

20

25

472

30

2) Now his long life lies before us: Let someone point to one single action in it that has even the faintest resemblance to an action based upon character. Were someone to say: [“]Perhaps the circumstances did not give occasion for it,[”] I would reply both that this is nonsense: every hour, in a world as wretched and sinful as this, there is opportunity for an action based upon character―if one is a person of character; and: 1) M. was contemporary with the greatest religious movement we have had (Grundtvig 1825, ’26, ’27)―did we get an action of character there―for there was, after all, occasion for it? 2) M. was contemporary with the catastrophe of 1848, when his entire system went down the drain: Did we get an action of character there? and certainly there was occasion for it! 3) We undertake a counterproof (even though it is superfluous―what has already been cited is sufficient), but if we do that, if we―if I dare put it thus―subject every one of Bishop M.’s actions to a chemical analysis, and we shall find the ambivalence of shrewdness in everything, always a mystifying confusion of the finite and the infinite, always with reservations, always to a certain degree (Prof. Hiorth has chosen as his motto Mynster’s phrase “Without Reservations and Entirely”―and, satirically enough, he has placed Mynster’s name under it: a complete epigram on the misrelation between Mynster’s Sunday and Monday).

Mynster was so mired in illusion that, in the end, he rlly was of the opinion that true Xnty can only be proclaimed by royal officials and persons of rank―rather than that the entire arrangement must be reversed and that this business with officials and persons of rank is only possible through an indulgence. and he believed that making a profit from it (when Martensen became court preacher) was a part of true seriousness with respect to proclaiming Xnty.

•

307

308

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 473–474 1854 •

A. Have I had any advantage whatever from my relation ship with Bishop Mynster? B. On the other hand, hasn’t Bishop Mynster indeed had significant advantages from my relationship with him[?] a) I have provided cover for him in the literature (the Sys- tem―Martensen), made it possible for him to choose Martensen. b) combatted his enemies (Grundtvig, Rudelbach) c) taken upon myself problems he should have solved (The Corsair). d) transformed the recognition granted my work as an author into a triumph for him. e) put up with having my proclamation of Xnty, which is far truer than his, viewed as an exaggeration, because his was Christian wisdom; have put up with it, indeed, have contributed to it―I, who was the only one who could protest against Mynster. Is it I, then, who am being ungrateful to him by enduring all this during the many years I lived with him, and who now―finally―when he is dead, must for the sake of the truth speak a true word? or is it he who has been ungrateful to me, he who through all those many years, flattered me in private conversations, perhaps, but officially dissociated himself from me, made Martensen his protégé, finally, even Goldschmidt.

1

[a]

(as if it were of mathematics, history, German, French) b

c

become a person of rank (just to take this)

In Denmark there is surely not one single priest who, in being Christian, is in character. “The Priest”―despite being obligated by oath to the N.T. and ordained―is not a disciple of Jesus Christ as this is described in the N.T., nor is “the priest’s” life in any way directed toward striving in that direction, but has been made entirely different from it and is a continuing attempt to move away from it. “The priest” is a sort of professor,[a] who earns his living, makes a career,b etc., by objectively lecturing on some teachings of the N.T., some teachings, becausec the aspect of the N.T. that would illuminate this entire business is of course not spoken of. In D[enmark] there is surely not one single priest who

473

5

10

15

20

607

25

474

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

15

20

608

30

35

40

could pass the test of having to read aloud, before the assembled congregation, the passages concerning the imitation of Jesus Xt and the warnings against the Pharisees. Were he to read the former texts aloudd, if he himself did not blush, the congregation would surely have to blush on his behalf; were he to read the latter, just about everyone would surely have to say to himself: God in Heaven, it is “the priest” who is being warned against: “Beware of those who go about in long robes, who sit in the places of honor at the table during the Eucharist, who are called guides and rabbis, etc., etc.[”]. But when this is the way things are, does it do any good that the priests are obligated by oath to the N.T.? No, it surely does not do any good, for it only helps make “the priest”e into a perjurer and the public worship of God into mockery of God or an attempt at making a fool of God. To gather in a holy place every Sunday, to call upon God to be present, and then to take out a book people call “The Word of God”f―and then to quite arbitrarily omit from this Word of God what does not seem convenient to us hum. beings. This is to make a fool of God. Then if, in addition, the priest is obligated to this Word of God by a sacred oath: then this, in making a fool of God, is to be as disrespectful as possible. Bear in mind what I have repeated again and again: [“]I am without authority, only a poet”―but I want (and every honest pers. will agree with me in wanting this) I want to have clarity in this matter; instead of employing artifices to conceal things, I will, to the extent of the abilities and gifts granted me, strive to unmask. The now-deceased Bishop M.g more or less held this view: [“]It will surely hold together for the few years I am going to live.[”] How ungodly and unchristian such a view is―this is known by everyone, thus also by Prof. M[artensen], furthermore, I’ve heard him say it myself. Despite this, Prof. M[artensen], in his sermon (5th Sunday after Epiphany), the eulogy of Bishop M., dared present Bishop M. as a Christian witness to the truth, one of the authentic witnesses to the truth, assigning him

•

P a p e r 474 1854 •

309

d

(the passages about self-denial, renunciation, about possessing nothing, “You have received without payment, give without payment,” etc. etc., about suffering for the teaching, about being mocked, scorned, ridiculed, persecuted etc. etc.)

1

5

e

―into which most of them, humanly speaking, have surely come innocently―

10

f

(which indeed―surely in its entirety and not in part―is to be the norm and the rule for what is taught)

15

g

who has now gone from honor and dignity and velvet and stars and ribbons and the large incomes and invitations to banquets and the worshiping adoration of women― to the reckoning and judgment of the One who was crucified, mocked, and spat upon

20

310

1

5

h

the opinion that it will surely hold together during my lifetime, etc. etc. My view is―and it seems to me that every honest person must agree with me―my view is: No, wait a minute.

a

10

Toward the Battle with the Church

(when the official preaching of Christianity, despite being official, was nonetheless truer)

•

P a p e r 474–475 1854 •

a place in [“]the holy chain of witnesses to the truth that extends from the days of the apostles to our own times[”]―a successful attempt in the direction of playing at Christianity. Bishop M. died. The new bishop, in turn, is perhaps ofh

Now, Think about It! What is now being worked for―worked for, in order to make people into Christians―or I wonder whether it isn’t in order to fortify them in imagining that they are that [i.e., Christians], that is, in order to hinder them from becoming that [i.e., Christians]― because more than flesh and blood, and the most powerful sensual passions, and the most corrupted spirit prevent a person from becoming a Christian, even more than imagining that one is one, and most certainly, more surely more than if it simply did not exist, we are protected against Christianity when we produce and uphold the appearance that we of course have Christianity, while in fact what we call Christianity is both in the one sense and in the other sense [so] different from what the New Testament calls Christianity, that it is precisely the opposite of it? Think about it! What is introduced when the sort of “preaching” (this word understood in two senses) of Christianity that is the official sort is introduced into the country as Christianity―or isn’t it more likely that it is expelled―and in the most dangerous way, namely under the name of introducing it―that what the country might still have of the Christianity of earlier timesa is expelled, abolished.

5

475

10

15

20

609 25

30

Toward the Battle with the Church 476

5

10

15

20

25

30

610

40

•

P a p e r 476 1854 •

311

Playing at Xnty. We all know what it is to play war, that it is to imitate everything, everything that has to do with war, with an illusion that is as convincing as possible: the troops line up, they advance into the field,a messengers bearing orders rushb back and forth, the commanders’ voices are heard, the signals, the battle cry, musket shots, the thunder of cannon . . . . . everything, everything entirely as in war, only one thing lacking: the dangers. This is also how it is with playing at Christianity, it is imitating the Christian message so that everything, everything, everything is included with the greatest possible, most convincing, of appearances, with only one thing lacking―the dangers. In the proclamation, as it is in the New Testament, the entire emphasis is on the personal, this is the source of the dangers―therefore, when one is to play at Xnty it is important―but very carefully, deceptively―to get all the attention fooled, misled away from the personal―then the dangers are absent as well. The person who proclaims is thus―a government official! Aha, so perhaps what he proclaims is not his personal conviction but is on behalf of his official position!―the proclamation is his way of making a living,c his career! Aha, so what he is saying is perhaps neither more nor less than a special jargon just like that of the lawyers, the doctors, etc.―And the teaching is not proclaimed on the street, no, in a church, an artistically designed building in which everything has been arranged to guarantee artistic tranquillity and enjoyment and the sort of illusion required by the theater! Aha, so perhaps we are rlly in a theater when we are in church.―And the words are not directed personally to those present, no, no, that would be lack of cultivation―they remain at a proper distance from them, speak entirely in genrl terms, etc. In other respects, everything that is a part of proclaiming Xnty is as deceptively real as possible: the upturned gaze in calling upon God, the hands raised in prayer, speech that is almost stifled

a

earnestness, but also courage and fervor can be seen in the eyes of all

b

c

fearlessly

for himself and his family

1

312

1

5

d

And outside of the quiet hours it would be extremely inappropriate, uncultivated, to remind “the priest” of what he said during the quiet hours, it would be just as foolish as if, after the curtain comes down, an actor were to continue being who he was in the play.

[a]

10

Toward the Battle with the Church

Thus must be the indictment against his entire life.

•

P a p e r 476–477 1854 •

by tears, the mighty voice, uplifted, defying all the world’s opposition . . . da, da-da, da, da-da, dah!d This is called playing at Xnty. Naturally, in his life, every hum. being aspires to possess what is worldly. Xnty wants to lift hum. beings to something higher. To this end the state pays 1000 priests, each of whom―entirely like everything else that is worldly―aspires to possess what is earthly. In this way, Xnty has been successfully introduced into the nations: it is not so much Xnty that has been introduced as it is a new way of making a living: being a priest.

Bishop Mynster There is a very shrewd man who lives in a confused, worldly, irreligious time. However confused, demoralized, worldly, irreligious a generation is, there will nonetheless always be some notion of what is earnest, of what is noble, what is lofty, what is godly. The shrewd man understands this―and now he offers what is lofty, what is noble: religion, at such a reasonable price―that it becomes the most rewarding thing of all, the finest sort of refinement, to be the earnest one, the noble person, or to be the earnest person who exhibits this nobility, etc. That is, he takes advantage of the corruption of the times in order to purchase at half-price (indeed, at a ridiculously low price) esteem as this earnest, this noble person―this is about the most demoralizing thing, and the person involved is not the one who is least demoralized by it. It is easy to see that in such a time a truly earnest person must come into a life-and-death collision.

5

10

477 15

20

25

30

Toward the Battle with the Church 611

478

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

P a p e r 478 1854

•

•

313

How Things Stand with Bishop M. With respect to character, he was a weak man; in addition, he had a very great sense for enjoying life and a desire to do so, and not the simpler pleasures, but the more refined ones, indeed, the most refined one of all, precisely this: to be honored, to be esteemed, to be respected as a man of earnestness, a person of character, a man of principles, who stands firm when everything else wavers, etc. Now, he was in possession of great intellectual gifts, he was an orator such as few are, and last, he was brilliantly shrewd. This combination is Bishop M., and this combination has brought about the confusion of an entire generation with respect to Christianity. For no one ever came to see the weakness of his character; it was concealed by his brilliant shrewdness; his desire for pleasure was never seen; it was regarded―a new refinement!―as a godly free-spiritedness in opposition to pietistic anxiety.a The danger in being as brilliantly shrewd as he was, which every one of his sermons demonstrates―yes, there is perhaps not one person in a generation who has such a decidedlyb police detective’s eye that he can clearly see and point to the dubious aspect. It is so deceptive: pure doctrine―and yet there is, yes, there perhaps is not one sentence of his in which, in one way or another, shrewdness― well-intentioned―has not been included, and which has altered, just a little bit, the Christian element or the way in which Christianity is spoken of, so that, after all, in the final analysis, it is not rlly Christianity. It is well-intended―that is something I could not wish to doubt―it is well-intended, namely in order to win us hum. beings for Xnty. But on the other hand, it also serves to conceal―a person is more concealed behind this proclaiming than behind the correct proclaiming of Christianity with which it is so enormously dangerous to get involved, both becausec it illuminates the speaker himself and because it incites people against the speaker.

a

New section

b

c

Christian

, as if in hatred of him,

1

314

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 478–479 1854 •

This was what his message was like with respect to the Word, the discourse, but with respect to the other aspect of the message, the life of the person speaking, his brilliant shrewdness helped him once again. Between “the quiet hours” (during which he was an orator, a rhetorician, and as such daringly ventured a great deal)―between the quiet hours and his personal life he established a yawning gulf, and he knew how to make use of the whole of his brilliant shrewdness in order objectively to parry every contact, to remove, if possible, everything, every situation, every event, and so forth, that could cause it to be known whether he in fact really was the man of earnestness, the lofty character, for which the quiet hours led one to respect him. And he was a virtuoso in this respect; I could write an entire book and perhaps not enumerate and describe all the ways and means he had at his disposal in this connection, and always with the greatest virtuosity. Such was Bishop M. I make no secret of my heart: I was utterly infatuated with the man―alas, that is how we hum. beings are. On the other hand, from the very first moment, my judgment of him has been essentially the same as it is now. Nonetheless, it has been my lot to be unusually attentive and to direct all my efforts toward revealing the situation regarding Bishop M., with whom I―for I make no secret of my heart―have been infatuated, and deep down still am.

They forbid “Cyprianus” and other similar writings with the help of which superstition they think one can conjure up spirits, for people are afraid of spirits―but they distribute the New Testament on the grandest scale, so that, if possible, it might come into everyone’s hands. And yet, if any book whatever is capable of conjuring forth spirits, then it is this one―if only you are capable of reading it. Though perhaps, on the other hand, there is here an unconscious but exceedingly fine cunning, an instinctive cunning, at work, namely, that by distributing this book so widely―so that, if possible, it comes into everyone’s hands―people think that

612 5

10

15

20

25

479

35

40

Toward the Battle with the Church

613 5

480 10

15

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 479–480 1854

they are best protected against it, best assured that it becomes a nullity. Right! Go that way, then, pave the streets with New Testaments, if possible; sell them as heating fuel, more cheaply than peat; if possible, use them on your house instead of roof tiles; sell them so cheaply that they can be used as ships’ ballast, cheaper than sand―then you will be entirely protected, then you can also join together in a great celebration and an orator can come forward and praise us for our times’ efforts and zeal in spreading Xnty!

What Is Well-Intentioned! Think of a medicine that has the property that a certain amount of it works as a laxative, and that half of that amount causes constipation. Now, there is someone who suffers from constipation. But―it doesn’t matter for what reason, let it be because he doesn’t have enough of the medicine or because he is afraid that such a great amount of it would have too great an effect. So―in order to do something, at least, they give him― well-intentioned―a half-dose: “After all, it’s at least something.” “Oh, yes, sure enough, it is something, because the whole dose is a laxative and the halfdose is constipating―and he is suffering from constipation.” This is how it is with Xnty. This is how it is with everything in the category of either/or: half of it has the exact opposite effect of the whole. And people continue this well-intentioned practice generation after generation, procuring Xns by the millions, proud of doing so―and they don’t suspect that they are doing precisely the opposite of what they intend to do. Yet this will never become popular. One has to be a physician in order to understand that a medicine can have the property that half of a dose has the opposite effect of the whole―sound reason, common sense, mediocrity never gets it into its head, but until the end of the world it will continue to say of the half-dose that, after all, it’s at least something―if it doesn’t have anywhere near as powerful an effect,

•

315

316

1

Toward the Battle with the Church

[a]

something, and not a little― namely, you are doing the most wrong thing you can do.

•

P a p e r 480–481 1854 •

well, it’s at least something. But that it could have the opposite effect―no, mediocrity will never grasp that. But absolutely all the goods of this earthly life are to be found in “mediocrity,” so if you want to have them you must take care to be on good terms with mediocrity. Therefore, you are to give reassurances to mediocrity―and even here, how ironic that mediocrity should truly need reassurance!―give reassurances to mediocrity, do the well-intentioned thing: “the half-dose is at least something.” Furthermore, in one sense you are also doing[a]

Christianity Quite Reliably Exists, It Is Quite Reliable.

[a]

5

and where there is literature, there must also be a life that has produced this literature

There are of course millions, millions of Xns: how reliable! But take a closer look, assume of every one of these millions of Christians that he is a Christian . . . . yes, just like all the others are Xns―how reliable! There are, of course, thousands of priests, thousands; and of course every one of these priests is bound by an oath: what extraordinary reliability! But take a closer look, assume that “the priest,” this young, good-looking, betrothed man with the white collar―but that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about, but assume that “the priest,” this man bound by an oath, that every one of these thousands understands the matter like this: [“]Yes, I have taken an oath just like all the other priests[”]―how reliable. There is, of course, an entire literature, millions of works, which Xnty has produced, ergo surely, after all, Xnty exists; for―to use a metaphor―in relation to existence, literature is like cream in relation to milk: where there is cream, there must also be milk, and the literature is of course the cream, therefore: how reliable. But to remain with our metaphor, assume now that this cream―that which people call cream―upon closer inspection turns out not to be cream, but, for example, water: how reliable.

5

614 10

481

15

20

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church 482

5

615 10

15

483

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 482–483 1854 •

317

To Jam the Lock. When there is no religion whatsoever in a country, one cannot say that the lock has been jammed with respect to religion. No, but when an elegant way of making a fool of God is regarded as worship―and this worship flourishes in the country: yes, then religion is jammed. And, to remain with our metaphor: When a door is locked―well, then one takes the key and opens up the door. But when the lock on the door is jammed―then one sends for a locksmith, it must be―picked. This is the situation in “Christendom.” In “Christendom,” Christianity is jammed.

It is this I want, in accord with my feeble abilities: I want to have clarity in thisa; it is this I want, in accord with my best abilities, what I want is awakening. Or is it Christianity to reassure peop. merely that they have been baptized―wasn’t it precisely this objective reassurance that Xt came in order to abolish, unconditionally wanted to abolish,c and therefore so absolutely prevented the Jews from reassuring themselves in (objective reassurance) by the fact that they were circumcised, Abraham’s children (objectively?) Is it Christianity to reassure peop. with the fact that, objectively, they have the right beliefs―isn’t that precisely the sort of (objective) reassurance that Christ absolutely wanted to abolish, and therefore he continually uses a Samaritan (who does not, objectively, have the right beliefs) as praiseworthy in comparison with the Jew (who objectively does have the right beliefs)?d Yes, if it was only a matter of the fact that the situation consists of an imperfect a feeble, striving in the direction of Christianity, I would be wrong to approach it like this. But this is

a

, woe to this disgusting deceit that has wanted to conceal the true state of affairs; and

1

[b]

was the sort of reassur

c

(so he therefore did not come in order to bring it, but in order to abolish it)

5

d

Is it Christianity to make dying into earnestness and to remain silent concerning the judgment?

10

318

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 484–486 1854 •

Christianity Simply Does Not Exist, at Least Not in “Christendom,” Where We Are All Christians [and] All Are Saved.

484

As the statement: [“]Everything is true[”] means that nothing is true, so also does: [“]All are Xns[”] mean that no one is. In “Christendom” we are all Xns. People have in fact made being Xn synonymous with being a hum. being. Just as, by being a hum. being, I participate in what is universally human, so also with this univrsl humanness: to be eternally saved, we all are saved. In the N.T., Xnty consists precisely in the fact that this is determined in the temporal realm, that the temporal realm exists for the sake of this decision. But in “Xndom” this is decided right at birth, so that a person has quite other things for which to use temporality―it is decided, we are all saved. Eternal salvation is something in which, by being a hum. being, one participates as a matter of course―in the N.T. this is least of all what eternal salvation is.

5

Ironically Enough! There is nothing every pers. fears so much as learning how enormously much one is capable of. You are capable of―do you want to know?―You are capable of living in poverty; you are capable of enduring almost every possible sort of mistreatment, etc. But isn’t it true, you do not wish to come to know this; you would be furious with the person who was to tell you this; and the only person you call your friend is someone who helps confirm you in “I can’t endure it, it’s beyond my strength, etc.”

Faith. In the New Testament, faith is not an intellectual category but an ethical category designating the relation of personality betw. God and a hum. being. Therefore faith is required (as an ex-

10

616

15

20

485

25

30

486

Toward the Battle with the Church

Paper 483.

•

P a p e r 483 1854 •

319

320

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 486–487 1854 •

pression of devotion)―to believe against reason, to believe even though one cannot see (entirely a category of personality and the ethical). The apostle speaks of faith’s obedience. Faith is put to the test, is tested, etc. The confusion regarding the concept of faith comes primarily from the Alexandrians. Then Augustine has also confused it by simply taking it from Plato’s definition (in the Republic) of his concept of “faith.”

To Become a Christian is, according to the New Testament, to become “spirit.” To become spirit, according to the N.T., is to die, to die away―for according to the N.T., no hum. being is born as spirit; in accordance with natural birth, to be a hum. being is to be flesh and blood and mind. Therefore, dying away is the crisis in order to become spirit. For the natural hum. being, dying is the most frightful thing; dying away is even more frightful, more frightful, more excruciating than all other hum. wretchedness and misery. Yet it is out of love that God wills it thus: You, o hum. being, have neither God’s notion of the frightfulness of sin nor of the gloriousness of salvation―if you had it, you surely would not complain in the least way that God wants to be merciful to you in this manner. It is out of love―blessed the person who is not offended! * * According to the New Testament, this is what it is to become a Christian. Now ask yourself, have you, among these thousands, or among the thousands of priests, seen one single one who fits this description in the least way, or whose life is not arranged in essentially the opposite manner, not to die away, but to enjoy life? And

5

487 10

618

15

20

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 487–490 1854 •

321

then ask, does it seem to you to be too much to suggest that we should at least admit this[?]

488

5

10

15

619

20

489 25

490

Turn the Expression Around! I have read something like the following remark in a classical author: When you see someone hold the ax the wrong way and in such a way that he is likely to chop anything but the firewood, then you don’t say, [“]Look how wrong the axman is going about it,[”] you say, [“]That man is not an axman.[”] Make the application. When one sees thousands upon thousands and millions of Christians whose lives do not have the least similarity with what― and this is of course what is decisive―what the New Testament calls Christian: Isn’t it then strange, confusing, that people do not speak as they would in any other situation, that people say: [“]How feeble, how these Xns fail utterly to express being Xn?[”] In any other situation, wouldn’t we say: [“]These peop. are not Xns.[”] So now, be serious about it, say: [“]These peop. are not Xns.[”] Let that be what we say―and you will have a world-transformation.

Is it Xnty that in exalted loftiness does not want to have more than those 12 apostles or is it the hum. race that has in swindling fashion exempted itself from being apostles because it has a notion that it is probably sheer suffering that one would rather avoid, and therefore prefers to do this under the hypocritical pretext of humility, self-effacement.

Try It! (Learned Scholarship Is Evil) Assume that in the New Testament it was written, for example―we can assume this―that it

[a]

A World-Transformation!

1

322

1

Toward the Battle with the Church

[a]

we of course run the risk that with its help, it would become dubious

b

that it can become so

•

P a p e r 490 1854 •

is God’s will that every hum. being should have 100,000 rix-dollars: Do you think there would be questions concerning scholarly commentaries on this? Or isn’t more likely that everyone would say: [“]This is of course easy enough to understand, no commentary whatever is needed; for the sake of God in Heaven, just keep clear of all commentaries―with their assistance, it could perhaps become doubtful whether the matter really is as written there. But we certainly prefer to have it as it stands, and therefore away, away with all commentaries.[”] But what is in the New Testament (about the narrow way, about dying away, etc.) is absolutely no more difficult to understand than the 100,000 rix-dollars. The difficulty is lodged elsewhere, in the fact that it does not please us― ―and therefore, therefore, therefore we must have commentaries and professors and commentaries; that is, we “risk,” not that we might come to find it doubtful―no, that is our wish―we have a bit of a hopeb with the assistance of commentaries. So, isn’t learned scholarship evil? Wasn’t it invented by us hum. beings because we have no desire to understand what is altogether too easy to understand, and an invention by which we are fortified in evil, in shirking and hypocritical evasion. We have invented learned scholarship in order to avoid doing God’s will. For this much we surely understand: that face to face with God and with respect to his clearly understood will, no one dares say “I won’t do it.” We don’t dare do it that way. So we protect ourselves by making it appear that it is so difficult to understand, that we therefore―he must of course find himself flattered by it and find us praiseworthy for saying this―study and research, etc.: that is, we protect ourselves by hiding behind big books.

5

10

15

20

25

620

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church 491

5

10

15

20

25

30

621 35

Flesh and Blood On the one hand, Christianity in the New Testament is: duty toward God. Yet we have long acknowledged that there are no duties toward God―and continue being Xns, i.e., we are Xns after having abolished Xnty. On the other hand, Xnty in the New Testament is: the battle of the spirit with flesh and blood. But this, too, has been completely abolished; all those frightful battles and spiritual trials no longer occur at all―and why? yes, quite simply because in the way we live, flesh and blood is truly sovereign. But like every other tyrant, flesh and blood is shrewd and cautious and also reasonable―it knows how to put up with quite a bit, just as long as its dominance is assured. And given the way that we live―it is. Truly, in our time, a fine, cultivated man who perhaps believes that he has mastered flesh and blood by having “ennobled” it―he would certainly experience something different were he to do battle with flesh and blood in the ancient Christian sense, die away, etc. But because some of those who live among us understand the “Rehabilitation des Fleisches” to be the wildest sensuality―and because, after all, we continue to call those people Xns and treat them as Xns: then the rest of us take advantage of this and regard our own lives and manner of living as the spirituality required by the N.T. No, if a Christian from antiquity were to judge us, he would have to say of each and every one of us: Here flesh and blood rules. To give the ennobling of flesh and blood the appearance of dying away is―because, after all, what is conjured up is a hypocritical appearance―even farther from dying away than the wildest debauchery.

24 Rehabilitation des Fleisches] German, rehabilitation or vindication of the flesh. (See also explanatory note.)

•

P a p e r 491 1854 •

323

324

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 492–495 1854 •

In the N.T., Christianity is the carrying out of “the duty toward God,” and now it has long since been decided that there rlly aren’t any duties toward God―nonetheless we are Christians, yes, precisely this is supposed to be Christianity. And yet all the collisions we are struck by in the N.T. are impossible if there are no duties toward God.

State Church―People’s Church Every effort toward establishing a Christian state, a Christian people is eo ipso unchristian, anti-Christian, for all such efforts are only possible by reducing the definition of what it is to Xn; therefore it is directly opposed to Xnty and tends toward establishing the masquerade that all are Xns, whereby it becomes so easy to be a Xn.

Reversed. A young state perhaps establishes prizes for fruitful marriages; an overpopulated state perhaps establishes prizes for bachelors, and as I see from the last section of the younger Fichte’s Ethics, in the end, on purely communistic grounds, they come to recommend celibacy. Thus, too, with Xnty. It is one thing when Xnty is to be introduced into a pagan land, and something else when it is in “Christendom,” where all are Xns, or, rather, where the misfortune is that many too many are Xns, that it has become nonsense―so the method here must be precisely the reverse―instead of doggedly acting as though nothing were amiss and continuing to produce Xns, if possible, even more Xns, in the nonsensical sense.

A Way of Looking at It In “Xndom” people act as if Xnty were a goal that perhaps lay far, far off in the distance toward

9 eo ipso] Latin, by that very fact.

492

5

493

10

494

20

25

622

495

30

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

496:1 10

15

496:2

497

25

30

which a person thus strives, and perhaps these millions are united for this purpose. People, in swindling fashion, do not want to know the truth: that Xnty is of course situated behind us, that it has existed, and that―precisely with the assistance of the growing millions and their united efforts, it is, from a Christian point of view, becoming something less.

The Situation. The situation is not that we are in a society of Christians, even though we call ourselves that: no, that is not the situation. But the situation is not even that we are in a society of nice peop. who are all making an effort: this, too, is a lie. No, we are in a society of people who all more or less make an effort―to conceal how things really are with us.

Even what we hum. beings call earnestness, as opposed to diversion, is so often, from a Christian point of view, merely diversion.

Shudder! As is well known, one of Grimm’s fairy tales tells the story of someone who went out into the world in order to learn how to shudder. He had to travel very far and yet perhaps did not really come to shudder: Let me tell you about something you do not need to search for out in the world―no, stay where you are and you will nonetheless come to shudder unless you are so hardened and devoid of spirit that the holiest concern of the hum. race is of no concern to you at all. Think of all the learned, learned nonsense, the mass of literature written by thousands and read

•

P a p e r 495–497 1854 •

325

326

1

a

godly

[b]

5

Toward the Battle with the Church

writing and millions reading! Do you think it is because the matter is difficult―yes, it has become difficult, enormously difficult, because the matter of being a Xn has become frightful nonsense.

•

P a p e r 497–498 1854 •

by millions, concerning the learned question about whether the laity ought to be denied the blood of Xt in the Eucharist: think of it. “Is this something to make a person shudder?” No, no, you are interrupting me too soon, for certainly this load ofa learned nonsense is already something to shudder at, something a person would shudder at on behalf of the hum. race, and something that would bring a person to shudder on account of the judgment. But this was not what I meant. No, but think of this mass of scholarship and nonsense, thousands and millions occupied with writing and reading―think of it, and let me tell you what you perhaps do not know, or if you know it, make it truly present to you. In the early Church, when the martyrs still bled, when being a Xn meant, if not oneself being a martyr then at any rate like living next to where the fire was burning, so close that, as people say, one could feel where the fire is by touching the wall―in this early Church the question once arose as to whether the laity ought to be denied the blood during the Eucharist. Then a bishop, who himself became a martyr, replied: [“]If it is required that a Xn shed his blood for the Lord, how could he be denied the Lord’s blood![”] Shudder! Because, look, if a person is a Xn like this, and if this is what it is to be a Xn, then every question is so infinitely easy to answer―then think of the professorial nonsense and of these thousands[b]

Is It the Law That I Proclaim; Do I, Myself in Anxiety, Perhaps Want to Bring Anxiety upon Others? Truly, no! And now take a look yourself! Imagine a government that, generation after generation, forgave the inhabitants of a province, each one individually―now, this is of course something we can imagine―each one individually, 100,000

623

5

10

15

20

25

30

498

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

624 10

15

20

25

30

35

rix-dollars, a debt that each and every individual owed it. It went on like this, unchanged, generation after generation. But while this did not change, another change did take place. Generation after generation, people became more and more accustomed to this unchanged situation so that, finally, although people did not deny that a debt had indeed been forgiven, they did not get any greater impression of the whole affair than if it were 4 shillings that had been forgiven. If then someone said: [“]No, that’s not how it ought to be. We owe it to our benefactor that we make it clear how great the debt―and his benefaction―is. And it is in the recipient’s interest to become clear about how great the debt―and the benefaction―is; it is in the recipient’s interest so that his gratefulness might truly be proportionate.[”] If someone did this, did he do so in an attempt to induce anxiety in himself or others at the thought [“]How could one possibly repay this debt?[”] No, he did not. And, with Christianity, this is how it is with “grace.” It is owed to God that it be made clear how great the debt is―but then it must of course first be made clear how great the requirement is. And it is in a human being’s interest that this happen: that, indeed, his gratitude does not in any way have to be proportionate to the infinite greatness of the merciful love. Tell me: is this strict, anxiety-producing, or would it not be more of a sin against you if this were not pointed out to you, so that it came to appear that you are a far more ungrateful pers. than you are[?] so that you would someday have to curse me and everyone who could have and ought to have made you aware of this, and who thereby caused you to become what in your innermost heart you are not― for this is not what you are―an ingrate[?]

•

P a p e r 498 1854 •

327

328

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 499–500 1854 •

The Objective Is Precisely What Christ Does Not Want

Therefore his continual collisions with the Sabbath, for according to the Jewish way of thinking, it was something objective, and Xt therefore wanted to worship God―precisely by breaking the Sabbath.

To Confess Xt―in Christendom. A man is a theology graduate. He very calmly―without feeling any need to confess Xt―lets the time pass until he is old enough to begin to seek a position. Then he spends some years seeking―however, it does not at all occur to him to confess Xt. Then he gets a position. He becomes―objectively―a government official; he is guaranteed a specific salary; it is possible for him to be promoted; in short, it is―in an entirely worldly sense―his career. Then he preaches on Xt― ―and this, this is to be what the New Testament understands by confessing Xt before the world. Where it is to be a matter of confessing―confessing personally, and these correspond precisely to one another―what matters is getting out of the way everything that hinders the impression from striking a person absolutely personally, that this is his personal conviction―and it is precisely here that everything is brought forward that could hinder the impression in coming as his personal conviction. It is his official position―so perhaps it is not his personal conviction, but is objective, on behalf of his office? It is for the sake of money and for the possibility of a promotion―so perhaps it is not his personal conviction at all, but like the other things people do for money. And this, then, is what people call confessing Xt. Bishop M[ynster] continually blusters about how he has confessed Xt; Bishop Brammer (in a little article

499

5

500

625

15

20

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

501 10

626

20

25

30

35

•

P a p e r 500–501 1854 •

329

in Evangelisk Kirketidende) emphasizes that “one of Bishop M’s scriptural passages” was to confess Xt before the world. When Xt required confession, conditions were such that it was impossible to avoid persecution. Now we are all Xns―and the priest is in fact the one for whom, in the New Testament sense, it is most impossible to be able to―confess Xt.

Is This to Educate Teachers of Xnty, or Is It to Demoralize?

From a Christian point of view, everything, everything, everything depends on a person coming to read the New Testament as primitively as possible. This is precisely what every effort is being made to prevent―in the name of educating teachers in Xnty. He is being educated―that is, he is being initiated into all these innumerable caprices that hum. mediocrity has invented in order to evade the Christian requirement (this is more or less the history of Christendom), he is initiated into them, and, if possible, he is made callous by the notion that millions, millions have of course conducted themselves in this manner. And this is called educating! I should have thought that, from a Christian perspective, this is demoralizing. a Read the New Testament in primitive fashion― and you will simply and absolutely get the impression that Xnty does not want you to marry. But that is not what hum. beings want; and this is how it is in the history of Xnty, across the centuries, with everything we hum. beings have come up with so that we could combine it with Xnty after all―and with this, people are initiated (yes, in more or less the same way that a person is initiated in going to a dance hall), with this, people are initiated, are educated (truly ennobling!) into being teachers of Xnty.

a

An example.

1

330

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 501–502 1854 •

And the same thing holds at every possible point. We hum. beings are naturally opposed to the Xnty of the New Testament. So people are educated, that is, people are initiated into all the swindlers’ tricks that hum. beings have come up with in order that they might, after all, outwit the New Testament. And this education is―absolutely necessary. Whereupon the educated teacher goes out and educates the congregation. But it is, after all, really frightful, for the confusion is always raised to a higher power. Or wouldn’t it be cause for despair if the situation were such that not only were there dance halls, as there are now, but that people assumed that young girls ought to be educated in dance halls, that therefore the more dance halls that were built, the better. *

Sigh.

5

a

; frightful responsibility, and doubly, doubly confusing that it is done, as they say, in the interest of Xnty!

b

being, i.e.,

10

15

*

Being a teacher of Xnty requires: the New Testament, read primitively―and then character formation.

1

5

Would to God that there was not one single pers. who had a pecuniary interest in our being―i.e., that we call ourselves―Xns: that day, Xnty would again become a possibility! But, frightful responsibility, arranging that thousands of peop. have a pecuniary interest in us hum. beings calling ourselves Xnsa Assume the state came up with the idea of arranging that thousands of peop. have a pecuniary interest in ourb calling ourselves poets―would this not mean: from now on, never another poet[?] Ah, if poetry did not entirely abandon us hum. beings, would it not cry: Get rid of them, get rid of them― by Satan, or in the name of God―get rid of these thousands, so that there is not a single hum. being who has a pecuniary interest in our being―i.e., in

20

627

502

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 502–505 1854

our calling ourselves―poets―and that day, being a poet would once again become a possibility.

503 5

10

15

504 20

628

25

30

505:1

Because the priest is paid and has a regular salary, he probably believes that, after all, he ought to do something for the money― and he sets himself to study and study, he turns religion into a learned affair― ―in order, after all, to do something, and something truly good, for the money. Alas, if Xnty had any money, it would surely be happy to give the priest money to stop doing this, for he is doing absolutely the worst thing he can do. The meaning of Socratic ignorance was of course precisely to make sure that the ethical did not become a learned discipline― but practice; nothing is as dangerous as having what must be practiced turned into a learned discipline. To refrain from doing it is not nearly so dangerous, but a learned discipline looks as if it were something, and it makes performance impossible.

In every word spoken by Xt (and, similarly, the apostles), what must always be included is the situation: that Christ was the persecuted, the misunderstood, the hated, the degraded, etc. For example, Christ says, [“]Believe in me, if only you believe in me you will be saved[”]― ―aber, aber, the person spoken to must thus, of course, do so in the situation of contemporaneity, but then suffering is unavoidable. Therein lies the fundamental confusion in the use people now make of the N.T.: that people take the words without the situation or, indeed, even in an opposite situation, whereby the words come to mean something else and are devoid of character.

Natural Cunning, Not to Mention Hypocrisy. People always talk―also with respect to Christian matters―of the great tasks that confront our age, that people must work with combined forces, etc.

•

331

332

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 505–507 1854 •

But, good God, Xnty needs only one single hum. being, provided only that he is truly willing to put up with everything. Aha, that is something people don’t want to do―and in order to conceal this, people act as though it was in fact immodest to want to be alone and, on the other hand, modest to want to be united with others―whereby the effort for each individual becomes quite small, indeed, probably even becomes profitable.

5

Is it the infinite that unites peop.? No, the infinite makes them into individuals. But the finite (worldly worries, worldly desires, etc., etc.) unites them. But people will not admit this, therefore it is always made to appear as if it were love, enthusiasm for an idea, etc. that unites them, when in fact it is self-love and enthusiasm for what is finite―and the idea, the cause, etc., are pretexts.

505:2

Can this be the situation: we are all Xns, or a person is a Christian and then strives to be more and more of a Christian―or is the situation this: that being a Xn is something so ideal that none of us are one, but that we strive, or at any rate some of us strive, to become one? Isn’t a large portion of the enormous indifferentism and torpor attributable to the fact that we summarily grant that everyone is a Xn and thereby prompt him to think as follows: Basically, I am just as far along as the person who has striven most, for I am, after all, a Christian―so the hell with all striving. Ought sermons properly strengthen us in the notion that we are Xns, or ought not all sermons instead serve to keep us from imagining that we are Xns?

506

The Exemplar.

507

In other cases, someone who presents himself as the extraordinary does not want imitation, replication; the extraordinary one wants to be admired, he almost becomes angry if others want to imitate him, it is something embarrassing. And therefore it is modesty to refrain from doing so.

10

20

629

25

30

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

508 10

15

20

25

630

509

35

•

P a p e r 507–509 1854

But Xt commands imitation; his life related to a judgment in the hereafter. But he is also the exemplar in the universally human sense of being that which everyone can be. Here, once again, comes hum. cunning: we interpret exemption from imitation as if it were humility, and we interpret wanting to imitate Xt as if it were presumption, as if he (like other extraordinary figures) would perhaps become angry, offended at this. O human hypocrisy!

Thieves’ Cant. It is praised as gentleness, love, and the like when one does not dare say of another person, of any other person, that he is going to hell. Fine; but nonetheless it is also possible that here, once again, we have thieves’ cant. The fact is that we have a secret terror of treating the matter seriously with someone else for fear that perhaps God might, in turn, take the matter seriously with ourselves―and we are, after all, not very honest with ourselves, nor are we exactly inclined to be properly serious with respect to the matter concerning an eternal salvation and eternal perdition to be won or lost in this life; we are a little afraid that this could make one’s life too serious. So we prefer (for our own sake) to reassure ourselves with this comfortable notion: that we will all be saved―and then, in addition, we tart it up as love, presumably in order to be quite sure that no one will be able to take it away from us. Human cunning.

Cunning We hum. beings praise it as something beautiful and loving to refrain from disturbing (as we call it) other people in their illusions, their religious illusions. It is safe to say that this is indeed owing to our indolence and to the fact that we ourselves are not quite certain about something. For Xnty is of precisely the oppo-

•

333

334

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 509–514 1854 •

site opinion―it regards it as a sacred obligation to tear others out of their delusions (Socrates, too, feared most of all being in error). But clearly, according to Xnty, the Xn himself is also a wise man.

Government Official A government official cannot proclaim Xnty, for being a government official is to insert an objectivity (that it is “in an official capacity”) between oneself and the learner; but religion requires subjectivity, the God-relationship of the teacher.

A hum. being is saved by grace alone―are we all therefore saved? Is this one and the same[?]

Tranquillity. The hum. being desires tranquillity in order to enjoy (nil beatum nisi quietum, Epicurus) What God does not want (according to Xnty) is precisely for a hum. being to have tranquillity―spirit is restlessness. This alone is something suspect about Protestantism inasmuch as Protestantism tends exclusively toward: tranquilizing.

Teacher of Xnty.

510 5

511 10

512

15

631

513

Only under one circumstance can a teacher of Xnty who is obligated by an oath upon the N.T. defend allowing himself to be supported by “the state”―namely as a prisoner, and, note well, a prisoner for the sake of Xnty.

20

I am not saying that the state cannot, in a certain sense, be well served by the sort of Xnty that is now the official sort―if, in other respects, the state were served a bit more capably―on

514

12 nil beatum nisi quietum] Latin, nothing is happy that is not tranquil. (See also explanatory note.)

25

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

515 15

20

25

632 30

35

•

P a p e r 514–515 1854

the other hand, the state would surely not be well served if true Xnty were preached: but what I am saying is that Xnty cannot be well served by calling this sort of thing Xnty―that therefore Xnty must demand, first and foremost, that the priest proclaim that what he has hitherto preached as Xnty is not rlly Xnty. Yet this in turn would be beneficial to the state, because only Xnty in the eminent sense can be dangerous to the state. The state cannot be well served by the preaching of Xnty, such as the official proclamation, which is thoughtless, devoid of ideas―it is demoralizing; but a toned-down version―though, note well, one that also is sufficiently truthful to make it clear that it is toned-down―will in turn have enough rigor that―from the point of view of the state’s interest―it will serve the state.

Is This Business with Millions of Christians Owing to Christian Zeal? Yes, that is how the assurances go―what an enormous stock of solemnity is consumed in connection with this! Nonetheless I dare have doubts―and on the other hand I do not dare doubt that this business with millions of Xns is―instinctually or consciously―the most cunning swindler’s trick by the hum. race, truly calculated, I dare say, to complicate matters for God―indeed, to cancel Xnty, to abolish it, or rather, to turn it such that it is the exact opposite of what it is. Of course there is a power that also has its stake in this confusion, the notorious, good-natured hum. stupidity, which with the best of intentions does the wrong thing―if it doesn’t actually hinder matters, as, for example, when, at the site of a conflagration, the police first of all use force to chase away the whole crowd of good-natured, well-intentioned peop. who, in all sincerity, would so very much like to help, and who therefore resent it when the police―in order to prevent what would happen if the crowd did come to help―conduct themselves like this instead of treating them with courtesy and gratitude.

•

335

336

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 515 1854 •

But I am not talking about this, no, I only want to talk about this business with millions of Xns insofar as guile and cunning are a part of the situation. And so the matter is quite simple. As soon as there are millions of Xns, the criterion for being a Xn has eo ipso been changed, the price has been pushed down tremendously! Aha! Now, this suits us all very well: to become a Xn at such a reasonable price, with a quite small, tiny, tiny, tiny bit of effort required even in order to become a serious Xn, etc. etc. But those whom this suits most of all are the teachers of Xnty, the priests―who are in fact the source of this. If in fact it is argued that there are only very few Xns, then it becomes very strenuous to be a teacher, and it becomes an extremely modest position in life, a living that is more likely to starve a person to death, a living concerning which it would be appropriate to say―as is said about the bit of meat in the comedy―that there was not a scrap of fat on it. On the other hand, the situation is quite different when we get millions of Xns. “How beautiful, how solemn, that things are as they are nowadays, with Christian churches towering above the landscape everywhere, where congregations gather to confess and worship the God whom the entire people―in unity―confess and worship, a Christian people.” So, now there are churches towering everywhere, but inasmuch as there are so many of them, there must surely be some that, merely at an overview, tower above the others. And this is indeed the case, and to that group surely correspond (as the priests correspond to the other churches)―to that group certainly correspond the deans. And if the priests wear cloth, then it is surely for the best that the deans wear silk. But, merely at an overview, there must, in turn, surely be some who tower over these deans. These, then, are the bishops―in velvet with the thousands in salary. And perhaps it is necessary that one or several figures tower above the bishops―though I will not go into that, I will stop with the bishop. This is indeed a very good place to stop,

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

633

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

15

20

for he is zealous and fervent: he can never express strongly enough how precious it is to him―yes, I truly believe it!―how unspeakably much it concerns him, that everyone in the country is a Xn―yes, I truly believe it, no one is more willing to believe it than I. For if the truth concerning what it is to be a Xn, and concerning how few there are, were one day to come out―ah, God preserve us, then we would of course risk having the entire scaffolding with bishops and deans and persons of rank and ombre and all that sort of stuff collapse―look, this is why it is so infinitely important that it be insisted that we are all Xns.a What swindlers hum. beings are! And what did Adamb do in his day? he hid himself―and among the trees, because a person cannot hide himself behind something as small as a dinner plate. And thus, when one is a swindler, a person cannot hide when what is to be insisted upon is that there are only very few Christians; but among millions of Christians a person is concealed―therefore, all hail to you, you holy zeal and fervor to gain millions of Xns, or to maintain[c]

•

P a p e r 515–516 1854 •

337

a

Everything concerns these two points: the velvet―and that we are all Xns; if the latter cannot be maintained, then neither can the former. “And therefore it is so unspeakably dear to my heart,” I know it, your Right Rev., I know it, be sure of that.

1

5

b

the first hum. being and the first swindler or the first swindler and the first hum. being, what then did

10

[c]

the notion that there are millions of Xns.

516 25

30

There is one way of looking at things that believes that the divine consists precisely in taking mercy upon all, all, alla; there is another that believes that the divine consists in discarding millions as nothing, as a nullityb. And it indeed makes an enormous difference which of these viewpoints a person has been brought up with. And which of them comes closest to the N.T., especially to the gospels?

a

“:remain quite calm!”

b

“:tremble!”

15

338

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 517–519 1854 •

Christendom.

517

To be a Christian in Xndom in straightforward conformity is just as impossible as doing gymnastics in a straitjacket.

If someone who was to run a foot race came to the starting line wearing large wading boots, 3 coats, and not only that, but his servant was waiting for him there with a large overcoat, a windsucker, which he put on: would that not be laughable? And why? Because his clothing had no relation to his undertaking―or, rather, that it had a misrelation to his undertaking. Similarly, it is also laughable when, in order to proclaim Xnty―i.e., to proclaim self-denial, renunciation, item how the truth must suffer in this world―someone clothes himself in velvet and stars and ribbons, presents himself accompanied by servants in uniforms with gold braid, etc., because his appearance is in no relation―or, rather, is in a parodic misrelation―to his words. And yet no one laughs. His words are perhaps a masterpiece of eloquence, they produce an enormous effect―curiously enough, not in the form of laughter: this is the most laughable thing of all.

According to the N.T., being a Christian is something utterly opposed to the natural hum. being; according to the N.T., there is absolutely a life-anddeath conflict between God and hum. beings. Therefore, a certain degree of transformation is required even merely to become aware of the Christian requirement and to be able to set it forth. So when someone does this, there will immediately be not one, but more likely ten people, who will busy themselves with demonstrating that it is an enormous exaggeration, that that sort of thing is not Christianity―“this is something everyone can grasp.” And it is then claimed that everyone, of course, can understand that the former person is wrong: What nonsense! Because, in accordance with its own teachings, Christianity has an oppositional relation to being 11 item] Latin, as well as, furthermore.

634

518 5

10

15

519

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

635

10

15

20

25

30

520

a hum. being; it therefore follows eo ipso that the syllogism: [“]Everyone can comprehend it[”] must be reversed as follows: [“]You can be sure that what everyone can comprehend is not Xnty.[”] The confusion has provided additional support for the new confusion in the illusion that all of us are of course Xns. For this is the case with respect to the universally hum. sphere: Everyone can comprehend that this is such and such, ergo. For time out of mind, now, Christianity has not been served in character, and everyone who does not serve it in character accepts this unconditionally: that everyone can comprehend ergo; a person without character finds it impossible to put up polemical resistance Young pers., you who perhaps will come to read this someday: When you have read it, you will find it so obvious that it will almost seem redundant to have made it so obvious. My young friend, if you are to put this into practice, you will, year after year, nonetheless require schooling in it or you will indeed be fooled and then end up by fooling others―and end up with “Everyone can comprehend it.” For through the truth one misses out on all worldly goods; by agreeing to “Everyone can comprehend it,” the worldly goods come. Believe me! For me, the matter exists in a specific context; therefore I cannot be fooled―otherwise, I would be fooled as well. Even the best-trained decoy dove nonetheless eventually ends up getting fooled and flying away with the doves it was supposed to trap, but when it is tied to the dovecote with a string, it doesa

To Be a Christian, to Confess Christ. In the N.T., it is put this way: one can be a Christian only in opposition, confess Christ only in opposition, i.e., there must be something or someone in opposition to whom one is Xn and confesses

•

P a p e r 519–520 1854 •

a

339

not get fooled. And the little fish that―in order to catch a bigger fish―wriggles on the hook, painfully pierced by it: no matter how many of its kind came, even if it were an entire shoal of them―it does not let itself get fooled.

1

5

340

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 520–521 1854 •

being Christian, for according to the N.T. there is danger connected with confessing Xt. (Tertullian, as well, says entirely correctly: Only where there is persecution does confession have a place―see in Böhringer). In “Christendom” we are all Christians; here, therefore, one cannot be Xn in opposition, nor can one confess Xt in opposition―but according to the N.T., part of confessing is that there is opposition. What follows from this[?] From this follows either that the whole business with Christendom is nonsense, that one must follow the N.T. to the letter and, in opposition to Christendom, confess Xt precisely because “Christendom” is the place in which one least of all (other than in opposition) can be a Xn, for “Christendom” is a lie, passed on from generation to generation; or that the business with Christendom is in order―we are all Christians; but in that case the N.T. will therefore no longer constitute the rule for what it is to be a Christian because the situation is totally changed, and all conditions are the precise opposite of what they are in the N.T., and consequently we must surely pray to God for a new revelation in order to receive instruction on how to be a Christian in “Christendom.”

“Instead of the gifts of the spirit as in the early Church, we must make use of speculation and the like”―excellent surrogate, it is a qualitative difference, and nonetheless it is to serve in its place, more or less as if flying, for example, were to serve in place of swimming. Or, when I speculate more, do I in this manner come further in developing the gifts of the spirit[?] no, just as little as I―were I to become absolutely perfect at flying―would thereby have come closer to swimming.

5

10

636

15

20

25

521

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church 522

5

10

. . . . “now miracles are no longer needed because Christianity is so widespread”: Nonsense and hypocrisy. Miracles are needed now more than ever, but we are cunning enough to prefer to be free from being able to work miracles―we prefer what is ordinary, sensory, and straightforward. We are shrewd enough to understand how strenuous life might become if we were to include miracles, and then we are hypocritical enough to act as if we are too modest to desire such things.

637

523

15

20

From a Christian point of view, proving the truth of Christianity from its dissemination is nonsense. Nor is it proven in this manner in the N.T.; Christ and the apostles prove the reverse: that one is put to death for it. And from a Christian point of view, this proof is indeed also the only possible one, for inasmuch as Christianity is the polemical truth, the mark of its truth and its proof must therefore be reversed, polemical. But in “Xndom” the mark has become something straightforward (dissemination) and this, in turn, states indirectly that we have turned Christianity into a straightforward truth.

25

524:1

30

35

No, God in Heaven is the only power who does not hold sales, nor does he knock down the prices; his prices remain eternally unchanged, more unchanging than the North Star. And it is in relation to these, the eternally unchanged prices (they are found in the N.T.), that every generation must understand itself and every individual in the generation must understand himself where he is―this is the first requirement for all reformations and for every form of progress. If someone assumes that this ideality (to be a Christian), will probably develop like every other ideality: that things will naturally go downhill for a pers. (nothing can really be done about it), and that

•

P a p e r 522–524 1854 •

341

342

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 524–525 1854 •

therefore there must be some reduction in the price: well, the price nonetheless may not be changed, but a realistic assessment must be made in order to determine how much a person draws upon “grace.” God cannot change the price―then he would eo ipso not be God―but he can assist us poor hum. beings with the help of grace―on the other hand, he cannot be of service to a highly respected public (even if that public were the whole of humanity) by changing the price.

Someone is obligated by an oath upon the N.T., but upon closer inspection he has probably understood it like this: that he obligated himself in the same sense as all the others did at that time, in that town, etc. What an enormous amount of space for more detailed qualifications, what a distance from taking an oath upon the N.T. in primitive fashion.

How I Understand the Future 1

5

[a]

a frightful reformation that will have this battle cry “I wonder whether the faith is to be found on the earth” and will be recognizable by the fact that millions of people will “fall away” from Xndom, a frightful reformation

There must certainly be reform; it will be a frightful reformation in comparison to which the Lutheran one will almost be a joke―a frightful reformation, for the fact is that Christianity rlly does not exist at all, and it will be terrible when a generation that has been pampered by childish Xnty, fooled into imagining that it is Christian, when it, once again, is to receive the mortal blow of what it is to become a Christian, to be a Christian. The pagan understood correctly that Xnty is hatred of humanity―so frightful was it to become a Christian. But when one has been pampered and softened with a bit of sweets that is called Xnty, deceived into imagining that one is a Xn, it is more terrible to have to learn it all over again. If this were suddenly placed upon an individual, a generation, it would surely be more than a human

5

10

524:2 638 15

525

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

15

20

639

25

30

35

40

being could bear; and―if a person were permitted to speak thus―it would also surely be too rigorous on the part of divinity, for, good Lord, this pampered, sorry wretch, he himself does not bear all the guilt for what the generations have done down through the ages. Therefore―this is how I understand the matter― because God is patient, he stays his hand, he does not reject the entire race, nor does he assign it a task that must be its downfall. But it does not follow from this that everything is to continue as it has in the past. No, a beginning must be made: we must undertake a full, complete, and honest accounting of our situation―and this is my task as I understand it. In the N.T., the condition for salvation is tied to being Christian―and in the sense in which the N.T. takes it, not a single one of us is a Xn, not a single one. Meanwhile―while we live our carefree lives―God is sitting calmly in heaven, with eternity’s accounting in mind, and remember well that he is not impressed by millions―as if he would have to reduce the price because we millions are not Xn, even though we all call ourselves such. Look, what are we to do about this? Furthermore, if, at this instant, the requirement, as it is in the N.T., were to be enforced, there would not be one of us, not one single one, who was not crushed, annihilated, precisely because we are all something that is infinitely more dangerous than being a pagan or a Jew: pampered, softened, demoralized, and, most dangerous of all, demoralized by means of Xnty, but God―remember this well―God is not impressed by millions. Look, isn’t this patience, indescribable patience―O, that it might simply be so, but I dare believe that it is―that he permits us to count as Christians, but then requires at least one thing: that there be truth in this matter, that the accounting must be done, so that we should not try to find, if possible, an even greater artist than the late bishop, an even greater artist at concealing, cloaking, covering things up with the assistance of illusions, but that we are

•

P a p e r 525 1854 •

343

344

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 525–528 1854 •

to be honest enough to be willing to stand having the true state of things revealed.

To continue to use the biblical expression despite the totally changed situation, (acting as if nothing had happened). Example: the Christian is a guest, a stranger, a foreigner, an alien here in the world (this is still part of the Eucharist service every year in the collect, and “the priest” often uses this expression)―now, isn’t this either nonsense, thoughtlessness―or hypocrisy: isn’t a worship service such as this making a fool of God? Try it: Say of Bishop M.: he was a foreigner and an alien here in the world―isn’t it the bloodiest satire[?]

526 5

10

15

640

The N.T. must actually (also with respect to passion) have an entirely different concept of faith than is current nowadays; for of course Xt expressly says that the signs that are to accompany those who have faith are―and now the miracle comes. And in this passage, it is not only disciples who are being spoken of.

527 20

25

In our time, which levels everything, where soon not only birth, fortune, and the like will be the object of hatred and envy, but also where being intelligent, having talent, working diligently, etc., will soon surely be capable of arousing persecution: let someone dare speak and affirm that he believes that he will be eternally saved―that the others will go to hell: yes, thank you very much, if it is not someone who cannot in self-satisfied conceit and superiority be dismissed and pitied as half-mad―yes, thank you very much: persecution is certain. But nowadays no one is a Christian in character; people are

528

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church Christians without the distinction between heaven and hell, we are all equally blessed, people believe that eternity consists precisely in leveling.

529

10

15

641

25

The ecclesiastical opposition is absolutely not in character. They are right, at least in part, in what they say, but they are not in character. The tactic to use against them would therefore be to bring forth the ideals and, with the help of these, force the opposition into character or make it clear that they are devoid of character. In an article in Nordisk Kirketidende, Fenger from Slotsbjergbye wrote affirming the eternity of punishment in hell and scoffing at the Christians who imagine themselves to be Christian without having heaven–hell. From a Christian point of view he is right. But he is not at all in the character of what he says. To believe that there is a hell and that others go to hell―and then to marry, beget children, live in a parsonage, think about obtaining a more lucrative call, etc., is frightful egotism. But this is not in fact what the N.T. is like. Everyone who believes that there is a heaven and that others go to hell is eo ipso a missionary, it is the least he can do. Rudelbach (and Grundtvig does the same) shouts that it is the State Church that is destroying Xnty: and both of them remain in State Church posts―G. occupies the most pleasant one in the country, and R. has a large living.

30

530

35

The symbolic books of our Church assume that there are various degrees of blessedness in the hereafter―why do the priests never speak of this; it would of course be possible that one or another of their audience could want to covet a higher degree.

•

P a p e r 528–530 1854 •

345

346

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 531–532 1854 •

People indeed genrlly point out that the person who says that something is God’s will, command, and so forth―and then does not act in accord with it―that he, yes, mocks, makes a fool of God, who however, does not let himself be mocked, but what I want to point out is: he makes a fool of himself, for it is making a fool of oneself to say: What I myself regard as the highest exercises no power over me― spineless wretch that I am.

531

Measure of Distance.

532

In the earliest Church, the most profound earnestness was surrounded by the highest pathos: owing to the fall of the angels, their number became incomplete―so people believed that this was the infinitely lofty goal for a Christian’s efforts: that it was possible for one to make use of this life in order to take the place of such a fallen angel. Alas, no one knew the number of these fallen angels, though it surely was not many, and people disagreed about whether God would increase the number back to the original complement. But that it was indeed possible to become an angel, that this life, properly used, was commensurable with this eternal decision: yes, this was the Christian’s most profound earnestness, it was his highest pathos. Therefore he was willing to forsake everything, willing to suffer everything, willing to be sacrificed, and therefore every minute of precious time was infinitely important to him, and he continually called himself to account for his every deed, for every word he spoke, every thought in his mind, every expression of his face, lest he should be guilty of neglecting what concerned him with the highest pathos. Now, especially in Protestantism, especially in Denmark, as sure as I am writing these words, we live in such a way that there is not a single pers. to

5

10

15

20

642 25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

643

40

whom it could seriously occur to do or to refrain from doing the least, least thing with the idea of its having a relationship of pathos concerning the decision: to become an angel. Normally, this thought of becoming an angel strikes us as laughable. Were someone seriously to say that he was striving toward becoming an angel, we would all laugh. In the comedy, when a peasant lad sings: [“]For then I am an angel with white wings on,[”] we all laugh. At most, we tolerate it when a child says to his mother, who is grieving over the death of his father: [“]Now Father is happy, he has become an angel[”]―we tolerate it, we find childlike beauty in it. In a similar way we also tolerate it when the poet speaks feelingly in this manner. But if it is supposed to be serious, then we all laugh; we would scarcely even find it as ridiculous if someone supposed that a hum. being became a camel after death. And although this is how things are, it is assumed that the same teachings as those of the most ancient Church continue, unchanged, to be the religion in this country, [and] 1000 men have no hesitation in marrying and living off the supposition―that this is the same teaching, the same teaching where, however, the difference is that their highest pathos has become comical. * * Take a different situation. It was with a fear and trembling of which we scarcely have any notion that the first Christians related to the idea of the accounting and judgment of eternity, that the significance of this life was to be a test―frightful effort!―the outcome of which was eternal salvation or eternal perdition. Now there is not a single hum. being who seriously believes in this matter of the accounting; it almost never appears in sermons; in everyday conversation people speak of it ironically; only the poets―thus, it has only poetic reality―relate to this notion with aesthetic seriousness: and yet people maintain that the same teachings as those of Xnty’s first era are still the religion of the land, and 1,000

•

P a p e r 532 1854 •

347

348

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 532–534 1854 •

men do not hesitate to marry and live off these being the same teachings.

1

a

left, or more correctly, that has been added subsequently, but is the only thing that is not regarded as ridiculous is: the living.

* * Moreover, the transformation―which is the abolition of Xnty―is naturally connected with the senseless dissemination of Xnty: that are all Xns. We are all Christians―but then we must of course all become angels. Quite correct, so it becomes ridiculous, as it has become―less ridiculous if we all became camels. We are all Christians, ergo we all get saved; we are already Xns as infants―ergo that business of the accounting and judgment becomes ridiculous. Quite true, it becomes ridiculous, as it has become. The only thing that isa

Different Sort of Certainty. That Jesus Christ has lived here on earth, that he has saved the faithful by his suffering and death―that this is certain was once expressed by the fact that people were sacrificed for it, died for it― ―that is how certain it was. Now people marry on the basis of it―that is how certain it is― ―but is it indeed certain?

The Characteristic Religious Misfortune of Our Time is precisely that it is lacking in character, that deep down, everyone knows that there is something amiss, that Xnty simply does not exist, that religion has become make-believe―but that then everyone nonetheless unites in keeping quiet about it―out of fear for the final uproar that will disturb the enjoyment of life. This, then, is not a dignified ignorance (which could therefore be dispelled), not a respectable error (which could therefore be guided onto the right path), no, it is the worldliness that is most

5

10

15

533

20

534

25

30

644

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 534–536 1854

opposed to all religion, demoralized even more by having an awareness of how things are.

535

5

536

15

20

25

30

Scholarship. This is how Augustine always approaches the matter: Because Xnty is truth in the form of authority, precisely for that reason it is the div[ine] truth―thus, the form of the authority is precisely what is decisive. Nowadays it is thought that scholarship is only true when all authority has been speculated away.

Christianity. The trustworthy judgment concerning what Xnty is, is and remains that of paganism and Judaism at the time it came into the world. That Xnty is hatred of humanity can also be easily seen from the fact that Xnty demands that a hum. being is to hate himself. In sum, the unconditional relation to the Unconditioned is fatal for what we naturally think of in connection with what is human. In “Christendom” people never get to know the truth about what Xnty is, because Christendom is a society of hum. beings who possess neither the faith truly to become Xns nor the courage to break with Xnty, and who to this end have themselves constructed a Xnty. What Pascal says about Xndom is extremely fitting: that it is a society of peop. who, with the assistance of some sacraments―free themselves from the duty to love God. Altogether, Christendom is precisely that, exactly that, which Xt wanted to abolish, precisely what he came to the world in order to annihilate.

•

349

350

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 537–538 1854 •

Sly Humility. Religiosity of the Lutheran sort, especially when it is in the second etc. generation, is undeniably what pleases us hum. beings the most: it is namely this: to whine before ourselves and before God―and then everything is all right. “What is a hum. being, a poor wretch, he is capable of nothing, etc.” Oh, but when I read in the New Testament, I sooner get the impression that in God’s view a hum. being is a giant―but he is to be put to the test, not spared. Otherwise, doesn’t the Lutheran position easily become a sly swindler’s trick[?] Let me make an analogy. Take the copyholders, the cottagers, the lodgers, etc. on an estate in relation to lord of the manor: is there any single one of them, no matter how well-to-do he might be, who does not whine[?] This is viewed as the shrewdest thing to do. And then, one day, when the lord of the manor meets Hans Hansen and says, “Well, how is it going[?],” H. H. then replies, “Ah, not so good” (and it is a lie―he has thousands). But on his deathbed H. H.’s father had told him, Never let anyone know that you own anything―least of all the lord of the manor.

a

(the methods used previously correspond to this assumption)

The method must be changed.

; for the truth is not that, from a Christian point of view, things are going forward,a but the truth is that, from a Christian point of view, things are going backward― consequently, the method must be changed. Somewhere in a modern author (most likely Boehringer) I have read something like the following remark. The topic concerns one of the critical points in the history of the Christian Church, and then the author says: Here, the Church could do only one of two things: either it must straightforwardly admit that it was not the Christian Church (but of course this would be suicide), or act as if nothing had happened and insist that it was the true Christian Church. Thus, it would be a suicide―yes, in truth, a suicide, and yet a deed well-pleasing to God that

645

537

5

10

15

20

538

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

646 5

10

15

20

539

25

30

35

there was at least enough truth to kill oneself in this way in order to make room for the truth instead of smothering it by cloaking it with its bestial dissemination that impudently claims to be Xnty. But the Church did not have the courage and the truth for this heroic suicide―it preferred to kill Xnty with its lie. But precisely this, which our author so casually tosses aside as unreasonable, something it could not occur to the Church to do―precisely this is what must be done. The method must be changed. Instead of the general lie that Xnty is perfectible (this is the complete negation of Xnty and simply makes a fool of God)― that is, instead of the shamelessness that believes it is going further, instead of the cunning and shrewdness that, no less shamelessly, stops at nothing in order to conceal the truth about how Xnty is going downhill: instead of this, from now on, admissions must be made, every generation must make its admission by means of which it can relate to Xnty.

Which Is It? Are “Numbers” Reassuring or Do They Cause Anxiety? Nowadays we live more or less with the reassurance that since there are so many millions of us who call ourselves Xn, however far we are from being that, then God (like every other potentate) must yield, knock down the price of Xnty a little or a lot―in short, accept us as valid. To me, the situation seems just the reverse: that it is exactly the matter of the many millions that, far from reassuring me, is precisely what makes me anxious and, in my anxiety, serves to awaken me. That there is such a countless mass, billions, trillions of Xns; that there must be millions of blood witnesses alone―truly God would not have any difficulty discarding entire generations. No: if I were the only person in the world, or if there were at most two of us, then it seems to me that―if I dare say

•

P a p e r 538–539 1854 •

351

352

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 539–540 1854 •

so―it would be thinkable that God, seeing as how he indeed does not have more than these two hum. beings, who have fallen far short of fulfilling his requirement―that he would reduce the requirement a bit. We hum. beings want to reassure ourselves with the assistance of numbers (and it is quite true that numbers do impress all relative sovereigns). But you see, for God the numbers are so enormous that, conversely, it is precisely the numbers that cause anxiety for us hum. beings.

Mediocrity.

1

a

lack of passion, spiritlessness

In our times, what makes it so difficult to get Xnty hauled through is that it has been stalled in mediocritya, something much more dangerous than all heresies and schisms, in which there at least is passion. And this mediocrity disguises itself in different ways. Nowadays as modesty, humility, which is of the opinion that we will all be saved, just as we all are Xns. No, by Satan, this is not modesty, humility―no, it is sloth, indifferentism, which prefers not to be inconvenienced by the matter, and therefore, in its indolence, assumes that we are all Xns―whereupon this indolence demands that it be respected as humility, modesty. And mediocrity disguises itself as cordiality that is being so cordial in judging everyone else so leniently. No, by Satan, this is not cordiality, it is self-love that understands, quite correctly―and this is surely the safest thing―that if one wants to spare oneself, one must also spare others, especially in these times which would scarcely stand for it if a person were to assume that he, unlike others, would be saved.

5

647

10

540

15

20

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church 541

5

648

15

20

25

542

30

35

•

P a p e r 541–542 1854 •

353

I Will Surely Be Saved Just like All the Others.

It indeed does look quite trustworthy; we live here in Copenhagen, 120,000 peop.a; furthermore, we are all Xns―and naturally, I will be saved just like all the others. Oh, my friendb, just consider this: even on a map of Denmark, Cph. is no large spot; on the map of Europe, it is a very small spot; on the globe, it is a pinprick; in in the universe, where the dimensions are so great that they transform the stars into pinpricks―in the universec Cph. cannot even be foundd: Can you really feel reassured about being saved just like all the others, your contemporaries here[?] Can you, when you look around―and it seems to me that the question of eternal salvation includes sufficient suggestion that one look around!―can you be well-served with this, can you be well-served with―letting the entire matter remain undecided[?] Because this [“]I will be saved just like all the others[”] is precisely to let the matter remain undecided. And can you be well-served, when you look around―can you be well-served when someone reassures you in this way, when―perhaps even under the name of proclaiming Xnty―he helps you let the whole matter remain in abeyance!

Just Measure the Distance! Consider what once concerned the Christian with a passion, with fear and trembling and shuddering, of which nowadays even a poet can scarcely have a notion: the decision of eternity, the accounting, the judgment; consider this and remember that precisely the fact that this concerned people in this way―that this was precisely what it was to be a Christian! And now―now the matter of eternity has become something imaginary, poets sit and busy themselves with it, write apocalyptic comedies

a

who have arranged things comfortably and well, who themselves invent or willingly adopt from abroad everything that can serve to beautify life or make it more convenient, more enjoyable;

1

5

b

have you no other certainty for yourself than this: just like all the others?

c

(and this, of course, is the divine unit of measure)

10

d

and among the enormous number of millions of hum. beings who have lived―of course these 120,000 hum. beings, yes, are the same as Cph. in the universe

15

354

Toward the Battle with the Church

•

P a p e r 542–543 1854 •

― ―but we are all Christians. What a distance between being a Xn in the former sense and being a Xn nowadays―if, in this latter way, one can be a Xn at all, which, by the way, is just as peculiar as if someone were a violinist by virtue of―his not being able to play the violin.

Religious Guarantees.

1

a

we are only poets, orators, or however you want to express it, not priests;

It is certainly true that there is no guarantee for the Unconditioned; this is inherent in the matter itself, for that which is not itself the Unconditioned is eo ipso something inferior, thus there is no guarantee. But there is a difference. Thus, when a pers. relinquishes all earthly reward, advantage, enjoyment in order to proclaim the existence of something higher―well―who knows?―it still does not follow from this that this is the truth, for after all, it could be pride, etc.; but nonetheless there is a sort of guarantee, because the very thing he does is of course itself something higher, thus it is at least a guarantee that something higher exists. But when someone wants to guarantee that something higher exists by the fact that, through his proclamation of there being something higher, he gains (this is utterly trivial) some earthly profit, etc., etc., (this is, if possible, even more trivial than the most trivial tradesman, who is never assured of a profit like this): then this is nonsense, it is, if anything, ridiculous, indeed the most ridiculous of all ridiculous things―it is, among adults, an obscenity. Therefore, one or the other, either/or: either let go of what is earthly―or make a confession,a but not this confusing, meaningless, not to say hypocritical business that one wants the highest―but in addition what is earthly, for this is of course an outrageous self-contradiction; if you in addition want what is earthly it is, after all, eo ipso not the highest that you want.

5

543

649

15

20

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

544

5

545

Have you seen peop. at a fire? How do they look? Isn’t it true that everyone is scared to death and thinks only of saving himself[?] But it is Xnty’s view that at every moment a person lives in even greater danger than that from the most violent conflagration, the danger of forfeiting an eternity: do people look like this is the case?

“Narrow is the way, and there are few who find it,” thus in the N.T. In Xndom we all walk on one and the same way and it is nonetheless supposed to be the right way.

650

546

Spirit is restlessness; Xnty is existence’s most profound restlessness―thus according to the N.T. in Christendom, Xnty is reassurance “so that we can properly enjoy life.”

547

Christianity’s thought is this: these 70 years, or 30 years, in brief, temporality, is the critical time, is the crisis, in which it is to be decided whether or not you are a Xn, and thereby, in turn, is decided your condition for an eternity. In “Christendom” the matter is turned this way: we say, as early as possible (if we could say it to a child still in the womb, we would do it): Stay calm, you are a Xn, and these 70 years are only the very first little tiny bit of an eternity that lies before you, an infinite process of development, so the 70 years are scarcely more than 5 minutes―therefore, do not overexert yourself; if you waste these 70 years, what difference do 5 minutes more or less make[?]

25

30

•

P a p e r 544–547 1854 •

355

356

1

5

[a]

Toward the Battle with the Church

―and in this way worship services come to make a fool of God, because the content of his Word is obviously being understood differently while we, either nonsensically or hypocritically, are saying the same words.

•

P a p e r 548–549 1854 •

To a discourse, to a word, there also belongs: the situation during which or in which it is said. If the situation is different, then one is not saying the same thing, but something different, perhaps even the opposite, even if the word, the discourse, is the same. With respect to Christianity, the situation in Christendom in relation to the N.T. is totally changed. So when we act as if nothing had happened and make use of the N.T.’s pathos-laden expressions―especially the polemical expressions―in relation to existential matters: then it becomes either nonsense or hypocrisy[a] Example. “He who does not confess me before the world, etc.” In the N.T., the situation is that the world stands in a polemical relation to being a Christian; to confess Xt is therefore the expression for the greatest of daring. In Christendom we are all Christians, material goods are connected with being a Christian, official positions and careers and livings are connected with being a priest―and then we continue to talk with pathos about confessing Xt before the world, and the priest says that this is what he does: this is either nonsense or hypocrisy. In a little article by Brammer (in Hiorth’s Kirketidende), [“]He who does not confess etc.[”] is emphasized as one of Bishop Mynster’s Bible passages: Oh, it is disgusting to act like this, as if it were nothing, and actlly to use God’s Word to make a fool of God.

548

The Disagreement between Mynster and Myself.

549

M’s view (perhaps even that this was pleasing to God) was that everything must be done to conceal the true state of things, for otherwise everything will collapse; my idea is that everything must be done to make clear what the true state of things is.

5

10

15

20

651

25

30

35

Toward the Battle with the Church

5

10

550

15

Imagine a painting. There is a curtain hanging in front of it, but this curtain is falling to pieces. Then there are two men: the one says, [“]Everything must be done to patch the holes[”]; the other says, [“]No, the curtain must be torn away so that we can get to see the painting.[”] No change is made to the painting, but the one wants to conceal it, the other wants to get to see it. Thus, at least for the time being, my job is not to change the state of things, but to take stock. M’s was to conceal it with all his might.

To Hate Oneself. Merely to want to have the ideals out in the open already tends toward hating oneself. The person who loves himself does not want to have the ideal out in the open, so that it does not disturb him in self-satisfied enjoyment. * *

652 20

25

30

Do you have a habit or something of that sort of which you yourself disapprove, which you nonetheless cannot truly resolve to give up: well, then, do this. If until now you have concealed it from others, then change that, compel yourself to permit others to find out about it―this tends toward hating oneself. For a bad habit so very much wants to make itself a part of a person that he wants to conceal it. If, therefore, the person concerned says to the bad habit: Well, if I can’t resist you, if I am still too weak to do so, there is one thing I can do―I can torment you, tease you, by letting this become manifest to others. The bad habit also knows very well that only when the person concerned loves it so much that he conceals it―only then does it truly have power over him.

•

P a p e r 549–550 1854 •

357

PAPER 551—591 During Publication of The Moment April 18–September 25, 1855

Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen

Text source Løse Papirer in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter Text established by Elise Iuul, Stine Holst Petersen, and Jon Tafdrup

360

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 551–552 1855 •

Historical Juxtaposition.

April 18th, 55. The scene from The Happy Capsize with the two servants who read the list concerning what has happened to their masters. A similar sc[ene], apparently between a servant of the apostle Paul and a servant of Privy-General-Senior-Court-Official-Entirely-Silk-Quilted-Consistorial-Council-President-Clad-in-Velvet Petersen.

655

551

5

10

On the 5th hujus Paul bore witness before Felix and was flogged for doing so

1

[a] or, in the modern style, he “witnessed” about how P[aul] witnessed

On the 5th hujus my master described, in the presence of His Majesty the King and the Q[ueen], how Paul had borne witness[a] and for this was elevated to the rank of count and was even granted permission to wear a tassel around his neck, which no one else dares do.

That’s enough. Everyone may continue the list as he wishes―I prefer not to inconvenience myself with such things: people certainly understand what I mean. So, with respect to the term “witness to the truth,” to which we have now been introduced, and concerning which, surely, more than a few people are already capable of saying to one another “We certainly understand what it means,” can simply be added: On the 5th hujus, every time a priest begins to boast that he is a witness to the truth, the reply is simply to be: [“]Yes, we understand what that means―the 5th hujus.[”]

The Essence of Christianity. is this: In the New Testament, to be a Christian is the most appalling of all agonies. So the hum. race divides into two parts of unequal size. One part is honest enough not to deny 11 hujus] Latin, in this (here in the sense of “in this month”).

15

20

25

552 30

During Publication of The Moment

6565

10

553

15

this and therefore says: [“]No, thank you, I truly don’t want any of it[”]―these are the freethinkers. The other part (the millions) consists of those who think like this: [“]I would certainly want to be a Christian, but I must take care to get being a Xn made into something that pleases me better.[”] Only the person who sees clearly that being a Xn is the most appalling agony―and then chooses it― only he possesses the master key that opens up all of Xndom’s swindlers’ tricks: he can make obvious this babble of lies.

That the Xnty of “Christendom” not merely waters down, dilutes Xnty, but that it falsifies it in its principle―makes it into what is, from the Christian standpoint, the most dangerous poison, so that Xnty of this sort not only does not save, but kills.

A. )

20

25

30

35

According to the Xnty of the N.T., Xnty is restlessness. The N.T. rests upon the view that a hum. being is conceived in sin and born in iniquity, that he is―a shrewd animal creature―who, in a sort of state of bewitchment, is infatuated with this world of the senses, loving tranquillity. So Xnty brings in eternity, precisely as the most intense restlessness, in order to save hum. beings from this bewitchment, from this tranquillity. In the Xnty of Xndom, Xnty is brought in as: tranquilizing. The result is thus that the situation in Xndom is a worldliness that is an entire quality deeper in worldliness than it ever was in paganism; for in Xndom even eternity is used in order to tranquilize and impart pleasure in the enjoyment of life.

•

P a p e r 552–553 1855 •

361

362

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 553–554 1855 •

)

B.

According to the N.T., God seeks to catch hum. beings because he wants to be loved by them. Therefore Xnty is restlessness. In similar fashion, the fisherman also creates a disturbance in order to scare the fish up from the depths and the hollow places. Thus, Xnty is restlessness in order to catch. And Xnty is restlessness because God wants to be loved in a situation of opposition (the conflict with “the others”). In “Xndom,” Xnty is used in order to tranquilize; people have used Xnty in support of the very principle to which Xnty is opposed. And in Xndom, there are Christian peoples, kingdoms, lands, a Christian world. This means that the relationship of opposition (to the others) in being a Xn and loving God has been eliminated, and we have: paganism.

)

C.

According to the N.T., a person’s eternal salvation is decided here in this life. (The decision of eternity also relates inversely to time: the shorter the time, the better) In Xndom we play the game that this life is merely a first [life], that the whole of eternity is a striving, i.e., we waste this life, and wasting this life is supposed to be Xnty.

The Conflict (the Collision) with: the Others. The Real, Specifically Christian, Suffering.

The suffering to which the N.T refers specifically is: to suffer at the hands of hum. beings.

5

10

657 15

20

25

554 30

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

658

25

30

35

40

God wants to be loved―but conversely, to love God must come to mean that in so doing you come into collision with hum. beings. All the asceticism of the Middle Ages thus is not Christian suffering at all. All the preoccupation with fasting and the like as something in and for itself is in no way a part of it. And when, in fasting, one receives praise from people and thus is understood by them―this is simply not Xnty. No, the collision from which a pers. shrinks the most: the collision with other people, of not being like the others, of having to suffer because, by loving God, one becomes unlike the others (not the reverse, of being honored because one loves God just like the others―which is a swindler’s trick): this collision, which rlly is also the animal creature’s greatest suffering: this is precisely what Xnty aims at. Therefore, there is nothing to which Xnty is opposed so much as: a Christian people, a Christian world, where of course all the conditions for being a Xn have changed, and the formula is always: to be just like the others. Tranquillity, animal torpor in being just like the others: this is what the hum. being loves―and is precisely what Xnty hates. If someone wants to say that, of course, this idea of loving God in opposition to others cannot be put into practice if everyone is a Xn, then I would answer: [“]Do you really think that you can fool God with that nonsense?―He of course knows best how the world is and that even if he has Xnty proclaimed for everyone, it is by no means necessary that everyone become one.[”] Next. Every hum. being is different from the hand of the Creator, so that if one actually loves God, he will nonetheless come into collision with “the others,” even if everyone were Xn. Lastly, if you have misgivings that the fact everyone is Xn would keep you from being able to love God in the face of opposition: then become a missionary, which, after all, is rlly what every Xn is.

•

P a p e r 554 1855 •

363

364

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 555–556 1855 •

Christendom Is: An Illness This illness has arisen from our having halted: the mission. Xnty is always restless, Xndom is like constipation arising from too much food.

The Christian State “Denmark” and I in It.

May 12, 55.

1

a

the Xnty of the N.T.

In the Christian state all are of course Xns, and D[enmark] is of course a Christian state. That is the first point. The second is: what is Xntya? Now, this can be said in many ways, but also in this way: Xnty is the predominance of considerations of eternity over everything temporal; Xnty grasps a person such that he forgets everything earthly, regarding everything earthly as “loss”―for the sake of the eternal, even making himself vulnerable to every possible persecution. Let us look a bit more closely at life here in D[enmark], in the Christian state, where we are all Xns, and to illustrate this, permit me to use my life, what has happened to me in this Christian state. So, in a country in which all are Xns, there lives a pers. concerning whom it would never occur to anyone to deny that he possesses significant abilities and gifts, is exceptionally diligent, unusually selfless. And despite this, this pers. had to experience having his life be regarded by the overwhelming majority of the population as a sort of madness― and why? Because of course everyone knows that with my strenuous labors, year after year, I do not earn any money, but put money into it, and that with my strenuous labors, year after year, I accomplish nothing, but attain becoming nothing, attain all sorts of turbulence and difficulties.

555

5

556

10

15

659

20

25

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

660

30

557

Ergo such a life is madness. And this is in a society in which everyone is a Christian, where there are 1000 priests bound by an oath, from whom―yes, it is in fact only for a period of three-quarters of an hour on Sundays that the congregation learns from these men that Xnty is renunciation of earthly things, etc., because, incidentally, for the rest of Sunday and for the whole of the week, they learn from these men primarily by example (and as is well-known, examples have quite different effects than words) that Xnty and the earnestness of life consist in striving for what is earthly, that a life such as mine is a sort madness. And this is a Christian state―we are all Xns. Now, further, to what I have experienced in this Christian state. When, after having for a great many years endured, with perhaps unmatched patience (also out of piety for my late father), bowing and scraping for the velvet falsehood (from a Christian standpoint) that constituted the whole of Bishop Mynster’s existence―then whenb daresc to present Bishop Mynster as a w[itness] to the t[ruth], one of the holy chain―when I then finally object to this: then it is regarded as Xnty to declare this action of mine to be a sort of villainy. And this is in a Christian state, where everyone is a Xn. This cannot disturb me, I am not writing this for my own sake, but because I think it can serve to enlighten others; for, as I said, it cannot disturb me. The N.T. provides me with excellent assistance, for it explains to me that the world in which I live is that of the lie, of swindlers’ tricks. It is of course exactly right.

That, from a Christian Point of View, “the Priest’s” Existence Is Suspect.

May 16th

•

P a p e r 556–557 1855 •

b

a successor who himself knows very well how untrue it is,

c

from the pulpit

365

1

366

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 557–558 1855 •

I do not mean this simply in the sense that the whole of his life cannot exactly be said to resemble the imitation of Xt. No, what I am aiming at in particular is: that he is a royal official. What nonsense, then, to proclaim: a kingdom that is not of this world, that will not be of this world at any price. And this, the fact that he is a royal official, is such a fundamental confusion and has such a profound effect. The common man, the people, always take the view that whatever is royal (marked by the state) is something more; it is something more to be a royal hatter than a plain and simple hatter, etc. etc.― everywhere, at every point, the life of society is marked by this, which is the life of the state. And now “the priest” comes. The fact that he is royally authorized gives him respect in people’s eyes, they believe that this is the maximum―the higher rank, the higher standing, the more Knight’s Crosses: what depth of nonsense in this sort of preaching Xnty. The priest stands and walks and lives and enjoys respect precisely by virtue of that to which Xnty is diametrically opposed.

That Those We Call Priests Are the Unhappiest of All Beings.

May 17th, 55. It is heard quite often that being a priest, especially a village priest, must be one of the most pleasant lives. What is heard quite often from the other side is this scream that the priests are the most ungodly of all, hypocrites, etc., and, owing to this, the unhappiest. My opinion is this: to be what we understand by a priest is to be the unhappiest of all beings.

5

10

15

20

661

558

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

30

For what is a priest? A priest is a pers., absolutely as inoffensive and as good as the rest of us―but no more than that, and who now, because he has obligated himself by an oath upon something as lofty as the N.T., places his entire life in the most agonizing self-contradiction, bears throughout his entire life a troubled conscience, not over something past and done, but over something that remains continually present, which, on his death, he will take with him to the accounting in the hereafter. Frightful punishment for the foolishness with which the hum. race has taken Xnty in vain! For people have fatuously imagined that being a Xn is just something that everyone is―that is why there is need for this great number of priests, and that is why the state procures these unhappy beings by the thousand, these unhappy beings who in the days of their youth make a youthful error in seeing what Xnty is, and thereafter, as men, do not have the strength to wrest themselves from this error into which they have come―and now inflict the greatest damage in the name of Xnty, since peop. increasingly come to suspect that something is not quite right with the priest, that what he says is not his own conviction, that it is some official something, which in turn causes the priest to harden himself more and more in acting as if nothing were amiss. And in this way the society is demoralized at its very foundation, precisely with the assistance of―the proclamation of Xnty.

662

The Personal―The Official.

559

May 17, 55.

35

Christianity rests upon this view of existence: that all salvation is related to becoming personality. Therefore the New Testament wants to prevent, in every way, a person who is supposed to be a teacher of Xnty from being permitted to slip into objectivity, evading, concealing his personality. No,

•

P a p e r 558–559 1855 •

367

368

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 559–560 1855 •

everything is done to see to it that his preaching might become pure, personal transparency, that his life be his teaching. Otherwise with the state’s Xnty. The state is so good as to provide 1000 teachers of Xnty and to arrange matters in such a way that every possible escape route is open to them: holding themselves personally separate, that what they say is on behalf of their office, etc.

This Is the Movement in the Deterioration in Christendom.

May 19, 55. To become what the N.T. understands by a Christian is something at which the natural hum. being shudders more than at being put to death―and is right to shudder like this, for becoming a Xn, becoming spirit, is precisely to live in such a way that the natural hum. being in a person is put to death, or to live while killing the natural hum. being―and thus the natural hum. being has reason to shudder more at becoming a Xn than at death, for, after all, death is only an instant. To impress the animal creature, the natural hum. being, in such a way that wanting to be a Xn, wanting to die, actually becomes something earnest―for this, div[ine] authority is required. With “the apostle” there is already a bit of a reduction in the price, and it seems as if the natural hum. being in fact gets off a bit easier in becoming a Xn. Then, as time goes by, the mass of humanity comes flocking in at the same pace as do the changes in the definition of becoming Xn, and with this influx the definition “Xn” continues to change more and more. Nowadays entire countries, kingdoms, are, as people say, Xn.

5

560

15

20

25

30

663 35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

561:1

•

P a p e r 560–561 1855

Then there live some few who have nonetheless preserved a truer notion of what it is to be Xn, that it means to die away―but they despair of expressing this in the company of the other peop. because they understand that the natural hum. being becomes as though enraged when the matter of dying is supposed to be earnestness, and, in their rage, they would have such a person put to death. Therefore these few people flee the world in order, far away from peop. and from persecution by such peop., to express something that is at any rate somewhat truer. Then the world gets the idea that fleeing in this manner is cowardly, that a person should remain among peop.―for the world knows very well that nowadays peop. are no longer born with the courage, the strength of nerves, that would enable them to endure expressing what Xnty is while surrounded by millions of natural hum. beings who are disguised as Xns.

That true Xnty can only be proclaimed with “authority.” otherwise everything reverses itself again, as when “the priest” proclaims Xnty to―the public.

25

561:2

“The moment” is when: the person is there, the right person.

561:3

People have put the human race in place of the individual, the single individual; this is the difference between the Xnty of “Xndom” and the Xnty of the N.T. Therefore, “Xndom” is precisely what must be exploded―the individual introduced―that only in opposition can one be a Xn.

30

561:4 35

The only thing we have to which we can cling in connection with an eternal life is one single fact contained in the N.T.―ev-

•

369

370

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 561–564 1855 •

erything else is of course about that thing. And so we are deceiving ourselves, as if these 1800 years of verbosity were something that made the matter more certain.

The statement by Magister Boisen (in Nordisk Kirketidende): that when a person has only the N.T., he thinks he cannot hold his own in a confrontation with me, nor even with the Mormons; but that this is why he genuinely senses the importance of Grundtvig’s theory of the Church.

With respect to the cause, the outcome will be the same for my contemporaries as it has been for me: they will not escape, they must go on through.

664

562 5

10

563

15

May 23, 55.

Church-State and State-Church.

May 23, 55. With Xnty, God, the almighty ruler of heaven and earth, the majesty of majesties, wanted to govern, to bring up, hum. beings. Now, it is of course clear that he understands how to govern. His idea was to govern with the assistance of eternity as the background: an eternal salvation―or an eternal perdition. Terrifying, and terrifying so that the race shuddered and trembled under the pressure of this ruler’s majesticness.

564

20

25

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

665

15

20

25

30

565

Then some time passed, but soon the passion― the passion that is perhaps strongest in a person when he has learned to master what is merely animal―the passion for domination, the human passion for domination, took note of this Xnty, interested to see if it could not be possible, in crafty fashion, to gain power over it and then, in relation to other human beings, to play the role of our Lord, who rules with the assistance of the eternity as the background. The truly great attempt of this sort was the pope. His idea was to rule peop. with the assistance of eternitya. Excellent! The other attempt in this area is that of the state. This falls more into the area of insignificance, though surely the state has certainly come bona fide into this odd situation. Nonetheless, the state cannot of course be absolved from having had, somewhere in its head, a bit of the notion that it is always a good idea to have eternity up its sleeve in order that it might govern people more effectively, in order that civic and Xn matters might coincide, and in order that being what the state would call a good citizen might become synonymous with being a good Christian, entirely certain of eternal salvation, and that what the state would call an unruly citizen becomes synonymous with being a bad Christian who will go to hell―were it not for this sloth having become more and more dominant: We all get saved. Both of these attempts tend toward what, from a Christian point of view, might be called counterfeiting: they are not attempts to fool God, but to fool other people by pretending to be God.

The Guilt of Danish Protestantism; the Retribution Corresponding to This.

•

P a p e r 564–565 1855 •

a

for it is he, Peter of the keys or Peter of the lies, who rules over eternity

371

1

372

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 565–566 1855 •

What was said, as early as Plato, concerning the highest Being―that it neither commits nor suffers wrong―surely holds for God: how we hum. beings are can be a matter of indifference to God, how the Xns are is a matter of indifference to the God of the Xns: he suffers no wrong from them. Yet the apostle presents things as though God did suffer from this―he admonishes the Xns lest their bad morals cause God to hear ill. Regarded in this way, there have in fact been times concerning which it must be said that wild debauchery and the like in the Christian Church had indeed heaped disgrace upon God. But if one had to say where the guilt of Danish Protestantism lies, then one could not truthfully say that it is wild debauchery, impudent hypocrisy, and the like. No, its guilt is: by having dragged Xnty down into mediocrity and insignificance and heartily cordial nonsense―to have made God ridiculous. The retribution will be proportionate to this, as the type of punishment always corresponds to the type of sin: Danish Protestantism must put up with being seen as what it is―from a Christian point of view: something ridiculous. Precisely this is the only true and therefore the only God-pleasing remedy. Anything else would have failed to understand the sickness, the evil, entirely truthfully, and the retribution would thus not properly hit the mark.

An Observation at This Moment. June 17

1

a

and that it had therefore indeed been the obligation of the clergy to suggest it themselves.

If the clergy, unreservedly and in self-denial, had been willing to consult the N.T., they would have seen that the N.T. unconditionally requires the separation of Church and statea. If the clergy had been willing to abandon its superstitious faith in the power of pompous rhetoric in resisting―and this power has a peculiar quality: it can endure for centuries,

5

10

15

666

20

25

566 30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

667

25

567

30

35

•

P a p e r 566–567 1855 •

373

[and] when its time is over, collapse in a day―they would have seen that, from various quarters, the development of the world is being pushed toward this point: the separation of Church and state, and that here in Denmark, above all, everything is undermined. And if the clergy had been willing to understand this, they would have seen that in my hands, the matter was in the right hands, and furthermore, in hands that were as well-intentioned as possible with regard to the clergy. They have disdained this; I have continually had to force the matter up to a higher and higher level and have had to put up with having to play the role of a sort of madman―as compared with the wise clergy. The clergy will come to regret this dearly. The decision is forcing its way through; it shall come through; but then the clergy will have to deal with a quite different group of people. The more timely the clergy had been in being willing to accept the decision, accept the divorce, the less they would have been unmasked in their untruth―the greater the active or passive resistance they put up, the more they will be revealed in their untruth and the more lamentable will be the terms they receive when their account is settled.

Difference between Pers. and Pers. June 19, 55. Take the Christian proposition―or what is not an individual Christian proposition, but is Christianity’s proposition, the formula “to be loved by God and to love God is to be, humanly speaking, unhappy in this life.” take the proposition: then one will say, “Well, it makes no difference to me one way or the othera who it is that makes me unhappy, what I am paying attention to is that I am being made unhappy”

a

changes nothing

1

374

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 567–571 1855 •

another pers. will say, “the fact that it is God who is doing it, the God of love, that changes everything.” This is the difference between one pers. and another pers.

The Drones. A metaphor that Socrates continually uses in the Republic to designate the harmful members of society is taken from the beehive. This metaphor applies brilliantly to the whole of Xndom and the official clergy: they merely consume, they live off Xnty, and yet give the appearance that they are providing nourishment, that they are serving Xnty, while their ardor and zeal never extend any farther than to what pays. This is the most dangerous sort of falsification of: renunciation.

Every time an idea is to be brought forward, a sacrifice is required. 1

5

10

15

568

10

569

[a]

In one way or another, the person who is the bearer of the idea is a sacrifice. But the contemporaneous generation also suffers: by being strained, by being torn out of the tranquillity we hum. beings love. Even if they put the bearers of the idea to death, this, too, is a mental strain. The only right thing is to yield as quickly and as readily as possible and to devote oneself to the idea, making the critical moment as short and as easy as possible.

The all-decisive principle for “spirit”: Nothing[ness] is more or better than something. (in the world of the senses, something is more or better than nothing[ness].)

Some Historical Data concerning My Relation to Bishop Mynster.

668

570 20

571

25

June 29

How matters concerning Mynster stood between my father and myself when Father died.

During Publication of The Moment

5

Then Father died. I myself was the one who brought the news to Mynster. His remarks at that time contrast oddly with what he said 6 years after in order to please me―in print, in fact―about how well he could remember Father.

My conduct as an auth[or]

10

15

20

669 25

30

35

40

Mynster sent Either/Or back to Reitzel, but then, soon afterward, requested it. Fear and Trembling. The system. Mynster’s discussion in the issues of Intelligensblade. The step I took against The Corsair surely made it clear to Mynster how dissimilar we were. Concluding Postsc. I brought it to him. It was the first time I visited him after I came out as a auth[or]. “We are complements.” For my part, I said that I disagreed with him as much as possible, that what concerned me was the memory of my father. Then the years went by. He sent me his books, just as I sent him mine. Only once, to my knowledge, did he try to use his position against me. It was the first time after Works of Love. “Was there something you wanted?” “No, not today, I can see that you are busy.” “Well, I’m not all that busy.” “No, Your Right Rev., let me save it for another time.” Practice in Xnty. His remark per Pauli. The conversation with him the next day. From then on, the relationship was strained, despite everything appearing unchanged. The line with Goldschmidt. My conversation with him concerning it. During the last year, I scarcely saw him at all. The next-to-last time I spoke with him, a bit after the New Year, when he came out into the anteroom and said in the presence of the staff that he could not speak with me, he had so much to do, and had bad eyes. Then the last time I spoke with him was toward the beginning of summer. It was an unusually ani27 per Pauli] Latin, through Pauli. (See also explanatory note.)

•

P a p e r 571 1855 •

375

376

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 571–572 1855 •

mated conversation; contrary to custom, he followed me all the way out into the anteroom and continued to speak with me even there. When I left, I said to myself “this will be the last time,” and it was. The only time I did not hear him preach was― the last time; and not by chance, for I was at Koltorf’s sermon. The attacks on him lay ready.

5

How I came to learn of his death.

Christendom’s Xnty.

572

July 2. This is how a child is brought up―in Xnty: Just go forth into the world quite calmly, there is an almighty God sitting in heaven, and whatever unhappiness comes your way in life, just pray to him―you shall see that he will surely help you. Abominable lie, that this should be Xnty. No, Xnty is: an almighty love is sitting in heaven, which, loving, wants to be loved, and which, to that end, wills that you are to die; he is precisely your mortal enemy; he hates everything that you love in immed[iacy]; and―if it can be done and you have your wits about you―what you wish for and fear are the things you should speak of least of all, for he only wants to help you―to die. But it goes without saying that Xnty must be turned in the first-mentioned of these directions if something is to come of these livings based on lies, the 1000 livings for the cure of souls and jobs for breadwinners.

* * This is how a child is brought up―in Xnty: Your father and your mother, they are two people well-pleasing to God; but it is especially the Geschichte of how you came to be, their accomplish34 Geschichte] German, story.

15

20

670

25

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

573

671

35

ment, which is what is particularly and properly pleasing to God. Abominable lie! From a Christian point of view, that accomplishment is a crime in the eyes of God, and, in turn, the vile thing about this crime is that those involved do not themselves come to suffer for it, but that, by coming into being, an innocent person is dragged into the whole of this criminal establishment that is this human existence. It goes without saying that Xnty must be turned in the aforementioned direction if something is to come of the livings based on lies, the livings for the 1000 oath-bound studmasters. As studmasters―and the oath makes no difference one way or the other― they understand the matter completely correctly. If a religion is to amount to something, there must be a possibility of turning it into a folk religion (this is precisely the task, and when it has been accomplished, the profit is at its highest level)―then it must be linked to the begetting of children: in brief, the more that people can get to do that which hum. beings have an immediate desire to do (eating, drinking, amusing themselves, begetting children, etc.) made into―religion, the more quickly they can get that religion made into a folk religion.

To Die Away. July 2. After all, even a grown man is not so comfortable when the doctor takes out his instruments―and it his tooth that is to be pulled. And even the most courageous man is a bit queasy in his heart when the surgeon takes out the instruments―and it is his own arm or leg that is to be amputated. Yet in every hum. being there is something that is more firmly rooted than the most firmly rooted molar, something to which he clings more tightly than to an arm or a leg of the hum. body: it is a person’s lust for life.

•

P a p e r 572–573 1855 •

377

378

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 573–574 1855 •

Therefore, all experience shouts to a pers.: Above all, take care that you do not lose the lust for life; whatever else you lose in life, if only you preserve that, there is always the possibility of regaining everything. God is of another opinion. Above all, he says, I must take away a person’s lust for life if there is to be any possibility of seriously becoming a Xn, of dying away, of hating oneself, and of loving me. Therefore it is terrifying when God takes out the instruments for an operation for which no hum. being has the strength: to tear out a person’s lust for life, to kill him―so that he can live as someone who has died away. Yet it cannot be otherwise―a hum. being cannot love God in any other way. He must be in a state of agony so that, were he a pagan, he would not for an instant hesitate to commit suicide. In this state he must―live. Only in this state can he love God. I am not saying that everyone in this state therefore loves God―not at all; I am only saying that this state is the condition for being able to love God. *

1

a

, or veterinarians

5

10

15

20

*

And this religion has become: the folk religion; 1000 oath-bound Falstaffsa live off it, along with their families, etc.

To Be a Christian.

25

574

July 2. To be a Christian is the most terrifying of all agonies, is―and this is how it must be―to have one’s hell here on earth. What does a pers. most shudder at? Dying, of course, and most of all, the death struggle, which one therefore wishes to be as brief as possible.

30

672

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

But to be a Xn is to be in the state of dying, a dying person, (you are to die away, hate yourself)― and then to live, perhaps 40 years, in this state! And not only this, but there is one additional intensification, because those who surround a person on his deathbed usually do not, after all, laugh at him because of the agonies of his death struggle, nor do they hate, curse, abominate him―because he is lying in his death struggle. But this suffering is a part of being a Xn, comes of itself when true Xnty is to be expressed in this world. And then the spiritual trial, in which the possibility of offense is present and wants to exploit this moment, the possibility of offense: that this is supposed to be God’s love, that this is supposed to be the God of love, about whom a person has, from childhood on, learned everything but this! And yet he is love, infinite love, but he can only love you when you are a dying person; and yet it is grace, infinite grace to have eternal suffering transformed into temporal [suffering]. But woe to these hosts of oath-bound liars, woe to them for having taken the key to the kingdom of heaven, and not only do they themselves not enter, but they also prevent others from doing so.

A Metaphor.

575

July 3, 55.

30

35

673

Think of a large, well-trained dog. It is accompanying its master who is visiting a family in which (as, alas, is quite common in our times) there is a large flock of ill-mannered children. Scarcely do they see the dog before they begin to mistreat it in every way. The dog (which, unlike these children, is well-bred) immediately fastens its gaze upon its master in order to learn from his expression what he commands it to do. And it understands his expression to mean that he must put up with all abuse, indeed accept it as though he were being subjected

•

P a p e r 574–575 1855 •

[a]

379

One shudders to read of what an animal that is used for vivisection must suffer; nonetheless this is only a short-lived metaphor for the suffering of being a Xn: to be kept alive while in a state of death.

1

5

380

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 575 1855 •

to nothing but kindness. This naturally makes the youngsters even naughtier, and finally they come to the conclusion that it must be an enormously stupid dog to submit to everything in this way. The dog, however, was only concerned about one thing: what the master’s expression orders him to do. And look, this expression is suddenly changed, meaning (and the dog understands this instantly): Use your strength. At that very instant, it seizes the first lout and throws him to the ground―and now no one stops it, only the master’s expression―and, instantaneously, the dog is once again as it was a moment before. It is the same with me. As the dog followed its master, concerned only about the master’s expression, so do I, like a dog, follow the almighty Majesty of heaven and earth, the Lord, concerned solely with his expression, in whose service I was placed early on. Then I started out as an author; for my part, I did all I could, and my gaze was directed solely at his, as the dog’s was directed at its master’s. It soon became clear to me that I had not exactly come into good company, that a petty, worldly-wise, empty-headed mediocrity sought to wrong me in every way. My gaze, which was fastened solely upon the expression of the div[ine] majesty, informed me that he understood the situation as follows: This is something you must put up with, but you must do it so light-heartedly that it looks as if you were someone upon whom everyone showered benefactions. That only made the forces of mediocrity more shameless, and finally they got it into their head that I was an utterly impractical person who can be fooled by almost everyone. Then it happened that the expression of the div[ine] majesty changed, signaling to me: Use your strength. And that is where we are now. I have always had these powers, but I am like a dog who is accompanying its master―everything depends on what the master’s expression commands.

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 576–577 1855 •

381

674

It Hurts to Be Saved.

576

July 5, 55.

577

If any priest wants me to have anything to do with him, he must resign his office.

5

July 7, 55.

10

15

20

25

30

There is not one single priest in the kingdom who is so stupid that, after what I have now brought to light, he does not realize that, from a Christian point of view, the way in which he is remunerated is impermissible, is Nefas, that the entirety of his existence as a royal official is Nefas. And the affair must be kept on this point; my task is precisely to make every effort to keep it from becoming an ordinary learned debate and the like. For debate, learned theol[ogical] investigations, etc., etc.―yes, that is perhaps something the priests will gladly agree to, and meanwhile quite calmly put their salaries in their pockets, giving assurances “that, naturally, that sort of thing is of no concern to them.” Ah, good gracious! how could it occur to anyone that such holy people as our priests, witnesses to the truth, that they could concern themselves about earthly things. But look, it is precisely my task to use all my strength to prevent this; what we have here is a Christian criminal case, and my task is to serve in the role of a police officer. The entire existence of the priests is, from a Christian point of view, a fraud. I say: from a Christian point of view. Because from a civic standpoint it is of course the most honest matter in the world to take the 1,000 or the 100, or whatever the state wants to give a person. But when

11 Nefas] Latin, sin, crime, ungodliness.

[a]

The demonic in the gospels.—To pray that one might be exempted from: being saved.

1

382

1

a

During Publication of The Moment

(most likely also a priest)

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

the oath upon the N.T. intervenes it becomes, from a Christian point of view, a fraud. The priests themselves understand this very well, and that is why they would prefer to have a learned theological debate; because in that way they have the best chance of succeeding in getting away from the question of money―silence is not nearly as useful for doing this. This is also what happened right away in connection with my articles on Bishop Mynster. Instantly, a reverend, Pastor Paludan-Müller, offered his services and wanted to involve me in a detailed debate about Mynster’s sermons, an invitation that was immediately given broad distribution by an anonymous persona in Berlingske T[idende]. As is well known, I refused this invitation. But curiously enough, a good while afterward one reads in a Norwegian article (which FlyvePosten immediately reprinted, accompanied by the remark―however naive or suspect―that it was by a Norwegian)―there one reads that one should have expected that I would have gladly agreed to Pastor Paludan-Müller’s suggestion. How naive! Yes, it is certainly possible that people would have expected that, but it didn’t happen, because my reply was: Many thanks, no, Pastor P. M. No, we are not to have more debate; and the time of “assurances”―yes, they are now over. He, the late bishop, he made a brilliant business of it: the heavenly gaze, the smothered sob―and, then, Long Live Profit― ―and then giving assurances that things of that sort, those wretched earthly considerations, did not concern him: ah, good gracious, who could think such a thing[?] This is now over and done with, and it is precisely for this reason that I have been appointed, for I am surely the only person in D[enmark] who will be capable of keeping the matter, unchanging, on the point: that it is a question of money. In a certain sense, I must in fact say that the cause I have the honor of serving could be served equally well by a layman; but still, in another sense, this is not the case. The priests would immediately take advantage of the circumstance that he is a lay-

5

675 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

676

15

20

25

30

35

man in order to put on airs with their learning and their book-worming. Yes, thanks a lot: Latin and Greek would be spoken, Syrio-Chaldean passages would be cited, large volumes would be hauled out, etc., etc., and the good layman would perhaps lose his composure, unable, when confronted with such learned men, to insist on the simple matter: the question of money. Otherwise with me. These 1000 Reverends and Right Reverends―they could serially or collectively declare that I am a pers. who cannot think, cannot write, a person devoid of culture, devoid of abilities, etc.: It would make absolutely no impression on me―I shall not let myself be fooled or impressed into disclosing that I possess learnedness and things of that sort; no, I shall surely keep the question on the point: that it is a question of money, that, from a Christian point of view, their salaries are fraud, that they are obligated by an oath upon the N.T., My task is to remain unmoved, unmoved in the face of everything that is being said and that will be said about my being a scoundrel, inhuman, etc., and by the same token, equally unmoved in the face of everything that will be said by the priests about my being a person without abilities, without a system, a person who can neither read nor write, etc. For all this is simply calculated to slip away from―the question of money. But as I shall surely know how to remain unmoved in the face of all accusations concerning my character, it will also be much easier for me to remain unmoved in the face of the priests’ judgment of my intellect. I am at ease in that respect. I have been sated by my activity as an author, and the 1000 priests we have cannot really change my notion of myself, all the more so because I know very well that they do not mean what they say, but that it is to get away― from the question of money.

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

383

384

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 578 1855 •

To Love God or To Love What Is Ugly.

July 10, 55.

578

5

Everything that is Christian―if it is indeed to be kept as it is in the N.T―is accompanied by a serious nota bene, which, if it remains in place, causes just about everyone to flee. The art of “Christendom” has consisted and consists in getting all of these nota bene’s removed in the name of the perfectibility of Xnty. Thus Xnty has in fact become nonsense; and now it goes as easily “as God’s Word slips into the student”―now we get millions of Xns, and the priest’s way of making a living is flourishing. To love what is ugly―yes, exactly right. For if I am (and of course I am) flesh and blood, a sensate being, an animal creature, then “spirit” is the most frightful thing for me, as frightful as death, and to love spirit is the most frightful thing of all. This is indeed how Xnty understands the matter; it teaches that to love God is: to die, to die away, the most agonizing of all agonies―blessed is he who is not offended. That was also why―in times when there was at least some attempt to be earnest about the matter of Xnty―this was why those who were at least somewhat earnest about it had, as an object for their continuing contemplation: a human skull. Certainly it cannot be said that spirit resembles a skull, for spirit does not resemble any object for the senses. But a human skull was at any rate the most expressive symbol. *

10

15

677

20

25

30

*

Otherwise in “Christendom”! The skull―oh, good gracious, there is nothing that one avoids so much― even more carefully than people did in pagan times―as anything that reminds one of death. No,

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

678

579

30

the skull, that queer decoration for a room, is seen no more. Nowadays one sees, on one cabinet, a naked Venus, and on the other, the crucified Savior―a young lady and a speculative priesta debate with each other about which of the forms is the more beautiful. In Christendom it is taught, under the name of Xnty, that to love God is to spend one’s life, one’s time, one’s thoughts, in seeking earthly things, thanking God if one succeeds, praying to him that it might succeed. That is to say, love of God is love of: the beautiful. Therefore, too, what flourishes in Xndom is (something of which it is, in turn, so proud and which it calls the newest development and most beautiful flower of Xnty) Christian family life. Splendid! The New Testament has in fact a decided preference for the unmarried state―and nonetheless, it is precisely family life that has become the culmination. The whole business is of course a lie; and in order, to the extent possible, to prevent it from occurring to anyone that it is a lie, the expedient precaution has been taken of: having the priest take an oath upon the New Testament.

That, from a Christian Standpoint, It Is Precisely the Mediocre, Mediocrity, the To-a-Certain-Degree, the Merely Human, the What-We-Hum.Beings-Call-Hearty-and-Cordial: Precisely This Is, from a Christian Standpoint, What Is Offensive, Is, from a Christian Point of View, Satan’s Intrusion.

Aug. 13th, 55.

35

It is of the greatest importance to insist upon this; if you cannot insist upon this, then you will never come to the point of view for what Xnty is, and you will never have an eye for what a swindler’s trick the whole of Xndom is.

•

P a p e r 578–579 1855 •

a

385

, both of them, of course, true Xns,

1

386

1

5

a

During Publication of The Moment

, even if, according to Xt’s judgment, he (yet again, a criterion for what Xt understands by being Xn, a criterion that is crushing for all the swindlers’ tricks of Xndom) needs to convert, for this is what Xt says to him after he had already been an apostle for some time: [“]when you are converted.[”]

•

P a p e r 579 1855 •

But that, from a Christian standpoint, this is the case (as is stated in the heading) can be learned from Xt himself in his relationship to Peter, which I cannot sufficiently drill and insist upon in order, from a Christian standpoint, to strike directly at what is precisely the most dangerous form of nonXnty: heartily cordial mediocrity, heartily cordial nonsense, etc. For as almost every child has an innate gift (to which the earnest father is very opposed), for fawning upon its father, for doing such and such, for wanting to and wanting to be a good child, and never actually getting to doing what its father wants it to do: so, too, has Christian orthodoxy especially excelled in fawning upon God, in sparing itself, and then calling it hearty cordiality toward others, etc. Now, on to Xt and Peter (Mt 16:23). Xt tells him that now he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be put to death. Now, let us first think of the apostle Peter: he is an apostle, he indeed towers a good two feet above what we call mediocritya. Xt does indeed appear to be deliberately exposing himself to death, which is impermissible by hum. standards, and Peter (also out of personal love for the Master from whom he is so reluctant to be separated) lets this serve as an occasion to rebuke him. And Xt says― hear this, you battalions of mediocrity who are ants in comparison to Peter and who nonetheless are induced by the priests to believe that you are Xns, to believe that a person gains entrance to heaven with this sort of Xnty―[“]Get thee behind me, Satan! You are an offense unto me, for you sense not what is God’s, but what is man’s[”]. According to Xt’s judgment, this is how high Xnty and being a Xn are situated, and to want to counsel one’s teacher and friend against voluntarily exposing himself to death is: the offense, the intrusion of Satan. Certainly, nothing additional is needed in order to see that the sort of leveling-down that constitutes Xndom is neither more nor less than offense, the work of Satan―all these teachers of the Xnty of mediocrity are: the offense, the tools of Satan.

5

10

15

20

25

679

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

680

580 30

35

•

P a p e r 579–580 1855 •

387

No, the divine is not to be trifled with―it is the most agonizing either/or, and to want, in the heartiest, most cordial fashion (vile lies!) to help oneself and others into mediocrity―or to keep oneself or others in it―is the offense, the intrusion of Satan. Therefore, flee from this offense, flee from these thousands of gainfully employed teachers of Xnty, flee from them―they are the tools of Satan in the absolutely most dangerous form: hearty cordiality. No, Xt has not suppressed the mark of the true relation to Xnty―it is: to hate oneself. Only hatred of oneself is the passion that can bear the divine― though to be sure, in such a way that you are crushed in the most appalling manner. Therefore, there is only one true relation to Xnty: loving God, to hate oneself. If you shrink back from this, the most appalling of all appalling agonies, this lifelong process of breaking the soul on the wheel: well, then, be truthful and admit that you do not truly relate yourself to Xnty. This is something that Xndom has not done, whereas it is easy enough to show that in Xndom’s 1800 years there has not been one single proclamation of Xnty that has not been characterized by the reverse of this: to love oneself in loving God―which is why the entirety of Xndom is offense, is Satan’s work, invented by people sensing only what is human.

That what I see has been seen long, long ago, but that those who have seen it despaired over dealing with it, permitting the illusion to continue, whereby their well-intentioned and substantial efforts did not do any good, but gave nourishment to the disease.

Aug. 23, 55. Already in one of the first centuries, there is a Church Father who despondently says: “A martyr-

[a]

That the misfortune is lodged in the dissemination that Xnty has received in “Christendom.” The bishop in one of the first centuries who said: One cannot even become a martyr because our enemies are called Xns. Thus, he saw things correctly, but he did not dare take up the task, did not become a martyr for Xns, permitted the illusion to remain.

1

5

10

388

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 580 1855 •

dom is not even possible―for the enemies are called Xns.” Look, here we have it: the enemies are called Xns. But then, why no martyrdom? Where the enemy is, there, surely, ought also the martyr fall. But that Church Father could not make a decision to do so―he lacked the courage for it. How was it that he lacked the courage? He quite certainly did, and this despite the fact that he would surely have had courage enough to become a martyr had he been confronted with pagans. But “courage” has a special context. True moral courage also includes an intellectual aspect: being the person who first sees where the danger lies and then has the courage to expose himself to the danger and to be misunderstood by all of his contemporaries. A martyrdom when confronted with pagans: in the first centuries, this was of course something so commonplace, so familiar, so established, that it was not required that one have courage in the strictest sense in order to have courage. But on the other hand, courage in the strictest sense was required in order to speak the Word for the first time, to turn the entire situation around, to see that “Xndom,” these thousands upon thousands, were the ruination of Xnty, and then to seek martyrdom there―to fall as a martyr―before Xns. This actually required both a strong brain (for already at that time, the swindlers’ tricks with “Xndom” had already deranged everything: as a Xn to become a martyr for Xns), and courage in his breast and, above all, faith. With his statement that Church Father let the matter rest, preferring to be active in further spreading the gibberish that Xnty had already become at that time―and thus came merely to give nourishment to the sickness. The sickness lies―and at that time already lay―in the false dissemination: the only saving power is simply: martyrs in reverse fashion.

5

10

15

20

25

30

681 35

40

During Publication of The Moment “Christendom’s” Christianity

581

Aug. 25, 55.

5

10

15

20

582 25

The situation with the Xnty of “Xndom” in relation to the Xnty of the New T. is like the situation with the Jew who told the story and left out the point. In even the least shred of the Xnty of the New T. there is a point, it is something dialectical. Leave it out and then the whole of Xnty is sentimental, syrupy nonsense―and then it is really no surprise that this sort of Xnty does not evoke the same effect as the Xnty of the N.T. (persecution and the like); this is no more surprising than that the Jew’s story failed to produce the same effect as when he himself had heard it. According to the N.T., Xnty is joy, but in such a way that the minor premise is that, merely humanly speaking, it is the most appalling agony; this minor premise is the dialectical element, is the point. Take it away and you have the priest’s syrupy sweets. And this absolutely is how Christianity is at every point.

That the Xnty of “Christendom” Completely Annuls the Concept Xn, Drowning Xnty in an Abyss of Twaddle. Aug. 30

30

682

By making Xnty solely into a “gift” and a gift to the entire hum. race, and by completely deleting the fact that Xnty is an obligation, “Xndom” has completely succeeded (for people have made an effort, after all) in annulling the concept of Xn and of drowning Xnty in an abyss of twaddle. According to Xnty, this is the situation: Xnty is intended as a gift for all peop., salvation is intended for everyone. Then, when a person who takes up

•

P a p e r 581–582 1855 •

389

390

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 582–583 1855 •

the obligation is made a participant in the gift: he is a Xn. “Xndom” takes Xnty only as a gift; Xt has saved all hum. beings. By being hum., you are saved; of course you can continue being a Jew, a Mohammedan, a fetish worshiper, and the like, or you can embrace one of these religions―it makes no difference one way or the other: qua hum. being, you are saved by Xt. In this way Xnty becomes a religion that has the special characteristic of being no religion, for every specific characteristic has been erased― you are saved qua hum. being, i.e., to be a Xn is to have no religion whatever, is simply to be a hum. being. So―since being a Xn is to have no religion whatever, but simply to be a hum. being―then the most proper thing is surely to embrace one of the other religions in order to have at least some religion, while, qua hum. being, one is saved by Xt. Of course, people will plead that Xndom does, after all, cling to this obligation with respect to being a Xn: that a person must be baptized. But look a bit more closely and you shall see that people do not believe that being or not being baptized is of much importance. No, in this idea: Xt has saved the whole of humanity (an idea that is only true conditionaliter) and in this idea: Xnty is a gift (an idea that is only true conditionaliter)―people have drowned Xnty, transformed the religion of Xnty into a religion that is no religion.

The Church―The Public.

5

10

15

20

25

30

583

Aug. 30, 55. The fundamental depravity of our times stems from the fact that personality has been abolished. In our times no one dares be a personality; in cowardly fear of peop., everyone shrinks back from being I in the immediate presence of others, perhaps in opposition to them. 27 conditionaliter] Latin, under certain conditions.

35

During Publication of The Moment

683

5

10

584 15

What Became My Misfortune―Though I Am Far from Complaining about It!

Christianity’s First Time. Xnty’s Second Time.

20

Sept. 13th, 55.

25

30

P a p e r 583–585 1855 •

391

Then the politicians avail themselves of: the public. The politician is not an I―ah, good gracious, no: He speaks in the name of the public. It is entirely in this same way that people use “the Church” in speaking of religion. What people want is an abstraction that covers the matter, whereby one avoids being I, which in our times is surely the most dangerous thing of all. Then people deck out this abstraction (the Church), making it into a person―people speak of the Church’s life, etc. etc.: people are both clever and in addition they manage to keep themselves personally outside of it.

1 Sept.

585

•

Xt left the earth. Then Xnty was entrusted to hum. honesty. God, so to speak, did not want to get involved, but to see (as an educator, testing, entrusts the child to itself) what hum. honesty would do with Xnty. Then, over the course of centuries, he saw what continually increasing hum. dishonesty made of it. The high point was attained in Protestantism, especially in D[enmark], all of which I shall point out in more detail in what follows. So the method is changed.

[a]

That I was noble enough toward the others to expose myself voluntarily to The Corsair; and that I magnanimously expended my life on Bishop Mynster.

1

5

392

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 585–586 1855 •

From now on, God casts his suspicions upon hum. beings, and instead of making use of teachers of Xnty who are straightforwardly and unequivocally profound and pious, and who are only too easily hoodwinked, the race will get: police agents, individuals who, against their will, are employed in the service of Xnty―but who have eminent abilities to sniff out swindlers’ tricks. Their task will be, first and foremost, to block things off, to reject the 1800 years of history as mere human caprice, that is, as the work of Satan, as something well-intended or as the duplicity of a swindler.

That “Christendom” Is the Human Race’s Effort― Continued through the Centuries and with Increasing Success―to Defend Itself against Xnty.

5

10

684

586 15

Sept. 22, 55. Christ has required “imitators.” A true imitator of Christ will quickly get to the point of being thrown headlong out of this world. Then let another imitator come: the same thing will happen to him: briefly and decisively, all action. But instead of imitators, let there come people who go about spouting nonsense about the fact that others have risked their lives and blood. Now it begins to spread: all nonsense is sociable, fruitful to a surprising degree, fruitful with nonsense. As always, the next generation following these spouters of nonsense does not consist of imitators, but is also composed of spouters of nonsense: priests and professors, and of ordinary people who regard them as true teachers of Xnty. In addition to the nonsense that this next generation is itself capable of producing, it also takes up, under the name of historical scholarship, the nonsense produced by the preceding generation.

20

25

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

685

20

25

This is the law: instead of action, an increasingly unlimited mass of nonsense that is called scholarship and that, it is said, must be studied if one is to understand Xnty. In fact, precisely what people truly do not want to do is to understand Xnty, which is easy to understand. And to ensure that people do not come to understand Xnty, we produce this immeasurable mass of historical and learned nonsense to assist in understanding it. There are insects that know how to protect themselves from their enemies by raising dust: thus does “the hum. being” instinctively protect itself against ideas, against spirit, by raising numbers. Numbers are the opposite of ideas and spirit. If one wants to be protected against having anything to do with ideas, with spirit, simply get battalions, legions, millions who strive, perhaps with combined strength: then spirit has vanished, you have attained what you rlly wanted: remaining on the animal side of what it is to be a hum. being. Naturally, this is always something that only very few people understand, for to be able to understand this, the very transformation at which Xnty aims― becoming spirit―must have taken place in a person; the animal-human relates to numbers in immediate fashion: they are what he believes in. *

30

35

40

*

Is this Xnty’s view: that certainly this world is an evil, a sinful world, but that it was precisely for this reason that Xt came into the world in order to reshape the world―thus God’s purpose, or what he has in view, is: to make a nice world out of this world and then to let it go on existing? Or does not Xnty rest to a much greater degree on the following observation: this world has come into being through a falling-away from God; it exists against his will; every day it exists is against God’s will; he wants to have it back. He does not want to annihilate it with his omnipotence, for that is not how the whole is constituted; it is a world of

•

P a p e r 586 1855 •

393

394

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 586 1855 •

freedom that freely fell away from him and that he wants to have back. This world is lost for God, and now it is alas decided that every person who is born simply augments the mass of those who are lost. Then, owing to his mercy, and in order to get this world back, he has Xnty proclaimed. What it means to be a Xn is shown by the Exemplar: it is suffering from beginning to end, including even the suffering of being abandoned by God. Now, the mercy, the grace, the infinite grace consists in this: that in becoming a Xn a person endures his hell here on earth and is then eternally saved. But to be a Xn is to receive gratefully the infinite grace of being permitted to be an imitator of Jesus Xt here in life and thereby to be eternally saved by grace, an imitator of Jesus Xt, cursed by hum. beings, hated, tormented in every way, finally also abandoned by God. And of course, every imitator of Jesus Xt is oriented in such a way that if, with his life, he can in any way be said to aim at anything other than working, in fear and trembling, for the salvation of his soul, it must be to get rid of this world. If things were not like this, if what God intended was to make a nice world out of this world, then the hum. race would rlly be without guidance. Because the N.T., the proclamation of Xt, supposes that this is an evil world―all the characteristics of what it is to be a Xn are related to this. But if God intended that this world be transformed into a nice world and then to go on existing, the characteristics of what it is to be a Xn would have to become the precise opposite. But “the hum. race” most conveniently forgets that neither time nor numbers exist for God, that millennia are like one day, and that a number that is so large that it would take 1000 years to say it simply does not exist for him. He remains with his own. In his grace, he wants to be merciful to this lost world. He puts forth the condition, it is infinite grace, but he does not do it as if he were a fusspot. Now, whether there are many or only some few individuals who want to be saved does not change

5

10

15

20

686

25

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

687 25

30

35

40

him or his conditions―after all, it is not he who is to be saved, but the others. And the hum. race, on its grand scale, has the same bad habit that the individual hum. being has: when someone invites him, he turns up right away with his wife and half a score children. Thus, when God has grace proclaimed to the race―but, note well, to each individual―then something happens that God had not intended: the race’s battalions turn up and want to be saved by battalions. No, not in that way. First the humiliation, which for most people would be to despair over: to endure being only an individual, to drown in this enormous world, to disappear―and then perhaps he will be saved. The alternative, to be eternally saved by battalions, is truly more pleasant―it has something in common with trips to the Deer Park and other cordial amusements. From the Christian standpoint, in order to be saved, every consolation based on the support of numbers must be taken away, i.e., life must be taken from the animal creature; for as one takes life from a bird by pumping away its air, so does one take life from an animal-hum. being by taking away its numbers. To be deprived of hum. numbers, to have to stand alone,a is what the animal-hum. being fears most, most, most of all, for qua animal-hum. being he has fear of hum. beings. Therefore the animal-hum. being has courage for the most frightful things as soon as one simply gives him hum. numbers, the fact that others are doing the same thing or that the others believe that he is showing courage. Hum. numbers are the life of animal-hum. being. And therefore it is precisely this collision toward which Xt aims in particular: to suffer at the hands of hum. beings. Xnty consists precisely in fearing God rather than hum. beings, rather than what hum. beings qua animal creatures fear most of all: human numbers. And therefore (to include this as well), viewed from just this standpoint it is easy to demonstrate that in Christendom’s many centuries there is not to be found one single proclamation like

P a p e r 586 1855

•

a

•

395

abandoned, mocked, ridiculed, etc.

1

396

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 586 1855 •

that of Xt. Very early on we get human-numbers, counts of Xns―and from that moment on it was possible to become a Xn in: fear of hum. beings. The strictest asceticism of the Middle Ages was: from fear of hum. beings―not from suffering at the hands of hum. beings. I know very well that in the course of time what I am writing here will be declared to be the loftiest wisdom. I also know that, therefore, at that time the shape of the world will have been absolutely unchanged because those who will be busy showing how profound and true this is are, are of course― docents, those animal creatures. Yes, those animal creatures. I know well that in this sinful world, where everything is egotism, people indeed have the custom of calling the common man a simple animal creature. But I protest against this. In one sense, we are all animal creatures. But if there should be any class of peop. who, in comparison to the rest of us, deserves to be called the animals, then it is these priests and professors. One recognizes the animal in the child from the fact that a child will put everything into its mouth, and this is a very typical trait of an animal. But to be an animal to such a degree that one will put truth, spirit, into one’s mouth, live off the truth, live off the fact that others have suffered for this truth, being oneself bound by oath to the only thing these others have desired: imitation―this is beastly. Strangely enough, this beastliness is found in combination with the most elegant culture and distinction, which in its distinction simply does not see a garbage collector, or if the latter dared address him, would in refined fashion give him to understand that he is only an animal―strangely enough―and yet things are exactly the reverse of this: the garbage collector is a hum. being, but this fine, cultured, velvet-clad, bespangled person of distinction is― an animal, an animal who in beastly fashion puts the truth into his mouth, believes that the truth is something to eat, an animal who, more abominably than any beast of prey, even lives off the sufferings of others, which no beast of prey does, for it lives

5

10

15

20

25

688 30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment off its quarryb, but it does not live off the sufferings of its quarry.

Brief Remarks.

587

Sept. 23, 55. 5

10

15

20

25

To be a Xn out of Fear of Hum. Beings In the New T., the formula for being a Xn is: to fear God more than hum. beings. Here are found all the specifically Christian collisions. As soon as one can be a Xn out of fear of hum. beings―indeed, when, out of fear of hum. beings, one does not even dare refrain from calling oneself a Xn: then eo ipso Xnty no longer exists. From this one sees what nonsense there is in the belief that true Xnty is found in “the Church,” as the great number. There is nothing that the spirit of Xnty opposes more than this, which is: hum. mediocrity, the animal-hum. being’s faith in: hum. numbers. No, whatever true Xnty is to be found over the course of centuries must be found in the sects and the like, though this does not necessarily mean that being a sect or being outside the Church is proof of its being true Xnty. But what there is of it must be found in the sects and the like; the only thing resembling the Xnty of the New T. is a sect, which indeed is what it is called in the N.T. Be Especially Fearful of Getting Lost by Calling Humility What Is in Fact Shirking.

689 30

35

Every hum. being is a born hypocrite. And in every generation there is perhaps not a single person who, throughout his whole life, has had all the hypocrisy beaten out of him by Governance. But there is nothing toward which this hypocritical creature, the hum. being, has a greater tendency than the evasion of effort under the appearance of humility and modesty. When a hum. being sees 11 eo ipso] Latin, by that very fact.

•

P a p e r 586–587 1855 •

b

397

and causes it to suffer in killing it,

1

398

1

a

During Publication of The Moment

the hypocrite!

•

P a p e r 587–588 1855 •

what agonies are connected to being an apostle, he then says: I am too humble to desire to be an apostle.a When he reads Xt’s description of how difficult it is to enter into the kingdom of heaven, he says: I am humbly satisfied with coming only as far as the threshold of heaven. The hypocrite! And with this sort of humility and modesty by which one spares oneself and, it is true, also deceives oneself, people think that they can butter up God, so that this being so humble and modest is supposedly pleasing to him. But it does not please him at all; nor does it please a teacher when a pupil, because he does not feel like putting sufficient time and effort into something, says: [“]I am too humble and modest to have a grade of ‘Excellent,’ I am humbly and modestly content with a grade of ‘Fair.’[”] “You scoundrel,” says the teacher, “you dare to call this humility and modesty. Yes, quite true, when instead of using all his time and energy, someone lazes and loafs, and therefore does not know his lessons any better than you do, it would certainly be shameless to ask for an ‘Excellent,’ but I require that you know your lessons at the level of ‘Excellent.’ ”

Only a Pers. of Will Can Become a Xn. Sept. 23rd, 55. Only a pers. of w[ill] can become a Xn. For only a pers. of will has a will that can be broken. But a person of will whose will has been broken by the Unconditioned or by God is: a Xn. Naturally, the stronger the will, the deeper the break can be and the better the Xn. This is what has been designated with the fitting expression: the new obedience; a Xn is a pers. of will who has received a new will. A Xn is a pers. of will who no longer wills his own will, but with the passion of his crushed will―fundamentally transformed―wills the will of another. A pers. of understanding can never become a Xn; at most, he can, through the power of imagination,

5

10

15

20

588 25

30

35

690

During Publication of The Moment

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

come to potter about with the Christian problems. And it is this type of―if you will―Christian that has given rise to every possible confusion in Xnty. They become learned, scholarly, transforming everything into prolixity in which they drown the real point of Xnty. But it is clear that, in its mercy, Governance can do much to transform a pers. of understanding into a pers. of will so that he can become a Xn. For the possibility of being a pers. of will is present in every pers. The most frivolous, the most cowardly, the most phlegmatic pers., a raisoneur without beginning or end: place them in mortal danger and they might nonetheless become persons of will. . True enough, necessity cannot produce freedom, but it can position the freedom in a pers. as close as possible to becoming: will. Thus, Xnty or becoming Christian has no relation whatever to a transformation of the intellect―but of the will. But this transformation is the most painful of all operations, comparable with something about which there are ethical doubts concerning our right as hum. beings to do it: vivisection. And because this is so appalling, becoming a Xna in Xndom has long since been transformed into a reshaping of the intellect. The asceticism of the Middle Ages (as compared to all this scholarly nonsense, all this twaddle about proofs) of course had a more correct view of things: that it is a question of transforming the will, and this was how the matter was approached. The error in the asceticism of the Middle Ages was that it dropped the suffering that is specifically Christian: suffering at the hands of hum. beings. The ascetic permitted peop. to venerate him as: the extraordinary. In this way the mass of hum. beings was in fact included―namely, that the mass of hum. beings became ordinary Xns. Had the ascetic spoken the truth: [“]There are no extraordinary Xns, what I am expressing is merely an approximation of what is required of everyone, an approximation of quite simply being a Xn,[”] he would have been persecuted. There are two ways in which one can avoid suffering at the hands of hum. beings: by reducing the Christian requirement and taking advantage of 12 raisoneur] French-Danish, a person given to longwinded and perhaps specious, choplogic argumentation.

•

a

P a p e r 588 1855 •

399

(insofar as it has not been turned into nothing whatever, something that one is quite automatically)

1

400

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 588–589 1855 •

having done so; or by adhering more strictly to the Christian requirement oneself, but egotistically calling this the extraordinary―then the mass of hum. beings is still included and one avoids persecution: in both cases transforming the mass of hum. beings into the opposite of what they must become in relation to true Xnty: something one profits from, quite simply cash-profit and the like, or something from which one profits, as from an admiring chorus.

Yes, Indeed, Bishop Mynster Was Great! 1

5

10

[a]

# But from a Christian standpoint he was not great. No, aesthetically he was great as: a counterfeiter. Understood thus, he had the whole of my admiration from an aesthetic point of view; from a personal standpoint, he had the whole of my devotion “also out of piety for my late father”; from a Christian standpoint, Governance had, in me, placed the most dangerous person at his side. * *

Sept. 24, 55.

691 5

589

#[a]

Most peop. have absolutely no time to have religion, in the same sense that a child has no time to gather its thoughts, namely because it is ceaselessly engaged with the multitude of sense impressions. In this sense, most peop. have absolutely no time to have religion: to them, that they have a religion, that they are “Christians” in “Xndom,” merely means that they have an entry ticket permitting them to come into the actuality of this life. What concerns them is life’s multiplicity, sense impressions, busyness, curiosity, etc., etc., etc. Like a child who cannot stand still but impatiently stands and hops up and down in order to be allowed as soon as possible to go down into the garden, out onto the playground: this is how these peop. are in their sheer impatience to enter into the sensory maelstrom of this life. Now, because the “Christian” state indeed has (of course!) arranged matters so that no one is permitted to join in the fun without having a certificate from the priest stating that he is a Christian: then indeed all these peop. are naturally―oh, naturally―Christians. The priest’s certificate that they are Christians means to them more or less what a ticket to Tivoli or for a steamboat or for a bus, means to them: that they are coming along. However, all those peop. who do, after all, have some time available in which to have religion want

15

20

25

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

5

692

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

to get this matter of religion decided as soon and as quickly as possible―so that they can get on with busily enjoying this life. So perhaps once in a while they do have a spare moment for religion―but on the condition that it becomes a sort of enjoyment and that it is decided, once and for all, that they have religion, so that they are certain of eternal salvation. Now, if there is a cleric―and if he possesses great aesthetic gifts, so much the better―who will take it upon himself to represent their sort of religion under the name of Xnty: yes, thanks a lot, there will be a great to-do, a hullabaloo; he will be loved, revered, worshiped, etc., etc. For in some obscure way these peop., like all peop., know very well in their heart of hearts that one cannot have religion in such a way that one has no time whatsoever for religion, nor in such a way that a person once in a while has a spare moment for religion, and that it is not at all immoderate of “eternity” to require the whole of a person’s time. All peop. fear this requirement most of all, for they all love time, which is their element, and they fear eternity. And that is why there is so much of a to-do over such a teacher. Such a teacher was Bishop Mynster. He was the bank for an entire generation. How life was enjoyed by those many peop., all of whom will―when, to their horror, some day in eternity they must hear that this is not Xnty―present a banknote (if I dare put it thus) with the endorsement: [“]Mynster.[”] For Mynster was the bank. Therefore, in the most profound and solitary silence in which I converse solely with myself, and with my detective’s expertise, I used to call Mynster: [“]The National Bank.[”] In doing so I was referring to something specific that the Copenhagen police will understand, for naturally they know very well that a number of years ago in north Zealand there lived (I don’t know whether he is still living―the police surely know) a person who was well-known to the police under the name: The National Bank. His business was making counterfeit banknotes, and he made them very well.

•

P a p e r 589 1855 •

401

402

1

b

During Publication of The Moment

, with respect to its extent and magnitude,

•

P a p e r 589 1855 •

This was the point of similarity, that they both made counterfeit notes. In other respects, of course, there is no similarity, especially with respect to the scope of the enterprise. On the wholeb, there exists no, absolutely no, analogy to the crimes that are perpetrated in the realm of religion. Even the most tested and and fearless police agent who has ever lived would tremble to take on this case, which involves using counterfeit banknotes drawn on eternity to defraud an entire era throughout its entire life, and to defraud them out of eternity. Nor, in the rest of the criminal world, can there be found any sort of analogy, anything that could even bear a faint resemblance to the manner in which these crimes pay off―or are paid for: with gold, with goods, with everything earthly, and with―adoration. Perhaps, though, it might be said that Bishop Mynster was not paid well enough, that his contemporaries were insufficiently grateful. For instance, toward the conclusion of his life there was a collection for a trust fund that was to bear his name. Mynster, shrewd as always, found occasion to express publicly his gratitude for the considerable sum, it was about 7000 rix-dollars. To tell the truth, it seems to me that for it to have been truly reflective of Mynster’s preaching of Xnty, merely one of our millionaires ought to have contributed 30,000 rix-dollars, and to have done so gladly. For the New T. is of the opinion that it is so infinitely difficult for millionaires to come into the kingdom of heaven as to be more or less impossible, but Bishop M. made no difficulties for them, and if one was a millionaire, it would after all be well worth it to give 30,000 rix-dollars. Of course, the fact that the whole of Mynster’s preaching of Xnty was an optical illusion, that his banknotes drawn on eternity were counterfeit, is a different matter, for in that case, if he is to be thanked in his capacity as a teacher of Xnty, 4 shillings is too much to give to the fund and 3 shillings is too much for the monument―for it can be entirely appropriate to thank him as an orator, a rhetorician, or (to call to mind Berlingske Tidende’s

5

693

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

5

P a p e r 589–590 1855 •

403

naive but truthful obituary, which so entirely caused one to forget that this was about a teacher, a Christian bishop, a person charged with the cure of souls, who, after having been in office and bearing eternal responsibility for more than a generation, had now entered into the reckoning of eternity) as a stylist had distinguished himself with “a hitherto unequaled eloquence,” had distinguished himself as an actor with “his plasticity of form.”

694

590

•

Sept. 24, 55.

Brief Remarks.

)

1

A Metaphor for the Suffering of a Xn.

15

20

25

30

35

There are peop. who have such delicate and sensitive nervous systems that the weather exerts an almost appalling influence upon them. They can sense a storm far in advance, perhaps suffer from anxiety and restlessness and agony if a storm that is approaching expresses itself with what people call fine weather, but there is something amiss with this fine. Thus it is with the phenomenon: [“]fine weather,[”] all hum. beings who possess animal robustness find it to be grand weather―and then there is the unfortunate person, whom the stronger peoplea torment and harass and tease because they cannot understand what he is talking about: How anyone could call such fine weather bad weather[?] But this lasts only for a few days, and sometimes it turns out that the person with the weak nerves was right, so that afterward people are compelled to recognize that he was in fact right. But now imagine that the weather did not change and that an unfortunate person of this sort would have to endure living an entire life in that situation, surrounded by bestially robust peop.

a

, in order to sense their superiority―in bestial robustness,

1

404

During Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 590 1855 •

This is how it is with a Xn’s sufferings. To all appearances, it looks as if this world were a grand world that was supposedly moving forward; to all appearances, it looks as though Xnty exists: all are Xns, of course, 1000 priests―and now the poor Xn who is so delicately constructed that he is able to sense that the whole of this wonderful world is a tissue of lies, that its progress is, if anything, retrogression, and that the business about everyone being Xns and about the 1000 priests is an optical illusion―the poor Xn who, in fear and trembling, relates to the reckoning of eternity―imagine what he must suffer by living among peop. with an entirely different nervous system. If he does not exercise the greatest care in concealing the contents of his soul, these peop.―in order to feel their superiority―will bestially take advantage of the occasion in order to taunt him, and if he does not patiently put up with it (and by doing that, he actually, in another sense, eggs them on) then he will be declared mad, and if they cannot get the better of him in that way, then they put him to death.

5

10

15

695 20

2 ) The Human Race’s Gossip Peop. of ideas, the bearers of ideas, accomplish absolutely nothing―apart from the fact that they attain immortality―for everyone who is patiently, cheerfully, and gratefully devoted solely to bearing the idea: he is immortal. But they accomplish absolutely nothing. While they are alive, their words are drowned in the nonsense of their times, and after they are dead, their words are drowned in the nonsense of the assistant professors. Actually, their significance consists merely in giving the hum. race something to gossip about. For as a family, a social gathering, a city feels the need to have something to gossip about, so does the hum. race also feel this need. The difference is simply that the city’s gossip is represented by barbers, shop assistants, and the like, [and] the hum. race’s

25

30

35

40

During Publication of The Moment

5

gossip is represented by professors and priests, and that much is made of this gossip, that it gets printed, and that scholarly disciplines come into being in order to provide an overview of all this gossip. The fact that the gossip of the human race enjoys[b]

696

591

This Life’s Destiny, Understood from a Christian Point of View. Sept. 25, 55.

10

15

20

25

30

35

This life’s destiny is to be brought to the highest degree of weariness with life. The person who, brought to this point, is able to maintain―or is helped by God to be able to maintain―that it is God who, out of love, has brought him to this point: he, understood from a Christian point of view, has passed life’s examination, is ripe for eternity. I came into existence through a crime. I came into existence against God’s will. The guilt―which in a sense is not mine, even though it makes me a criminal in God’s eyes―is to give life. The punishment corresponds to the guilt: to be deprived of all lust for life, to be led to the most extreme degree of weariness with life. Human beings want to tinker with the Creator’s handiwork, if not by creating the hum. being, then at any rate by giving life. “You shall surely come to pay for this, because the destiny of this life―though by my grace, for it is only to those who are saved that I show this grace―is to lead you to the highest degree of weariness with life.” Now, most peop. are so devoid of spirit, so bereft of grace, that the punishment simply is not used on them. Lost in this life, they cling to this life―coming from nothing, they become nothing: their lives are wasted. The peop. in whom there is nonetheless a bit more spirit and who are not ignored by grace: they are led to the point of greatest weariness with life. But they cannot reconcile themselves to it, they rebel against God, etc.

•

P a p e r 590–591 1855 •

[b]

405

such great respect compared to city gossip is surely connected in large measure to the fact that priests and professors make a living from it. What a man with a family makes a living from―that is something serious. If the barbers made a living from carrying on city gossip instead of making a living in another fashion and carrying on city gossip only nebenbei, respect for them would also increase. This can be seen from the fact that it has really gained in respect after the journalists took it up, simply because journalists make a living from it. What people are to have respect for must be something from which a man can make a living.

11 nebenbei] German, on the side.

1

5

10

15

406

1

5

10

[a]

During Publication of The Moment

do it; but the surprise at being able to express oneself by thanking God for it, as if it were God who had done it; and in his joy at being able to do so, he is so happy that he will hear nothing, nothing about having done it himself, but gratefully refers everything to God and prays God that it might continue to be this way: that it is God who does it; for he does not believe in himself, but he does believe in God.

•

P a p e r 591 1855 •

Only those peop. who, having been brought to this point of weariness with life, are able, with the assistance of grace, to maintain that God does this out of love, so that there is no doubt in the innermost reach of their souls that God is love: only they are ripened for eternity. God indeed receives them in eternity. What does God really want? He wants to have souls that can praise, adore, worship, and give thanks to him―the business of angels. That is why God is surrounded by angels. Because the sort of beings of which there are legions in “Xndom,” the sort who for 10 rix-dollars will roar and trumpet to God’s honor and praise: He takes no delight in beings of that sort. No, the angels please him. And what pleases him even more than the praises of angels is this: When, a hum. being, during the last lap of this life―when it seems as if God transforms himself into sheer cruelty and, with the most cruelly devised cruelty, does everything to deprive him of all lust for life―when a hum. being nonetheless continues to believe that God is love and that it is out of love that God does this. Such a hum. being then becomes an angel. And in heaven he is certainly capable of praising God, but the period of instruction, school time, is always the hardest time. Like a pers. who had the idea of traveling the whole world over to hear a singer with a perfect voice, God sits in heaven and listens. And every time he hears praise from a hum. being whom he has brought to the most extreme point of weariness with life, God says to himself, [“]Here is the voice.[”] [“]Here it is,[”] he says, as if it were a discovery he made, but he was in fact prepared for it, for he himself was there with this pers. and helped him to the extent that God can help a person to do what only freedom can do; only freedom can[a]

5

698 10

15

20

25

30

35

During Publication of The Moment

Paper 591.

•

P a p e r 591 1855 •

407

Notes for PAPER 305–PAPER 446 1830–1852

Notes for Paper 305 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

411

Notes for Paper 306 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

419

Notes for Paper 307–Paper 308 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Notes for Paper 309–Paper 314 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

431

Notes for Paper 315–Paper 317 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

437

Notes for Paper 318 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

445

Notes for Paper 319–Paper 326 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Notes for Paper 327–Paper 338 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

461

Notes for Paper 339–Paper 340 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

467

Notes for Paper 341–Paper 344 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 Notes for Paper 345–Paper 349 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 Notes for Paper 350–Paper 363 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

489

Notes for Paper 364–Paper 371 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

493

Notes for Paper 372–Paper 377 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

511

Notes for Paper 378–Paper 380 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

519

Notes for Paper 381–Paper 384 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

525

Notes for Paper 385–Paper 399 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

529

Notes for Paper 400–Paper 420 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

547

Notes for Paper 421–Paper 423 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

567

Notes for Paper 424–Paper 430 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

573

Notes for Paper 431–Paper 432 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

579

Notes for Paper 433 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

583

Notes for Paper 434 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

587

Notes for Paper 435–Paper 439 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

591

Notes for Paper 440–Paper 446 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

599

Notes for Paper 305 The Earthquake

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Tafdrup Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Jon Tafdrup Quotations and References checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

412

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript Paper 305, “The Earthquake,” is registered neither in L-cat. nor in B-cat. The main part of Paper 305:3, together with all of Papers 305:4 and 305:5 has been lost, but the text has been indirectly transmitted in H. P. Barfod’s edition Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP). The surviving manuscript is in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology Ever since the publication of the first volume of EP in 1869, the entries concerned with what Kierkegaard called “the great earthquake” have been at the center of much discussion among Kierkegaard researchers about the date when they were written, Kierkegaard’s reason for writing them, and the extent to which they are fictional or autobiographical. Barfod took the entries to be so essential that they were separated from the other material and printed as the introduction to the first volume (EP I–II, pp. 3–6). Following Barfod’s publication, the manuscript disappeared. In the later edition of Kierkegaard’s papers, Søren Kierkegaards Papirer [Pap.], the entries were published in the second volume (1910),1 with the text in EP as the source. Shortly afterward, however, portions of the original manuscript appeared. The following is noted under no. 3 in the University of Copenhagen Library’s manuscript catalogue of Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers: “Arrived Feb. 4, 1911: Found in the archives of Hr. Bookseller C. A.

) The text that appears as Paper 305 in the present edition was published in Pap. as Pap. II A 802–807, i.e., as six entries in all. This is because the paper that appears in the present edition as Paper 305:3 is divided into two entries in Pap., with the motto “25 yrs old.” assigned the separate entry number, 804 (i.e., Pap. II A 804). An inspection of the manuscript itself makes it clear, however, that the motto is connected to the text that follows it, and thus in SKS and KJN Paper 305 is divided into only five entries.

1

Critical Account of the Text Reitzel donated to the Univ. Libr.: / The Entries ‘Childhood,’ ‘Youth,’ and ‘25 Years old’ (pub. ed. II A 802–805, beg[inning]): deposited in 40K. . . .”1 Thus, since 1911 the original manuscript has been known in its present state, in which only Paper 305:1–2, the introductory motto from Shakespeare, and the two subsequent lines of Paper 305:3 have been preserved as a sheet of paper to which two smaller pieces of paper have been attached by an unknown hand, though it seems likely that Barfod attached them during preparation for the publication of EP in order to make the typesetter’s work easier. The entries are not dated. The handwriting in the preserved manuscript is meticulous and with few corrections, which could be explained primarily by Kierkegaard having had the drafts of the mottos at his side, though it could also be the case that the manuscript is a fair copy. Almost two lines, which might have indicated something about the evolution of the entries, are missing from the “prose” portion. Taken together, the mottos (see below), the contents of the texts, and interpretive efforts contribute indirect means for dating Paper 305. As noted, Barfod used Paper 305 as the introduction to the posthumous papers from the period 1833–1838, providing the entries with the following note, which appeared above the text: On three sheets of fine stationery, small octavo with gilt edges, the deceased appears, in the summer of 1838, after his birthday in May, but before his father’s death in August, to have wanted to sum up, in brief outline form, his life’s story up to the age of majority. But―if we have understood him rightly―only with respect to the last portion of it has this in-

) See “Søren Kierkegaards efterladte Papirer / Ms. Fortegnelse Nr. 3― UB.s Fortegenelse 1878” [Søren Kierkegaard’s posthumous papers / ms. Catalogue no. 3 ― University Library’s Catalogue 1878], where an archive box marked “S. Kierkegaards Papirer, Manuskriptfor tegnelser og Katalog” [S. Kierkegaard’s Papers, Manuscript Catalogues, and Catalogue] is deposited in KA. In an introductory supplement included in Pap. XI, 3 (1948), the editors write: “To A 802– 805: In February 1911, Hr. Bookdealer C. Reitzel donated the original manuscripts of entries 802–804 and the first two lines (i.e., up to and including ‘infallible’) of entry 805 to the University Library and they were incorporated in the Library’s collection” (see Pap IX, 3, p. xxxv). 1

413

414

P a p e r 305 T h e E a r t h q u a k e •

tention been carried out beyond the motto by which, as can be seen, each of the other two sections is accompanied.1 First of all, Barfod here gives a description of the original format of the manuscript: “three sheets of fine stationery, small octavo with gilt edges,” but no more detailed information on where or on which sheets the various entries were placed. Second, he indicates a date. As is clear, Barfod was of the opinion that the entries were written between May 5, 1838, when Kierkegaard had his twenty-fifth birthday―attaining what was in his day the age of majority―and August 9 of the same year, when his father died at age eighty-one. Kierkegaard’s heading to Paper 303:3 is indeed “25 yrs old.,” and Barfod interprets the contents as Kierkegaard’s contemporaneous reflection on his life to that point.2 The editors of Pap. positioned the entries at the end of a section that includes a collection of loose papers dated 1838 (see Pap. II [first published in 1910], pp. 268–271). It is unclear whether the idea was to place the entries at the end of a group of entries from 1838 and, by so doing, to position them after an entry the latest date of which is “Dec. 17th 38.” (see Paper 259 in the present volume), but in any case, in 1918, P. A. Heiberg, the editor of Pap., wrote of them as entries from 1839.3 Before 1949, the discussion centered on the timing of the entries’ earliest possible composition, primarily around the years

) See EP, I–II, p. 3.

1

) In a letter to Prof. Frederik Petersen in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1877, Kierkegaard’s brother Peter Christian writes that the entries that follow the three mottos were perhaps written in the days following their father’s death and possibly at a later point than the mottos themselves: “The verse from King Lear was likely written on 5/5 or soon thereafter. The following prose passage . . . on the other hand, is scarcely contemporary with that, but was added right during the days following Father’s death” (P. C. Kierkegaard Archive, NkS. 3174, 4o, p. 2).

2

) See P. A. Heiberg, Et Segment af Søren Kierkegaards religiøse Udvikling [A Portion of Søren Kierkegaard’s Religious Development] (Copenhagen, 1918), p. 49.

3

Critical Account of the Text 1838–1840.1 But in 1949, it was established that the terminus post quem could not possibly be before 1839: the Danish professor Frithiof Brandt pointed out that the motto from Shakespeare in Paper 305:3 was from Ernest Ortlepp’s German translation of Shakespeare’s plays, a work in eight volumes that appeared in 1838–1839.2 Previously it had been thought that the third volume of Ortlepp’s translation, which included King Lear and from which Kierkegaard quotes, had appeared, like the first two volumes, in 1838. The mistake may be due to an entry in the catalogue of Kierkegaard’s books auctioned after his death, which gives 1838 as the combined date for all eight volumes of Ortlepp’s Shakespeare translation.3 Because volume 3 of Ortlepp’s translation was not published until the beginning of May 1839,4 however, it may be concluded that the entry was neither made immediately following Kierkegaard’s twenty-fifth birthday, nor immediately following the day of his father’s death. Discussion subsequent to Brandt’s article focused on 1839–1840 as the likely period of the entry’s composition.5 In 2003, however, Poul Behrendt sought to ) See, e.g., Georg Brandes, Søren Kierkegaard (Copenhagen, 1877); Valdemar Ammundsen, Søren Kierkegaards Ungdom [Kierkegaard’s Youth] (Copenhagen, 1912); Hans Ellekilde, “Studier over Kierkegaards Ungdomsliv” [Studies concerning Kierkegaard’s Youth], in Danske Studier [Danish Studies] (Copenhagen, 1916), pp. 1–44.

1

) See Frithiof Brandt, “The Great Earthquake in Søren Kierkegaard’s Life,” in Theoria 15 (Lund, 1949), pp. 38–53.

2

) Listed in the auction catalogue, under numbers 1874–1881: “Shakspeare, W. Dramatische Werke [Dramatic Works], trans. by Ernst Ortlepp, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1838),” where the date of publication ought properly have been 1838–1839; see ASKB, p. 99, where H. P. Rohde, the editor of the ASKB, which was published in 1967, has corrected the error. 3

) Publication was announced in the weekly Allgemeine Bibliographie für Deutschland [General Bibliography for Germany], no. 19, May 1839 (Leipzig, 1839), p. 241.

4

) See, e.g., J. Himmelstrup, “ ‘Den store Jordrystelse,’ ” [“The Great Earthquake”], in Kierkegaardiana 4 (Copenhagen, 1962), pp. 18–27; Grethe Kjær, Søren Kierkegaards seks optegnelser om den Store Jordrystelse [Kierkegaard’s Six Journal Entries on the Great Earthquake] (Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1983).

5

415

416

P a p e r 305 T h e E a r t h q u a k e •

reconstruct the original form of the manuscript of Paper 305 with the help of X-ray photography, inspecting, among other things, the watermarks made visible by this means, and was able to date the various entries in Paper 305.1 Behrendt argues that earliest point at which the entries could have been written was not 1838– 1839, but the latter half of 1843.2 The argument is based on journal entry JJ:147, which in its entirety reads: I could perhaps reproduce the tragedy of my childhood: the terrifying, secret explanation of the religious that was granted me in a fearful presentiment which my imagination hammered into shape―my offense at the religious―in a novella entitled “The Mysterious Family.” It would begin in a thoroughly patriarchal-idyllic fashion, so that no one would suspect anything before that word suddenly resounded, providing a terrifying explanation of everything.3 The entry is undated but written presumably in the autumn of 1843 (see KJN 2, 456). Behrendt rules out the possibility that Kierkegaard would further wish to write on the “mysterious family” if he had already written the entries in Paper 305.4 The editors of SKS 27 placed Paper 305 as the first paper in the period 1843–1852, leaving the date open for the period 1843–1845. The assumption that Kierkegaard would not have written JJ:147 if Paper 305 already existed seems correct. Furthermore, the editors judge that entries in Paper 305 are not exclusively autobiographical reflections, but autobiographical reflections that could have been the product one of Kierkegaard’s pseudonyms. It does not seem possible to separate biography from fiction here.

) See Poul Behrendt, “An Essay in the Art of Writing Posthumous Papers,” in Kierkegaard Studies: Yearbook 2003, ed. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Hermann Deuser, and Jon Stewart (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003), pp. 48–109. Behrendt’s article is in the main a critical review of previous work on the dating question.

1

) Behrendt, “An Essay in the Art of Writing Posthumous Papers,” pp. 91–92.

2

) KJN 2, 174.

3

) Behrendt, “An Essay in the Art of Writing Posthumous Papers,” p. 86.

4

Critical Account of the Text The latest possible dating has been put at January 1845, since a connection can be made between “The Earthquake” and the so-called insertions that Kierkegaard wrote for the third part of Stages on Life’s Way (1845)―that is, the psychological experiment titled “ ‘Guilty?’―‘Not-Guilty.’ ”1 These six insertions can scarcely be read without reference to Kierkegaard’s own life and in all essentials to his relationship to his father, just as in its entirety “ ‘Guilty?’―‘Not-Guilty’ ” does not make sense without reading into it Kierkegaard’s relationship to his former betrothed, Regine Olsen. The insertions all have their original source in Journal JJ, which was written between March 1843 and August 1844. The manuscripts for the insertions used in Stages on Life’s Way are undated but presumably were composed in the course of December 1844 and January 1845; the complete manuscript for that book lay ready in March 1845. Judging against this background, “The Earthquake” was presumably written at some time between the autumn of 1843 and January 1845.

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Stadier paa Livets Vei in SKS K6, 67–79.

1

417

Explanatory Notes 2

2

4

6

9 10

11

23

26

Halb Kinderspiele Halb Gott im Herzen] Cited from pt. 1 of J. W. Goethe, Faust. Eine Tragödie [Faust: A Tragedy ] (1808) in Goethe’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand [Goethe’s Works: Complete Edition, with the Author’s Final Changes], 60 vols. (Stuttgart, 1828–1842); vols. 1–55 [1828–1833]; ASKB 1641–1668), vol. 12 (1828), p. 199. Kierkegaard omits a comma after “Kinderspiele.” Göethe] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749– 1832), German poet and dramatist, essayist, lawyer, statesman, and natural scientist. Beg―that we will not do! . . . the treasure] Cited from the third verse in Christian Winther’s poem “The New Year” in Nytaarsgave fra danske Digtere [New Year Gift from Danish Poets], ed. H. P. Holst, 3rd annual ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [published late December 1836]), pp. 1–2. The poem also appears in Christian Winther’s Sang og Sagn. Digte [Song and Legend: Poems], (Copenhagen, 1840), pp. 20–21; p. 20. Chr. Winther] Christian Winther (1796–1876), Danish lyric poet, translator, and publisher. 25 yrs old] The age of majority in Kierkegaard’s time was twenty-five. Kierkegaard’s twenty-fifth birthday fell on May 5, 1838. So laß uns leben . . . Wechsel sich verändern] Cited from William Shakespeare, King Lear (ca. 1605), act 5, scene 3, in Ernst Ortlepp’s translation, König Lear; see W. Shakspeare’s dramatische Werke [W. Shakespeare’s Dramatic Works], trans. E. Ortlepp, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1838–1839; ASKB 1874–1881), vol. 3 (1839); see also the preceding “Critical Account of the Text.” Kierkegaard omits a colon after “leben.” It was then the great earthquake occurred] On the dating of the entries on “the great earthquake,” see the preceding “Critical Account of the Text.” my father’s great age] Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard was baptized Michel on December 12, 1756,

and died during the night of August 8–9, 1838, aged eighty-one. See DD 126, dated August 11, 1838, in KJN 1, 249. administering to us] Preparing us for death with confession and communion. the punishment the Jews always called down . . . memory of us would be obliterated] A reference to, e.g., Ex 17:14; see also Deut 25:19, 32:26, and Ps 109:15. “that it might go well with . . . live long in the land”] Cited freely from the Fifth Commandment in Deut 5:16.

11 13

18

4

Notes for Paper 306 Probationary Sermon

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Stine Holst Petersen, and Jon Tafdrup Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

420

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “The Probationary Sermon” [Dimisprædiken]1 belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay in “the box in the writing desk” (see illustration 3, p. xliii); the sermon was rolled up and wrapped in paper.2 The manuscript that serves as the basis for the present edition is probably Kierkegaard’s fair copy for his own use and is in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. In the Royal Library’s Ny kongelig Samling [New Royal Collection] there is an additional copy that had been supplied to the examiner, Prof. C. E. Scharling, which bears the following inscriptions, apparently written in Scharling’s hand on two different dates: The first date, “held on Feb. 24th 1844,” clearly seems to be a reference by Scharling to a past event, the date on which Kierkegaard had delivered his trial sermon. The second date, “March 3rd 1846,” appears to be the date on which Scharling signed his name. The third date, “Saturday Feb. 24th 1844 3-o’clock,” refers yet again to the date and hour when Kierkegaard presented his trial sermon. The fourth date, “Jan. 6th 1860,” appears to be the date on which Scharling found the paper and attested to its authenticity by signing his name. “This manuscript is Magister Søren Kierkegaard’s. His own hndwrtng of his probationary sermon, held on Feb. 24th 1844 before me and Pastor Paulli March 3rd 1846 C. Scharling Mag S. Kierkegaard Saturday Feb. 24th 1844 3-o’clock. The different ink used in the above declaration stems from the fact that today, on looking through my papers, I found this and

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers” enclosed in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi–xxxiv, for additional information.

2

Critical Account of the Text would now establish the handwriting’s authenticity in case it can be of interest to someone in the future. Jan. 6th 1860 C. E. Scharling”

II. Dating and Chronology Paper 306 is undated but its date can be reasonably well established because Kierkegaard held his probationary sermon in Copenhagen’s Trinity Church (Trinitatis Kirke) on Saturday, February 24, 1844. Preparing the sermon presumably occupied Kierkegaard in the weeks preceding its delivery. As indicated in the description of the manuscript, there are two variants of Kierkegaard’s sermon, indeed, two fair copies, both in Kierkegaard’s hand. The original for the text in KJN 11.2 (Paper 306) is the copy that Kierkegaard kept in his cache and that, after his death, was registered as number 153 by his nephew Henrik Lund. This manuscript was the original for the second, the examiner’s fair copy (Paper 306a), which is generally more presentable in appearance. A collation of the two copies has indicated that at the textual level there are a large number of variants involving style and syntax. This is also made clear by Kierkegaard himself in the copy he provided to his examiners, as he inserted roman numerals at three places to mark sections in the last part of the sermon, each section introduced with the words “This secret wisdom.” The editors of SKS conclude that this is not evidence that the texts belong to different stages in the sermon’s genesis but rather of Kierkegaard’s tendency to revise a text, even if it was only being copied. Delivering the probationary sermon was also an oral examination, the circumstances of which emerge neither from the printed version nor from the examiner’s copy. The examinee may be presumed to have memorized the sermon and been judged for both the presentation and the content. To be prepared with respect to the content, the examiners, who in Kierkegaard’s case were C. E. Scharling and J. H. Paulli, had a copy delivered to them beforehand. For his probationary sermon Kierkegaard was awarded the highest grade: laudabilis (Latin, “praiseworthy”).

421

Explanatory Notes 8

1 2 3 6 7 9 13

16 16

Prayer] The text for the sermon is from 1 Cor 2:4–9. you dwell in a light] The phrase occurs in 1 Tim 6:16. your essence is to shine] See Lk 2:1–20; see also Bar 4:24. you see in secret] See Mt 6:4 and 6:18. test the hearts yourself] See 1 Thess 2:4. reward him openly] See Mt 6:4 and 6:18. The apostle Paul] Paul, the most significant figure in earliest Christianity. Born in Tarsus in Asia Minor; a Hellenic Jew, educated as a Pharisee, took part in the persecution of his Jewish compatriots who had come to believe in Jesus as Christ. Ca. a.d. 40 he had a vision of the resurrected Christ, and from that time proclaimed the gospel of Christ, especially to non-Jews, and seems to have been the founder of a mission in which a transition to Judaism was not required. Presumed executed ca. a.d. 65 during Emperor Nero’s persecution of the Christians after the burning of Rome. Paul is known at first hand from a series of letters written in the years 51–55 and included in the New Testament. The thirteen letters in the New Testament bearing Paul’s name were generally considered genuine in Kierkegaard’s time; today only seven or nine are so regarded, among these the first Thessalonian epistle, the oldest writing in the New Testament, together with the epistle to the Romans, the two to the Corinthians and the epistle to the Galatians. Paul appears in the four latter epistles as an apostle, claiming to have his calling and hence his authority immediately from God and the re-arisen Christ. The Acts of the Apostles, which is the other main source of our knowledge of Paul, is currently taken to reflect a later portrayal of the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” if possible win some] See 2 Cor 5:11. He . . . did not do so just for the sake of gain] See 1 Cor 9:14–18; see also 1 Thess 2:9; 2 Thess 3:7–8; and 1 Tim 3:8.

forgo the earthly without missing it] See Phil 3:7–8. did it not for the sake of honor and esteem] See 1 Thess 2:6. that some should name themselves . . . adherents of Paul . . . had only baptized one single person] See 1 Cor 1:14; see also 1 Cor 3:4–7. not with deceit in his heart] Alludes to 1 Thess 2:3. the least of the apostles . . . not worthy of being called an apostle] Cited from 1 Cor 15:9. is not hearkened to . . . authoritative in speech] Presumably, an allusion to 2 Cor 10:1–2. he humbles himself under God’s mighty hand] Cited from 1 Pet 5:6. the shabby and menial role of an apostle in the world] Allusion to 1 Cor 4:13. Jewish Christians . . . had an advantage . . . fetters of ceremony] Presumably, a reference to the account in Acts 15 of the meeting between the apostles and the elders concerning whether it was necessary, as insisted by the Pharisees, that the new faithful should be circumcised “according to the custom of Moses.” ― a firstborn’s right: Allusion to Gen 25:29–34. 2 Cor 10:5] The passage in question, which actually begins at the end of 2 Cor 10:4, reads: “We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ.” P[aul] condemns this inclination to dispute and vainglory] Presumably, an allusion to Gal 1:6–9; see also Gal 2:11–16. confidence in the flesh . . . persecuted the Christian community] Allusion to Phil 3:4–6. ― the tribe of Benjamin: Descendants of the youngest of the patriarch Jacob’s twelve sons. ― a Pharisee: The Pharisees formed one of the most influential movements in ancient Judaism in the Hellenistic-Roman period from ca. 100 b.c. until the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. They em-

18 19 20

25 27 30 33 34 39

3

8m

3

9

5

Probationary Sermon

9 10 12 13

19

23 24 30 31 35 35 41

10

5

phasized strict adherence to the Mosaic Law, including the purity laws for the priesthood. Based on the Mosaic Law, they created a comprehensive oral tradition for interpreting its commandments. They believed in the resurrection of the dead to judgment and in angels. At the time of Jesus, there were about six thousand Pharisees. regarded all this as vanity] Presumably, an allusion to Phil 3:7. bitterly repented the last] Presumably, an allusion to Lk 22:54–62. as if perfection were already in their grasp] See the next note. the old fighter joins them . . . perfection . . . only pursuing it] Alludes to Phil 3:12–14 and 2 Tim 4:7. ― race course: See 1 Cor 9:24. work . . . day and night . . . be as refuse in the world] Adverts in part to 1 Thess 2:9 and in part to 2 Thess 3:7; see also 1 Cor 4:11–13 and Acts 20:33–34. who has been swept up into the third heaven] Allusion to 2 Cor 12:25. works with fear and trembling in the cause of his own salvation] See Phil 2:12. stood in chains before a piteous prince] Allusion to Acts 26:29. not intended to arouse bitter feeling] Presumably, an allusion to 1 Cor 13:5. whose witness he is] See Acts 22:15. He would even that this piteous prince . . . without these chains] Allusion to Acts 26. tossed about by every wind] Allusion to Eph 4:14. made use of their poet’s verses] Allusion to the account in Acts 17:22–34 where Paul, speaking to the Athenians and referring to their inscription “to an unknown God,” tells them that the unknown that they worship is what he proclaims and, citing classical poets, states that God has provided time and place not for God himself to inhabit but for human beings to search for him because he is not “far from each one of us . . . ‘[f]or in him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said. ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ” This last sentence is a quotation from a poem, Phaenomena [Natural Appearances] by Aratus of Soli in Cicilia (ca. 310–240 B.C.), popular in ancient times and trans-

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

423

lated by Cicero. Similar formulations are found in Cleanthes, Epimenides, and Euripides. he has paused at their altar to interpret the . . . enigmatic inscriptions] Allusion to Acts 17:22–34; see also the preceding note. interrupted reflection’s long genealogy] Allusion to 1 Tim 1:4. He acknowledged . . . an offense to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles] Allusion to 1 Cor 22:23. he would have changed . . . not an iota] Allusion to 1 Cor 1:22–33. this proclamation’s foolishness] Alludes to 1 Cor 1:21. the Jews demand signs and . . . wisdom (I Cor. 1:22)] → 10,27. the congregation founded in Corinth] On his second missionary journey, Paul founded a congregation in Corinth, which is situated on the isthmus between the Peloponnese and northern Greece; see Acts 18:1–17. in the congregation in factions and parties] → 8,20. a species of pagan wisdom in particular . . . teacher of the truth] See, e.g., 1 Cor 1:17–21, 2:1–5, and 2:12–13. our recited text] Allusion to 1 Cor 2:6–9. the hallowed place] The church. wash his hands and let the truth be crucified] Allusion to Mt 27:11–26. in real danger . . . in hunger and nakedness] Allusion to 2 Cor 11:23–27. ― for 40 years: According to the chronology in the article “Paulus” [Paul], in G. B. Winer, Biblisches Realwörterbuch zum Handgebrauch für Studirende, Kandidaten, Gymnasiallehrer und Prediger [Biblical Dictionary and Manual for Students, Graduates, Secondary School Teachers and Preachers], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1833–1838 [1820]; ASKB 70–71), vol. 2, pp. 256–261, Paul was converted ca. a.d. 35, and his activity ended with imprisonment in Rome ca. a.d. 62–65, although the possibility is raised that he was freed and undertook a missionary journey to Spain before returning to Rome, where he was executed under Emperor Nero, which would put the latest date of Paul’s death at a.d. 68.

7

23 27

30 38 39 10

11

19 20

22 13 20 22

12

424 28 30 39 41

13

8 9 14

19

22 27

33

14

1 3

3 4

6 13

14

Probationary Sermon

apostolic calling] See Rom 1:1; see also Gal 1:15. pierce through to fortify the separation] See Heb 4:12 and Lk 16:26–27. began a struggle] Alludes to Phil 3:12–14 and 2 Tim 4:7. not indeed sufficiently consulted with flesh and blood] Allusion to Gal 1:15–16, where “flesh and blood” means “human beings” and is rendered by the NRSV as “any human being.” what was to the Jews an offense, to the Greeks foolishness] Allusion to 1 Cor 22:23. a divine strength for salvation] Allusion to Rom 1:16. that mystery of godliness . . . that God was . . . believed on in the world] Cited freely from 1 Tim 3:16. So then the discourse will remain in your sphere, my listeners . . . the secret wisdom] Freely quoted from 1 Tim 3:16, where Paul speaks of “the mystery of our religion.” ― the secret wisdom: Allusion to 1 Cor 2:7. what no eye has seen] Cited from 1 Cor 2:9. although seeing, you were like the one who does not see] Allusion to Mt 13:13; see also 1 Cor 7:29–31. to his benefit, because he loved God] Allusion to Mt 13:13. demands a sign] Allusion to 1 Cor 1:22. divine condescension] Presumably, a reference to God becoming Man. See also the hymn at Phil 2:6–11, esp. vv. 7–8. offended as was Peter] See Mt 16:22–23. as Sarah laughed when the promise was announced] A reference to Gen 18:1–15; see also Rom 9:9. Blessed are the eyes that saw it] Allusion to Lk 10:23. as the disciples did not see it when they walked to Emmaus] Refers to Lk 24:13–32. ― Emmaus: A village thought by different sources to be either about seven or eighteen miles from Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene did not see it when she stood by the grave] According to Lk 8:2, Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, became a disciple of Jesus after he had cured her of “evil spirits.” According to Mt 27:56, she was present at the crucifixion and is mentioned among the wom-

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

en who went out the following day to anoint the body of Jesus but heard from “two men in dazzling clothes” that he had arisen from the dead (Lk 24:1–12) According to Jn 20:1–18, she went alone to the grave and was the first to meet Jesus after he had arisen. the opportune hour] This expression occurs in 1 Cor 16:12, Eph 5:16, Phil 4:10, and 1 Tim 2:6. times past] Acts 14:16 speaks of “past generations,” and in Lk 10:24 Jesus speaks of prophets and kings who “desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” the fullness of time] See Gal 4:4–5. demand that it be proved by the sign] Allusion to 1 Cor 1:22. because they seek wisdom] Allusion to 1 Cor 1:22. whispered in remote places . . . now proclaimed from the rooftops] Allusion to Lk 12:3. the one who has the ear to hear, for only he hears] See Mt 11:15 and 13:9. a wind that went away] Presumably, an allusion to Jn 3:8. Blessed is the ear that heard it] Allusion to Mt 13:16. you have no need to say who climbs up to heaven to fetch it down for us] Allusion to Rom 10:6. such as tickles the earthly ear] Allusion to 2 Tim 4:3. that adds nothing and takes nothing away] Presumably, an allusion to the closing verses of Rev 22:18–19. what did not arise in any human heart] See 1 Cor 2:9. Blessed is the heart that preserved it] Allusion to Lk 11:28. when the need was greatest, the help had been nearest him] An adage (no. 2008) in N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danske Ordsprog og Munheld [Danish Adages and Sayings] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1549), p. 76. many times and in many ways] Allusion to Heb 1:1. neither life nor death . . . not any other creature] Allusion to Rom 8:38–39. if it has gained nothing: Allusion to 1 Cor 13:3.

32 34

34 10

16

13 20 26 33 9

17

14 27 4

18

42 32

19

1

21

9 21 23

22

Probationary Sermon 24 25

of first and last] Allusion to Rev 1:11. let you have, as scripture says, the faith as your own conviction before God (Romans 14:22)] Cited freely from Rom 14:22, which, in the NRSV, reads: “The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God.”

•

P a p e r 306 1844 •

425

Notes for Paper 307– Paper 308 Concerning “In Vino Veritas”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

428

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Concerning ‘In Vino Veritas’ ”1 is not included in B-cat. but is presumably a part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death were found placed together with various other materials in “a large sack.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology Papers 307 and 308 include some remarks concerning work on the first part of Stages on Life’s Way (1845), namely, “In vino veritas” (SLW, 7–86; SKS 6, 15–84). Paper 307 is dated August 27, 1844. In the summer of 1844, Kierkegaard resumed work on the first part of that book, which had been begun as early as May 1843.3

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Stadier paa Livets Vei in SKS K6, 37–86.

3

Explanatory Notes 24

1

2

8

10

17

24

18

19

Report] The entry is related to the earlier version of the first part of Stages on Life’s Way (1845), which was originally titled “The Wrong Side and the Right Side” (as of a piece of fabric); see Pap. V B 155–189. A draft of this introductory aesthetic section, which had originally been thought of as a parallel to Plato’s Symposium, is found in JJ:173 (1844) in KJN 2, 181–182. In the final version, the title “In vino veritas” was supplemented with the information “A Recollection Related by William Afham” (SLW, 7–86; SKS 6, 15–84). “In vino veritas” is not working out] The genesis of “In vino veritas” is described in the “Critical Account of the Text” of Stadier paa Livets Vei, in SKS K6, 37–53. ― In vino veritas: Latin, in wine [is found] truth. The idea of the comic as the erotic was adumbrated in The Concept of Anxiety] See The Concept of Anxiety (1844), CA, 69–71; SKS 4, 373– 375. The theme for the Young Man, who is the first speaker in “In vino veritas,” is the erotic as the comic; see SLW, 31–47; SKS 6, 36–49. The Ladies’ Tailor is a very good character] The Ladies’ Tailor (also known as the Fashion Designer) is the fourth speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 65–71; SKS 6, 66–71. Aug. 27th 1844] On June 8, 1844, Kierkegaard had published Three Edifying Discourses; on June 13, Philosophical Fragments was published, and on June 17, The Concept of Anxiety and Prefaces appeared. On August 29, the printing of Four Edifying Discourses was finished. The purpose of the 5 speakers in “in vino veritas,”] See also the draft material of the earlier version (→ 24,1), in which additional purposes are mentioned. In Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), the character of the various speakers is also defined; see CUP, 297–298; SKS 7, 271–272. Karrikaturen des Heiligsten] Reference to the title of Henrich Steffens’s work, Caricaturen des

Heiligsten [Caricatures of What Is Most Holy], 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1819–1821; ASKB 793–794). The Young Man]  The Young Man is the first speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 31–47; SKS 6, 36–49. Const[antin] Const[antius]] Constantin Constantius, the experimenting author of Repetition, is the second speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 47–56; SKS 6, 50–57. Victor Er[emita]] The editor of Either/Or and the third speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 56–65; SKS 6, 57–66. the Ladies’ Tailor] → 24,10. an author has said . . . but for each other] No source has been identified for this. Joh[annes] the Seducer] Johannes, from the “Diary of the Seducer” in the first part of Either/Or, is the fifth and final speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 71–80; SKS 6, 71–79.

20

21

22

24 27 28

Notes for Paper 309–Paper 314 “Minor Items from the 1840s”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

432

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Minor Items from the 1840s” is designated no. 322 in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay sheathed “in a paper wrapper” on the left-hand side of the “middle space in chest of drawers B.”1 Paper 309, Paper 312, and Paper 314:2 have been lost; the texts of Paper 309 and Paper 312 have been transmitted indirectly in H. P. Barfod’s edition of Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP); the text of Paper 314:2 has been transmitted indirectly in a transcription by Barfod. The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology According to H. P. Barfod’s commentary, Paper 309, which exists only as transmitted indirectly in EP, was an envelope bearing the inscription “Minor Items from the 1840s.” Among the contents of the envelope were Paper 310–Paper 314. The loose date given in Paper 309 is the only date in the material. Judging from the wording, it may be assumed that the entries date neither from the early 1840s nor from very long after the mid-1840s. A more specific dating of Paper 310–Paper 314 must be based on their contents, and what follows is an attempt to do so, based on selected entries. As a group, the papers are placed in the sequence in which they were found and registered by Barfod, and it may be assumed that Kierkegaard wrote them within a relatively limited period of time. In Paper 310, which is possibly the earliest of the entries, Kierkegaard parodies “the Temperance Society,” which had been founded on October 8, 1843, at a meeting convened by Pastor C.

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

1

Critical Account of the Text H. Visby.1 Temperance was a matter of public concern during this period, and Kierkegaard discusses the issue in Prefaces (P 1–68; SKS 4, 465–527), which was published on June 17, 1844.2 Paper 310 is probably from 1844, and possibly from the latter half of that year. In Paper 312, Kierkegaard jotted down an idea concerning “The Ladies’ Tailor (in Stages).” He had first come up with the idea of the title Stages on Life’s Way in February 1845, when he wrote the book’s concluding section, “Letter to the Reader.”3 Owing to this reference to the book’s title in Paper 312, this entry can with reasonable certainty be dated to early 1845. Protagoras’s proposition “that the hum. being is the measure of all things” and the story of the junior officer, both of which appear in Paper 314:1, turn up a number of times in Kierkegaard’s writings and thus offer no reliable source for dating. Protagoras’s proposition is found, among other places, in an 1844 draft of Prefaces IV.4 It is also not possible to assign precise dates to Paper 311 and Paper 314 on the basis of their contents, but as mentioned, they were presumably written during the same period as the datable entries in the group. In sum, the period of composition for this group of papers ranges from the second half of 1844 into the first half of 1845.

) See Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 1320, August 9, 1843; no. 1377, October 5, 1843; and no. 1382, October 10, 1843, in which the minutes of the meeting are included.

1

) Preface no. V (P, 27–30; SKS 4, 489–492) parodies an anonymous article in Fædrelandet, no. 1467, January 6, 1844, cols. 11763–11768.

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Stadier paa Livets Vei in SKS K6, 82–83.

3

) Published as Pap. V B 88,4, which is part of ms. 2.2 in the “Critical Account of the Text” of Forord (see SKS K4, 536–537; see also Pap. V B 85,2, which is presumably from the autumn of 1843; see SKS K4, 547 concerning the date of this).

4

433

Explanatory Notes 26

9

14

29

27

1

living like the rich man in the gospel] Refers to Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Lk 16:19–31, where it is related, “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.” the Temperance Society] “The Danish Temperance Society” was founded in Copenhagen on October 8, 1843, amid much publicity; members pledged to abstain from distilled spirits and to exercise moderation in the consumption of wine. innumerable well-distilled egg schnappses] An allusion to the phrase “in accordance with the command of innumerable well-distilled egg schnappses,” which appears in Jens Baggesen, Labyrinten eller Reise giennem Tydskland, Schweiz og Frankrig [The Labyrinth, or a Journey through Germany, Switzerland, and France] (1792–1793) in Jens Baggesens danske Værker [The Danish Works of Jens Baggesen], ed. the author’s sons and C. J. Boye, 12 vols. (Copenhagen, 1827–1832; ASKB 1509–1520), vol. 8 (1829), p. 203. The phrase is also found cited in Thomasine Gyllembourg’s novella “Slægtskab og Djævelskab” [Kinship and Devilry]; see Noveller, gamle og nye, af Forfatteren til “En Hverdags-Historie” [Novellas, Old and New, by the Author of “A Story of Everyday Life”], ed. J. L. Heiberg, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1835), vol. 2, p. 82. See FF:186 (1838) in KJN 2, 102. ― egg schnappses: Alcoholic drinks consisting of egg yolks, sugar, and plain schnapps or rum. If you want to raise money, you should never sniff it] Reference to an anecdote about the Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus (ruled a.d. 69–79), from Suetonius’s biography of Vespasian, chap. 23 in bk. 8 of De vita Caesarum [The Lives of the Caesars], where it is stated: “When Titus found fault with him for contriving a tax upon public conveniences, he held a purse of money from the first payment to his son’s nose, asking whether its odour was offensive to him. When Titus said, ‘No,’ he replied, ‘Yet it comes

from urine.’ ” English translation from Suetonius, The Lives of the Caesars and the Lives of Illustrious Men, trans. J. C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols. (London: William Heinemann, 1914), vol. 2, p. 319. Kierkegaard’s likely source was Caji Svetonii Tranqvilli Tolv første Romerske Keiseres Levnetsbeskrivelse [Caius Suetonius Tranquillus’s Account of the Lives of the First Twelve Roman Caesars], trans. J. Baden, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1802–1803; ASKB 1281), vol. 2, p. 213. what does the butter care about what glazes the cabbage?] A saying collected as no. 1190 in N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danske Ordsprog og Mundheld [Danish Sayings and Adages] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1549), p. 44.

2

27

The Ladies’ Tailor (in Stages)] The Ladies’ Tailor, also known as the Fashion Designer, is the fourth speaker in “In vino veritas”; see SLW, 65–71; SKS 6, 66–71.

22

27

when the wealthy man . . . the infinite panorama] A rewritten form of this entry is used in “The Gospel of Sufferings. Christian Discourses,” no. 6, in Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), in UDVS, 310; SKS 8, 402–403.

27

27

Protagoras’s proposition that the hum. being is the measure of all things] Protagoras (ca. 490–420 b.c.), Greek philosopher and the most prominent of the Sophists. According to Plato, his famous slogan was “man is the measure of all things,” Theaetetus 152a, cited from Plato: The Collected Dialogues Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), p. 856. Kierkegaard discusses the proposition in The Concept of Irony (1841), CI, 207n; SKS 1, 251–252n; and in Philosophical Fragments (1844), PF, 38; SKS 4, 244, with commentaries.

1

28

“Minor Items from the 1840s” 2

the whim of a junior officer . . . my mouth is the measuring cup] A draft of Prefaces (1844) contains an expanded version of the anecdote: “And yet this writing is critical, even authoritative, and can judge all things, is ‘the measure of all things’ and has the measure in its mouth. I know of no better expression to describe how subjectively accidental everything is. The reader, however, may not know where this expression has its origin. It is not to be ascribed to me, but to an ‘old soldier,’ from whom I heard it for the first time a number of years ago on Nørrefælled. The troops were drawn up, the review was about to begin, and his majesty was expected any minute. No soldier dared to break ranks; only officers and noncommissioned officers walked about a bit more freely. My noncommissioned officer, who probably suspected that it would be a hot day, thought it fitting to take a drink one last time before the battle. With that intention, he approaches the canteen operator’s table. She has not yet unpacked but nevertheless quickly gets out the bottle of aquavit. At that very instant the call to ranks sounded; she cannot find the measure, and the old soldier cannot do without his drink. What, then, is to be done? He takes the bottle and puts it to his mouth with these words: It is not needed, because I have the measure in my mouth. But the canteen operator was a poor woman and did not have unlimited confidence in the measure in his mouth; she took the bottle away from him. Fortunate the one who can do just as the canteen operator did!” (Pap. V B 85,2, p. 162; translation from P, 116–117). See also an entry written on the occasion of J. L. Heiberg’s review of Either/Or (Pap. IV B 55). ―  the Commons: Refers to grass-covered commons―Nørrefælled, Blegdamsfælled, and Østerfælled (present-day Fælledparken)― northeast of Sortedams Sø [Sortedam Lake] in Copenhagen (see map 3, BC1–3), where both the military and the Copenhagen Civil Guard (armed citizens in service to the state) held parades and exercises. ― measuring cup: About eight ounces or one-quarter liter.

•

P a p e r 314 1845 •

435

Notes for Paper 315–Paper 317 Projected Writings

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

438

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Projected Writings”1 contains nos. 389, 388, and 387 from B-cat. and is presumably a part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death were found placed together with various other materials in “a large sack.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology Paper 315–Paper 317 are undated, but can with some certainty be dated indirectly from Kierkegaard’s references to other writings. Kierkegaard makes use of the heading for Paper 315, “The Dialectic of Beginning,” both in JJ:262 from 1844 and in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), most of which he wrote during 1845.3 In Paper 315:2, there is also a reference to F. A. Trendelenburg, Logische Untersuchungen [Logical Investigations], 2 vols. (Berlin, 1840; ASKB 843), a work Kierkegaard purchased on January 15, 1844.4 Lastly, Paper 315:3 includes indirect references to the publication of the final volume of Hegel’s collected works, for example, in citing Socrates’ concluding remark: “You know that I did not even allow Polus to speak for more than 5 minutes at a time, and you want to speak XXI volumes.” The twenty-first and final volume of Hegel’s works was published in 1845 and includes a ) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

) See JJ:262 (KJN 2, 205) and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (CUP, 111–112; SKS 7, 108). On the dating of these passages, see the relevant “Critical Account of the Text” of each.

3

) Logische Untersuchungen is listed on a bill from the book dealer P. G. Philipsen in KA.

4

Critical Account of the Text preface by the editors dated April 12, 1845.1 Thus the volume in question appeared in the late spring of 1845, and this entry may have been written not long thereafter. In Paper 316, Kierkegaard does some preparations for a collection of moral tales “sent into the world by Hilarius Bookbinder.” Hilarius Bookbinder is the pseudonymous editor of Stages on Life’s Way, which appeared on April 30, 1845; the entry also mentions the person “who fell from the mast,” a figure that Kierkegaard also uses as the point of departure for a passage in Concluding Unscientific Postscript.2 Here again, 1845 is a likely date. Paper 317 makes mention of Philosophical Fragments (1844) and of that book’s pseudonymous author, Johannes Climacus. Similarly, Kierkegaard refers to “Johannes de silentio,” the pseudonym first used in Fear and Trembling (1843), and the apprentice author Rosenblad, who appears again in a draft of the never-completed work “Writing Sampler.”3 Under the third point in Paper 317, Kierkegaard writes: “God’s judgment / a story of suffering / psychological experiment.” The last two lines are repeated verbatim in the subtitle to the third part of Stages on Life’s Way, “ ‘Guilty?’ / ‘Not Guilty?’ ” (see SLW, 185; SKS 6, 172), and all three lines can be read in JJ:317 (KJN 2, 220), which presumably was written in April or May 1845.4 It is not possible to determine whether Kierkegaard first wrote his notes in Journal JJ or in Paper 317. Viewed as group, Paper 315–Paper 317 are from 1845, possibly written in the late spring or the summer of that year.

) See G.W.F. Hegel, Encyclopädie der philosophische Wissenschaften [Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences], ed. Dr. Ludwig Boumann, 3 vols. (1840–1845; ASKB 561–563), which is part of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe [The Works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Complete Edition], 18 vols. (Berlin, 1832–1845), vol. 7,2 (1845), p. viii. Vols. 1–18 comprise twenty-one physical volumes in all, because vol. 10, Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik [Lectures on Aesthetics], is divided into three volumes, and vol. 7, Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften, is divided into two volumes.

1

) See CUP, 284; SKS 7, 259; see also the “Critical Account of the Text” of Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift.

2

) See Pap. VI B 194–235 and VII 2 B 271–295.

3

) See the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal JJ ” in KJN 2, 455–459.

4

439

Explanatory Notes 30

1

The Dialectic of Beginning] The title refers to speculative (Hegelian) logic. In the introduction to his Science of Logic, Hegel requires that logic is to begin with “pure being,” which, however, is identical with “nothing”; see Wissenschaft der Logik [Science of Logic], ed. L. von Henning, 1 vol. in 2 parts (Berlin 1833–1834 [1812–1816]; ASKB 552–554; vol. 1,1 (Hegel’s Werke [→ 30,16], vol. 3), pp. 59–74 (Jub. vol. 4, pp. 69–84). Hegel’s Danish pupil, J. L. Heiberg, turned the idea that the System must begin with nothing into a slogan; see, e.g., the first eight paragraphs of his article “Det logiske System” [The Logical System] in the journal Perseus, Journal for den speculative Idee [Perseus, Journal for the Speculative Idea], ed. J. L. Heiberg, no. 1, June 1837, and no. 2, August 1838; ASKB 569. See no. 2, August 1838, pp. 1–45, and Grundtræk til Philosophiens Philosophie, eller den speculative Logik [Outline of the Philosophy of Philosophy or Speculative Logic, as a Guide to Lectures at the Royal Military College] (Copenhagen, 1832), p. 11: “§26. If one abstracts from every determination in everything―which is necessary in order to exclude all presuppositions, for here it is a matter of reaching a beginning which is abstract immediacy―then only one thing remains from which one cannot abstract further because it is itself without presupposition and is consequently the abstract immediacy or beginning. This one thing is being in general or abstract or absolute being, the utmost abstraction from everything. / § 27. To abstract further from being would be to remove the utmost (last) abstraction and consequently leave nothing. But since one cannot abstract from being (§26), the utmost abstraction has already been effected, and being is thus the same as nothing” (English translation from Heiberg’s Speculative Logic and Other Texts, ed. and trans. Jon Stewart [Copenhagen: Reitzel’s Publishers, 2006], p. 55). As early as From the Papers of One Still Living (1838) Kierkegaard refers

to “Hegel’s great attempt to begin with nothing” (FPOSL, 61; SKS 1, 17), and in Either/Or (1843) he writes that “it is not at all difficult for philosophy to begin. Far from it. It begins, in fact, with nothing, and therefore can always begin” (EO 1, 39; SKS 2, 48). See also JJ:262 (1844) in KJN 2, 205. Socrates] The Greek philosopher Socrates (ca. 470–399 b.c.). With his maieutic method (i.e., midwifery), and by developing his thoughts in dialogue with his contemporaries, he sought to deliver others who were already pregnant with knowledge, thus helping to rid them of their errors. He was condemned to death by a court of the Athenian people for acknowledging gods other than those recognized by the state and for corrupting the youth of Athens; the sentence was carried out when he drank hemlock and died. He left no writings, but the main outlines of his character, activity, and teachings were depicted by three of his contemporaries: Aristophanes in his comedy, The Clouds; Xenophon, in his four “Socratic” writings, including the Memorabilia; and Plato, in his dialogues. Hegel] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770– 1831), German philosopher; privatdocent at Jena, 1801–1806; professor at Heidelberg, 1816–1818; professor at Berlin from 1818 until his death. Trendelenburg’s Logische Untersuchungen: Part 2 p. 198] Refers to the chapter “Die Formen des Urtheils” [The Forms of Judgment] in the German philosopher Friedrich Adolph Trendelenburg’s (1802–1872) work criticizing Hegel, Logische Untersuchungen [Logical Investigations], 2 vols. (Berlin, 1840; ASKB 843). See pt. 2, pp. 198–199: “Let us continue pursuing the immanent necessity that the development requires. By linking the forms, the dialectic essentially gathers the following puzzles together. It starts from the immediate, and by mediation frees itself to the self-determined whole; accordingly, it begins with the judgment of the contingent sensate

3

4

6

Projected Writings

14 16

17

20

quality, and reaches perfection in the apodictic judgment, which, directed at the entirety of the concept, presents a necessary link between subject and predicate. This path from the immediate and contingent to the self-determined and necessary whole, from the external to its own freedom, is the dialectic’s general course when the concept of a thing develops in a certain context. / The immediate―a word that is logical through and through―conceals the insight that the logic of pure thought cannot yet know and provides a logical sheen where what is meant in practice is perception. The immediate has its logical content only in the denial of logical mediation. However, if in this determination of the dialectic we put pressure on the affirmative concept, then from the background of a presupposed mass of thoughts there emerges a notion that would otherwise be alien to the logic of pure thinking. This is not a deduction imposed by the dialectic but emerges clearly in tacitly inserted statements. As it is stated expressly (Hegel, Encyclopedia, §172): ‘The immediate judgment is the judgment of existence [Urtheil des Daseins]; the subject is posited in a universality, as its predicate, which is an immediate (thus sensory) quality.’ But why is the sensory involved in a logical development that has promised, without presuppositions, to move only within the thought that has been freed from the sensory? In the proposed concept of the immediate we find here, as in so many places, the illusion of a pure, presuppositionless dialectic. If you calmly unpack it, you will find that it is merely a negative concept (‘not mediate’). But such a concept is only valid to the extent that it can fuse with an alien but solid mass.” from none whatever] → 30,1. have written 21 volumes] The reference is to  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe, 18 vols. in 21 tomes (Berlin, 1832– 1845; abbreviated hereafter as Hegel’s Werke). a hecatomb] A Greek term, originally meaning a sacrifice of one hundred cattle to the gods; a great sacrifice. the inverse movement] i.e., the circumstance that the dialectical development ends with a result that was already presupposed at the beginning.

•

P a p e r 315 1845 •

441

Hegel writes in bk. 1 of The Science of Logic: “It must be admitted that it is an important consideration―one which will be found in more detail in the logic itself―that the advance is a retreat into the ground, to what is primary and true, on which depends and, in fact, from which originates, that with which the beginning is made” (Hegel’s Werke, vol. 3, p. 64 [Jub. vol. 4, p. 74]). English translation from G.W.F. Hegel, Hegel’s Science of Logic, trans. A. V. Miller (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1969), p. 71. F. C. Sibbern criticizes Hegel on this point: “The entire inverse movement that Hegel makes when he does not begin from the idea of the beginning, from what is truly constitutive of everything, but, in the whole of his philosophy, proceeds upward from below in order to get to that point and ends where the stage has been reached from which, according the entirety of his own teaching, everything should first reveal itself in its truth―this means that he entirely lacks the real basis for a true deduction, as also for the true explanation”; see F. C. Sibbern, Bemærkninger og Undersøgelser, fornemmelig betreffende Hegels Philosophie, betragtet in Forhold til vor Tid [Remarks and Investigations Primarily concerning Hegel’s Philosophy, Considered in Relation to Our Age] (Copenhagen, 1838; ASKB 778), p. 38 (see also pp. 19, 39–41, 132, 148). did not even allow Polus to speak for more than 5 minutes at a time] Refers to Plato’s dialogue Gorgias (461d–e), where Socrates concedes to the young Polus that he will retract every statement that the latter can show is ungrounded, “provided that you observe one condition. POLUS: What is that? SOCRATES: That you restrain your exuberance, Polus, which you set out to use at first. POLUS: What? May I not speak at what length I please? SOCRATES: It would indeed be hard on you, my good friend, if, on coming to Athens, the one spot in Greece where there is utmost freedom of speech, you alone should be denied it. But look at my side.” English translation from Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), p. 244; for Kierkegaard’s Danish edition, see Udvalgte Dialoger af Platon [Selected Dialogues of Plato],

26

442

Projected Writings

trans. C. J. Heise, 8 vols. (Copenhagen, 1830–1859; vols. 1–3, 1830–1838; ASKB 1164–1166); vol. 3, p. 38. See also The Concept of Irony (1841), CI, 36 n. 1; SKS 1, 98 n. 1. 31

2

3

6

8

9

16

for childern, adults, but especially for childlike souls] Allusion to a common subtitle that appeared in, e.g., Poetisk Læsebog for Børn og barnlige Sjæle, til Brug saavel i Huset som i Skolen [Poetic Readings for Children and Childlike Souls, for Use at Home as Well as in School], collected, edited, and published by A. S. [Povl Frederik Barfod] (Copenhagen, 1836). most respectfully] Hilarius Bookbinder uses the same expression in signing his preface to Stages on Life’s Way (→ 31,6). Hilarius Bookbinder] The name has been formed from the Latin adjective hilaris, which means “merry, cheerful, satisfied.” He appears as the editor of Stages on Life’s Way (1845), to which he wrote a preface; see SLW, 3–6; SKS 6, 11–14. Once doesn’t count] Saying collected as no. 451 in N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danske Ordsprog og Mundheld [Danish Sayings and Adages] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1549), p. 17; see also no. 1665 in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat [A Treasury of Danish Sayings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1879), vol. 1, p. 167, where the saying is explained as something “said to excuse minor offenses of which one does not make a habit.” The fellow who fell from the mast . . . It’s nothing]  No source for this has been identified. See Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), where the anecdote appears in this variant: “There is a story about a sailor who fell from the top of the mast without injuring himself, got up on his feet, and said: Now copy me―but most likely he himself also refrained from doing it again” (CUP, 284; SKS 7, 259). The hunter] There is a detailed draft of “The Hunter, a Moral Tale” (Pap. VI B 202) for a planned book called “Writing Sampler” (1844– 1845). It is a satire on J. L. Heiberg, who, as a hunter, is indeed capable of taking aim and shooting, but hits nothing; see Pap. B 207, which has the heading, “Hornbook”:

•

P a p e r 315–316 1845 •

“The picture is so large that we therefore used it for two letters; one cannot arrange such for each letter. J. H. The hunter aims and shoots. [drawing] “A winter landscape, a clear and starry winter evening. “Here, little children, you now see a hunter; it is a man, he is a hunter, and the verse about him goes like this: The hunter aims and shoots. You must memorize this verse. Now then: The hunter aims and shoots. “Whether he hits the mark is not seen here. “But there is no lack of animals; a young hind stands and eats the straw that sticks out of the hunter’s boots, and an old stag trustingly thrusts forward its head and horns and sniffs the priming powder, whatever it is; this ordinarily tips it off at the beginning. “He shoots. You know well enough, little children, that one ought to be cautious with guns, and therefore he used all possible caution; this you see in his taking aim. Therefore, nothing unfortunate happened except that an old, feeble, and rather dazed crow, which had fallen asleep in a tree behind him―tumbled down and thought itself dead. When the other crows rushed forward and explained the impossibility of this, the crow answered that it had in any event felt hit and so it fell, if not because of his shot, then because the gun was fired. “The piece can also be explained otherwise: that the hunter is indeed not crazy, but that he is not shooting at the animals―but at the stars.* In that case it is quite right that he aims at them and it is not impossible that he hits them.** But back to the crow. All the crows laughed because the dazed crow claimed that human beings do the same. There was once a man who spat out of a window without hitting anyone or inconveniencing a single person. But a poor simple person, who heard about that man, that he had spat out of the window, was bothered about it for so long that it final-

Projected Writings

18

32

1

4

7 9

ly became clear to him that it was on him that the man had spat, even though the simple person had not even been in the city at the time. “Another man, made the object of an unwarranted attack, soon exalted himself on this basis; in noble self-esteem he considered his existence more meaningful than ever. He gathered his intimates and in many a moving evening hour they encouraged one another in this high-mindedness. And see! He had not used the necessary caution: it was not he but another man who was the object of the attack. Moral “When a shot goes off, from this it does not immediately follow that anyone has been shot, and the one who falls at the shot is a fool. *and the dog barks at the stars. **he probably does. When one stands on Valdby Hill, the distance, according to Professor Heiberg’s astronomical calendar, is 26 billion―2 mill. . . . . . miles 110 and ¾ feet.” (English translation, with modifications, from P, 133–134.) to no. 2] To no. 2, “The tale of the Tease”; see JJ:356 (1845), KJN 2, 237. Logical problems by Johannes Climacus] Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus supposedly wrote Philosophical Fragments, which appeared, with Kierkegaard as editor, on June 13, 1844. An outline of a new piece, “Logical Problems,” was completed (see Pap. VI B 13; see also VI B 89), but soon thereafter the material was used in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), which also appeared with Johannes Climacus as author and Kierkegaard as editor. Something on godly rhetoric] See Paper 319– Paper 326; see also JJ:305 (1845) in KJN 2, 217, and the draft material in Pap. VI B 128–137. Johannes de silentio] The pseudonymous author of Fear and Trembling (1843). a story of suffering psychological experiment]  Used as a subtitle of “ ‘Guilty?’ / ‘Not Guilty?’ A Story of Suffering. Psychological Experiment,” in Stages on Life’s Way (SLW, 185–397; SKS 6, 173–454), which was published on April 30, 1845. The printing of the manuscript, which Kierkegaard had de-

•

P a p e r 316–317 1845 •

443

livered to Bianco Luno’s Printing House in March 1845, was completed on April 17, 1845. See JJ: 317 (1845) in KJN 2, 220. Writing sampler. Apprentice test piece. by A. W. A. H. Rosenblad Apprentice author] The idea for this is suggested in JJ:289 (1845) in KJN 2, 212, while the draft material is in Pap. VI B 194–235. The draft has the title “Writing Sampler / Apprentice Test Piece / by / Willibald, Alexander, Alexius, Theodor Holger / Rosenpind or Rosenblad / Prospective Author. / Apprentice Author” (Pap. VI B 194). the Philosophical Fragments] → 32,1. Aristotle’s Rhetoric, vol. 2, chap. 23 (in the little translation, p. 197.) . . . to become a popular orator] See Aristotle, Rhetoric (1399a), which Kierkegaard read in Schriften zur Rhetorik und Poetik [Writings on Rhetoric and Poetics], 2 vols., constituting vols. 1 and 2 of Aristoteles Werke [Aristotle’s Works], trans. K. L. Roth, which in turn constitute vols. 132 and 133 of Griechische Prosaiker in neuen Übersetzung [Greek Prose Writers in New Translations], ed. Tafel, Osiander, and Schwab (Stuttgart, 1833; ASKB 1092). In bk. 2, chap. 23, the following example of urging and discouraging two opposite things is found: “the priestess enjoined upon her son not to take to public speaking: ‘For,’ she said, ‘if you say what is right, men will hate you; if you say what is wrong, the gods will hate you.’ The reply might be, ‘On the contrary, you ought to take to public speaking: for if you say what is right, the gods will love you; if you say what is wrong, men will love you.’ ” (English translation from Jonathan Barnes, ed., The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vols. [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984; abbreviated hereafter as The Complete Works of Aristotle], vol. 2, pp. 2229–2230.) ― Aristotle’s: Aristotle of Stagira (384–322 b.c.), Greek philosopher, logician, and natural scientist; wrote pioneering works in philosophy and science; studied at the Academy as a student of Plato but distanced himself from Plato and in 335 b.c. founded the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum; in 324 b.c., Aristotle had to leave Athens to avoid becoming subject to accusations similar to those that had been directed at Socrates.

11

2 3

31m

Notes for Paper 318 Decision to Become an Author

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

446

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Decision to Become an Author”1 is designated no. 292 in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay on the right-hand side of the “2nd, middle space in chest of drawers B.”2 Paper 318 has been lost; the text has been transmitted indirectly in H. P. Barfod’s edition of Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP).

II. Dating and Chronology In EP, preceding the entry that constitutes the undated Paper 318, Barfod notes that it “could perhaps be from 1841, in any case is not from any earlier year” (EP I–II, p. 280). For Barfod, the salient point was probably the introductory portion of the entry, where it is stated: “I suppose it was about 3 years ago that I had the idea that I would try being an author.” When Barfod named 1841 as the earliest point for the entry to have been written, he was probably counting Kierkegaard’s From the Papers of One Still Living (1838) as the beginning of Kierkegaard’s authorship. If it was “3 years ago” that the “I” of the entry tried being an author, and if Kierkegaard is regarded as the same person as this “I,” then the entry cannot be from a date any earlier than 1841. The entry can probably be dated more precisely than this. A number of pieces of evidence point in the direction of its having been written in 1845. Thus, in Concluding Unscientific Postscript, which was published on February 27, 1846, there is a passage that mirrors the entire situation and introductory wording of Paper 318:

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

Critical Account of the Text It is now about four years ago that I had the idea of wanting to try my hand as an author. I remember it very clearly. It was on a Sunday; yes, correct, it was a Sunday afternoon. As usual, I was sitting outside the café in Frederiksberg Gardens ...1 With respect to establishing a date for Paper 318, it is particularly interesting that in his manuscript of the passage cited above, Kierkegaard changed the formulation from his original “three years ago” to “four years ago.”2 Kierkegaard wrote Concluding Unscientific Postscript from the end of April to the middle of December 1845. Because the book did not appear until 1846, he lengthened by one year the interval, because the idea of becoming an author had first occurred to the book’s “I,” Johannes Climacus. Yet another parallel passage can help with establishing a date for Paper 318. An entry is found in Journal JJ, under the heading “A Possible Concluding Word to All the Pseudonymous Writings / by Nicolaus Notabene” (KJN 2, 239), which also contains a scene set in Frederiksberg Gardens. This is JJ:363, which can be dated to the summer of 1845.3 Kierkegaard writes: For I must tell a highly esteemed public how it came about that I became an author. . . ; then, one Sunday afternoon, 4 years ago I was sitting in the café out at the Frederiksberg Gardens . . .4 Here the interval is stated as four years. Because the entry is from 1845, this makes the year in question 1841. The parallel text passages in Concluding Unscientific Postscript and JJ:363 indicate that Paper 318 was probably written in 1845, possibly during the summer. In addition, these passages indicate that Kierkegaard himself―or at least the respective “I’s” in Paper 318, JJ:363, and Concluding Unscientific Postscript―designate

) CUP, 185 (translation slightly changed); SKS 7, 170.

1

) See the explanatory note to the passage in SKS 7, 170; the manuscript is printed as Pap. VI B 98, 40.

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal JJ” in KJN 2, 459.

3

) KJN 2, 239.

4

447

448

P a p e r 418 D e c i s i o n t o B e c o m e a n Au t h o r •

the years 1841–1842 as the time during which the work as an author began. These years coincide with the period when Kierkegaard worked through the lengthy manuscript of Either/ Or, which appeared on February 20, 1843. At the latest, the work began in October 1841, when he traveled to Berlin, continued intensively throughout the whole of 1842, with the final proofreading begun in December of that year.1

See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Enten ― Eller in SKS K2– 3, 38–58.

1

Explanatory Notes 34

1

4

11

13 13

14

19 28

I suppose it was about 3 years ago] This passage was incorporated, in reworked and abbreviated form, in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (see CUP, 185; SKS 7,170–171). in the café in Frederiksberg Gardens] Frederiksberg Gardens was a large royal park at Frederiksberg Castle, about two miles from the center of Copenhagen; the public was granted access to the park, and it was a popular place for outings, especially in the summer. This was also the site of Josty’s Pavilion, a favorite destination for visitors to the gardens. It was situated at what is today Pile Allé 14 A. The proprietor was the Swiss pastry chef Anton Josty. A Queen’s memory of her late lord] King Frederik VI of Denmark (1768–1839, r. 1808–1839), who had great affection for Frederiksberg Castle, lived there much of the time with Queen Marie Sophie Frederikke (1767–1852). On Sundays in the summer, it was a great popular attraction when the entire royal family cruised the canals of the castle gardens in the royal barge. After the king’s death in 1839 and until her own death in 1852, the dowager queen spent her summers in the castle. the death of the old king] Frederik VI died in 1839. his successor] Christian VIII (1786–1848), king from December 1839 until his death on January 20, 1848. inhabit this summer residence] Frederiksberg Castle was built in the period 1699–1703 as a summer castle for Frederik IV (1671–1730; r. 1699–1730). It was subsequently enlarged. Because Frederik VI lived at the castle much of the time, it was especially associated with him; his successor, Christian VIII, did not live there. Frederick VI] → 34,11. the Royal Law] Danish, Kongeloven; promulgated 1665, published 1709, the law’s forty provisions established absolute monarchy in Denmark. Most

of the Royal Law was abolished by the constitution of June 5, 1849. what it commands] According to § 2 of the Royal Law, “Denmark’s . . . absolute and hereditary king shall hereafter be regarded and respected by all subjects as the most excellent and exalted head here on earth, elevated above all human laws, and acknowledging no other head or judge over himself . . . save God alone.” See also Chr. V’s Danske Lov [Christian V’s Danish Law] (1683), bk. 1, chap. 1, art. 1, where this passage is repeated in slightly different form. Nuremberg pictures] Very popular engravings and lithographs of the period, featuring naive motifs. did not go to the amusements [of Vesterbro?]]  Many of the city’s places of amusement― from 1843, not least Tivoli―lay in Vesterbro, just west of the city proper. the spring] When Frederiksberg Gardens was reshaped as an English garden, the spring that had been there originally was then surrounded by a stone grotto. The spring remains an attraction.

29

34

8

11

35

Notes for Paper 319–Paper 326 On Godly Eloquence and on Aristotle’s Rhetoric et al.

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Elise Iuul, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

452

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “On Godly Eloquence and on Aristotle’s Rhetoric et al.”1 is designated no. 396b–d in B-cat. and is presumably a part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death were found placed together with various other materials in “a large sack.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology Kierkegaard did not date Paper 319–Paper 326, but certain entries can be dated indirectly with reasonable certainty. The entries, which taken together are a series of considerations concerning divine eloquence, that is, homiletics (some of them in connection with Aristotle’s Rhetoric), coincide with themes treated in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), on which Kierkegaard worked from the end of April to the middle of December 1845. Paper 319–Paper 326 were probably written during this same period.3 Thus in Paper 322, there is a passage with wording that is identical to a passage deleted from the fair copy of Concluding Unscientific Postscript.4 Paper 323:2 begins with the remark “From another ) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

) See also Paper 317, where Kierkegaard puts forward the idea “on godly rhetoric with some reference to Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” That entry is estimated to have been written in the late spring or summer of 1845.

3

) The deleted passage is found in manuscript 23.18; see the “Critical Account of the Text” of Aflsuttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift in SKS K7, 41; the passage has been printed as Pap. VI B 98, 83.

4

Critical Account of the Text manuscript, but not used there (Concluding Postscript).” All the entries in Paper 323 reappear as an unused portion of text in manuscript 10.3 of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, pt. 2, sec. 2, chap. 4, div. 1 (“Sectio I”).1 Presumably, when Kierkegaard wrote Paper 323, he had come so far with his work on Concluding Unscientific Postscript that he knew with certainty that the contents of that paper would not be used in the book. This indicates that Paper 323 was written toward the end of 1845, at any rate in the second half of the year. In Paper 324, Kierkegaard has added a reference: “see the journal, p. 158n. / p. 130.” With respect to determining a date, it is not this reference itself that is of interest but the formulation of the reference. Kierkegaard assigned names to Journals AA–JJ at the time he began Journal JJ, which he used over a long period of time, from 1842 to the end of September 1846.2 Kierkegaard began the first volume of the next series of journal volumes, marked sequentially “NB–NB36,” on March 9, 1846. Thus, until September 1846 Kierkegaard was using the two journal systems at the same time. On the basis of the reference in Paper 324, which merely refers to “the journal,” it must be concluded that Kierkegaard had not yet started writing in the first of the series of “NB” journals, Journal NB, for in that case he would probably have made his reference more precise. Thus, the reference does not provide a definite date but indicates a latest possible date of March 9, 1846. To summarize, it seems likely that Paper 319–Paper 326 were written in the latter half of 1845.

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Aflsuttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift in SKS K7, 49.

1

) Kierkegaard’s reference applies to Journal JJ and specifically to JJ:291 and JJ:240, which presumably were written in January 1845 and August 1844, respectively; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal JJ” in KJN 2, 453–466.

2

453

Explanatory Notes 38

3

6

38

14 17

Paul’s apostolic haste]  Paul, the most significant figure in the earliest period of Christianity, was born in Tarsus, Asia Minor. He was a Hellenistic Jew, trained as a Pharisee, and participated in the persecution of his fellow Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as the Christ. About a.d. 40, he experienced a call in which the risen Christ appeared to him; from then on, he proclaimed the gospel of Christ, especially for non-Jews, in which it does not seem to have been a requirement that one first become a Jew. He was presumably executed ca. a.d. 65 during the emperor Nero’s persecutions of Christians following the burning of Rome. Paul is known from a series of letters written in the years 51–55 and included in the NT. In Kierkegaard’s day, it was believed that the thirteen letters in the NT that are attributed to Paul were written by him; nowadays only seven or nine of them are regarded as having been written by him, including 1 Thessalonians, which is the oldest scripture in the NT; the letter to the Romans; both of the letters to the Corinthians; and the letter to the Galatians. In the four latter epistles, Paul appears as an apostle who maintains that his call, and thus his authority, comes directly from God and from the risen Christ. Modern scholarship regards the Acts of the Apostles, which is the other major source of knowledge about Paul, as reflecting a somewhat later image of the apostle to the Gentiles. inspired] Under the inspiration of the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit; see 2 Tim 3:16. Godly Discourse] i.e., discourse concerning God or religious matters; see Paper 321. the freethinking] See the explanation of fritænker (Danish, “freethinker”), in C. Molbech, Dansk Ordbog [Danish Dictionary], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1833; ASKB 1032), vol. 1, p. 319, col. 2: “a person who thinks freely (especially of the person who

does not accept the teachings of the Church in matters of religion).” Peter and Paul] Anyone and everyone; originally referred to the apostles Peter and Paul (→ 38,3). Sondby øster] i.e., Sundbyøster, in Kierkegaard’s time a small town with a school, some industry, and about one hundred houses and farms, in the parish of Tårnby on the island of Amager, then a rural district not far from Copenhagen.

25

To:] See Paper 319; see also a deleted portion of the fair copy of Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846; printed as Pap. VI B 98,83, pp. 191–192). Godly] Concerning the relation to God, religious. His Reverence] Title commonly used in referring to a member of the clergy. In the Danish system of rank and precedence (established by decrees of 1746 and 1808, plus later amendments) there were nine classes, each further subdivided into numerical subclasses. Titles and forms of address were assigned to persons in various official positions; “Your Reverence” was used in referring to clerics of the lowest rank or to those who were not included in the system of rank and precedence at all. Peer Degn . . . the entire Lord’s Prayer in Greek . . . the last word was [“]Amen.[”]] Refers to act 1, scene 4 in Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Erasmus Montanus eller Rasmus Berg [Erasmus Montanus or Rasmus Berg] (1731), in which Peer Degn (“Degn” is an outmoded Danish term for a parish clerk), in conversation with Jeppe Berg and his wife Nille, says: “Alas, twenty years ago I could stand on one foot and read the entire litany in Greek. Now I can still remember that the last word is ‘Amen.’ ” See Den Danske Skue-Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 5. The volumes have no date of publication and are unpaginated.

1

38

28

1 9

15

39

On Godly Eloquence 39

20

40

4

24 24

42

12

13

Something on Godly Eloquence] See the passage in pt. 2, chap. 4, div. 2, A., § 1, “Pathos,” in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) in CUP, 387; SKS 7, 366–367. ― Godly: → 39,1. From another manuscript . . . (Concluding Postscript)] See the “Critical Account of the Text” in the present volume. godly discourse] → 39,1. God’s house] Idiomatic expression for the Church; see 1 Tim 3:15. the peasants’ superstitious belief that the priest has a book] No source for this has been identified. Cyprianus] Cyprianus was the Danish designation for a book of sorcery that, in handwritten copies, was widepread among the wise women and fortune-tellers of the common people; manuscripts of this sort are known from the 17th century and recall the magical Faust books of Germany. The name Cyprianus stems from a pagan sorcerer who became a Christian and died a martyr in 290 as bishop of Antioch. See, e.g., the description of Cyprianus in the section on Faust books in R. Nyerup, Almindelig Morskabslæsning i Danmark og Norge igjennem Aarhundreder [Centuries of Common Light Reading in Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1816), pp. 194–202, where Nyerup relates the following concerning the document, pp. 194–195: “It has never been printed in Danish; it is only preserved in manuscript form; and the person who possesses it never admits that he owns such a treasure. I have never seen it in this country, and in times past, when they burned witches and magicians on the basis of the least suspicion, it is understandable that no one dared let it be known that they had in their care such a book with which one could consort with the evil spirit. I am also certain that there scarcely exist 10 copies of it in the whole of Denmark, however much one often hears talk in the countryside that one or another wizard has it. I believe that the book, which is so well known throughout the world of the Danish peasantry, is indeed the terrifying, the infamous Cyprianus, in which one can, by reading, summon and banish the devil and get him to do whatever one commands, and in which one can learn to conjure away, to cure

•

P a p e r 323 1845 •

455

every sort of illness, to reverse magical spells, to discover where money is buried in the earth, to render serpents and dogs harmless, etc.” a handbook for priests] See, e.g., H. J. Birch, Haandbog for Præster og unge Geistlige [Handbook for Young Priests and Clerics], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1791–1795); J. B. Møinichen, Haandbog for Præster og dem, der agte at blive Geistlige [Handbook for Priests and for Those Who Intend to Become Clerics] (Copenhagen, 1802); G. C. Krog, Landsbypræsten eller en Haandbog for Kandidater og unge Præster, især paa Landet [The Country Village Priest, or a Handbook for Theology Graduates and Young Priests, Especially in the Country] (Copenhagen, 1806); and Jens Møller, Haandbog for Præster i Særdeleshed med Hensyn til de Embedspligter, Lovgivningen foreskriver dem [Handbook for Priests, Especially with Respect to the Official Duties Assigned to Them by Law], 2nd much enlarged ed. (Copenhagen, 1834 [1830]). handbook for lovers] See a passage (printed as Pap. III B 41,27) from the draft of “The Aesthetic Validity of Marriage” (manuscript 2, in SKS K2–3, 12) in the second part of Either/Or (1843), where reference is made to G. F. Koch, Orakel der Liebe, Ehe und Freundschaft. Eine alphabetisch geordnete Sammlung gehaltreicher Gedanken über das Wesen, die Erfordernisse und den Zweck der Liebe, Ehe und Freundschaft [Oracle of Love, Marriage, and Friendship: An Alphabetically Arranged Collection of Valuable Thoughts on the Essence, the Requirements, and the Aim of Love, Marriage, and Friendship] (Magdeburg, 1841). It is good to be here in God’s house, would that we could simply remain here] Presumably, an allusion to Mt 17:1–8, esp. v. 4. ―  God’s house: → 40,24. a new hymnal] In order to demonstrate that the hymnal from 1798 (→ 42,37) then in use was no longer appropriate to the times, Pastor N.F.S. Grundtvig issued the first volume of his Sang-Værk til den Danske Kirke [Collection of Songs for the Danish Church] (Copenhagen, 1837; ASKB 201). A request for a new hymnal was presented at the 1840 meeting of the Advisory Assembly of Estates in Viborg, but it was denied by a resolution of June 25, 1842, which instead approved a supple-

13

14

18

36

456

37

43

13

On Godly Eloquence

ment to the existing hymnal. The following year, Bishop J. P. Mynster published Udkast til et Tillæg til den evangelisk-christelige Psalmebog (Foreløbig udgivet som Prøve) [Draft of a Supplement to the Evangelical Christian Hymnal (Provisionally Published as an Experiment)] (Copenhagen, 1843). That same year, however, Copenhagen’s priests and the theologians at the university organized themselves into Kjøbenhavns geistlige Convent (Copenhagen Clerical Conventicle), which on May 1, 1844, sent a proposal to the Royal Danish Chancellery in which it recommended the production of an entirely new hymnal. In 1844, the Roskilde Pastoral Conventicle approved a suggestion to form a committee (consisting of E. V. Kolthoff, N.F.S. Grundtvig, H. L. Martensen, J.V.H. Paulli, and P. J. Spang) to produce a new hymnal; the following year a “trial pamphlet,” Kirke-Psalmer udgivne til Prøve [Church Hymns, Published as a Trial] appeared, but did not win approval. On the other hand, Mynster’s supplement, with fifty-eight hymns, appeared the same year, authorized as Tillæg til den evangelisk-christelige Psalmebog. Ved Kongelig Resolution af 20de Febr. 1845 autoriseret til Brug i de Menigheder, som maatte ønske at afbenytte det [Supplement to the Evangelical Christian Hymnal, Authorized by a Royal Resolution of February 20, 1845, for Use by Those Congregations That Might Wish to Make Use of It] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 197). Nonetheless, the hymnal issue continued. the evangelical one] Refers to Evangelisk-kristelig Psalmebog til Brug ved Kirke- og Huus-Andagt [Evangelical Christian Hymnal, for Use in Devotions in Church and at Home], authorized by a royal resolution of April 13, 1798 (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 197; see also ASKB 195, 196, and 198 for other editions). see the journal, p. 158n.]  i.e., page 158, bottom, of Kierkegaard’s Journal JJ. See JJ:291, presumably from January 1845, where Kierkegaard writes: “If my memory does not fail me, it is in Minna von Barnhelm that Lessing has one of the characters say that a wordless sigh is the best way to worship God. This sounds good, but it actually means that one does not really dare to or wish

•

P a p e r 323–324 1845 •

to get involved with the religious, but only stare at it once in a while, as at the boundaries of existence: the blue mountains. If one is to clothe oneself in the religious every day, then trying difficulties arise” (KJN 2, 213). Kierkegaard is referring to the following line in act 2, scene 7, in G. E. Lessing’s comedy Minna von Barnhelm, oder das Soldatenglück. Ein Lustspiel in fünf Aufzügen [Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier’s Fortune: A Comedy in Five Acts], in Lessing’s sämmtliche Schriften [Complete Writings of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing], 32 vols. (Berlin, 1825–1828; ASKB 1747–1762), vol. 20 (1827), p. 241: “A single grateful thought toward Heaven is the most perfect prayer!” p. 130] i.e., page 130 of Kierkegaard’s Journal JJ. See JJ:240, from August 1844, where Kierkegaard writes: “Have I at all (however much I would like someone to share my point of view) the right to use my art to win over a hum. being[?] isn’t it after all in a way to deceive him. When he sees me moved, troubled, enthused etc. he embraces my view for a quite a different reason than I do, and [it is] an untrue reason. Prsmbly most have no grasp at all of what the discourse is about; when one has some art at one’s disposal then one should use it; yes the person who does not use it is an immoral pers. who does not acknowledge duty, lacks seriousness, is selfish, etc. Answer: Bah!” (KJN 2, 199). The Relation to Scholarship] See an unused preface “Something about Spiritual Occasional Discourses, with Continual Reference to Aristotle’s Rhetoric” in Pap.VI B 133, pp. 219–226; pp. 222–226 (see TDIO, 119–125, esp. pp. 121–125). my edifying discourses] Refers to Two Edifying Discourses (1843), Three Edifying Discourses (1843), Four Edifying Discourses (1843), Two Edifying Discourses (1844), Three Edifying Discourses (1844), and Four Edifying Discourses (1844), in EUD, 1–401; SKS 5, 5–391. they were not sermons] See the preface to Two Edifying Discourses (1843), where Kierkegaard writes, “this little book (which is called ‘discourses,’ not sermons, because its author does not have authority to preach)” (EUD, 5; SKS 5, 13); this is repeated word for word in the prefaces to the

14

16

17

17

On Aristotle’s Rhetoric

28

29

44

2 3

44

11

subsequent collections of edifying discourses (EUD, 53, 107, 179, 231, 295; SKS 5, 63, 113, 183, 231, 289). See the following passage in the appendix “A Glance at a Contemporary Effort in Danish Literature” to chapter 2 of the second section of the second part of Concluding Unscientific Postscript: “They are not ‘sermons’; that is, the sermon corresponds to the essentially Christian, and a priest corresponds to the sermon, and a priest is essentially what he is by ordination, and ordination is a teacher’s paradoxical transformation in time, by which he in time becomes something other than what would be the immanent development of genius, talent, gifts, etc.” (CUP, 273, translation slightly modified; SKS 7, 248). Hegel] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770– 1831), German philosopher and theologian, from 1818 until his death, professor in Berlin. Kierkegaard owned a number of Hegel’s works; see ASKB 549–565. his assassination attempt upon the religious sphere] Refers to the fact that in Hegel’s (→ 43,28) hierarchy of knowledge, religious faith is subordinated to philosophical knowledge. According to Hegel, religion is situated on the next-to-highest level in the system of speculative knowledge, while philosophy represents the highest level. Religion is thus lower than philosophy; religion contains an empirical element inasmuch as it understands the truth about the divine in the form of “notions”; philosophy, on the other hand, understands the truth solely in the form of “the concept” (i.e., without any empirical dimension). Religion is thus to be regarded as an incomplete stage on the way to philosophy’s absolute knowledge, and one must leave the religious sphere behind in order to attain this philosophical knowledge. Your sorrow . . . into joy, and no one shall take it from you] Refers to Jn 16:22. The apostle] Presumably, a reference to Paul (→ 38,3). Aristotle’s Rhetoric] Kierkegaard owned two different editions of Aristotle’s Rhetoric: namely, De arte rhetorica, stereotype ed. (Leipzig,

•

P a p e r 324–326 1845 •

457

1831; ASKB 1080) and K. L. Roth’s translation, Rhetorik (→ 45,24). The Rhetoric was also found in the editions of Aristotle’s collected works that Kierkegaard had in his library: Aristotelis opera cum Averrois commentariis [Aristotle’s Works with the Commentaries of Averroës], 9 vols. (Venice, 1562–1574; ASKB 1056–1068); Aristotelis opera omnia graece [Aristotle’s Complete Works in Greek], ed. J. T. Buhle, 5 vols. (Zweibrücken, 1791–1797; ASKB 1069–1073); Aristoteles graece [Aristotle in Greek], ed. I. Bekker, 2 vols. (in Aristoteles edidit Academia Regia Borussica [Aristotle, Published by the Royal Prussian Academy] or Aristotelis opera [Aristotle’s Works], 2 vols. with continuous pagination (Berlin, 1831; ASKB 1074–1075); and Aristotelis latine [Aristotle in Latin], ed. I. Bekker (in Aristoteles edidit Academia Regia Borussica or Aristotelis opera, vol. 3) (Berlin, 1831; ASKB 1076). ― Aristotle’s: Aristotle of Stagira (384–322 b.c.), Greek philosopher, logician, and natural scientist; wrote pioneering works in philosophy and science; studied at the Academy as a student of Plato but distanced himself from Plato and in 335 b.c. founded the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum; in 324 b.c., Aristotle had to leave Athens to avoid becoming subject to accusations similar to those that had been directed at Socrates. Enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism] See the following passage in Aristotle, Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 1 (1355a 6–14): “It is clear, then, that the technical study of rhetoric is concerned with the modes of persuasion. Now persuasion is a sort of demonstration (since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated); the orator’s demonstration is an enthymeme, [and this is, in general, the most effective of the modes of persuasion] . . . clearly, then, he who is best able to see how and from what elements a deduction is produced will also be best skilled in the enthymeme, when he has further learnt what its subject-matter is and in what respects it differs from the deductions of logic” (English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, pp. 2153–2154; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth [→ 45,24], p. 15). See also the note in Roth’s edition, pp. 18–19, where Roth writes: “In the readers of the Rhetoric, Aristotle presupposes

12

458

13

14

16

18

On Aristotle’s Rhetoric

knowledge of his previously composed dialectical writings, with together are called the Organon . . . Here he draws a parallel not only between rhetoric and dialectic in general, but also in their parts; for example, in the Rhetoric  he rediscovers the dialectical syllogisms in a slightly altered form, namely, as enthymemes. Given that in chap. 10 of  Sophistical Refutations, and in other dialectical writings, he also lists a sophistical syllogism, one could then ask to which rhetorical enthymeme he claims this corresponds. To this he replies: only the real and apparent syllogism form distinct categories, which correspond in the Rhetoric to the real and the apparent enthymemes (II, 23–24). Whereas if an apparent syllogism is called a sophistical syllogism, that is a designation deriving from  the  intention, and does not form a new category whose correlate one would then need to find in the Rhetoric.” Chap. II] K. L. Roth’s translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric (→ 45,24) is divided into books that are further subdivided into chapters. Rhetorical proficiency consists in . . . awakening belief (πιϑανον)] Rendering of the following passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 2 (1355b 26–27): “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the means of persuasion” (English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, p. 2155; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth [→ 45,24], p. 20). Every other [art] will . . . awaken conviction (διδασϰαλιϰη―πειστιϰη)] Abbreviated rendering of the following passage (which continues the passage cited in the preceding note) in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 2 (1355b 27–29): “This is not a function of any other art. Every other art can instruct or persuade about its own particular subject-matter” (English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, p. 2155; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth [→ 45,24], p. 20). πιστις, in plural, the means whereby one awakens conviction] See the expression die Ueberzeugungsmittel (German, “the means of convincing or persuading”), which is Roth’s render-

•

P a p e r 326 1845 •

ing of πίστεις. See Aristotle, Rhetorik, trans. K. L. Roth (→ 45,24), p. 20. 3 kinds of πιστεις . . . 3) those that are inherent in the discourse itself . . . to prove] Rendering of the following passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 2 (1356a 1–4): “Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself” (English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, p. 2155; N.B., the English edition erroneously lists passage 1356a as “1358a”; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth [→ 45,24], p. 21). Rhetoric is a collateral branch of dialectics . . . politics] Kierkegaard’s Danish rendering of the following passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 2 (1356a 25–27): “It thus appears that rhetoric is an offshoot of dialectic and also of ethical studies. Ethical studies may fairly be called political” (English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, p. 2156; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth [→ 45,24], p. 22). αιτιον―οὑ αιτιον] Presumably, a free citation from Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 2, chap. 23 (1400a 29–31), which reads, in part, “ἅμα γὰρ τὸ αἰτίον ϰαὶ οὗ αἰτίον” (“for cause and effect go together”); see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth (→ 45,24), p. 203. Rhetoric Chap. III] → 44,13. Listeners are 3 sorts . . . 3) to the judge . . . justice―injustice] Schematic rendering of the following passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, bk. 1, chap. 3 (1358a 36–1358b 29): “Rhetoric falls into three divisions, determined by the three classes of listeners to speeches. For of the three elements in speech-making―speaker, subject, and person addressed―it is the last one, the hearer, that determines the speech’s end and object. The hearer must either be a judge, with a decision to make about things past or future, or an observer. A member of the assembly decides about future events, a juryman about past events [while those who merely decided on the orator’s skill are ob-

20

25

1

2 3

45

On Aristotle’s Rhetoric

14 19

servers]. From this it follows that there are three divisions of oratory―deliberative, forensic, and epideictic. / Deliberative speaking urges us either to do or not to do something: one of these two courses is always taken by private counsellors, as well as by men who address public assemblies. Forensic speaking either attacks or defends somebody: one or other of these two things must always be done by the parties in a case. Epideictic oratory either praises or censures somebody. These three kinds of rhetoric refer to three different kinds of time. The deliberative orator is concerned with the future: it is about things to be done hereafter that he advises, for or against. The party in a case at law is concerned with the past; one man accuses the other, and the other defends himself, with reference to things already done. The epideictic orator is, properly speaking, concerned with the present, since all men praise or blame in view of the state of things existing at the time, though they often find it useful also to recall the past and to make guesses at the future. Rhetoric has three distinct ends in view, one for each of its three kinds. The deliberative orator aims at establishing the expediency or the harmfulness of a proposed course of action; if he urges its acceptance, he does so on the ground that it will do good; if he urges its rejection, he does so on the ground that it will do harm; and all other points, such as whether the proposal is just or unjust, honourable or dishonourable, he brings in as subsidiary and relative to this main consideration. Parties in a law-case aim at establishing the justice or injustice of some action, and they too bring in all other points as subsidiary and relative to this one. Those who praise or attack a man aim at proving him worthy of honor or the reverse, and they too treat all other considerations with reference to this one.” English translation from The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, pp. 2159– 2160; see Kierkegaard’s German translation by K. L. Roth (→ 45,24), pp. 32–33. 1) the essence of the speaker (ηϑος) . . . 3) the discourse . . . appears to convince] → 44,20. 1) through deliberative conclusions . . . 3) eulogies] → 45,3.

•

P a p e r 326 1845 •

459

Aristotle . . . “the listener” . . . only in book 1 . . . is there a little] → 45,3. my copy of the translation] Refers to Aristotle, Rhetorik [Rhetoric], trans. K. L. Roth, 2 vols. with continuous pagination, in Schriften zur Rhetorik und Poetik [Writings on Rhetoric and Poetics], 2 vols. (in Aristoteles Werke [Aristotle’s Works], in  Griechische Prosaiker in neuen Übersetzungen [Greek Prose Authors in New Translations], ed. G.L.F. Tafel, C. N. Osiander, and G. Schwab, vols. 132–133  [Stuttgart,  1833; ASKB 1092]). Kierkegaard’s own copy has not been found.

22 24

Notes for Paper 327–Paper 338 “Minor Pieces” from before 1848

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Vanessa Rumble

462

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘Minor Pieces’ from before 1848”1 is designated no. 353x in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay “to the left” in the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”2 The papers are part of a larger collection of manuscripts that were placed in a cover (Paper 327) bound in a wrapper with the inscription “Lay in the Bible case, older than 1848.” These are registered as B-cat. 353a–x.3 “Minor Pieces” was the title on a separate wrapper (Paper 328). Papers 327 and 328 have been lost; their text has been transmitted indirectly in H. P. Barfod’s edition Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP). The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers contain no dates. Kierkegaard himself noted on the wrapper (Paper 327) that the entries were written before 1848. External evidence shows that the contents of the “Minor Pieces” were written as early as 1846. Paper 329 begins as follows: When the peasant comes to market with his clean and carefully wrapped food products, it is disgusting to see that the ) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers” enclosed in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

) Only a portion of the group can be characterized as loose papers, and the following are included in KJN: B-cat. 353a (Papers 339– 340), 353b (Papers 341–344), 353g (Paper 377), 353h (Paper 376), 353k (Paper 373), 353n (Paper 372). 353r (Papers 374–375), and 353x (Papers 327–338).

3

Critical Account of the Text first people who come are not buyers who would surely handle the wares carefully, but some day laborers who tear at the wares and treat them roughly[.] The passage is further developed―and in part repeated word for word―in the comparison between literary reviewers and readers in Kierkegaard’s never-published “Letter to Aftenbladet [Evening Paper].” That piece, which has Johannes Climacus as its author, is a reaction to the treatment given by the press, on March 30 and 31, 1846, to Concluding Unscientific Postscript, which had appeared in February of that year.1 The entry was probably written some months earlier, presumably in January or February 1846. In Paper 330, Kierkegaard is thinking about the theme of the lilies and the birds in Matthew 6. He refers directly to this paper in NB:49, from October 1846:

Parallel with this should then follow 3 short but charming discourses: What We Learn from the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air. There is a scrap of paper related to this in my old Bible case. (KJN 4, 47) That same journal entry also makes it clear that Kierkegaard wanted to gather together a number of sermons under the title “The Gospel of Sufferings.” This, however, just like “What We Learn from the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air,” ended up as a title of a section of Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits (1847). Kierkegaard completed this second section of Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits (“What We Learn from the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air”) in October 1846,2 and Paper 329 can be regarded as an early draft of this. The biblical passages mentioned in Papers 329, 330, and 333 are sermon texts for the fifteenth, sixteenth, and twenty-third Sundays ) Kierkegaard’s article is printed as Pap. VII 1 B 86; see also the explanatory note to Paper 329.

1

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Opbyggelige Taler i forskjellig Aand. Kierkegaard had already sounded this theme in NB:5, presumably written in February or March 1846; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB” in KJN 4.

2

463

464

P a p e r 327–338 " M i n o r P i e c e s " f r o m b e f o r e 1 8 4 8 •

after Trinity. If Kierkegaard wrote the entries in connection with those Sundays, they would date from around September 20, September 27, and November 15, 1846. Paper 332 can also very well have been written in the autumn of 1846. The principal figure in the entry, “Miss Päthau,” is presumably the young Laura Augusta Conradi-Päthau, daughter of Johan Gotfred Conradi-Päthau, who was until 1847 the proprietor of the restaurant upstairs from Mini’s café on Kongens Nytorv.1 To summarize, it seems likely that Papers 327–338 were written from the beginning of 1846 until the autumn of the same year.

) The family’s connection with the restaurant seems to have ceased after Johan Gotfred Conrai-Päthau’s death. According to Kjøbenhavns Veiviser [Gazeteer of Copenhagen] for 1848, the restauranteur’s widow moved from Kongens Nytorv to Teglgardsstræde; in the next census, from 1850, the daughter is registered as living at that same address and as being twenty-five years old. See also the explanatory note to Paper 332.

1

Explanatory Notes 48

1

the Bible case] The Bible case mentioned in NB:49, from September 1846, as “my old Bible case” (KJN 4, 47).

The Gospel about the Son of the Widow of Nain] Refers to Lk 7:11–17, which is the gospel text for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.

16

48

48

7

some day laborers who tear at the wares and treat them roughly] Refers to the casual laborers and porters who gathered at markets and were ready to help the peasants when they arrived with their wares in the morning. See JJ:463 in KJN 2, 271–272, and the unused article “Letter to Aftenbladet,” where Kierkegaard wrote: “A reviewer he cannot properly be called, but the whole episode, like many earlier ones in literature, reminds me of what one sees in daily life. On market day, the farmer drives in with his wares; he has them carefully packed in clean wrappings; he is already happily anticipating that when he opens up everything must look clean, inviting, and tempting to the buyers. But the buyer does not come first. No, first come three or four loathsome marketplace loafers who paw and tear at the wares and soil the clean meat with their loathsome handling. This reviewer can best be compared to that kind of marketplace loafer; they have not only loathsomeness in common but also their aim: to earn a little drink money―by carrying home and reviewing” (Pap. VII 1 B 86, p. 279; English translation from Concluding Unscientific Postscript, vol. 2, Historical Supplement, Notes, and Index, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 119).

Miss Päthau]  (Mette Susanne Laura) Augusta Conradi-Pähtau (born August 31, 1820, baptized November 1820 in Holmen’s parish), daughter of Johan Gotfred Conradi-Päthau, who was, until his death in 1847 at fifty-two years old, the proprietor of the restaurant upstairs from Mini’s café on Kongens Nytorv. Augusta was unmarried, and after her father’s death she lived with her mother at 193 Teglgaardsstræde Funeral or Bridal Discourse] A funeral or burial discourse is delivered, most often by the priest, either at the grave or at the house from which the body is taken to the cemetery, while a bridal or wedding discourse is delivered by the priest, in church, in front of the couple who are being married. incorruptibility] An allusion to 1 Pet 3:4 (see King James version).

22

48

2

49

If I should write again about marriage] Kierkegaard had written extensively on marriage in “The Esthetic Validity of Marriage” in the second part of Either/Or (1843) in EO, 2, 3–154; SKS 3, 13–151; “On the Occasion of a Wedding” in Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (1845), TDIO, 41–68; SKS 5, 419–441; and “Some Reflections on Marriage in Answer to Objections, by a Married Man” in Stages on Life’s Way (1845), SLW, 87–184; SKS 6, 85–171. Fischart] Johann Fischart (ca. 1546–1591), German author and satirist. something by him cited in Flögel, Gesch[ichte] der komischen Literatur, vol. 3, pp. 339ff.] Refers to the chapter on Fischart in C. F. Flögel, Geschichte der komischen Litteratur [History of Comic Literature], 4 vols. (Liegnitz, 1784–1787; ASKB 1396–1399), vol. 3 (1786), pp. 326–378, which

5

49

48

10

12

the gospel about the lilies] Refers to Mt 6:24–34, the sermon text for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. See NB:49 (1846) in KJN 4, 47, where there is a reference to the present paper. Which of you . . . can add one cubit unto his stature] See Mt 6:27 in the King James version.

23

7 8

466

“Minor Pieces” from before 1848

has a section of Fischart’s best-known work, Affentheurlich Naupengeheurliche Geschichtklitterung [Adventurous Difficulties Rapidly Written] (1575), an embellished translation of Rabelais’s novel Gargantua (see pp. 334–344). As a sample of Fischart’s style, Flögel chooses an excerpt from the novel’s fifth chapter, containing a humorous recommendation of marriage. Flögel writes: “It contains a commendation of the married estate, written in the liveliest temper, and in connection with which a bachelor assured me, as I left him, that if he had read it in his younger years, he would have gotten married. Since the chapter is too long, I will only gather some crumbs from here and there.” This is followed by five pages (pp. 339–344) of excerpts. 49

17

According to the apostolic word] i.e., according to the NT.

50

28

kinship to devilry] Allusion to the title of Thomasine Gyllembourg’s anonymous novella “Slægtskab og Djævelskab” [Kinship and Devilry], published in 1830 in Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post [Copenhagen’s Flying Post], nos. 27–28, 30– 35, 40, 42, and 44–45; reprinted in Noveller, gamle og nye, af Forfatteren til “En Hverdags-Historie” [Novellas, Old and New, by the Author of “A Story of Everyday Life”], ed. J. L. Heiberg, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1835), vol. 2, pp. 2–122. complementary angles] In geometry, two angles that have one side in common and that together constitute 180 degrees. Their common basis consists of the other two sides, which together constitute a straight line.

30

•

P a p e r 333–338 1846 •

Notes for Paper 339–Paper 340 “Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

468

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46’ ” is designated no. 353a in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay “to the left” in the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”1 The papers are part of a larger collection of manuscripts that was placed in a cover (Paper 327) bound in a wrapper with the inscription “Lay in the Bible case, older than 1848.”2 These are registered as B-cat. 353a–x.3 “Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46” was the title on a separate wrapper (Paper 339). Paper 339 has been lost; its text has been transmitted indirectly in a transcription by H. P. Barfod. The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology With the exception of the wrapper around the papers (the indirectly transmitted Paper 339), the entries contain no dates. Barfod claims that Kierkegaard had written “Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46” on the wrapper. That Kierkegaard found himself in Berlin during this period is confirmed by the passenger list published by FlyvePosten [The Flying Post]. The list shows Kierkegaard was onboard the steamship Geiser when it sailed for Stettin on May 2 or 3 and that he returned to Copenhagen two weeks later, on May 16.4 ) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

1

) See also the “Critical Account of the Text of ‘ “Minor Pieces” from before 1848’ ” in the present volume.

2

) Only a portion of the group can be characterized as loose papers, and the following are included in KJN: B-cat. 353a (Paper 339–Paper 340), 353b, (Paper 341–Paper 344), 353g (Paper 377), 353h (Paper 376), 353k (Paper 373), 353n (Paper 372), 353r (Paper 374–Paper 375), and 353x (Paper 327–Paper 338).

3

) Flyve-Posten, no. 106, May 6, and no. 113, May 18, 1846.

4

Explanatory Notes 52

53

1

25

32 34 35

54

5 17 18

21 24

25 30

Berlin, May 5th–13th 46] Refers to Kierkegaard’s journey to Berlin and back, see the “Critical Account of the Text” just above. fatherliness] An allusion to Eph 3:15. In the authorized Danish translation of the Bible from 1819, Paul proclaims his faith in the Father “af hvem al Faderlighed kaldes i Himlene og paa Jorden” (“for whom all fatherliness in heaven and on earth is named”). who live . . . in you] Refers to Acts 17:22–34, esp. vv. 27–28. whom you made . . . way] An allusion to Gen 2:7. nor singly, as if you granted preference] Presumably refers to the many occasions on which it is said in the NT that “God is no respecter of persons.” See Mt 22:15, Mk 12:14, Acts 10:34, Rom 2:11, Gal 2:6, Eph 6:9, Col 3:25. you know] Variant: first written instead of “know”: “have, however, not forgotten him”. safest] Variant: first written “best place”. A person cries out to you in his hour of need] Presumably, an allusion to Ps 50:15; see also Ps 59:17, 77:3, 86:7. you give good and perfect gifts] Refers to James 1:17. a dark enigma] Similar expressions occur repeatedly in the Bible: e.g., Num 12:8; Dan 5:12, 8:23; Cor 13:12. when the mind] Variant: “the mind” has been changed from “the thought”. you all-knowing one] On God as all-knowing, see, e.g., chap. 1, “On God and His Qualities,” paragraph 3, § 4: “God is all-knowing; he knows at once what has happened, what is now happening, and what will happen in the future. Our most secret thoughts are not concealed from him,” in N. E. Balle and C. B. Bastholm, Lærebog i den Evangelisk-christelige Religion, indrettet til Brug i de danske Skoler [A Primer for the Lutheran Christian Religion, Prepared for Use in Danish Schools] (Copenhagen, 1824 [1791]; ASKB 183;

abbreviated hereafter as Balles Lærebog [Balle’s Primer]), pp. 13–14. discipline,] Variant: changed from “discipline.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. clashed with] Variant: changed from “did not correspond to”. despised] Variant: added. rings false or] Variant: first written, instead of “or”, “and”. fairy tales . . . children tell in the evening . . . an old castle] See JJ:397, from the latter part of 1845, where Kierkegaard writes that he had walked past two boys earlier the same evening and heard one tell the other, “Then they came to an old fortune-teller lady”; Kierkegaard continues, “This summer the same thing happened to me in the evening twilight out by Peblinge Lake. There were two little girls, and the one said: [‘]Then he saw an old castle in the distance.[’] I think that the greatest poet could scarcely produce an effect like these stirring reminders of the fairy tale― about the old castle in the distance, about what happened next, or that they walked a long way until, etc.” (KJN 2, 251–252). destructive raging of the elements] Expression for violent occurrences in nature that set the elements into destructive motion. ― elements: Natural forces were thought to reside in the elements, in accordance with the division of the physical world into the four principal elements of earth, air, fire, and water. See 2 Pet 3:10, where it is said that, on the day of the Lord, “the elements will be dissolved with fire.” the prodigal one, strong in spirit through this feast] Refers to the parable of the prodigal son in Lk 15:11–32. ― prodigal: Wasteful. Kierkegaard’s text mirrors the Danish New Testament of 1819, where the prodigal son is referred to as the forlorne søn, meaning the “lost son.” you are present everywhere] On God’s omnipresence, see chap. 1, “On God and His Qualities,”

35

7

55

10 16 18

1

9

18

56

470

22 33 34

57

1 32

58

2

15

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

paragraph 3, § 6: “God is omnipresent, and his power is active in all things everywhere. In no place is he absent from his creation,” in Balles Lærebog (→ 54,30), 14. your house] God’s house; idiomatic expression for the Church; see 1 Tim 3:15. Father of all] Variant: first written, instead of “Father”, “Consolation”. the testimony of good gifts] Allusion to Acts 14:17. Everything . . . from you is indeed a good and perfect gift] Refers to James 1:17. When the thief on the cross . . . that Christ would think of him in his kingdom] Refers to Lk 23:39–43. Viewed from the perspective of immanence . . . God does not exist, he is . . . God, eternally understood, eternally is] The significance of the distinction Kierkegaard posits between God’s “existence” and “being” emerges clearly in the present tense Danish verb forms that he uses here, namely, the distinction between the claim that “God exists” (Gud er til) vs. the claim that “God is” (Gud er). The preposition til in the first formulation (God exists/Gud er til) implies a directionality that underlies the finite perspective of the existing individual, an individual who must face the future as the venue of individual choice and possibility, an individual who must organize the moments of experience, past, present, and future, by virtue of the necessity of choice and the values governing these choices. Hence, “[o]nly for the existing person does God exist . . .” and “Faith is thus the anticipation of the eternal, that binds together all the elements, the separations of existence.” ― A Providence, an atonement: See Paper 340:1 in the present volume. immanent thought . . . abstract illusion . . . which erases all differences] Presumably, a reference to one of the central discussions in post-Kantian philosophy. According to Immanuel Kant’s epistemology, developed in the Critique of Pure Reason, (1781; see ASKB 595, 4th ed., Riga, 1794), it was possible to know representations (Vorstellungen) but not the thing-in-itself, which always remained transcendent and inaccessible to the cognitive faculties of the human being.

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

This dualism between the representation and the thing-in-itself, or between phenomenon and noumenon, resulted in paradoxes and contradictions that philosophers after Kant attempted to surmount with the help of “immanent thought.” J. G. Fichte’s idea of a “self-positing I,” the early Schelling’s identity philosophy, and G.W.F. Hegel’s development of phenomenology and of the “object of consciousness” (instead of the “representation”) are all attempts to develop a form of immanent thought that would elminate any transcendent element, that it is to say, any element that would be external to consciousness. Since this approach attempts to reduce the transcendent to the immanent, Kierkegaard claimed that immanent thought “erases all differences.” See, e.g., the passage on the abstract thinker in § 1, “What It Means to Exist; Actuality” of part 2, sec. 2, chap. 3 of the Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) (CUP, 301–302; SKS 7, 276–277). Since the approach previously named implies that everything is accessible to, immanent in, human thought, it is also assumed that it is possible to know everything as an object of consciousness. Kierkegaard regards this speculative view of the world as an illusion of abstraction. You dwell far away in a light that no one can penetrate] Refers to 1 Tim 6:16. your Providence] See Paper 340:1 in the present volume. what is a human being . . . mindful of him . . . that you . . . attend to him] Refers to Ps. 8:3–5. a fallen race] Humanity after the Fall; see the account in Genesis 3. your holiness] On God as holy, see, e.g., chap. 1, “On God and His Qualities,” paragraph 3, § 9: “God is holy and always loves what is good; he takes the greatest displeasure in all that is evil,” in Balles Lærebog (→ 54,30), p. 15. your Son came into the world . . . not to judge but to save] Refers to Jn 3:17. to seek out the lost] Refers to Lk 19:10. without . . . a place to rest, as even an animal has, . . . on which to recline his head] Refers to Mt 8:20. hungering in the desert] Refers to the account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert in Mt 4:1–11, esp. vv. 1–2.

11 12 15 17 17

18 21 21 23

59

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46” 23 34

60

5

8

10 26

61

41

thirsting on the cross] Refers to the account of Jesus’ death on the cross in Jn 19:25–37, esp. v. 28. (this joyous message)] The Danish word evangelium (“gospel”) is tied etymologically to the Greek εὐαγγέλιον, which means “the good, or joyous, message.” deliver him from evil] Refers to the seventh prayer of the Lord’s Prayer, Mt 6:13: “but deliver us from evil.” In Balle’s Lærebog (→ 54,30), the prayer is rendered “but save us from the evil one” (Danish, “Men frels os fra det Onde”), p. 101. The same formulation is used in S. B. Hersleb, Lærebog i Bibelhistorien. Udarbeidet især med Hensyn paa de høiere Religionsklasser i de lærde Skoler [Textbook in Biblical History: Prepared for Use in Advanced Religion Courses at Institutes of Higher Education], 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1826 [1812]; ASKB 186–187), p. 196, and in the service for weddings in Forordnet Alter-Bog for Danmark [Prescribed Service Book for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1830 [1688]; ASKB 381), p. 261. People say: [“]God is unchangeable[”]] Probably a reference to rationalism’s interpretation of God as unchanging. See Paper 56 and Paper 87 in KJN 11.1, 98 and 113, with their accompanying explanatory notes. anthropopathic] Attributing human passions to God. what he must be presumed to have been from eternity] Namely, as free from sin. The reference is to the doctrinal teaching on humanity’s original condition of perfection (Latin, “status integritatis”), as created in the image of God. See, e.g., § 78–81 in Hutterus redivivus oder Dogmatik der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche. Ein dogmatisches Repertorium für Studierende [Hutterus Redivivus or a Dogmatics for the Evangelical-Lutheran Church: A Dogmatic Source-Book for Students], ed. K. A. Hase, 4th ed. (Leipzig, 1839 [1829], ASKB 581), pp. 186–193. Adler . . . not . . . between the voice of God and the voice of the devil] Presumably refers to the following passage in A. P. Adler’s Studier [Studies] (Copenhagen, 1843), pp. 70–71: “God gave human beings the Law. It was good, serving [even] the angels. But when it attacked God’s Son ― now you are abolished, Law! Paul wrote

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

471

in his letter to the Galatians 3:13 that Christ freed us from the curse of the Law when he became a curse for our sake; (for it is written: everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed). There is a point at which one turns the poison against itself, a point at which the snake bites its own tail. The Law hammers upon the same words: But beware those who pass by. The dead letter acknowledges no difference between a robber and a prince . . . Jesus surrendered to the Law and was obedient unto death on the cross. And the Law hammers out the same words: Cursed is the one who is hung on a tree. Then God’s wrath struck and abolished the entirety of the Law. Jesus was on the cross. And the Law hissed. A voice came from the Law, mockery as though from the Evil One, the sound of slander, the evil spirit himself who spoke from a distance and ridiculed Jesus, like a dwarf ridiculing a bound giant. It was over. Hammer away, you workmen, and bring down the Law! And they hammered away with iron and rods and brought it down, and everything was cleared away. This is Jesus’ descent from the cross.” On Adler as “an exploded individuality who has dizzily made his way out of the infinite” see, e.g., the preface to his Nogle Prædikener [Some Sermons] (Copenhagen, 1843; ASKB U 9), in which he recounts that, one night “a dreadful sound rang out in the room. The Savior commanded me to stand up, go in and copy down these words: The first humans could have had eternal life; for when thought binds God’s spirit to the body, then life is eternal. When a human being binds God’s spirit to the body, that person is God’s child; and in this manner, Adam was God’s son. But human beings sinned; thought became immersed in itself, without a world, without a body. Spirit became separate from the body and separate from the world, and when the human being himself, when thought itself, separated the spirit from the body and the spirit from the world, then the human being became mortal and the world and the body became evil. And what became of the spirit? The spirit left the body. But God would not receive it back again. So it became his enemy. And where did it go? Back to the world. Why? It is angry with the world, which surrendered it. It is the evil spirit. And the world itself

472

62

29 31

63

8

27

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46”

created the evil spirit. Then Jesus asked me to burn my own [writings], and from that point on to limit myself to the Bible. I know that the sermons and speeches from No. VI to the end were written with the help of Jesus’ grace and that I have been the vehicle.” ― Adler: Adolph Peter Adler (1812–1869), Danish theologian; received the magister degree in 1840 with a dissertation titled Den isolerede Subjectivitet i dens vigtigste Skikkelser [Isolated Subjectivity in Its Most Important Forms]; from 1841, parish pastor in Hasle and Rutsker, both on the island of Bornholm. In 1842, he published Populaire Foredrag over Hegels objective Logik [Popular Lectures on Hegel’s Objective Logic] (Copenhagen, 1842; ASKB 383) and in 1843  Studier (see above); in 1844, he was suspended from his post and in 1845 was honorably discharged with pension, after his account, in the preface to Nogle Prædikener (Copenhagen, 1843) (see above), of having had a revelation was judged by Bishop J. P. Mynster as a sign of incipient mental illness. After his dismissal, Adler published Skrivelser min Suspension og Entledigelse vedkommende [Papers Related to my Suspension and Dismissal] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB U 10). In addition, he wrote and published Nogle Digte [Some Poems] (Copenhagen, 1846, ASKB 1502); Studier og Exempler [Studies and Examples] (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 11); Forsøg til en kort systematisk Fremstilling af Christendommen i dens Logik [An Attempt at a Brief Systematic Presentation of the Logic of Christianity] (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 13); and Theologiske Studier [Theological Studies] (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 12). we rejoice in its joy] Reference to Rom 12:15. vanished: but, God be praised] Variant: “God be praised” has been added. preference for the lame and the crippled . . . and the lepers] Refers to gospel accounts of Jesus’ healing of the lame, the crippled, the blind, and the leprous. See, e.g., Mt 15:30–31, 8:1–4, 11:5 and Lk 17:11–19; see also Jesus’ parable about the places at the table, Lk 14:7–14, esp. v. 13, and about the great feast, Lk 14:15–24. esp. v. 21. unfortunate since] Variant: first wrtten “unfortunate.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence.

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

little group . . . funeral cortege] Variant: changed from “little cortege . . . funeral group”. “like for like”] Refers to the Danish saying “Lige for Lige, om venskab skal holdes” (“like for like, if the friendship is to last”), no. 5611 in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat [A Treasury of Danish Sayings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1879); vol. 1, p. 619. Lige for Lige is also the Danish title for Shakespeare’s comedy Measure forMeasure. he of whom a Roman leader said, “Behold the man!”] Refers to Jn 19:5. ― Roman leader: Pontius Pilate, Roman prefect in Judea and Samaria (a.d. 26–36). he who would raise up the temple in 3 days . . . return as mockery] Refers to Jn 2:18–22; see also Mt 26:59–68, esp. vv. 60–61. he who calls himself king] Refers to the account of Pilate’s questioning of Christ in Jn 18:33–38; see esp. v. 37. my listener] Variant: added. He who bore the sins of the world] Refers to Jn 1:29. the fallen race] → 59,17. in death . . . even abandoned by God] Refers to Mt 27:46. the one thing needful] Allusion to the account of Jesus’ visit to the sisters Mary and Martha in Lk 10:38–42; see esp. v. 42. wine at the wedding] Refers to Jn 2:1–12. loves and loves until the end] Refers to Jn 13:1. the friend is changed and falls away in the time of need] Refers to Mt 26:69–75; see esp. vv. 34–35. sleeps in the time of spiritual trial] Refers to Mt 26:36–46. denies in the time of ridicule] → 66,20. when the scribe . . . approach him stealthily, under cover of darkness] Refers to Jn 3:1–21. into kings] Refers to Jn 6:14–15. into criminals] Refers to Lk 23:32–33. in the old church prayer . . . the required one . . . protected from: a sudden death] Refers to the litany in the Forordnet Alter-Bog (→ 60,5), where, in the third responsive prayer, which begins “Save us, dear Lord God!” and continues “from all sins, from all straying, from all that which is evil, from an unforeseen, harsh and sudden death, from pestilence, hunger, and need,

14

64

32

24

65

30

32

37 3

66

4 12 13

16 20 20 21 22 29 1

66m

1 16

67

“Berlin, May 5th–13th, 46” from war and blood-letting, from revolt and discord, from calamitous weather and from eternal death.” See also the prayer “Against Pestilence and Other Plagues,” among “Prayers after the Litany,” where this prayer is recorded: “and save us through your grace from our well-deserved punishment: pestilence, want, war and battles at sea, sudden death, and all forms of dangerous sickness” (p. 237). According to Danemarks and Norges Kirke-Ritual [Church Rituals of Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 47–48, the litany should be sung after the sermon at the worship service on Wednesdays and Fridays. See also the prayers for days of prayer in Forordnet Alter-Bog, among which the following is included: “God, in your enduring mercy, avert from these lands and states wars and blood-letting, pestilence and sudden death, hunger and want, storms and bad weather, flooding and fire” (p. 223).

•

P a p e r 340 1846 •

473

Notes for Paper 341–Paper 344 “Encomium to Autumn”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olsen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

476

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘Encomium to Autumn’ ” is designated no. 353b in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay “to the left” in the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”1 The papers are part of a larger collection of manuscripts that were placed in a cover (Paper 327) with the inscription “Lay in the Bible case, older than 1848”2 and tied crosswise. These are registered as B-cat. 353a–x.3 “Encomium to Autumn” lay in a separate cover (Paper 341) marked “Draft”. Paper 341 has been lost; the text has been transmitted indirectly in H. P. Barfod’s edition Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP). The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology Paper 341–Paper 344 contain no dates. For his own use, Kierkegaard included the following reference in Paper 342: “see Journal JJ p. 216.217.” The pages in question in Journal JJ contain an entry, JJ:367 (KJN 2, 240–241), with the title “Encomium to Autumn,” thus corresponding to the headings

See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” in the present volume).

1

See also the “Critical Account of the Text of ‘ “Minor Pieces” from before 1848’ ” in the present volume.

2

Only a portion of the group can be characterized as loose papers, and the following are included in the present volume: B-cat. 353a (Paper 339–Paper 340), 353b (Paper 341–Paper344), 353g (Paper 377), 353h (Paper 376), 353k (Paper 373), 353n (Paper 372), 353r (Paper 374–Paper 375), and 353x (Paper 327–Paper 338).

3

Critical Account of the Text found both in Paper 342 and in Paper 344:1. JJ:367 cannot be dated precisely but at all events was written after July 12, 1845.1 The wording of the reference in Paper 342 suggests that Paper 341–Paper 344 were written later than 1845. Kierkegaard assigned names to Journals AA–JJ at the time he began Journal JJ, which he used for a long time, from 1842 to the end of September 1846. Kierkegaard began the first volume of the next series of journal volumes, marked sequentially “NB–NB36,” on March 9, 1846. Thus, from March 9, 1846, until September of that year, Kierkegaard was using the two journal systems simultaneously. On the basis of the reference in Paper 342, which specifically refers to “Journal JJ,” it is likely that at the time of writing Paper 341–Paper 344 Kierkegaard had begun Journal NB and therefore found it necessary to make his reference more precise. It is probable that Kierkegaard wrote Paper 341–Paper 344 in 1846. Taking into consideration the theme of the entries, it is possible that they were written in the autumn of 1846.

Compare the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal JJ” in KJN 2, 453–466. See esp. pp. 455–459 with regard to the dating of JJ:367.

1

477

Explanatory Notes 70

2

3

70

16

17 19

26 27

71

4

15

18 23

See Journal JJ p. 216.217] The reference is to JJ:367, titled “Encomium to Autumn,” in KJN 2, 240–241. Encomium to Autumn] Kierkegaard’s intention appears to have been to compose a piece composed of five speeches, each in praise of a particular aspect of autumn. Tutti] Italian musical expression meaning “all,” i.e., an entire orchestra, or all the singers in an opera, or, in the case of the theater, a final scene in which all actors are together onstage. No. 2.] → 70,3. According to Nordic mythology . . . from a giant ’s brain] According to Nordic mythology, the gods created the world from the body of the slaughtered giant Ymer, the heavens from his head, and the clouds from his brain. (The blank space preceding the possessive “ ’s” was apparently left by Kierkegaard because he could not call to mind the name of the giant Ymer. See J. B. Møinichen, Nordiske Folks Overtroe, Guder, Fabler, og Helte indtil Frode 7 Tider [The Superstitions, Gods, Fables, and Heroes of the Nordic Peoples up to the Time of Frodo VII] (Copenhagen, 1800; ASKB 1947), pp. 479–80. slightly older] Variant: “slightly” has been added. sheer vanity] Allusion to Eccl 1:2. commons] Open areas for grazing, including, in Copenhagen, Nørre Fælled, Blegdams Fælled, and Østre Fælled (nowadays Fælledparken), northeast of Sortedams Lake. as friends mix their blood] Reference is to an old Nordic ceremony in which two friends pledge eternal loyalty to one another by mixing a small quantity of their blood in a bowl, to seal their pact. what you might wish to be] Variant: first written “what you wish to be?” or I will live . . . I became a cloud.] Variant: written vertically along the edge of the paper.

mackerel cloud] A common designation for the small clouds at a high altitude (also called cirrocumulus clouds) that hover in tight rows like the scales on a fish. shapely cloud.] Variant: first written “shapely cloud,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. leather cover] A reference to a loose piece of leather on a coachman’s seat (in a horse-drawn wagon) that can be fastened over the legs. No. 3] → 70,3. Echo] According to Greek mythology, the mountain nymph Echo rejected Pan. As a result, he tore her to pieces, and only her voice remained. In his Metamorphoses, Ovid tells a different story. Echo distracted Hera while Zeus dallied with other nymphs and as a result was punished―unable to speak otherwise than through imitating others’ voices. Later she was worn down by her unhappy love of Narcissus, until only her voice remained (bk. 3, vv. 356–401). No. 4] → 70,3. it is peace] Variant: added. “somber-hued autumn”] The source of this allusion has not be located. No. 5] → 70,3.

25

26

31

35 38

4

72

12 21 1

73

Notes for Paper 345–Paper 349 On Corsaren, Town Gossip, Grundtvig, Dansk Kirketidende, et al.

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olsen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

480

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “On Corsaren, Town Gossip, Grundtvig, Dansk Kirketidende, et al.” is designated no. 312 in B-cat. and is among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that upon his death lay on the right in the “2nd middle space in chest of drawers B.”1 The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology Paper 345–Paper 349 are undated. An indirect indication of the time of composition is found in Paper 347, a draft of a comedy for which the scene is set in “Copenhagen 1846.” This suggests that 1846 is also the year in which the entries were written (see below). Paper 345 begins with the words, “If someone were to write, in a despicable newspaper, . . . that my pant legs are narrow and far too short, and afterward were to sketch them: people laugh.” Kierkegaard’s pants became an object of public interest in 1846, during the struggle with Corsaren [The Corsair]. It was Kierkegaard himself who provoked the attack on December 27, 1845, when he published the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 2078 (COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77– 84). Kierkegaard’s pants quickly became the target of Corsaren’s attack, and he was often sketched by illustrator Peter Klæstrup as having pant legs of different lengths.2 Pants are also a topic of

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

1

) See Corsaren, no. 276, January 2, 1846; no. 277, January 9, 1846; no. 278, January 16, 1846; no. 279, January 23, 1846; no. 280, January 30, 1847; and no. 285, March 6, 1846. The illustrations are also reproduced in KJN 4, 453–456.

2

Critical Account of the Text conversation in the aforementioned Paper 347, which was written as a dramatic piece but is thematically linked to Paper 345. Paper 345 and Paper 347 were both likely written at some point in 1846, probably in the second half of the year, when Kierkegaard was able to treat the subject with some distance. Paper 346 is not concerned with the length of pant legs, but what is written in “the papers” remains an object of concern. Kierkegaard remarks that his name has “been up on the placards” and he himself has “been put on stage.” He makes reference here to J. C. Hostrup’s student comedy Gjenboerne [The Neighbors across the Way] (first performed in 1844). One of the characters is a theology student alumnus named Søren Kirk (the name was changed later to Søren Torp, also in the printed edition1), a figure modeled on Kierkegaard. In the winter season of 1845–1846, the piece was performed at various locations outside Copenhagen by H. W. Lange’s traveling theater troupe, and it was performed at the Royal Theater, as part of its summer program, on June 27, June 30, and July 2, 1846. Kierkegaard mentions this production in NB:43 (KJN 4, 43–44). The entry is undated, but the nearest dated entries are NB:36, from September 7, 1846, and NB:57, from November 5, 1846. NB:43 was clearly written between these dates, and it is reasonable to assume that the composition of Paper 346 belongs to the same period, the autumn of 1846. In Paper 349, Kierkegaard’s critical eye is focused particularly on Grundtvig and the Grundtvigians in the entry titled “Armed Neutrality.” The entry presumably documents Kierkegaard’s reaction to an article in Dansk Kirketidende [Danish Church Times] from September 20, 1846, “Troens Dialektik” [The Dialectic of Faith], authored by Kierkegaard’s earlier secretary, P. W. Christensen, in which Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) is discussed.2 Kierkegaard signs Paper 349:5 “Johannes Climacus,” the name of the pseudonymous author of CUP. It is probable that Kierkegaard composed Paper 349 immediately following the publication of this issue of Dansk Kirketidende, i.e., in the autumn of ) J. C. Hostrup, Gjenboerne. Vaudeville-Komedie [The Neighbors across the Way: A Vaudeville Comedy] (Copenhagen, 1847).

1

) Dansk Kirketidende, no. 52, September 20, 1846, cols. 841–856. In Dansk Kirketidende, no. 29, March 29, 1846, P. W. Christensen had written for the first time on Kierkegaard and Concluding Unscientific Postscript in the article “Troen og Dialektiken. Imod S. Kierkegaard” [Faith and Dialectic: Against S. Kierkegaard], cols. 475–482.

2

481

482

P a p e r 345–349 O n C o r s a r e n a n d T o w n G o s s i p •

1846. The publishers of both Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP) and Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (Pap.) fix the date of composition of Paper 349 as 1849, but they offer no justification. This is likely due to the fact that, in 1848, Kierkegaard planned to published a journal under the title “Armed Neutrality” (see the title of Paper 349:1), which was to accompany the publication of the second edition of Either/Or (see NB6:61 in KJN 5, 42–43). The plan was never realized, but in 1849 he wrote “Armed Neutrality, or My Position as a Christian Author in Christendom,”1 with the thought of publishing the piece as an addendum to The Point of View for My Work as an Author (posthumously published by P. C. Kierkegaard in 1859). It is not likely, however, that in 1849 Kierkegaard would have dedicated time to answering criticism of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, nor that he would have signed his critique “Johannes Climacus.” In 1849, Kierkegaard’s attention was directed elsewhere because Sickness unto Death was published on July 30 under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus.2 The writing of Paper 345–Paper 349 can with greater justification be assigned to 1846, probably the autumn of that year.

) Printed as Pap. X 5 B 106–109: AN, 127–141.

1

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Sygdommen til Døden in SKS K11, 121–178.

2

Explanatory Notes 76

1

3

9

77

8

78

18 19

A Contribution to the Illumination of the Despicable Misuse of the Comic] The entry is one of many in which Kierkegaard works through the experience of the Corsair affair. See NB2:25 (1847) in KJN 4, 148–149. ― the Illumination: Variant: added. If someone . . . in a despicable newspaper . . . were to sketch them] A reference to the satirical newpaper, Corsaren [The Corsair], and its mention of Kierkegaard’s pant legs (e.g., February 27, 1846, no. 284; May 29, 1846, no. 297; and January 1, 1847, no. 328), accompanied with sketches by illustrator Peter Klæstrup in which Kierkegaard’s pant legs were often depicted as of uneven length. See KJN 4, 453–454. of course nothing to laugh at] Variant: preceding “nothing”, the word “truly” has been deleted. his Excellency, Ørsted] Anders Sandøe Ørsted (1778–1860), Danish jurist, prime minister; from 1801, judicial assessor in royal and constitutional law, and from 1809 also codirector and instructor in canon law at the Pastoral Seminary; in 1810, he was appointed Supreme Court justice, a post he resigned in 1813 when he became a deputy in the chancellery; from 1825, he was procurator general; in 1842, he became prime minister but lost all his positions in 1848; in 1848–1849, he was a member of the Constitutional Assembly. In September 1841, he was elevated to the title of privy councillor; according to the decrees concerning rank and preferment of 1746 and 1808, this title placed him in the first of nine social ranks, and he was to be addressed as “Excellency.” in loathsome fashion] Variant: first written “besmirch the famous”. make money from a great man’s name] Danish, Stüvenfængerie, a Germanized form of the Danish Styvefængeri, i.e., pursuing even the most minimal profit; also a reference an author who lives only in order to sell his work. A Styver (“stiver”) was a coin of little worth.

No. 24 of the Blue Boys, who does not even have a name] Boys in schools for the indigent in Copenhagen were not called by their names but by number. Boys in the Royal Foster Home were clothed in green (the “green” boys); boys in other schools for the indigent were clothed in blue (the “blue” boys). someone’s having a famous name.] Variant: “name.” has been changed from “name,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue.

22

In the newspapers, I see . . . receives public acclaim.] See NB3:55 in KJN 4, 272–273. The reference is to J. C. Hostrup’s student comedy Gjenboerne [The Neighbors across the Way] which was performed by the Court Theater at Christianborg Castle on February 20 and again on March 9, 1844. In both performances, Kierkegaard’s relative Hans Brøchner played the role of theology student Søren Kirk, whose names and whose lines were clear allusions to Kierkegaard. In later performances, and in the printed version, “Søren Kirk” was changed to “Søren Torp”; see Gjenboerne: VaudevilleKomedie ved J. C. Hostrup [The Neighbors across the Way: Vaudeville Comedy by J. C. Hostrup] (Copenhagen, 1847). Hans Brøchner writes, in his recollections of Kierkegaard: “I remember with certainty that for the performances in which I played, the placards bore no other name than Søren Kirk. I cannot say whether any of the papers added any interpretation to the name in their reviews, but I do not believe that they did. And just as Søren Kierkegaard’s ‘full name’ did not appear on the placard, he was not ‘put on stage’ in the sense that there was any intent to copy his personality in the presentation of the role” (Encounters with Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries, ed. Bruce H. Kirmmse [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996], pp. 60–61). The play was performed at various locations in

30

24

78

484

37

39

79

14

14

80

16

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

Denmark and also in Oslo. In Flyveposten [The Flying Post], no. 283, December 1847, Kierkegaard read: “The Theater in Christiania. As reported in the Norsk Rigstid. [Norwegian Times], Hostrup’s Vaudeville Comedy ‘Gjenboerne,’ that in its original version as student comedy was already familiar to us from actor Mantzius’s residence here, has now been performed twice on the stage to resounding applause. This occasional piece, sparking with wit, humor, and poetry, could hardly have greater appeal to our public, and this in addition to the purely local and passing interest that such a piece possesses as such. The piece was performed in esp. lively fashion and con amore by the members of our theater. Hr. Rosenkilde’s Lieutenant-at-Buddinge and Madame Jørgensen’s Blacksmith’s Wife were particularly effective; the same may be said of Hr. Hagen’s Coppersmith’s Apprentice and Hr. Jørgensen’s Shoemaker from Jerusalem. Still, the expansive good-naturedness that is a characteristic trait of the former, and the biting satire that makes up one aspect peculiar to the latter, could perhaps have been more salient. Hr. Rasmussen was a lively and lovable Student and Madame Smith quite piquant. Yesterday Hr. Smith was somewhat absent-minded and botched the Søren-Kierkegaardian syllogisms.” ― that my full name . . . the placards: Variant: added. in these straitened times] In 1847, Denmark was hit by unprecedented inflation, which only abated in late summer, owing to a good harvest. I can attest on the basis of my own experience that, here in Denmark, less than nothing is earned] Kierkegaard often said that he earned no money from his authorship; see Frithiof Brandt and Else Thorkelin, Soren Kierkegaard og Pengene [Søren Kierkegaard and Money], 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1993 [1935]), where the claim is investigated. ― less: Variant: preceding this, “much” has been deleted. his coat,] Variant: first written “his coat.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. his pants] → 76,3. Sophus’s pants . . . is not true.] Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 346–349 1846 •

120,000 inhab[itants]] According to the census of 1845, 126,787 people lived in Copenhagen; see Kjøbenhavn, dens ældre og nyere Historie [Copenhagen: Its Ancient and More Recent History], ed. L. J. Flamand (Copenhagen, 1855), p. 189. I benefit . . . such things.] Variant: added across the entire width of the page. thank God that they are not like me] Allusion to Lk 18:9–14.

20

Analogies between . . . in order to bathe] See a draft of Works of Love (1847; Pap. VIII 2, B 73, p. 73; WL, 459), where the same analogy is used: “In no country in Europe is town gossip so dominant as in Denmark. It is taken for granted that small rooms must be aired out more frequently―in Denmark no one thinks about this at all. When it comes to town gossip and backbiting, we live as if we were in the huge rooms of Paris and London. It is taken for granted that if the swimming pool in which one is to bathe is small it must be cleaned out more frequently and not too many should go into the water at one time. In Denmark no one thinks about this at all.”

11

81

Armed Neutrality] The expression stems from the larger political arena, where it designates a land’s neutrality in relation to an ongoing conflict while at the same time asserting its right to defend its neutrality with arms. In 1780 and 1800, Denmark participated in alliances based on armed neutrality. Kierkegaard used the expression in the manuscript “Armed Neutrality,” which was written in 1848 and originally conceived as a journal that, according to NB 6:61, would have as its program “to give the times a definite and non-reduplicated impression of what I say I am, what I want, etc.” (KJN 5, 42). When Kierkegaard in 1849 decided to use the manuscript as an addendum to The Point of View for My Work as an Author (posthumously published in 1859), the title was changed to “Armed Neutrality, or My Position as a Christian Author in Christendom. Addendum to ‘The Point of View for My Work as an Author,’ by S. Kierkegaard”; see AN, 127–145; Pap. X 5 B 106–109, pp. 287–302.

18

81

2

81

5

On Corsaren and Town Gossip 21

81m

82

1

1 2

Hr. N. N.] Possibly a reference to P. W. Christensen, Kierkegaard’s earlier secretary, who in Dansk Kirketidende, no. 52, September 20, 1846, wrote a review of Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846). See Kierkegaard’s article “En ulykkelig Elsker I dansk Kirketidende” [An Unhappy Lover in the Danish Church Times] (Pap. VII 1 B 87; CUP, vol. 2, 125–127). what is found on Grundtvig, in the folder: Writing Sampler] Kierkegaard had long entertained the idea of producing a polemical, humorous work titled “Skrift-Prøver” [Writing Sampler] that was to contain various pieces, some of which Kierkegaard partially completed. The idea is found in JJ:289 (1844–1845), KJN 2, 212. More detailed matter for the book is collected in material from 1844–1845 (Pap. VI B 194–235; see P, 127– 150); however, the 1845–1847 drafts and clean copy for “Writing Sampler: Writing Specimen by A.B.C.D.E.F. Rosenblad [subsequently changed to Godthaab], Prospective Author,” no longer contain the material on Grundtvig (see Pap. VII 2 B 271–295, pp. 315–350; P, 128–156). It is clear from NB2:217 (1847) in KJN 4, 224 that Kierkegaard planned to include the earlier material from “Writing Sampler” in a new book that would be called “Juvenilia” (1847). In the material from 1844–1845 several headings suggest parodies of Grundtvig, but after having discussed Grundtvig in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (see esp. CUP, 34–50; SKS 7, 41–52), he notes: “The material on Grundtvig which was not used in ‘Concluding Postscript’ can be used here, in somewhat reworked form. The title will be: Danish-Pantheon: Pastor Grundtvig’s Portrait” (Pap. VI B 231; CUP, 141), a title that soon became “Dansk Fjanteon” [Danish Temple of Silliness] (Pap. VI B 232). Kierkegaard set aside the leftover material from Concluding Unscientific Postscript (see Pap. VI B 22, 23, and 29). ― Grundtvig: Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783–1872), Danish theologian, pastor, poet, historian, politician, etc. Most esteeemed] Phrase usually used in respectful address, or at times ironically. the story of the two swimmers . . . that he capitulated] See the anecdote “Det ophævede Veddemaal” [The Cancelled Bet,] in Komus og

•

P a p e r 349 1846 •

485

Momus, eller Samling af lystige Indfald, vittige Svar, latterlige Anecdoter, morsomme Tildragelser [Komus and Momus: Or a Collection of Merry Incidents, Witty Responses, Ridiculous Anecdotes, and Funny Occurrences], ed. K. L. Rahbek and J. K. Høst, 1808, pt. 1, bk. 2, pp. 54–55: “An army officer had a German soldier who constantly bragged about his swimming. The officer, who took him at his word, talked about this at a gathering where there was a naval officer who cast doubt on the story and claimed his sailors could swim much faster. It came to a wager with quite a bit at stake. When he got home, the army officer told his soldier about it and learned now to his great amazement that the soldier had never in his life been in the water, except in the gutter. When he became angry, his soldier offered to help him out of the embarrassment, provided the officer would give him 2 Rigsdaler. He [the soldier] was given them, bought a loaf of bread and a bottle of brandy, etc., put them in his knapsack and went over to the custom house where the contest was to take place. They met up there, together with the naval officer and his sailor, who was prepared immediately to throw his clothes off and jump in. The soldier looked at him with amazement: ‘Where do you plan to go?’ he asked, at long last. ‘Swim a lap around her!’ said the sailor. ‘Foolishness!’ cried the soldier: ‘When first I am on my way, I don’t turn back for 14 days, or the devil take me!’ He showed that he had provisioned himself for the long journey. The sailor thought better of competing with such a swimmer, and the naval officer was happy to be allowed to withdraw his bet.” People tell the story of a Frenchman . . . by adding the shirt] See the anecdote “Den forbedrede Opfindelse” [The Improved Invention], in Nyt Comisk Vademecum. En Samling af muntre Smaafortællinger, Anecdoter, og lignende humoristiske Stykker [New Guide to Comedy: A Collection of Cheerful Short Tales, Anecdotes, and Similar Humorous Pieces], ed. J. P. Rasbech, vol. 2 (1827), p. 121: “A French marquis argued with an Englishman regarding the advantages of each country. ‘At least,’ said the former, ‘you must grant that the French know how to invent the best fashions. Just think of the [detachable] cuffs, what an elegant decoration for

3

82m

486

82

14

22 28 33

83

1

2 5

82m

30

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

the hand. Have not all cultivated nations adopted it?’ ‘It is true,’ said the Englishman, ‘but you must nonetheless grant us, that we have improved upon this discovery many times over. We have added the shirt, and have provided the nations with the combination.” Kirke-Tidende] i.e., Dansk Kirketidende, ed. R. Th. Fenger and C. J. Brandt, 8 vols. (Copenhagen 1845–1853; ASKB 321–325) published on Sundays. It was a vehicle for Grundtvigian views. matchless] A favorite term of N.F.S. Grundtvig. idea-igniter] Danish, idee-phosphor, lit. “idea-phosphorus” (→ 83,33). strike-anywhere matchsticks] Matches whose heads have been dipped in yellow phosphorus and coated in sulfur for easy striking on any surface. Siegfried Ley] Christian Sigfred Ley (1806–1874) began university in 1847, studied theology but never completed the degree; employed until 1851 as a teacher in Copenhagen. During the 1830s, he contributed a series of articles in Grundtvig’s style (all signed “A theology student”) to J. C. Lindberg’s Nordiske Kirke-Tidende [Nordic Church Times], e.g., 1834, no. 47; 1836, nos. 4–5; 1838, no. 27. Earlier, in unused drafts for Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1845), Kierkegaard had written of Ley as a parody of Grundtvig: “His [Grundtvig’s] life is so parodically patterned that one needs only to tell it quite simply [to] . . . thereby write a satire, just as his style is so parodic that merely a careful reproduction of it, for example, polemically by Poul Møller in his day, or admiringly by Siegfried Ley, is a parody. This is a good proof of the fact that it is in itself parodic, that by doing the same thing, friend and foe produce the same effect” (Pap. VI B 98, 17; see VI B 29; in CUP, vol. 2, 30–31; see CUP, vol. 2, 12). Addresses] i.e., appeals by a group to an absolute monarch. when they want to be 12] i.e., like Jesus’ disciples. the-living-word] The expression, part of N.F.S. Grundtvig’s “matchless discovery,” is drawn from Acts 7:38, where “the living word” refers to God’s word. While Grundtvig in 1825 in Kirkens

•

P a p e r 349 1846 •

Gienmæle [The Church’s Reply] uses the expression in the sense of “words from God’s mouth,” particularly in the baptismal pact, this changes in the course of the 1830s, with the phrase used to mean the “spoken” word in contrast to the “dead” written word. Kierkegaard provides a detailed discussion of the expression in draft material related to Concluding Unscientific Postscript; see CUP, vol. 2, 16–27; Pap. VI B 29. asylum children] Children who have been placed in an institution where they are raised and provided for. Grundtvig] (→ 81m,1). Jewish style] i.e., in the style of the OT. command the earth to open up and swallow me] This expression occurs many times in the OT in a number of variations; see, e.g., Num 16:30: “and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up,” and Ps 106:17: “The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan.” Satanas] Greek, “Satan.” Thor’s hammer] In Nordic mythology, Thor’s weapon was a hammer called Mjølner; it was able to cut down everything it struck and fly back to its owner. “matchless”] → 82,22. the living word] → 82m,30. as theologian, he will be in a position to turn me into a withered branch . . . not fit his theory] See Paper 69, titled “Some Observations concerning Grundtvig’s Theory of the Church]” (1835) in KJN 11.1, 103–107; see esp. p. 104, where he makes reference to an article by Grundtvig that appeared in Theologisk Maanedsskrift [Theological Monthly], ed. N.F.S. Grundtvig and A. G. Rudelbach, vol. 6 (Copenhagen, 1826). The article is one a series titled “Om Christendommens Sandhed” [On the Truth of Christianity]. There Grundtvig states (p. 239): “In this manner, both Jews and Greeks have, . . . living, gone down to the kingdom of the dead, as witnesses of their own death, and of faith and the book, the blessing of which they have lost, but whose judgment they bear! They are like dead, withered branches on the Oak of Mamre, on the great Abrahamic family tree, over which the blessing of angelic voices hovered and

31

9 13 14

16 18

19 19 20

83

On Corsaren and Town Gossip

27 33

under which faith rested on the promise, while hope, on wings of longing, visited the lost paradise of the heart!” If a man . . . rare good fortune] See Paper 233:1 in KJN 11.1, 170. Johannes Climacus] The pseudonymous author of Philosophical Fragments (1844) and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846).

•

P a p e r 349 1846 •

487

Notes for Paper 350–Paper 363 Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Vanessa Rumble Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

490

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death”1 is designated no. 405b in B-cat. and is presumably among the group of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death were found placed together with various other materials in “a large sack.”2 Papers 350, 352, 353, 360, and 362 have been lost; their text has been transmitted indirectly in H. P. Barfod’s edition Af Søren Kierkegaards Efterladte Papirer (EP). The preserved manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

II. Dating and Chronology H. P. Barfod remarks in EP III, p. 350, that B-cat. 405b consisted of one “wrapper with a number of loose pages of paper.” Only a single one of the entries in Paper 350–Paper 363 is dated, namely, Paper 362, which bears the date January 20, 1847. Paper 362 has been lost, but it seems to be a later addition on which Kierkegaard made a notation concerning where in the papers he might find more on the subject. It is this addition that is dated. Since this is a collection of short entries in the form of notes that presumably were written over a short period of time, the date for Paper 362 makes it likely that Paper 350–Paper 363 were written at roughly the same time, at the end of 1846 or beginning of 1847.

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

2

Explanatory Notes 86

1

2

Eulogy at a graveside] The graveside eulogy (gravtale or ligtale) is distinguished from the funeral sermon (ligprædiken), which the priest delivers in the church from the pulpit after the burial has taken place in the cemetery. Graveside eulogies are mentioned in a letter from the chancellery of November 29, 1791. It provides examples of a short speech held either at the grave or, if the weather does not permit it, then in the mortuary or in the home from which the body was transported to the cemetery; see Samling af Forordninger, Rescripter, Resolutioner og Collegialbreve, som vedkomme Geistligheden [Collection of Ordinances, Decrees, Resolutions, and Circular Letters concerning the Clergy], ed. L. Fogtmann and F. T. Hurtigkarl (3rd ed., ed. J.L.A. Kolderup-Rosenvinge), 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1838–1840); abbreviated hereafter as Samling af Forordninger, som vedkomme Geistligheden, vol. 1, p. 357. Holding such graveside eulogies became increasingly customary during the 19th century, which is reflected in a government ordinance of March 31, 1829, that states, “there can be no objection to an oration, either in the mortuary, or at the cemetery itself” (Samling af Forordninger, som vedkomme Geistligheden, p. 357). These graveside eulogies were normally held by the priest, but according to a government decree of June 21, 1817, with the permission of the parish priest they could also be held by others, provided that they were, according to the law, entitled to preach, e.g., theological graduates. See Samling af Forordninger, som vedkomme Geistligheden, p. 366. Wedding] The reference here is to a wedding sermon that is to treat a short text from scripture; compare the guidelines presented in chap. 9, “Om Ægteskab” [On Marriage], in Dannemarkes and Norges Kirke-Ritual [Church Ritual for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), p. 318: “When the wedding is to occur, the priest steps forward and, standing before the bridal pair,

holds a short talk for them on marriage, for which he can use a biblical passage to explain briefly what this ritual concerns, and thereafter end with a brief wish.” the promise of love for . . . the life that is to come] An allusion to 1 Tim 4:8.

2

Eulogy] → 86,1.

4

86

Poul Møller] Poul Martin Møller (1794–1838), Danish author and philosopher; from 1822, he was adjunct lecturer in Latin and Greek at the Metropolitan School in Copenhagen and, beginning in 1826, lecturer, and from 1828, professor of philosophy at the University of Kristiania (Oslo); from 1831 and until his death, professor of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, where he was one of Kierkegaard’s most beloved teachers.

19

86

the grave of a suicide] If the police and the coroner agreed that a deceased must be assumed to have taken his own life and consequently “must be called a suicide,” then, in accordance with bk. 6, chap. 6, article 21 of Chr. V’s Dansk Lov [Christian V’s Danish Law] (1683), the person in question could not buried in consecrated ground.

3

87

Death understood as deception] See Paper 358 in the present volume. Death as assured consummation] See Paper 359 in the present volume. Death as the final honor] See Paper 360 and Paper 361 in the present volume. Death’s consolation] See Paper 363 in the present volume. See Journal JJ p. 296] In JJ:465, dating presumably from early summer 1846, Kierkegaard writes: “Amazing! There, outside the city, lies the garden of the dead―a little small-holder’s plot, hardly as big as a small-holder’s plot, and yet there is space here for all of life’s content. It is a compendious

6

87

7 8 9 1

87m

492

Draft of Occasional Discourses on Death

portrayal of actuality, a brief synopsis, a pocket edition” (KJN 2, 272). 87

13

88

5

88

11

11

88

13

if we hope only for this life] Allusion to 1 Cor 15–19; see JJ:333, from May or June 1845, in KJN 2, 227–228. Here the theme from 1 Thess. 4:11: to make it a point of honor to live quietly] In 1 Thess 4:11, Paul urges the Thessalonians to “to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs.” actor Ryge] Johann Christian Ryge (1780–1842), Danish physician and actor; passed his medical and surgical examination in 1805 in Kiel and received his doctorate in medicine in 1806; practicing physician and, from 1807, state physician in Flensburg; from 1813 and until his death on June 29, 1842, actor with the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, where he played a long series of characters in tragedies, comedies, and musicals, winning great success and recognition. From 1806, he took on a supervisory role with the theater’s finances and was from 1818 to 1838 its financial auditor; appointed assistant theater director in 1829 and director in 1831. honor . . . differences] Variant: changed from “honor”. another piece of paper in the big rectangular box] The paper has not been identified. It is possible that Kierkegaard has in mind a draft for a graveside eulogy (see Pap. VI B 144–149), which was found fastened together with ideas for “6 Taler ved tænkte Leiligheder” [6 Discourses on Imagined Occasions]. The bundle of papers lay in the large sack, which contained among other things the manuscripts for published works. It is described in Henrik Lund’s “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], p. [5], and is included in L-cat.; see “Introduction to the Loose Papers.” The following draft may be the material to which Kierkegaard refers: “Eulogy for a girl who remained true to the beloved, while he, from the faraway East Indies at first maintained the correspondence with her for 2 years, but later married another. The whole matter was a secret between the two of them. She became thirty some

•

P a p e r 357–362 1846 •

years old, and it was a love from early youth. / A young maiden Nielsen (Giødwad spoke of her.)  Governor Hansen  (?) was the man. / In a passage in Shakspeare in which a young girl is mentioned whose whole life was a blank page, but the worm gnawed. The passage is marked in my copy. // Eulogy for the king’s deceased chamberlain. / comedically arranged.―the royal dignity.―He was His Majesty’s true servant. (This could be said in the same sense of a prime minister)” (Pap.VI B 148–149, pp. 233–234; see TDIO, 112). The reference to “a passage” in Shakespeare is to the following retort by Viola, disguised as a man, in act 2, sc. 4, in Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1623, Danish title, Helligtrekongers Aften, eller Hvad I vil) in Ernst Ortlepp’s German translation, Der heilige Dreikönigsabend oder: Was ihr wollt; in W. Shakspeare’s dramatische Werke, trans. E. Ortlepp, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1838–39; ASKB 1874–1881), vol. 3 (1839), p. 472: “Ein leeres Blatt/ Sie offenbarte niemals ihre Seele, / Ließ ihr Geheimniß, so wie in der Knospe / Den Wurm, an ihrer Rosenwange nagen. / In blasser, welker Schwermuth sich verzehend / Saß sie wie die Geduld auf einer Gruft, / Durch Thränen lächelnd. Sagt, war das nicht Liebe? / Wir Männer häufen leicht auf Schwur den Schwur, / Doch der Verheißung steht der Wille nach. / Im Schwören sind wir stark, doch in der Liebe schwach.” In Shakepeare’s words, Viola’s speech is as follows: “A blank, my lord. She never told her love / But let concealment, like a worm i’ th’ bud / Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought / And with a green and yellow melancholy / She sat like Patience on a monument / Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? / We men may say more, swear more, but indeed / Our shows are more than will; for still we prove / Much in our vows but little in our love.” Kierkegaard’s copy has not been identified; see Paper 305:3, with its accompanying note, in the present volume.

Notes for Paper 364–Paper 371 “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Thomas Eske Rasmussen Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olsen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

494

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication’ ” is no. 259 in B-cat. It is among the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that were found at the time of his death “to the left” in “the uppermost area” of “the chest of drawers itself.”1 When it was found, the material had already been collected “in a folder,” which is presumably identical with Paper 364. The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. The point of departure for SKS editors’ dating of the papers is Kierkegaard’s own statement in Paper 364: “As far as I remember, this is from 1847―at any rate, it is not after the publication of Christian Discourses, which was from spring 48.”2 That the papers were indeed written in 1847 is confirmed by three journal entries. The idea for the lectures arose in April or early May 1847: I might now like to offer a little course of 12 lectures on the dialectic of communication. Thereafter twelve lectures on romantic love, friendship, and love.3 Between May 14 and June 9, 1847, Kierkegaard took stock of his work on the lectures, now with their complete title, in a journal entry that begins as follows: ) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. (see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume).

1

) Christian Discourses was published by the university bookseller C. A. Reitzel on April 25, 1848; see the “Critical Account of the Text” of Christelige Tale in SKS K10, 7.

2

) NB:192 (KJN 4, 115). This entry is undated; the closest subsequent dated entry is NB:203, dated May 5, 1847.

3

Critical Account of the Text In accordance with Journal NB, p. 251, I have in recent days begun to draft some lectures on the dialectic of ethical and ethico-religious communication. I have come to recognize, though, that I am not good at giving lectures.1 Although Kierkegaard postponed completing the twelve lectures, he did not abandon the thought of writing further on the topic. This is evident from the next journal entry, which reads in its entirety: Once again, then, I have set the lectures aside and have taken up my interrupted work (the first part of which I had finished): Works of Love. The material on the dialectic of communication will have to be a book.2 It is unclear how much of the material found here Kierkegaard had completed by the start of June 1847. Papers 365, 366, and 371 contain revisions in pencil, and a brief passage in Paper 368:12 reveals how long Kierkegaard had been inserting additions in these papers: On indirect communication, to what extent is a hum. being entitled to use it, whether there is not something demonic in it. On this there is a great deal in the journals from last summer. The demonic and “indirect communication” are in fact topics to which Kierkegaard directed special attention in his 1848 journal entries. If the 1848 journals are identical with “the journals from last summer,” then this passage in Paper 368:12 was written in 1849, namely, two years after work was first begun on this group of papers.3 The question remains whether all or part of Paper 368 ) NB2:13 (KJN 4, 140). Journal NB2 was begun on May 14, 1847, and the closest subsequent dated entry is NB2:67, dated June 9, 1847. See also the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB2” in KJN 4, 495–496.

1

) NB2:14 (KJN 4, 141).

2

) See NB7:8, which begins as follows: “Absolutely indirect communication is in fact associated with being more than a human being, and therefore no hum. being has the right to employ it. The God-Man cannot do otherwise because he is qualitatively different from being a human being. In paganism it is the demonic, but it has no place in Christendom” (KJN 5, 81–82). That entry was

3

495

496

P a p e r 364–371 T h e D i a l e c t i c o f C o m m u n i c a t i o n •

is from a later date, and whether Paper 367 is possibly from that same period. Both the folio format of Paper 367 and Kierkegaard’s orderly handwriting exhibit close similarities to Paper 368. The handwriting seems consistent throughout, making the question impossible to decide. This 1849 dating does not necessarily contradict Kierkegaard’s statement on the folder cover that the contents were from “not after the publication of Christian Discourses.”1 It is most likely that the bulk of “The Dialectic of Communication” was written during the spring and early summer of 1847, and that Kierkegaard had made additions to that material over the course of at least two years.

written between August and November 1848; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB7” in KJN 5, 423. With regard to the dating of “last summer,” the editors of Pap. held that “here one must think of the journals from the year 1849,” implying that Kierkegaard had written Paper 368:12 in 1850; see Pap. VII 2, p. 167n. Kierkegaard’s journals from 1849 offer no convincing evidence in support of this 1850 dating, however. ) It should be noted that, on the folder cover, Kierkegaard had first written “after March,” and then deleted it, implying that he himself was uncertain of the date.

1

Explanatory Notes 90

1

3

92

2 7

The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication] This text appears on the cover of a folder containing a number of working manuscripts for a series of lectures. Kierkegaard intended to produce twelve lectures on the dialectic of communication, but his work on these quickly ground to a halt. The draft materials were then gathered in a folder, to be preserved for use in a later book project (on this see the “Critical Account of the Text,” just above). The folder contains seven separate manuscript units. Four of these units are collections of loose drafts (Paper 365, Paper 366, Paper 367, and Paper 368), while two of the units each consist of a complete smaller section, namely, Paper 369 (“Introduction”) and Paper 370 (“The Primitive―The Traditional”). The final manuscript unit, Paper 371, includes Kierkegaard’s completed draft of the first lecture and half of the second lecture. ― Dialectic of . . . Communication: See the section “The subjective existing thinker is aware of the dialectic of communication” in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), in CUP, 73–80; SKS 7, 73–80. the publication of Christian Discourses, which was from spring 48] Kierkegaard delivered Christian Discourses to the typesetter on March 6, 1848, and proofread the manuscript during the period of political upheaval in March, when Denmark’s absolute monarchy was dissolved. The book was published on April 13, 1848. ― the publication: Variant: first written “March”. Introduction] See Paper 369 in the present volume. Kant’s honest path] An expression first used by the German philosopher F.W.J. Schelling (German, Kants ehrlicher Weg) in “Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freyheit” [Philosophical Investigations of the Essence of Human Freedom] in Philosophische Schriften [Philosophical Writings] (Landshut,

1809; ASKB 763), vol. 1, p. 479 n. 2; the expression subsequently came into widespread use. In Not4:46 (1837) in KJN 3, 167–168, Kierkegaard excerpted this expression from an essay by C. H. Weiße, “Die drei Grundfragen der gengenwärtigen Philosophie. Mit Bezug auf die Schrift: Die Philosophie unserer Zeit. Zur Apologie und Erläuterungen des Hegelschen Systemes. Von Julius Schaller. Leipzig, Hindsrichs. 1837” [The Three Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Philosophy, with Reference to the Work The Philosophy of Our Times: Defense and Elucidation of the Hegelian System. By Dr. Julius Schaller (Leipzig: Hindsrichs, 1837)] in Zeitschrift für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie [Journal for Philosophy and Speculative Theology], ed. I. H. Fichte, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 67–114, and no. 2, pp. 161–201 (Bonn, 1837; see ASKB 877–911); vol. 1, p. 86. The expression is most commonly directed at Hegel for his failure to follow Kant in grounding his philosophical method in a critical epistemology. See also Paper 366:1 and Paper 369. ― Kant’s: Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), German philosopher, professor at Königsberg from 1770. paid the famous 100 rix-dollars too] Refers to Kant’s refutation of the ontological proof of the existence of God in Critik der reinen Vernunft [Critique of Pure Reason], 4th ed. (Riga 1794 [1781]; ASKB 595), p. 627): “A hundred real thalers do not contain the least coin more than a hundred possible thalers” (Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Norman Kemp Smith [London: Macmillan, 1929], p. 505 [A599/B627]). in order to become theocentric] A reference to post-Kantian German idealism, particularly that of Hegel, whose speculative philosophy and theology regarded itself as “theocentric,” i.e., as having God as its point of departure and explanatory ground, as opposed to a merely anthropocentric approach whose point of departure is in the human being alone.

7

8

498 10 11 12 12 13

15 17 18

The Dialectic of Communication

Dishonesty―Lack of Naïveté] See Paper 366:1 and Paper 369 in the present volume. More precisely] See Paper 366:1 in the present volume. fantastic] i.e., a matter of fantasy, unmoored from actuality. (pure knowledge)] i.e., wholly abstract knowledge that makes no reference to actuality. in the same book, to treat both pure thinking sub specie aeterni and a privatdocent’s little treatise] See Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), in CUP, 332–333; SKS 7, 304, which illustrates the comic element in the fact that, in Hegel’s Logic, a speculative method makes use of a historical apparatus of notes. ― pure thinking: i.e., abstract, speculative (Hegelian) philosophy. ― sub specie aeterni: More accurately, sub specie aeternitatis (“under the form of eternity” or “from the point of view of eternity”), which occurs frequently in the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s Ethica [Ethics] (1667), particularly in propositions 22–36 of pt. 5, where Spinoza prescribes that in order to perfect its knowledge of God and the self, the understanding must comprehend both the spiritual and the physical from the point of view of eternity; see Benedicti de Spinoza opera philosophica omnia [The Complete Philosophical Works of Benedict de Spinoza], ed. A. Gfroerer (Stuttgart, 1830; ASKB 788), vol. 3, p. 424. Kierkegaard frequently uses this expression to characterize the general standpoint of speculative idealism. ― privatdocent: A person holding a doctorate who lectures at a university independently, i.e., without official appointment; privatdocents were used especially in Germany, but they were also employed in Denmark. More precisely] See Paper 366:2 in the present volume. The Greeks―how they remembered it] See Paper 366:2 in the present volume. Sophist] Reference to the Sophists (a Greek term that originally meant “an insightful and capable man”), the general term for a number of Greeks of the fifth century b.c., who―for a considerable fee―offered their services as teachers of philosophy, rhetoric, and politics, as well as natural science, anthropology, and pedagogy. The Sophists

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

were known for their eloquence. Starting with Plato (fourth century b.c.), who fought against them both politically and philosophically (e.g., in the dialogues Sophist, Protagoras, Gorgias, and Theaetetus), the term “Sophist” came to be used in a pejorative sense. fantastically] i.e., by means of fantasy, imagination, or illusion. primitiv[it]y] Kierkegaard often uses forms of the Danish noun Primitivitet, from Latin primus, “first,” to refer to the primal state or condition of someone or something. Similarly, he employs related forms, e.g., primitiv (adjectival) and primitivt (adverbial). Here, and elsewhere in KJN, these words have been rendered in English as “primitivity,” “the primal state,” “primitive,” “primal,” etc., signifying something or someone original, primal, immediate. The military presumes, that every farm boy . . . no difficulties arise in this respect] Until 1849, the Danish military draft applied only to the peasantry; they had to pass inspection for physical and mental defects before entering into service. ϰατα δυναμιν] A term deriving from the philosophy of Aristotle. see p. 11] See Paper 365:9 in the present volume. One can perhaps drum science into a hum. being] See Paper 368:4.c in the present volume. the little field manual (what an army is, what guard duty is, etc.)] Presumably, a reference to the thirty-two-page pamphlet Felt- and Garnisonstjenesten affattet i Spørgsmaal and Svar til Brug for Rekrutten af Infanteriet [Field and Garrison Duty, Summarized in Questions and Answers for Use by Infantry Recruits] (Copenhagen, 1842), containing forty-three questions and answers. This short book begins with field duty: “Question: What is an army? Answer. A group of various armed men supported by the government with the aim of defending the country and its rights, and maintaining internal order and calm within the country” (p. [3]). The final questions (p. 32) cover garrison duty, including the supervision and distribution of guard shifts. As soon as I think of communication] See Paper 367 and Paper 371:2 in the present volume.

1

92m

6

17

93

5

94

1

93m

1

94m

9

31

94

The Dialectic of Communication 95

8 10

11

31

96m

1

96

23

97

6

97m

2

97

9

either knowledge of something] See Paper 368:1 in the present volume. the so-called knowledge of knowledge] While it is unclear what source Kierkegaard is referring to, “knowledge of knowledge” is famously discussed in Plato’s Charmides, 170a. not, fantastically, the pure self-consciousness and the pure I] In other words, not the wholly abstract self-consciousness, decoupled from practical experience of the world, that was the goal and result of speculative philosophy in the wake of Kant’s critique of pure reason. The expression “the pure I” refers to J. G. Fichte and by extension to all of German idealism; here, however, it can also be understood more directly as the opposite of the empirical, concretely existing I. In this way, the dialectic of communication is now essentially changed] See Paper 365:8 in the present volume. Prometheus, who gave the ethical to all hum. beings equally] See The Concept of Anxiety, where Kierkegaard writes in a footnote that “it is beautiful to read what Plato recounts in one place and applies. After Epimetheus had equipped man with all sorts of gifts, he asked Zeus whether he should distribute the ability to choose between good and evil in the same way that he had distributed the other gifts, so that one man received this ability while another got the gift of eloquence, and another that of poetry, and a third that of art. But Zeus replied that this ability should be distributed equally among all, because it belongs essentially to every man alike” (CA, 106n; SKS 4, 408). Kierkegaard is here referring to a myth recounted in Plato, Protagoras 320c–322d, according to which it was not Prometheus, but Hermes and Zeus, who distributed ethical sensibility among human beings. How, then, is the dialectic of communication changed[?]] See Paper 365:7 in the present volume. communicating as] Variant: added. see pp. 2, 3, 4, 5] See Paper 365:5 in the present volume. The corporal and the farm boy] See Paper 365:5 and Paper 368:4.c in the present volume.

•

P a p e r 365 1847 •

499

An example] See Paper 368:14.a in the present volume. the citizens’ corps] Namely, “Kjøbenhavns Borgervæbning” (Copenhagen’s Citizen Corps), a civil militia in which young men of the bourgeoisie were supposed to serve when they reached age eighteen. component] Danish, Udtræk, here in the sense of an extension to a piece of equipment. The Indirect Communication] See the section “The subjective existing thinker is aware of the dialectic of communication” in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), in CUP, 73–80; SKS 7, 73–80. The Double-Reflection] See the section “The subjective existing thinker is aware of the dialectic of communication” in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), in CUP, 73–80; SKS 7, 73–80. The Maieutic] i.e., concerning maieutics, the art of midwifery, from a Greek word that means to release or deliver someone who is giving birth. This refers to Socrates’ maieutic art, which consisted in talking to another person in order to help him deliver the knowledge with which he was already pregnant but had simply forgotten. See, e.g., Plato’s dialogue Theaetetus, 148e–151d, in Plato: The Collected Dialogues Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961; abbreviated hereafter as Plato: The Collected Dialogues), pp. 853–856. as with the castellan Petro . . . is to get out] Refers to a scene in act 4 of Preciosa. Lyrisk Drama af Wolff. Med Musik af C. M. v. Weber [Preciosa: Lyric Drama by Pius Alexander Wolff with Music by Carl Maria von Weber], trans. C. J. Boye (Copenhagen, 1822), pp. 80–82, where hapless castellan Pedro has arrived with a group of armed peasant lads escorting a prisoner, Alonzo, to Don Francesco. Don Francesco immediately recognizes Alonzo as his son, but Pedro is oblivious to this. When Don Francesco barks an order at Pedro to stand down (“Get out!”), Pedro at first assumes that Alonzo or the peasants are the intended addressee. At length, after several angry exchanges, Pedro finally realizes that he himself is the one Don Francesco means. Preciosa had its

3

97m

6

32

97

3

98

4

5

17

97m

500

98m

1 7 10

98

6 7 21 27

99

4 19 21

25

100m

4 11

100

9

15 18

The Dialectic of Communication

premiere at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen in October 1829, and through 1847, it was performed seventy-eight times. Socrates said that he could . . . only be a midwife] See Plato, Theaetetus, 148e–151d (→ 98,5). rebirth] See the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in Jn 3:1–8. a new creation] See 2 Cor 5:17. The Indirect Communication] → 98,3. as has been shown] See Paper 365:7 and Paper 365:10 in the present volume. Double-Reflection] → 98,4. Docendo discimus] This well-known motto of unknown origin is inspired by the following passage in Seneca, Ad Lucilium epistulae [Letters to Lucilius], 7:8: “The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.” See L. Annaei Senecae philosophi opera omnia [The Complete Works of the Philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca], 5 vols., stereotype ed. (Leipzig, 1832; ASKB 1275–1279), vol. 3, p. 13. English translation from Ad Lucilium epistolae morales, trans. Richard M. Gummere, 3 vols., Loeb Classical Library (London: Heinemann, 1917–1925), vol. 1, p. 35. See Paper 368:8 in the present volume. The Maieutic] → 98,5. The maieutic art] → 98,5. ataraxia] A state of psychic tranquillity regarded as the highest, most desirable human condition by many schools of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy, such as the Epicureans, Cynics, Stoics, and Skeptics. The more precise dialectical determination . . . the medium in which the communication occurs] On this see NB:173 (1847) in KJN 4, 109; in the present volume, see also Paper 367 (2nd Distinction, A) and Paper 368:6. executive] i.e., concerned with practice, with carrying things out. ataraxia] → 99,21. To what extent is it permitted to win over hum. beings] Allusion to 2 Cor 5:11; see Paper 368:8 in the present volume. the maieutic] → 98,5. Socrates indeed says that the hum. beings . . . one or another stupidity] See Plato, Theaetetus, 148e–151d (→ 98,5), especially 151c, where Socrates

•

P a p e r 365–366 1847 •

warns Theaetetus: “People have often . . . been positively ready to bite me for taking away some foolish notion that they have conceived. They do not see that I am doing them a kindness” (Plato, Collected Dialogues [98,5], 856). ― one or another stupidity: In The Concept of Irony (1841), Kierkegaard remarks that “it is the nature of irony” both “never to unmask itself” and continually to undertake “a Protean change of masks” (CI, 48; SKS 1, 109). Proteus, omniscient sea god of Greek mythology, was confronted by King Menelaus, who wished to compel him to prophesy on his behalf. Proteus attempted to escape by repeatedly changing shape, but ultimately he surrendered to Menelaus and prophesied for him. Proteus’s metamorphoses are described in Homer’s Odyssey, bk. 4, lines 450–459. imaginary] i.e., unreal, deriving from fantasy or the imagination. The pathos-laden and the dialectical transition] In the present volume see Paper 368:2.b and its accompanying explanatory notes. First Lecture] These sketches were not ultimately included in Kierkegaard’s complete draft of the first lecture (→ 90,1). Lack of Naïveté] See Paper 369 in the present volume. to distinguish between what one understands and what one does not understand] In Plato’s dialogue Apology (21d), Socrates says that he is “wiser” to a “small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know” (Plato: The Collected Dialogues [→ 98,5], p. 8). On a related note, Diogenes Laertius recounts the following anecdote: “They relate that Euripides gave him the treatise of Heraclitus and asked his opinion upon it, and that his reply was, ‘The part I understand is excellent, and so too is, I dare say, the part I do not understand; but it needs a Delian diver to get to the bottom of it.’ ” Diogen Laërtses filosofiske Historie, eller: navnkundige Filosofers Levnet, Meninger og sindrige Udsagn, i ti Bøger [The Philosophical History of Diogenes Laertius, or the Life, Opinions, and Clever Sayings of Famous Philosophers, in Ten Books], trans. B. Riisbrigh, ed. B. Thorlacius, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1812;

26

100m

1

101

2

101

5 8

The Dialectic of Communication

12 15

16

17 17 19

102

2 2 3 5 7 17

101m

7 16

ASKB 1110–1111), vol. 1, p. 66. English translation from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans. R. D. Hicks, 2 vols., Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1925), vol. 1, p. 153. In the Motto of The Concept of Anxiety, Kierkegaard cites J. G. Hamann’s treatment of the above passage: “ ‘For Socrates was great because of the fact . . . that he distinguished between what he understood and what he did not understand’ ” (CA, 3; SKS 4, 310). Lack of primitivity] See Paper 370 in the present volume. ― primitivity: → 92m,6. the age when there was only one learned language] Namely, the Middle Ages, when Latin was the lingua franca for educated Europeans. the vernacular languages] This refers to the blossoming of the various European vernacular languages during the Renaissance. the periodicals] See Paper 370 in the present volume. all media have become sciences] See Paper 370.a in the present volume. socially] See Paper 370 in the present volume imaginary or fantastic] i.e., unreal, deriving from fantasy or the imagination. (the pure knowing)] → 92,13. (the apparatus)] i.e., footnotes and bibliographical material. sub specie aeterni] → 92,13. privatdocent’s] → 92,13. fantastic] i.e., a matter of fantasy, unmoored from actuality. primitivity] → 92m,6. our age, which has otherwise doubted everything] Alludes ironically to the idealistic philosophy―including and especially Danish Hegelianism―which aimed at finding a self-evident, indubitable truth, and then to use it as a foundation for constructing a system of philosophy. The saying De omnibus dubitandum est (Latin, “One is to doubt everything”) was coined by the French philosopher, mathematician, and natural scientist René Descartes (1596–1650), in whose chief systematic work, Principia philosophiae [Principles of Philosophy] (1644), the saying forms part of the title of the first section of the

•

P a p e r 366 1847 •

501

first part: “Veritatem inquirenti, semel in vita de omnibus, quantum fieri potest, esse dubitandum” [He Who Seeks the Truth Ought for Once in His Life Doubt Everything to the Extent Possible], in Renati Des-Cartes opera philosophica [Philosophical Works of René Descartes], 4 vols., 6th Elzevier ed. (Amsterdam, 1677–1678, vol. 1, 1678; vols. 2–4, 1677; ASKB 473), vol. 2, p. 1. The saying expresses Descartes’s attempt to reach a firm foundation for scientific cognition and a starting point for his philosophical system by going through methodical doubt; it was subsequently cited by Hegel in his lectures on the history of philosophy. An authentic primitive genius is the general inspector] Variant: added; see Paper 371:2 in the present volume. the tyranny of the daily press, the journals, the brochures] See Paper 370 in the present volume. those who understand how to write―for the crowd] See NB2:24 (1847) in KJN 4, 148. one lives in the moment . . . any distance] Variant: added. Kant’s honest path] → 92,7. paid, if I dare say it, the famous 100 rix-dollars too] → 92,7. in order to become theocentric] → 92,8. The Greeks] See Paper 365:4 in the present volume. Sophist] → 92,18. theocentric] → 92,8. fantastic] i.e., a matter of fantasy, unmoored from actuality. The physiologists have observed . . . abnormal, inhuman development of stomach and brain] While no definite source for this remark has been identified, a plausible source is Schopenhauer’s description of the bodily preconditions for genius as including ein guter Magen (“a good stomach”) and a Gehirn von ungewöhnlicher Entwickelung und Größe (“brain of unusual development and size”), in which the cerebrum outweighs the cerebellum abnorm (“abnormally”). Arthur Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung [The World as Will and Representation], 2 vols., 2nd augmented and improved ed. (Leipzig,1844; ASKB 773–773a), vol. 2, p. 392.

22

34 37 40 2

102m

3 4 11 14 14 17 25

102

502 102m

7 18

28 30

30

104

2

6 23

33

105

1

19

The Dialectic of Communication

If one who wished to speak had a megaphone] See NB2:27 (1847) in KJN 4, 149–150. the invention of the art of printing] The art of printing books, in the sense apparently intended here, i.e., as the result of the invention of movable type, began ca. 1450 and is generally attributed to the German mechanic and metalworker Johann Gutenberg (d. 1468). fantastic] i.e., a matter of fantasy, unmoored from actuality; unrealistic. anonymity] See the unused article “Den literaire Foragtelighed” [Literary Contemptibleness] (1846, in Pap. VII 1 B 54). The persona of antiquity―per sonare―to intensify the voice of the single individual] Refers to the fact that the Latin word persona (literally “mask”; figuratively “role,” “character”) was derived from the Latin verb personare (“to sound [sonare] through [per]”), an etymology dating back to the Roman grammarian Gabius or Gavius Bassus (first century b.c.), according to bk. 5, chap. 7 of Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae (“Attic Nights”). See, e.g., P. Arnesen, Ny Latinsk Ordbog til Brug for den studerende Ungdom [New Latin Dictionary for Use by the Youth in Their Studies] (Copenhagen, 1848; ASKB 1012), col. 2245. upbringing] See Kierkegaard’s unpublished The Book on Adler, drafted in 1846–1847, in BA, 133– 134; SKS 15, 286–287. ϰατα δυναμιν] → 94,5. The difference betw. . . . is simply] Variant: first written (as a heading): “The Difference betw. Upbringing in Relation to the Ethical and the Ethical-Religious”. Here lies my accomplishment . . . discovered the maieutic withi[n] Xnty] See NB:154 (1847) in KJN 4, 102–103. ― the maieutic: → 98,5. In addition: to have situated I’s into . . . that a person says: “I.”] See Paper 371:1 in the present volume. To stand―alone with the help of another and To stand alone―with the help of another] See Works of Love (1847) in WL, 275; SKS 9, 272–273. Kierkegaard here makes use of a wordplay that cannot easily be translated. In both statements he uses the word ene (here translated “alone”),

•

P a p e r 366–368 1847 •

which can mean both “only, solely” and “alone, not in the company of others.” the maieutic relation] → 98,5.

21

As soon as I think of communicating, I think of something fourfold] See Paper 365:6 in the present volume. Kierkegaard’s fourfold division may have been inspired by the Pyrrhonian skeptical philosophy promoted by Sextus Empiricus (first century a.d.), as it was described by W. G. Tennemann in his Geschichte der Philosophie [History of Philosophy], 11 vols. (Leipzig, 1798– 1819; ASKB 815–826), vol. 5 (1805), p. 293: “The teaching and learning of a science presupposes four conditions: there must be an object of the scientific discourse, a teacher and learner, and a method of learning.” NB This second and third distinction . . . toward personality.] Variant: added vertically along the edge of the page. When (in the course of reflection . . . being-able) there is reflection upon] Variant: added. Maieutics] → 98,5.

1

2

108

(This is a problem . . . faith is the pathos-laden transition.)] Variant: added on the next page. ― piece of cardboard: Refers to a cardboard sheet with light green edges and with paper on both sides. See Paper 277 (1842–1843) in the present volume, along with its “Critical Account of the Text” and explanatory note. ― the chest of drawers where the older papers are.: Variant: changed from “the chest of drawers”. On the difference between a dialectical and a pathos-laden transition (the leap)] See Paper 365:24 in the present volume. Particularly in his speculative logic, Hegel attempts to prove that logic’s central categories, in keeping with reason’s dialectical nature, “transition” [Hegel’s German word is übergehen, lit. “go over”] into their opposites, so that truth must be found in a higher unity that preserves their categories’ differences. For example, “pure being,” the most extreme abstraction from everything, is said to transition into the category of “nothing”; the union of “being” and “nothing” is the category “becoming” (coming-into-being, movement; in German, werden). See

9

110m

106

31

12

The Dialectic of Communication

111m

2 6

20

Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik [Science of Logic], ed. L. von Henning, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1833–1834 [1812–1816]; ASKB 552–554); vol. 1,1, in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Works: Complete Edition], vols. 1–18 (Berlin, 1832–1845); vol. 3, ed. by L. von Henning (1833 [1812]; ASKB 552), pp. 77–79. ― pathos-laden: Having or being in the power of passion. See also Paper 283:1 in KJN 11.1, 274–276; Not13:8.a in KJN 3, 384; Not13:8.c in KJN 3, 386; and Not12:4 in KJN 3, 373. ― the leap: A qualitative transition. “You shall,”] Refers to the double commandment of love in Mt 22:37–40. Perhaps one can drum . . . I will manage to drum it into him] Variant: added. See also sec. II. A. of Works of Love, in WL, 17–43; SKS 9, 25–50. Works of Love, which Kierkegaard was evidently working on during the same period as the composition of these papers, was published on September 29, 1847. ― ϰατα δυναμιν: → 94,5. ― a little book called the field manual: → 94m,9. The anc. Greek on the extent to which virtue can be taught . . . a couple of Plato’s dialogues could be reviewed] In the early dialogues of Plato, questions repeatedly arise concerning what virtue is and to what degree virtue can be taught. In Protagoras, Socrates poses this question to the Sophist Protagoras, who immediately replies that virtue can indeed be taught, namely, by his own teaching methods. It soon emerges, however, that he can provide no account of what “the good” is, and ultimately he must admit that goodness as a whole depends on knowledge of the good, as do individual virtues as well. For his part, Socrates holds that virtue can only be taught via insight into absolute goodness; indeed, one who possesses such insight cannot conceivably act badly. The dialogue ends without determining more specifically how this “knowledge” can be reached―or what its content is. In Euthydemus, meanwhile, Socrates engages in dialogue with the young Clinias on how human beings can become happy. This leads them to discuss a variety of forms of goodness, the attainment of all of which―once again―turns out to depend on a preexisting knowledge of the good as such.

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

503

The dialogue similarly ends without specifying any further how virtue can be taught or learned. Next, in Gorgias, the topic is the nature and value of rhetoric. Whereas the Sophists see rhetoric ultimately as a means of gaining power, Socrates claims that rhetoric is incapable of teaching what is most essential, namely―once again―insight into, and thereby realization of, the good. Last, in Meno, Socrates finally treats directly the question of how goodness can be taught and knowledge of it acquired. Here Socrates develops the view that true knowledge is self-knowledge, which itself rests on recollection. See the opening of chapter 1 of Philosophical Fragments (1844), in PF, 9–11; SKS 4, 218–219. After all, already in relation to . . . aesthetic being-able . . . no situation] Variant: added. See NB2:268 (1847) in KJN 4, 240. reduplication] A term Kierkegaard often uses in connection with a relationship of reflection in which something abstract is repeated (actualized) in concrete practice or existence. while being mocked and ridiculed yourself] Alludes to the mockery of Jesus as truth; see, e.g., Lk 18:32; this likely also refers to attacks on Kierkegaard that were published in the satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair] over a period of several years, with the consequence that he was abused on the street. Starting on January 2, 1846, no. 276, and continuing regularly until July 17, 1846, no. 304, Corsaren published a series of satirical articles about, allusions to, and caricature drawings of Kierkegaard (see KJN 4, 453–456); Corsaren’s teasing of Kierkegaard continued after Meïr Aron Goldschmidt’s departure as editor and did not cease until after February 16, 1849, no. 439. “quiet hour”] An expression used frequently by Bishop J. P. Mynster with respect both to private devotions and to church services. See, e.g., Betragtninger over de christelige Troeslærdomme [Observations on the Doctrines of the Christian Faith], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1833]; ASKB 254–255), vol. 1, p. 240; vol. 2, pp. 298, 299, 301, 306; Prædikener paa alle Søn- og Hellig-Dage i Aaret [Sermons on Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Year], 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1823]; ASKB 229–230 and 2191), vol. 1, pp. 8,

1

11

13

27

112m

504

30

The Dialectic of Communication

38, 215, 384; Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), p. 63; Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232), pp. 10, 11, 14; Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1849 og 1850 [Sermons Given in the Years 1849 and 1850] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 233), pp. 204, 216; and Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1852 og 1853 [Sermons Given in the Years 1852 and 1853], ed. F. J. Mynster (Copenhagen, 1855), pp. 43, 103. Another part of “reaching actuality” . . . also emerge] Variant: added. ― Luther says, quite rightly . . . but on the street: A reference to Luther’s sermon on the epistle for St. Stephen’s Day, Acts 6:8–14 and 7:54–59 in En christelig Postille sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirkeog Huuspostiller [A Christian Book of Homilies, Collected from Dr. Martin Luther’s Church and House Postils], trans. Jørgen Thisted, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283), vol. 2, pp. 64–70; p. 66, where he speaks in opposition to the tendency of the times (according to which everyone wants to build his own chapel or altar), for this is to build on works: “To get rid of an error of this sort, it would even be a good thing if people once and for all made all the world’s churches into rubble and preached in ordinary houses or out in the open, prayed there, baptized there, and did all their Christian duties.” Luther adds: “Christ preached for three years, though only for three days in the temple of Jerusalem. The other days he preached in Jewish schools, in the wilderness, on the mountain, in the ship, at the dinner table, and in houses . . . The apostles preached on Pentecost in the market and on the streets of Jerusalem.” See also Lk 13:26, where Jesus talks of having taught in the streets. ― “that if it were required―then . . .”: See NB14:63 (“Protest against Bishop Mynster,” 1849), where Kierkegaard says of Mynster, “How often has His Right Reverence not movingly given assurances that if it were required of him, he would willingly sacrifice his life, his blood, everything[?]” (KJN 6, 386). ― what I am talking about continually, the double danger: See, e.g., Works of Love (1847) in WL, 194–197; SKS 9, 193–196.

•

P a p e r 368 1847 •

“the Reduplication”] → 112m,11. Does one have the right to “win” hum. beings] → 100,9. Much more is meant . . . docendo discimus] Variant: added. ― docendo discimus: → 98,26. Double-Reflection] → 98,4. “the Deception.”] See Paper 365:15 in the present volume. re §6. “On the Deception” . . . using nothing but indirect forms.] Variant: added. “To deceive into the truth.”] See the following passage in The Point of View for My Work as an Author, pt. 2, chap. 1, A, §5: “But from the total point of view of my work as an author, the aesthetic writing is a deception, and herein is the deeper significance of the pseudonymity. But a deception, that is indeed something rather ugly. To that I would answer, Do not be deceived by the word deception. One can deceive a person out of what is true, and―to recall old Socrates― one can deceive a person into what is true. Yes, only in that way can a deluded person actually be brought into what is true―by deceiving him” (PV, 53; SKS 16, 35). maieutically] → 98,5. On Maieutics] → 98,5. indirect communication] → 98,5. the journals from last summer] As noted in the “Critical Account of the Text,” this may refer to the journals from the summer of 1848, particularly NB7:8. the “teacher” has authority] A reference to the authority invested in priests by ordination. See the ritual for the ordination of priests, chap. 10, art. 2 in Dannemarks og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 363–374, esp. pp. 366–372. This rite was still in force in Kierkegaard’s day. The law provided that ordinands were to kneel before the altar and that the bishop was to entrust them with “the holy office, through prayer and the laying on of hands, saying: ‘Thus, in accordance with apostolic custom, do I confer upon you the holy office of priest and preacher, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and accordingly give you, as proper servants of God and Jesus Christ, the power and authority

2

113

3 1

113m

6

113

8 11

113m

13

25 10

113

12 18

1

116m

The Dialectic of Communication

116

18

116m

7 18

21

117

1 5 5 6 9

23 24

118

13

17 20

to preach God’s word privately and publicly in the Church, to distribute the highly revered sacraments in accordance with Christ’s own establishment, to bind sins upon the obdurate and release them from the penitent, and everything else pertaining to God’s holy call, in accordance with the Word of God and our Christian customs and usage’ ” (370–371). Appendix] See Paper 371:2 in the present volume. A story is told of an army recruit] See Paper 365:10.a in the present volume. The priest says: the Xn seeks first God’s kingdom] Refers to Mt 6:33, which was the gospel text for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday. See Paper 371:2 in the present volume. Scientific scholarship says: It does not stop with faith] Refers to speculative Hegelian philosophy, which maintained that religion should be “sublated” in philosophy, which represents a higher form of knowledge than religion. In that sense, one must “go further” than religion―including Christianity and Christian faith―in order to reach philosophical truth. Introduction] See Paper 365:2 in the present volume. Kant’s “honest path”] → 92,7. paid . . . the famous 100 rix-dollars] → 92,7. in order to become theocentric] → 92,8. the eye of the generation, then what confusion . . . if the eye is confused] See Deut 32:5 and Mt 6:22–23. fantastic] Unrealistic. Jesuits] A reference to those who live by the moral principle that “the end justifies the means,” which was disparagingly attributed to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a Roman Catholic order. glittering] Presumably, an allusion to the view that the Christians regarded the pagans’ “virtues as glittering vices,” as Kierkegaard renders it in AA:18 in KJN 1, 29. The expression is usually, though incorrectly, attributed to Augustine; see the explanatory note in KJN 1, 334. is also dishonesty] Variant: “also” has been added. a more lenient] Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 368–369 1847 •

505

beginning without any presuppositions] → 119,21. radical cure] A medical treatment directed at eradicating an illness entirely, as opposed to a palliative or symptomatic cure that aims only at relieving the symptoms of an illness. Hegel] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770– 1831), German philosopher; from 1818, professor in Berlin. Hegel’s enormous push to overcome the presuppositions] A reference to the efforts of Hegel and the Hegelians, including the Danish Hegelians J. L. Heiberg and A. P. Adler, to construct a philosophical system that, by means of methodical doubt, had overcome all ungrounded presuppositions and so could begin with “nothing” (or “pure being”). Kierkegaard disparaged this project frequently in his pseudonymous works, including Philosophical Fragments (see PF, 46; SKS 4, 251), The Concept of Anxiety (see CA, 81; SKS 4, 384), and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (see, e.g., CUP, 113; SKS 7, 109–110). ethics was precisely what Hegel did not understand] In Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse [Elements of the Philosophy of Right, or Natural Right and Political Science in Outline], ed. E. Gans (Berlin, 1833 [1821]; ASKB 551), vol. 8 in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe [The Works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Complete Edition], 18 vols. (Berlin, 1832–1845), vol. 8 (1833; ASKB 551), Hegel treats the topic of “morality,” which is subsequently sublated in the “ethical life” (Sittlichkeit) of the state. This proved controversial, even among Danish Hegelians such as H. L. Martensen, who wrote, e.g., in the foreword to his Grundrids til Moralphilosophiens System. Udgivet til Brug ved academiske Forelæsninger [Outlines of the System of Moral Philosophy: Published for Use in Conjunction with Academic Lectures] (Copenhagen, 1841; ASKB 650), p. VI, that “it can certainly seem strange that Hegel did not provide his contemporaries with a completed ethics, when he has given them a completed aesthetics and philosophy of religion. For it is difficult to accept that his doctrine of the state should indeed, as many hold, take the place of ethics.”

1 4

9

21

27

119

506 32

120

13

22

26 39

118m

5

121

10 14

The Dialectic of Communication

primitivity] → 92m,6. Hegel . . . discovered the historicizing method] See The Book on Adler (→ 104,2), where Kierkegaard writes: “Hegelian philosophy is actually the historicizing philosophy of identity, which follows a world-historical process in such a way that it certainly is not the single individual who by himself develops everything, but humanity as subjectivity that accommodates within itself all the elements of the development in the immediate identity of the subject-object. At no point is there a transcendent point of departure that qualitatively stands unshakably firm in such a way that the inverse view and conception do not see it in that range of subjectivity (of humanity). The next moment every new point of departure is an element in the process, and in this way manifests itself only to be a determinant of the übergreifende [overlapping] subjectivity, which is humanity, the human race. Christianity proclaims itself to be a transcendent point of departure, to be a revelation in such a way that in all eternity, immanence cannot assimilate this point of departure and make it an element . . . Since Hegelian philosophy stands here at the crossroad, it must either break outright with Christianity or give up the predicate ‘Christian philosophy’ ” (BA, 119–120; SKS 15, 275). the demands of the age] In Kierkegaard’s day, this was a frequently occurring expression, often used in connection with demands for political changes (e.g., by the liberals), changes in ecclesiastical arrangements (e.g., by the Grundtvigians), or more general changes in intellectual life (e.g., by the Hegelians). which tells the individual that now] Variant: “the individual” has been added. And if, both in the name of primitivity . . . for the windbags.] Variant: added. ― understood immediately: Variant: “immediately” has been added. ― understand the individual immediately: Variant: “immediately” has been added. the Socratic distinction . . . does not understand] → 101,8. The Primitive] → 92m,6. a time when there was only one scholarly language in Europe] → 101,15.

•

P a p e r 369–370 1847 •

The national individualities came to consciousness . . . granted its rights] → 101,16. the learned periodicals emerged] This occurred in the mid-18th century. feud as betw. patricians and plebeians] In ancient Rome, there was bitter opposition between the patrician class of wealthy nobles, from among whom senators were chosen, and the plebeians, who were ordinary citizens and not members of the senatorial class. A long power struggle between patricians and plebeians finally came to an end ca. 300 b.c., when the power of the patricians passed to a new noble class consisting of both patricians and plebeians. financial interests of the publisher] On this see JJ:485 (1846) in KJN 2, 277–278. The mass understands nothing . . . write for the mass] See NB2:24 (1847) in KJN 4, 148. In the great cities, one gets more of an impression of a cow . . . 1000 hum. beings for every cow] See JJ:494 (1846) in KJN 2, 280. it is like scurvy . . . Only one: green primitivity] See NB:202 (1847) in KJN 4, 119. Scurvy is a sickness that arises after consuming over a long period of time food devoid of vitamin C. Accordingly, scurvy can be prevented and cured by eating fresh vegetables, including potatoes. Historically, scurvy was most common among sailors on long sea-voyages and soldiers at war. In Denmark in the late 1830s, a time of repeated potato crop failures, scurvy also arose among the poor during the later months of winter. that enormous project of boring artesian wells] In an attempt to improve the Copenhagen water supply, the city’s water commission began a partnership with local scientists in an effort to obtain additional drinking water by digging so-called artesian wells, named for the French province of Artois (Latin, Artesia). Artesian wells are bored into valley sites above aquifers, where natural pressure forces water from the aquifer up to the surface. Drilling for the Copenhagen well project began in 1831, but by 1845, the well had reached a depth of nearly two hundred meters, and no aquifer had yet been found. This led to debate about the value of continuing the project, inasmuch as even if water were to be found at

25 31

122

43

7

123

11 37

4

6

124

The Dialectic of Communication

10

123m

1

124

32

125

2

4 7 26

42

126

7

128

14

16

129

13 24

130

14

that depth, on a summer day it would end up no colder than reservoir water by the time it reached the surface. Work on the artesian well project continued after this, but on a reduced scale, and the project never did lead to an improvement in the Copenhagen water supply. sophism] A fallacious chain of reasoning designed to mislead. The term refers to the Sophists of ancient Greece (→ 92,18). If one now adds to this a new potentiating factor . . . labor involved.] Variant: written vertically along the edge of the page. 1st Lecture] → 90,1. No, precisely] Variant: deleted, preceding “precisely”, the words “I am immediately thinking of the entire matter, and”. either unconditionally or in fact conditionally] Variant: added. with it dialectically] Variant: “dialectically” has been added. ex cathedra] Refers to utterances from a professorial chair; commonly used of statements issued by the pope from the Chair of Peter, i.e., in his official capacity, which according to Catholic canon law are infallible. What is regarded in life as pride] See NB2:71 (1847) in KJN 4, 169. This is illustrated by showing . . . and in the form of actuality] See Paper 367 (2nd Distinction, A) in the present volume and Paper 368:5–7, as well as NB:173 (1847) in KJN 4, 109. lectures, in order] Variant: first written “lectures, both in order, if possible, to prevent the all too numerous expectations and altogether too greatly disappointed expectations, and also to”. impression] Variant: first written: “impression.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. to be regarded as being] Variant: added. will not bring] Variant: changed from “do not have”. correct seriousness will contain much more of the ironic] Variant: “will” has been changed from “in relation to this will”. Preceding “much more”, the word “even” has been deleted.

•

P a p e r 370–371 1847 •

507

especially in relation to ethical communication] Variant: “especially” has been added; preceding “communication”, “and ethical-religious” has been deleted. with respect to ethical communication] Variant: preceding “communication”, “religious” has been deleted. In the books published by me pseudonymously] Refers to Philosophical Fragments (1844) and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), both of which were attributed to the pseudonym Johannes Climacus, but with Kierkegaard as editor. ― In the: Variant: preceding “the”, “some of” has been deleted. that fantastic pure I] → 95,11. Especially in regard to communication of ethical truth, also partly in regard to communication of ethical-religious truth] Variant: “Especially” has been added; “also partly in regard to” has been changed from “and”. reinforce] Variant: first written “direct attention”. the pseudonyms were continually accompanied . . . edifying discourses] Kierkegaard’s first pseudonymous work, Either/Or, was published on February 20, 1843, followed by Two Upbuilding Discourses on May 16, 1843. Repetition and Fear and Trembling were published on October 16, 1843, the same day as Three Upbuilding Discourses, while Four Upbuilding Discourses was published on December 6, 1843. In 1844, Philosophical Fragments was published on June 13, while Four Upbuilding Discourses had appeared on March 5; The Concept of Anxiety and Prefaces appeared on the same day, June 17, while Three Upbuilding Discourses had been published on June 8, and Four Upbuilding Discourses appeared on August 31. In 1845, Stages on Life’s Way appeared on April 30, while Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions had been published one day earlier, on April 29. in the past few years . . . straightforward communication] After the publication of Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), Kierkegaard published A Literary Review (1846), Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), and was then at work completing Works of Love, which appeared in September 1847. In the meantime, two

18

25

27

18

131

9

132

15 18

20

508

30

43

3

133

124m

5

15

19

125m

25

130m

1

The Dialectic of Communication

newspaper articles had appeared signed by Frater Taciturnus, the pseudonymous author of the third portion of Stages on Life’s Way (1845), namely, “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner,” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 2078 (December 27, 1845), cols. 16653–16658; and “The Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action,” in Fædrelandet, no. 9 (January 10, 1846), cols. 65–68. a kind of teacher in the style of classical antiquity] i.e., a teacher like Socrates, who used conversation―dialogue―to teach philosophy. what is otherwise promised and announced ex cathedra] Refers to the professor of philosophy Rasmus Nielsen (1809–1884), who published his lectures, Den speculative Logik i dens Grundtræk [Fundamental Characteristics of Speculative Logic], in four volumes during the period 1841– 1844. The first volume opens with the following promise: “These characteristics are to be regarded as a fragment of a philosophical methodology, whose first part ought to contain the logic with an anticipatory introduction.” Nielsen never finished this project, however; the final volume ends in mid-sentence. as a pseudonym has said: the task must be made difficult] A reference to the epilogue of Fear and Trembling (1843), attributed to the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, in FT, 121–123; SKS 4, 208– 210. as he puts it in more detail . . . only by what is difficult] Citation from the epilogue of Fear and Trembling, in FT, 121; SKS 4, 208. ― pleasant to the sight: Presumably refers to Gen 2:9. bound up with the more primitive thinking] Variant: “more primitive” has been changed from “primitive”. dejected, often close to despair] Variant: added. in medias res] An expression deriving from Horace’s Ars poetica [The Art of Poetry], v. 148. (absolutely in relation . . . and in relation to ethical-religious communication)] Variant: changed from “especially in relation to ethical comm[unication], partially, and in relation to ethical religious communication,”.

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

on this see the lecture itself] See Paper 365:7, Paper 365:8, Paper 367, Paper 368:2, Paper 368:4, and Paper 371:2, all in the present volume. in these times philosophice] Variant: “in these times” has been added. 2nd Lecture] → 90,1. Here, as everywhere, I feel myself abandoned to my own thoughts] See, e.g., NB2:157 (1847) in KJN 4, 203. essentially in Greece, that I find that people occupied themselves with this problem] Presumably refers primarily to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, but perhaps also to Sextus Empiricus (→ 106,1). an expression used in the previous hour, “happily redeemed from the torments of delay.”] See the first lecture, Paper 371:1 in the present volume. more primitive] → 92m,6. Descartes] René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher. Hegel] → 119,9. Kant] → 92,7. the younger Fichte] Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796–1879), German philosopher, son of the philosopher J. G. Fichte, thus often referred to as “Fichte the younger”; from 1836, extraordinary professor, and from 1840, ordinary professor at the University of Bonn; 1842–1863, professor at Tübingen. Kierkegaard owned a number of his works (see ASKB 501–511 and 877–911). will presumably assume] Variant: preceding “presumably”, “perhaps” has been deleted. Xnty’s commandment first to seek the kingdom of God] Refers to Mt 6:33. the dishonesty of the modern age.] Variant: first written “the dishonesty of the modern age;” with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. What is the significance of a primitive genius?] See Paper 366:1.c in the present volume. there is actlly nothing new under the sun] An allusion to Eccl 1:9. As soon as I think of communicating, I think of four things] → 106,1.

12

1

133m

16

133

20

33

15

134

24 28 28 29 29

22

135

31 10

20 22 36

136

The Dialectic of Communication 40

137

22 32 32

138

20

135m

3

136m

6

structure of the lectures;] Variant: first written “structure of the lectures.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. the complement] i.e., the part that is absent (in modernity). Maieutics] → 98,5. The communicator vanishes, as it were,] Variant: “The communicator” has been changed from “The receiver”. art-communication: it is indirect,] Variant: first written, instead of “indirect”, “direct”. As the song goes: everyone takes his, so I take mine, and the others get nothing] Refers to the well-known singing game “Skære skære havre” [Cut, cut the oats], in which an odd number of children walk in a circle singing: “Skære, skære havre! Hvem skal havren binde? Det skal allerkæresten min, / når jeg ham kan finde. Jeg så ham i aftes i det klare måneskin. Hver tar sin, så tar jeg min, så får de andre ingen.” [“Cut, cut the oats! Who will bind the oats together? My true love it will be / if I can only find him. I saw him this evening in the bright moonlight. Everyone takes his, I’ll take mine, and the others will get none.”] With that the children pair off―leaving an “Old Maid” to be teased. See Danske ordsprog og mundheld, skjæmtsprog, stedlige talemåder, ordspil og samtaleord [Danish Proverbs, Adages, Humorous Sayings, Puns, and Colloquialisms], ed. Ewald Tang Kristensen (Copenhagen, 1890), p. 316 (no. 2290). for this drawing of distinctions . . . on each of these 4 points.] Variant: begun in the inner column and finished in the marginal column.

•

P a p e r 371 1847 •

509

Notes for Paper 372–Paper 377 On Rosenkilde, Mynster, Goldschmidt, et al.

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olsen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

512

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “On Rosenkilde, Mynster, Goldschmidt, et al.”1 consists of nos. 353g, 353h, 353k, 353n, and 353r in B-cat. These belong to the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that were found at his death in the “lowermost space in the chest of drawers. B,” “on the left.”2 This group of papers was part of a larger collection of manuscripts that were gathered in an envelope (Paper 327) tied with a ribbon and inscribed: “Lay in the Bible Case, from before 1848.”3 These were registered as B-cat. 353a–x.4 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

I. Dating and Chronology While these papers themselves are undated, Kierkegaard had noted on the envelope (Paper 327) that the entries were written prior to 1848. “Rosenkilde as ‘Hummer,’ ” which is also the title of Paper 373, is discussed by Kierkegaard in a journal entry dated October 1847: I should like a bit of literary mystification, e.g., by publishing something I would call Juvenilia, and in the preface I would present myself as a young author whose first works these were. ) This name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], enclosed in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi–xxxiv in the present volume.

2

) See also the “Critical Account of the Text of ‘ “Minor Pieces” from before 1848’ ” in the present volume.

3

) Only a portion of this collection can be characterized as loose papers. KJN includes the following: B-cat. 353a (Paper 339–Paper 340), 353b (Paper 341–Paper 344), 353g (Paper 377), 353h (Paper 376), 353k (Paper 373), 353n (Paper 372), 353r (Paper 374–Paper 375), and 353x (Paper 327–Paper 338).

4

Critical Account of the Text I would call myself Felix de St. Vincent[.] The contents would be: 1) The Crisis in the Life of an Actress. 2) Encomium to Autumn. 3) Rosenkilde as Hummer. 4) Writing Sampler.1 Accordingly, the idea for Paper 373 can be dated with certainty to the autumn of 1847; but it is more difficult to ascertain whether the paper itself was completed at that time as well. Paper 375, which was partly crossed out by Kierkegaard, was written during the second half of December 1847. For one thing, the paper refers to Bishop J. P. Mynster’s promotion to “Eminence” in the summer of 1847 and also to the foreword in Mynster’s book Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year]: “He [Mynster] says that how this collection is received will determine whether it is to be continued. Here, too, is the old man’s health. A man who felt his power unabated would hardly make such a concession.”2 During that same month, Kierkegaard also reacted to the appearance of another publication, namely, M. A. Goldschmidt’s magazine Nord og Syd [North and South]. Paper 376 must have been written during the Christmas season of 1847, as it contains explicit references to the “Program” with which Goldschmidt introduced the first volume of Nord og Syd, which was available for purchase as early as December 23, 1847.3 Accordingly, the origin of the datable papers ranges from the summer of 1847 to December 31, 1847.

) NB2:217 in KJN 4, 224.

1

) See J. P. Mynster, Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), in the foreword: “This collection is being published as an experiment, and whether another selection of subsequently delivered sermons is to be published will depend on the degree to which this experiment succeeds. But in writing these lines, the author has not forgotten the number of his years and that the time could arrive when either the hourglass has emptied or the strength is lacking for the production of any hoped-for blessing” (Adresseavisen, no. 294, December 14, 1847).

2

) According to Adresseavisen, no. 302, Goldschmidt’s Nord og Syd. Et Maanedskrift [North and South: A Monthly Magazine] was published on December 23, 1847.

3

513

Explanatory Notes 140

2 9

15

the succession] i.e., time conceived as an ordered series of points on a line (a “timeline”). idyllic poet] This might be a reference to such a poet as H. V. Kaalund, who had recently published Fabler for Børn [Fables for Children] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1572). The Dialectic of Authority . . . Christ taught with authority] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. Kierkegaard had treated the dialectic of authority in his manuscript of The Book on Adler, 1846–1847 (BA, 180–181; SKS 15, 219–220). ― Authority is a specific quality . . . but the authority makes all the difference: This passage is a paraphrase from Kierkegaard’s manuscript of The Book on Adler. The full passage reads: “What, then, is authority? Is authority the profundity of the doctrine, its excellence, its brilliance? Not at all. If, for example, authority would only signify, to the second power or reduplicated, that the doctrine is profound ―then there simply is no authority, because, if a learner completely and perfectly appropriated this doctrine by way of understanding, then of course there would be no difference anymore between the teacher and the learner. Authority, however, is something that remains unchanged, something that one cannot acquire by having perfectly understood the doctrine. Authority is a specific quality that enters from somewhere else and qualitatively asserts itself precisely when the content of the statement or the act is made a matter of indifference aesthetically. Let us take an example, as simple as possible, in which the relation is nevertheless manifest. When someone who has the authority to say it says to a person, ‘Go!’ and when someone who does not have the authority says, ‘Go!’ the utterance (Go!) and its content are indeed identical; evaluated aesthetically, it is, if you like, equally well spoken, but the authority makes the difference” (BA, 179; SKS 15, 218–219). ― a king’s authority: See the following passage from Kierkegaard’s manuscript of The Book on

Adler: “Let us, however, for a moment dwell on some examples of such so-called relations of authority between persons qua human beings that are true under the conditions of temporality in order to become aware of the essential conditions of authority. Why, then do we find it offensive that a king is brilliant, is an artist, etc.? It no doubt is because one essentially accentuates in him the royal authority and in comparison with this finds the more ordinary qualifications of human differences to be something vanishing, something inessential, a disturbing incidental. A government department is assumed to have authority in its stipulated domain. Why, then, would one find it offensive if in its decrees such a department was actually brilliant, witty, profound? Because one quite properly accentuates the authority. To ask if a king is a genius, and in that case to be willing to obey him, is basically high treason, because the question contains a doubt about submission to authority. To be willing to obey a government department if it can come out with witticisms is basically making a fool of the department. To honor one’s father because he is exceptionally intelligent is impiety” (BA, 182; SKS 15, 221). ― (it does not befit . . . why not?): Variant: added. ― a police officer’s: See below. ― a teacher’s authority: See the following passage from Kierkegaard’s manuscript of The Book on Adler: “If the authority is not the other (το ετερον), if in any way it should indicate merely an intensification within the identity, then there simply is no authority. If, for example, a teacher is enthusiastically conscious that he himself, existing, expresses and has expressed, with the sacrifice of everything, the teaching he proclaims, this consciousness can indeed give him an assured and steadfast spirit, but it does not give him authority. His life as evidence of the rightness of the teaching is not the other (το ετερον) but is a simple redoubling. That he lives according to the teaching does not

On Rosenkilde demonstrate that it is right, but because he is indeed convinced of the rightness of the teaching, he lives according to it. On the other hand, whether a police-officer, for example, is a scoundrel or an upright man, as soon as he is on duty, he has authority” (BA, 179–180; SKS 15, 219). ― the reduplication: Kierkegaard often uses this term in referring to relations of reflection in which something abstract, or the content of something, is repeated (actualized) in concrete practice or existence. ― Christ taught with authority: See the following passage from Kierkegaard’s manuscript of The Book on Adler: “Let us take an example that is very simple, but for that reason also as striking as possible. When Christ says, ‘There is an eternal life,’ and when theological graduate Petersen says, ‘There is an eternal life,’ both are saying the same thing; there is in the first statement no more deduction, development, profundity, richness of thought than in the second; evaluated aesthetically, both statements are equally good. And yet there certainly is an eternal qualitative difference! As God-Man, Christ possesses the specific quality of authority; no eternity can mediate this or place Christ on the same level with the essentially human likeness. Christ, therefore, taught with authority. To ask whether Christ is profound is blasphemy and is an attempt (be it conscious or unconscious) to destroy him in a subtle way, since the question contains a doubt with regard to his authority and attempts in impertinent straightforwardness to evaluate and grade him, as if he were up for examination and should be catechized instead of being the one to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth” (BA, 182–183; SKS 15, 222). 141

1

Rosenkilde as “Hummer.”] See NB2:217, from October 1847, where Kierkegaard writes: “I should like a bit of literary mystification, e.g., by publishing something I would call Juvenilia, and in the preface I would present myself as a young author whose first works these were. I would call myself Felix de St. Vincent[.] The contents would be: 1) The Crisis in the Life of an Actress. 2) Encomium to Autumn. 3) Rosenkilde as Hummer. 4) Writing Sampler” (KJN 4, 224). ― Rosenkilde: Christen Niemann Rosenkilde (1786–1861), Danish

•

P a p e r 372–373 1847 •

515

actor, from 1815 employed at the Royal Theater; he had a very fine tenor voice and his roles included a series of comic figures in vaudevilles written by his good friend J. L. Heiberg, which contributed both to the success of vaudeville as a genre and to his own popularity. Rosenkilde played the police officer Hummer in Heiberg’s vaudeville De Uadskillelige [The Inseparables] (→ 141,18), a burlesque comedy of disguise, from its first performance at the Royal Theater in June 1827 until as late as 1860 (more than one hundred appearances). The piece was performed seven times in the 1845–1846 season and twice in the 1846–1847 season, the latter of these performances being March 2, 1847, after which the next performance was on March 8, 1849, in honor of Rosenkilde’s daughter, Julie Weber Sødring (married 1845). For Weber Sødring’s account of her father’s relation to Kierkegaard, see Bruce Kirmmse, ed., Encounters with Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 91–92. It has been at least 2 years since I last saw him perform as Hummer] Inasmuch as this paper was written in 1847, it presumably refers to a performance either during the 1844–1845 season or the 1845–1846 season. the play] J. L. Heiberg, De Uadskillelige [The Inseparables] (1827), printed in J. L. Heiberg, Skuespil [Plays], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1833–1841; ASKB 1553–1559), vol. 4 (1835), pp. 223–348. leather breeches ―an umbrella . . . during the summertime] In De Uadskillelige, which is set during the summer, it is specified that “Hummer is carrying an old umbrella” (p. 259; see pp. 290, 300, 316). There is thunder and subsequently rain. Hummer, however, has made an agreement with Klister, namely, that he will accompany him arm in arm until Klister has cleared up a debt. Klister then comes along, walking with his sweetheart on one arm and with Hummer on the other, as Klister’s umbrella provides shelter for all of them. Hummer is asked why he does not use his own umbrella, and it is clear that because of friendship and his duty, he will not let go of Klister (see sc. 27). The text makes no mention of Hummer’s breeches.

8

12

18

516 19

24

26

27

28

29

142

3

15

142

17

On Rosenkilde and Mynster

“public face”] See De Uadskillelige (→ 141,18), sc. 11, p. 260, where Hummer says: “Yes, without bragging, my face is in fact, in a sense, a public face.” the eternal Jew] Presumably, an allusion to the circumstance that Ahasuerus, the “Wandering Jew,” was said to symbolize eternal despair; as a punishment for disdaining Jesus, he was supposed to wander the earth eternally, a despairing outcast. The comic element consists in this,] Variant: first written “The comic element consists in this.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. he himself is an instrument of the law] The good-natured and polite Hummer, who “is always of service,” yet in fact is eager to escape his role. See De Uadskillelige (→ 141,18), sc. 11, p. 263. dira necessitas] Citation from Horace’s Odes 3 (Carminum liber III), no. 24.6, ultimately referring to the Fates’ (Latin, dirae) merciless rulings. See Q. Horatii Flacci opera [The Works of Horace], stereotype ed. (Leipzig, 1828; ASKB 1248), p. 94. Duty is strict] See De Uadskillelige (→ 141,18), sc. 11, p. 263, where Hummer states: “Yet the order is strict.” cunningly mischievous,] Variant: first written “cunningly mischievous.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. His gesture . . . bowlegged] There is no mention of this in the stage directions to De Uadskillelige (→ 141,18). Mynster’s Most Recent Sermons] Jakob Peter Mynster (1775–1854), Danish pastor, writer, and politician; from 1834 bishop of the diocese of Zealand and thus primate of the Danish State Church. He was the great preacher of the age and was the author of a good many scholarly works. In December 1847, after a long hiatus from publishing his sermons, Mynster released Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), advertised as published in Adresseavisen (abbreviated form of Kjøbenhavns kongelig alene privilegerede Adressecomptoirs Efterretninger [Information from Copenhagen’s Only Royally

•

P a p e r 373–375 1847 •

Licensed Advertising Office]), no. 294, December 14, 1847. This is the anthology to which Kierkegaard refers. Mynster’s Serm[ons] . . . because it takes courage] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. ― but we have hoped: Variant: first written, instead of “but”, “we find”. ― Governance: Variant: first written: “the time”. ― that the paradigm . . . an old man.: Variant: added. ― the paradigm: Here a grammatical paradigm, i.e., a classic example of how a verb is conjugated, a noun declined, etc. ― defective: In grammar, a word lacking certain declined or conjugated forms. ― cases: Grammatical cases, e.g., nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative. ― an old one of 72 years: J. P. Mynster was seventy-two years old on November 8, 1847. He says that how this collection is received will determine whether it is to be continued] Refers to the end of the foreword at the opening of J. P. Mynster’s Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 (→ 142,17), where Mynster writes: “This collection is being published as an experiment, and whether another selection of subsequently delivered sermons is to be published will depend on the degree to which this experiment succeeds. But in writing these lines, the author has not forgotten the number of his years and that the time could come when either the hourglass has emptied or the strength is lacking for the production of any hoped-for blessing.” Old, for that matter . . . for the coolness of the wellspring] See a corresponding passage in The Book on Adler (1846–1847), which reads as follows: “Bishop Mynster does not have the least of what one in the strictest sense might call the description of the special individual. On the contrary, with sublime serenity, happily resting in his conviction as the rich content of an abundant life, with admonishing emphasis, with a sober composure of earnestness bordering on a magnanimous little ironic turn toward confused pates, this man has continually acknowledged that it was not something new that he had to bring, that on the contrary it was the old and familiar. He has never rocked the pillars of the established order; on

20

142

15

143

25

On Mynster and Goldschmidt

33

144

2

144

6

the contrary, he himself has stood unshakable as a main pillar. And when he revises the first edition of his collected sermons, ‘he finds nothing to change in the essentials’ (as if since that time he perhaps had been so fortunate as to cope with one or another newly arrived systematic novelty); and if at some time on his deathbed he revises all the sermons, not for a new edition but attest to the correctness of them, he will very likely again find ‘nothing to change in the essentials.’ No, it was all the old and familiar―which nevertheless found in him such a fresh and refreshing emanation, such a noble, beautiful, and rich expression, that in a long life he moves many people, how amazing, by the old* and familiar, and that after his death he will continue to move many people, who will long for this old and familiar as one longs for the charm of youth, as in the heat of summer one longs for the coolness of the spring ―how amazing, that it should be something old and familiar! [Kierkegaard’s footnote] *and that after his death many, moved, will long for this old man and this old” (BA, 152–153; SKS 15, 128). ― in such a way . . . coolness of the wellspring: Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. this little collection] J. P. Mynster’s Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 (→ 142,17) contains twelve sermons totaling 163 pages. risen to the 1st class in rank] On June 28, 1847, Mynster was promoted to place no. 13 in the first class in the Danish order of rank. Goldschmidt] Meïr Aron Goldschmidt (1819– 1887), Danish Jewish journalist and publicist, author of works including En Jøde. Novelle [A Jew: Novella] (by the pseudonym Adolph Meyer, edited and published by M. Goldschmidt) (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1547) and Fortællinger af Adolph Meyer [Tales by Adolph Meyer], published by M. Goldschmidt (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 43). Goldschmidt founded the satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair] in October 1840 and was the journal’s actual editor (owing to censorship rules, there were a number of “straw editors”) until October 1846, when he sold it and embarked on a yearlong journey abroad; start-

•

P a p e r 375–376 1847 •

517

ing in December 1847, he published the monthly journal Nord og Syd (→ 144,7; Nord og Syd became a weekly starting in September 1849) to which he was the principal contributor. In his program he gives] Variant: changed from “His Program”. ― his program: A reference to Goldschmidt’s ambitious “Program” for Nord og Syd, printed in Nord og Syd. Et Maanedskrift [North and South: A Monthly Magazine], ed. M. Goldschmidt, vol. 1, January–March 1848 (Copenhagen, 1848; already advertised as published in Adresseavisen [→ 142,17], no. 302, December 23, 1847), pp. 1–34. In his “Program,” Goldschmidt declares that he wishes to write for the people, and over the course of four chapters he articulates his goal for the journal by defining the idea he wants to work for: “Regeringen” [The Government] (pp. 2–8), “Oppositionen” [The Opposition] (pp. 8–22), “Folket” [The People] (pp. 22–29), and “Vor Stilling” [Our Position] (pp. 30–34). a confirmation candidate, or of someone who is to stand up next Sunday] A sarcastic reference to Goldschmidt’s historical account (in his “Program” [→ 144,7]) of the development of political freedom. In his chapter on “The Opposition,” Goldschmidt uses the metaphor of confirmation to depict how Christianity has developed in regard to freedom (“Program,” pp. 13–21). In Kierkegaard’s day, the word Konfirmand (“confirmation candidate”) was also used of an immature, childish person. about what a free state is] The main theme in Goldschmidt’s “Program” (→ 144,7) is development toward a free state, i.e., a democratic republic. the prose of a university graduate] An expression coined by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742– 1799), referring to writing commonplaces in, as Kierkegaard put it, “a silly fashionable style”; see DD:29 in KJN 1, 222. secure in privileged contemptibleness] A reference to the fact that during the period 1840–1846, Goldschmidt, as editor of the satirical weekly Corsaren, was able to hide in anonymity and behind straw men whom Corsaren hired as its legally responsible editors (→ 144,32). Kierkegaard frequently describes Corsaren as “the literary

7

7

9

11

15

518

18 24

25

28 30

32

On Goldschmidt et al.

contemptibleness,” implying that the weekly had “prostituted” itself. The word “privileged” (Danish, privilegerede) suggests that Corsaren had an exclusive franchise on prostituting itself ― much as Adresseavisen (→ 142,17) and Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times] had a franchise on paid announcements. As a mother . . . anymore] Variant: added. He himself says: After all, they have insisted that . . . be published in foreign journals] See Goldschmidt’s “Program” (→ 144,7), pp. 33–34, where Goldschmidt refers to “our friends in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy” who had promised to submit “overviews of the situation in the various countries at various times, popular depictions of the political, literary, social, and commercial states of affairs. The agreement is that these communications will be permitted to be printed in the respective countries’ journals or reviews.” Joy over Denmark] Title of a poem by Danish author and philosopher Poul Martin Møller (1794– 1838). During his extensive travels to the East in 1819–1821, Møller wrote the poem “Rosen blusser alt i Danas Have” [The Rose Always Blooms in Denmark’s Garden], published under the title “Glæde over Danmark” [Joy over Denmark] in K. L. Rahbek’s Tilskuerne. Et Ugeskrift [The Spectators: A Weekly], no. 47, vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1823), pp. 374–376, later reprinted in Efterladte Skrifter af Poul M. Møller [Posthumous Writings of Poul M. Møller], vol. 1, ed. Christian Winter, vols. 2 and 3, ed. F. C. Olsen (Copenhagen, 1839–1843; ASKB 1574–1576), vol. 1 (1839), pp. 47–49. “from which he has recently returned.”] If this is a citation, the source has not been identified. the European conference in Neuchatel (where he has been; see)] Goldschmidt indicates that he had stayed in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in the article “Om Schweitz” [On Switzerland] in Nord og Syd (→ 144,7), vol. 1, tome 2, pp. 121–122. attend by proxy in the usual fashion (as kings are represented by ministers)―thus he is represented by a rascal] In 1840–1846, when Goldschmidt was editor of Corsaren (→ 144,6), the satirical weekly was subject to press censorship and was required to have the name of a responsible editor printed on the front page. Goldschmidt

•

P a p e r 376–377 1847 •

used straw men as editors, and even reveled in this fact in the pages of Corsaren itself, as in no. 27 (May 7, 1841): “People accuse us of retaining working-class men and rascals as responsible editors.” the ones Geert W. . . . met on his journey . . . drank Du’s with] See sc. 8 of the one-act version of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer [Master Gert Westphaler, or the Very Talkative Barber] (1724), in Den Danske Skue Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 1. The volumes are undated and unpaginated. The one-act version had most recently been performed at the Royal Theater on November 28, 1843. ― drank Du’s: A custom in which friends who had previously referred to one another with the formal form of “you” (De) drink a toast to each other using the informal form of “you” (Du). In the Holberg play to which Kierkegaard alludes, the person with whom Geert Westphaler drank Du’s turned out to be the official executioner for the province of Schleswig. the subscription-relationship] See Paper 382, dated January 1848, in the present volume. fantastic-solemn] Variant: changed from “solemn”. Henrich’s account, in Holberg, of the people of rank . . . get the worst cut of the meat] A reference to act 2, sc. 9 of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Henrich og Pernille [Henry and Pernilla] (1731), in Den Danske Skue Plads (→ 144,38), vol. 4. In the scene alluded to, Henrich, a servant, points out that having a title is not everything, and he relates a story of a banquet in which the titled guest sat near the head of the table and received the first cut of the roast fowl, either the neck or the tail, whereas Henrich himself, who was served last, received meat from the breast. its assigned teacher] i.e., the priest assigned to them. otherwise bring unrest] Variant: changed from “disturb”. this year] i.e., 1848; see Paper 382 in the present volume.

38

3

145

12 31

5 9 31

146

Notes for Paper 378–Paper 380 An Apology

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olsen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

520

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “An Apology”1 is no. 313 in B-cat and belongs to the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that were found at his death in “the 2nd, centermost space in chest of drawers B,” “on the right.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The three papers are undated. They are linked thematically as a literary apologia, that is, a defense speech. At this point, the Corsair affair was far enough in the past that Kierkegaard could reflect on the significance for his writings of that “misunderstanding.” These thoughts were further developed in “Et Ord om min Forfatter-Virksomheds Forhold til ‘hiin Enkelte’ ” [A Word on the Relation of My Activity as an Author to “That Single Individual”], written in 1847.3 An indirect indication of a date is found in Paper 380:1: “This is how I have lived as an author for 5 to 6 years now.” Kierkegaard ) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi– xxxiv in the present volume. Here Lund registered the papers as nos. 313a–c, adding the description “A book (with loose leaves inserted),” the same description used for nos. 309–312. The book in question is not identified by Lund in L-cat., and so it is unclear whether the present group of papers is identical with the “loose leaves” to which he was referring.

2

) See Pap. VIII 2 B 190–197 (an excerpt is reproduced in PV, 280). When Kierkegaard included this text as an appendix to The Point of View for My Work as an Author (1848), the following note was added: “This article was written in 1847 but was later reworked and expanded” (PV, 113n; SKS 16, 93n).

3

Critical Account of the Text may be assumed to have viewed his work as an author as having begun in 1842, the year when the central portion of Either/Or took shape, making it most plausible that this text was composed in 1847 or 1848. In the paper’s other text, Paper 380:2, Kierkegaard’s earlier, now abandoned, idea of becoming a country priest puts in an appearance: “Now I assume that my calling is to remain at the post assigned me and instead to use the powers granted me as penance in order to fulfill the place that has been assigned to me.” These musings are elsewhere represented most prominently in Journal NB, from January 1847.1 In Paper 380:2, however, the focus has shifted from Kierkegaard’s reservations about serving the State Church to a reevaluation of his own authorial activity as his true calling. The present group of papers presumably came into existence late in 1847, prior to the group of Kierkegaard’s loose papers containing invitations to lectures and subscriptions (Paper 381–Paper 383).

) See NB:107, dated January 20, 1847 (KJN 4, 80–82), and NB:114, dated January 24, 1847 (KJN 4, 85).

1

521

Explanatory Notes 148

1

2 3

Preface] It is unknown what Kierkegaard’s intentions were with these drafts of an apology. Kierkegaard had considered adding a section titled “A Self-Defense” (see Pap. VIII 2 B 73) to no. 10 of the second series of Works of Love (1847) but ultimately abandoned the idea. apology] i.e., a defense. quickness to listen . . . slowness to judge] Allusion to Jas 1:19.

148

28

literary contemptibleness] Kierkegaard’s term for the activity of the satirical weekly Corsaren, which had attacked him in 1846; at times he used the term more generally about the popular press and indeed about most of the press in general.

149

2

Socrates says in the Apology: my accusers are invisible] See Plato, Apology, 18b–d, where Socrates describes his “most dangerous accusers” as “all these people who have tried to set you against me out of envy and love of slander ― and some too merely passing on what they have been told by others ―all these are very difficult to deal with. It is impossible to bring them here for cross-examination; one simply has to conduct one’s defense and argue one’s case against an invisible opponent, because there is no one here to answer.” Translation from Plato: Collected Dialogues, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964), p. 5. absolutely] Variant: added. This is how I have lived as an author for 5 to 6 years now] Kierkegaard generally dated the start of his work as an author from the publication of Either/Or, which appeared on February 20, 1843, but which he had written during the period from October 1841 to January 1843. See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Enten ― Eller in SKS K2–3, 58.

11 15

Cph. a market town] Here “market town” is a derogatory term for Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital and its city of royal residence, which recorded 126,787 inhabitants in the 1845 census. See Kjøbenhavn, dens ældre og nyere Historie [Copenhagen’s Earlier and More Recent History], ed. L. J. Flamand (Copenhagen, 1855), p. 189. one’s clothing is attacked] In the period January– May 1846, Corsaren (→ 148,28) made fun of Kierkegaard’s physical appearance by various means, not least with caricature drawings by Peter Klæstrup in which Kierkegaard’s trousers, in particular, were depicted as being too short and of uneven length, and his legs were shown as very thin (see, e.g., illustrations 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, and 14, in KJN 4, 453–456). The result, according to Kierkegaard, was that he often had to endure being abused on the street by the mob and by boys. common man] Kierkegaard’s preferred term for people of the lower social classes. that single individual] Kierkegaard had dedicated his edifying discourses to “that single individual” who was his ideal reader; see the prefaces to each of the collections of upbuilding discourses published in 1843 and 1844; the preface to Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (1845); the preface to “An Occasional Discourse,” which constitutes the first part of Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1845); and the preface to Works of Love (1847). See NB2:3, from May 1847, where Kierkegaard refers to “the category ‘the individual’ . . . which is so tied to my name that I could wish ‘that single individual’ might be inscribed on my grave” (KJN 4, 135). That I walk the streets so much] See NB3:50 (December 1847): “All my walking in the street was once considered vanity, and it made people angry. They had no idea I did it to weaken the impression they had of me. (the maieutic). Now they note that much walking in the street robs

17

18

29 31

37

An Apology

149m

1

150

5 16 33

one of all esteem, and so now people become angry with me because I don’t keep more to myself, because I am not exclusive!” (KJN 4, 271). From time to time I have said to myself . . . fundamentally been wasted] See, e.g., JJ:498 (1846) in KJN 2, 281. The way in which a country treats its men of excellence] See NB3:54 (1847) in KJN 4, 272. might himself in fact have] Variant: written across the entire width of the page. It had always been my intention . . . a parsonage out in the country] Kierkegaard frequently considered ceasing his writing career and seeking appointment as a rural priest. He had already thought about this after the publication of Either/ Or (1843), again after the publication of Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), and repeatedly returned to the idea for some time thereafter. See, e.g., JJ:415 in KJN 2, 257, and NB:7, NB:57, NB:114, and NB2:136 in KJN 4, 16–17, 50–51, 85, and 193– 194. See also chap. 3, “The Role of Governance in My Writings,” in PV, 86; SKS 16, 65.

•

P a p e r 380 1847 •

523

Notes for Paper 381–Paper 384 Invitation to Lectures on the Writings and to a Subscription to Installments of “Edifying Reading” et al.

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Jon Tafdrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

526

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Invitation to Lectures on the Writings and to a Subscription to Installments of ‘Edifying Reading,’ etc.”1 is no. 152 in B-cat. It belongs to the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that were found at his death in “the box in the writing desk.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers in this group deal with Kierkegaard’s authorship as a whole and were written in January–February 1848. Paper 382, an invitation to a subscription, distinguishes itself from Kierkegaard’s other loose papers in that a draft version is extant. Both versions of the invitation are signed and dated at the bottom “S. Kierkegaard. January 1848.” Paper 381 is an invitation to a series of lectures and may be presumed to have been written at approximately the same time. In Paper 383, Kierkegaard expresses his dissatisfaction with how literature has been received and understood by the press and the reading public. Kierkegaard had formulated similar thoughts on this subject in Journal NB4, which was produced during the same period.3

) The name of this was material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], enclosed in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi–xxxiv in the present volume). Lund adds that the papers were found “rolled together and bound with a ribbon.”

2

) See NB4:24, NB4:31, and NB4:32 (KJN 4, 299 and 303–305), which were written between December 1847 and January 1848; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB4” in KJN 4, 578.

3

Explanatory Notes 154

3 9

23

154

26

the organizing tendency throughout] Variant: added. I will also state in advance . . . by no means wish to entice anyone] See the “1st Lecture” (Paper 371:1) in “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication” in the present volume. 5 rd.] i.e., 5 rix-dollars; the rix-dollar, properly “Rigsbank dollar” (rigsbankdaler), was a Danish currency denomination in use from 1713 to 1875, when it was replaced by the “crown” (krone), at the rate of two crowns to one rix-dollar. According to a law of July 31, 1818, passed in the wake of the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813, the rix-dollar was divided into six marks, each of which was further subdivided into sixteen shillings; thus there were ninety-six shillings in a rix-dollar. A judge earned 1,200–1,800 rix-dollars a year; a mid-level civil servant earned 400–500 rix-dollars a year; a qualified artisan would receive 5 rix-dollars a week; a maidservant received at most 30 rix-dollars a year in addition to room and board. A pair of shoes cost about three rix-dollars, and a one-pound loaf of rye bread (the staple of the day) cost between two and four shillings. Two Upbuilding Discourses (1843) cost two marks; Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847) cost two rix-dollars and forty-eight shillings. my edifying writings, which address themselves to the single individual] Refers to the fact that Kierkegaard used the phrase “that single individual whom with joy and thankfulness I call my reader,” with minor variations, in the prefaces to his three collections of edifying discourses from 1843 and 1844, in the preface to his Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions from 1845, in the preface to “An Occasional Discourse,” the first part of Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits; and in the preface to “What We Learn

from the Lilies of the Field and from the Birds of the Air,” the second part of Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits. Doing so might provide the advantage . . . need not make a fresh start every time] Compare a similar passage in Paper 377 in the present volume. malformation] Danish, Misdannelse, a negative counterpart to Dannelse, “cultivation.” the many devoted to light reading] See, e.g., Bibliothek for Moerskabslæsning [Library of Light Reading], ed. J. Riise, 12 vols. (Copenhagen, 1820– 1825), and Nyt Bibliothek for Moerskabslæsning [New Library of Light Reading], ed. J. Riise, 12 vols. (Copenhagen, 1825–1835); Miniatur-Bibliothek for Moerskabslæsning [Miniature Library of Light Reading], 10 vols. (Copenhagen, 1829–1830), and Nyt Miniatur-Bibliothek for Moerskabslæsning [New Miniature Library of Light Reading], 9 vols. (Copenhagen, 1830–1832); Haandbibliothek for Morskabslæsning [Pocket Library of Light Reading], ed. C. Guntelberg and L. Moltke, 4 vols. (Copenhagen, 1839–1844); Morskabslæsning for den Danske Almue [Light Reading for the Danish Common People], ed. H. K. Rask (Copenhagen, 1839–1840 and 1845–1846); Repertorium for Morskabslæsning [List of Light Reading], ed. A. P. Liunge, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1843); Maanedskrivt for Morskabslæsning [Monthly Magazine of Light Reading], ed. M. B. Falkenberg, nos. 1–3 (Aarhus, 1848); and Fortælleren. Et Ugeskrift for Morskabslæsning [The Storyteller: A Weekly Magazine of Light Reading], included gratis with the newspaper Hjørring Amtstidende (Hjørring, 1848). Fortunate present age . . . authors . . . whether they understand anything] See the nearly identical wording in NB2:269, from mid-November 1847, in KJN 4, 241. ― in the country: Variant: added.

32

6

156

30

36

156

528 157

6 7

7 15 16 18 19

25

157

36

Invitation to Lectures

to what extent] Variant: changed from “whether”. But that the journalists understand it] Variant: changed from “But the journalists, who judge, they understand it, undoubtedly understand it”. at any rate certainly] Variant: added. indeed indubitable] Variant: “indeed” has been added. the land] Variant: added. to what extent] Variant: changed from “whether”. Everyone knows everything . . . would know everything.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. Backward present age!] Variant: added. the late Spang] Peter Johannes Spang (1796– 1846), Danish priest; cand. theol., 1820; from 1825, a country priest first in Jutland and then in Zealand; from 1840, resident chaplain and, from 1845 until his death on January 14, 1846, parish priest at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Copenhagen; from 1844 a member of the hymnal committee established by the Copenhagen Ecclesiastical Conventicle. Kierkegaard knew Spang personally and corresponded with him during his stay in Berlin in 1841–1842; see LD, 95–98, 117–119; SKS 28, 80–85. From time to time, Kierkegaard also attended Spang’s sermons; see JJ:210, presumably from May 1844, in KJN 2, 190– 191. ― late: Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 383–384 1848 •

Notes for Paper 385–Paper 399 Miscellaneous Jottings, Ideas, and Drafts, 1848–1850

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

530

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Miscellaneous Jottings, Ideas, and Drafts, 1848–1850”1 is no. 319 in B-cat. and is among the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death were found in “on the left” in “the 2nd, central drawer in chest of drawers B.”2 According to both L-cat. and B-cat., the following note was attached to this group of papers: “That which lay in the midmost drawer when I moved to Østerbro.” In addition, H. P. Barfod includes a number of these papers in his register (B-cat. 319.49) under the title “What lay in the [Bible] case”; it is not known whether this formulation is owing to Kierkegaard or to Barfod. The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. The basis for the editors’ dating is Kierkegaard’s note on the wrapper (the original is now lost) containing them: “That which lay in the midmost drawer when I moved to Østerbro.” Kierkegaard moved from Nørregade to Østerbro on April 24, 1851 (the April moving day), so the papers must have been composed prior to that date. According to H. P. Barfod, seven of the fifteen papers, namely, Paper 385–Paper 391, “lay in the [Bible] case”; but this does not help to clarify the papers’ chronology. In Paper 388, Kierkegaard responds to M. A. Goldschmidt’s “Svar til ‘Fædrelandet’ af 24de, 27de, 29de og 31te December 1847” [Response to the December 24, 27, 29, and 31 issues of The ) The name of this was material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], enclosed in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi–xxxiv in the present volume. Lund adds that the papers were in “a wrapper.”

2

Critical Account of the Text Fatherland] in his monthly journal Nord og Syd [North and South]. Goldschmidt’s article appeared in late January 1848, after which Kierkegaard composed this paper, thus in late January or February 1848.1 That same article by Goldschmidt is the basis for Paper 392. Following his introductory words “No, no, Goldschmidt; it was not because you were a Jew that you were shut out,” Kierkegaard qualifies the view of Goldschmidt that he had set forth in Paper 388. In Paper 393, “Friendly Appeal to Contemporaries,”2 Kierkegaard strikes back at those who had judged him to be both proud and odd. He makes reference to the mob abuse to which he felt The Corsair had exposed him, as well as to his having to put up with the paltry earnings his writings brought in. This paper is thus in continuity with Papers 388 and 392, but it was undoubtedly composed after Kierkegaard’s work on “The Accounting” in connection with the May 1849 publication of the second edition of Either/Or and of The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air.3 Paper 394 was definitely written following the publication of The Sickness unto Death on July 30, 1849, as is confirmed by the following passage: “I have not yet published the productivity from 1848 except for the little work by the new pseudonym Anti-Cl., The Sickness unto Death.” Paper 395 must have been written quite soon after this, presumably in August. Here Kierkegaard writes:

) See Nord og Syd. Et Maanedskrift [North and South: A Monthly Journal], ed. M. Goldschmidt, vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1848), p. 227n. Goldschmidt’s “Svar til ‘Fædrelandet’ ” [Reply to The Fatherland] appeared in vol. 2, which was advertised as published in Adresseavisen, no. 20 (January 25, 1848).

1

) The title and (to an extent) the contents of this paper are similar to “A Friendly Appeal to Contemporaries / by / S. Kierkegaard,” printed as Pap. X 5 B 42–43, pp. 262–264 (translated as “A Friendly Address to My Contemporaries / by / S. Kierkegaard” in PC, 304– 306), which Kierkegaard composed during his period of deliberation about publishing Practice in Christianity (1850); see the “Critical Account of the Text” of Indøvelse i Christendommen in SKS K12, 54–55 (mss. 8.9 and 8.10), and 76–90.

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Om min Forfatter-Virksomhed in SKS K13, 42–43.

3

531

532

P a p e r 385–399 M i s c e l l a n e o u s J o t t i n g s •

More I have not wanted to do and perhaps have not even been able to do; I have never in the least way made myself out to be an apostle, a reformer, and the like; ah, far from it ―from the moment I began, I have emphasized and repeated unchangingly: “I am without authority.” Kierkegaard formulates similar thoughts in “On the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle” in Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays, attributed to the pseudonym H. H., which had appeared in May of the same year.1 Paper 399 concerns Practice in Christianity and its pseudonymous author Anti-Climacus. It begins as follows: If someone were to say, “But after all, the pseudonym has actlly written a satire upon the whole of Xndom,” then I would answer Yes; and then I would add, But he has not named one single actual hum. being; the only person who is sufficiently close to the pseudonym to be affected by this is myself. Regarded in the light of ideality, generally speaking, every hum. being is a wretch. This is a clear reference to the book’s preface, which is signed by Kierkegaard as editor.2 This paper can scarcely have been written very long after the publication of Practice in Christianity on September 25, 1850.3 In sum, it can be said that the papers in this group were composed during the period between January 1848 and the autumn or early winter of 1850.

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Tvende ethisk-religieuse Smaa-Afhandlinger in SKS K11, 59.

1

) See the Editor’s Preface at PC, 7.

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Indøvelse i Christendom in SKS K12, 7.

3

Explanatory Notes 160

2

7

Leporello] Don Giovanni’s servant in Mozart’s opera Il dissoluto punito ossia Il Don Giovanni [The Dissolute Punished, or Don Giovanni], with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1787). Kierkegaard is referring to the Danish translation by L. Kruse, Don Juan. Opera i tvende Akter bearbeidet til Mozarts Musik [Don Giovanni: An Opera in Two Acts, Adapted to Mozart’s Music] (Copenhagen, 1807; abbreviated hereafter Don Juan); new editions of this translation with minor changes appeared in 1811 (under the same title, but without scene divisions) and in 1822 (under the title Don Juan. Opera [Don Giovanni: An Opera], and with the scene divisions restored). The opera was performed for the first time at the Royal Theater in May 1807, and eighty-four times in all from then until November 1839. In February 1845, the opera was revived, using a Danish adaptation by N.C.L. Abrahams, and was performed nine times in 1845, four times in 1846, two times in 1847, four times in 1848, four times in 1849, and once in 1850. During this period, Leporello was played by Peter Ludvig Schram (1819–1895). Kierkegaard had commented on the opera in the essay “The Immediate Stages of the Erotic, or the Musical Erotic” in the first part of Either/Or (1843), in EO 1, 47–135; SKS 2, 53–136, as well as in an article written on the occasion of the revival in 1845, namely, “A Fleeting Comment on a Detail in Don Juan,” published under the signature “A.” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], nos. 1890–1891, May 19–20, 1845, cols. 15147–15152, 15155–15159 (CA, 28–37; SKS 14, 69–75). the scene in the cemetery . . . basically he mocks D. G.’s courage] Namely, the cemetery scene in act 2, sc. 15 of Don Juan (→ 160,2), where Don Giovanni forces Leporello to invite the statue of the Commendatore, whom he had killed, to the banquet; Leporello is much too afraid to do so, which infuriates Don Giovanni. ― D. G.’s: Don Giovanni’s.

The scene at the banquet, when he sings “that spirits keep their word and come at night.”] See Don Juan (→ 160,2), act 2, sc. 17, p. 117. “You should . . . unter uns . . . keep their word.”] Kierkegaard’s paraphrase of Leporello’s reply in Don Juan (→ 160,2), act 2, sc. 17, p. 117. D. G. tells him how . . . only a mask] See Don Juan (→ 160,2), act 1, sc. 15, pp. 46–49. in addition] Variant: added.

8

Geert Westphaler] Ludvig Holberg’s one-act comedy Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer [Master Gert Westphaler, or the Very Talkative Barber] (1724) was performed ninety-nine times at the Royal Theater until November 28, 1843; after a pause, it was revived on September 14, 1851. The actor who plays Geert] During the 1830s and early 1840s, the role of Gert was played by Christen Martin Foersom (→ 160,31), with the exception of the performance on May 4, 1843, when P. Knudsen played the role. soliloquies] See, e.g., scenes 8, 10, 18, and 25 of Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer, in Den Danske Skue-Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 1. The volumes are undated and unpaginated. Geert tells the story of Emperor Augustus and the pope] In sc. 10 of Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer, in Den Danske SkuePlads (→ 160,18), vol. 1, when Gert Westphaler’s beloved Leonora asks him to explain the difference between a “Reichs-Tag” (a national assembly or parliament) and a “Kreids-Tag” (an assembly of German provincial officials), Gert launches into a verbose explanation, including the division of the world into four monarchies, based on Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Dan 2:36–45, plus a wildly anachronistic

17

10

11 16

18

18

20

160

534

23

31

32

161

5

Miscellaneous Jottings

dialogue between the Roman “Emperor August” and “the Pope.” Master Jackel] The presenter of the puppet theater at the Dyrehavsbakken public amusement grounds north of Copenhagen. Foersom] Christen Martin Foersom (1794–1850), Danish actor, made his debut at the Royal Theater in 1821 and became particularly well-known for his comic roles. Phister was then given the role] Joachim Ludvig Phister (1807–1896), Danish actor, made his debut at the Royal Theater in 1825 and subsequently appeared in about 650 roles. At one point, Kierkegaard planned to pay tribute to Phister’s talents, especially as a comic actor, in an unpublished article from December 1848, “Phister as Captain Scipio” (CD, 327–344; SKS 16, 127–143). Kierkegaard also knew Phister privately, as he was Phister’s upstairs neighbor in Rosenborggade 156A (street number 7), where Kierkegaard lived from October 1848 until April 1850. On September 14, 1851, Phister did in fact take on the role of Gert Westphaler. the interesting] The “interesting” is a category originating in German aesthetic theory (first with Friedrich Schlegel); it became a fashionable word in the early 1840s, serving as a common term for stimulating artistic effects that were regarded not as beautiful, but as fascinating. The “interesting” could thus designate tension, disharmony, something piquant or sensational, etc., but could also designate a refined or reflective style and a stimulating novelty of materials or of their arrangement. In the Danish context, the “interesting” was made topical by J. L. Heiberg, who, in his review of Oehlenschläger’s play Dina [Dina], in Intelligensblade [Intelligencer], vol. 2, nos. 16–17 (November 15, 1842), pp. 73–106, wrote that ancient tragedy did not recognize “the interesting, which is a modern concept for which ancient languages did not even have a corresponding expression. This circumstance signifies both the greatness and monumentality of ancient tragedy, but also its limitation; for it follows from this that as much as that genre demands character portrayals, equally little, basically, does it have room for character development; here there is, so to speak,

•

P a p e r 386–388 1848 •

nothing to develop, as little as in a marble statue. The boundaries of everything are plastically determined from the start, indeed even predetermined” (p. 80). The widespread use of the term is further illuminated in Politievennen [Friend of the Police], nos. 1478–1479, April 26–May 3, 1844, pp. 267–271, and 279–283. See also the preface to Either/Or (EO 1, 9; SKS 2, 17) and “Problema III” in Fear and Trembling (FT, 83; SKS 4, 173), with accompanying explanatory notes. Saint-Aubain] Andreas Nicolai de Saint-Aubain (1798–1865), Danish author, who wrote a series of novels and short stories under the pseudonym Carl Bernhard, including the novel Et Aar i Kjøbenhavn [A Year in Copenhagen] (1835) and the short story “Børneballet” [Children’s Ballet] (1836). Saint-Aubain was a second cousin of J. L. Heiberg and was inspired by Heiberg’s mother, Madame Thomasine Gyllembourg. on the Recent Activity of Student Goldschmidt, or on His Transition to This Recent Activity] Meïr Aron Goldschmidt (1819–1887), Danish Jewish journalist and publicist, passed the entrance examination at the University of Copenhagen in 1836 and its filologikum (a postmatriculation examination) in 1837 but did not complete his education with a professional examination. He authored several literary works, including En Jøde. Novelle [A Jew: Novella] (by the pseudonym Adolph Meyer, edited and published by M. Goldschmidt) (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1547; hereafter En Jøde) and Fortællinger af Adolph Meyer [Tales by Adolph Meyer], published by M. Goldschmidt (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 43). In October 1840, Goldschmidt founded the satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair], and was the journal’s actual editor (owing to censorship rules, there were a number of “straw editors,” usually day laborers who had little or nothing to do with Corsaren, but were legally bound to accept whatever punishment was meted out for violation of censorship rules) until October 1846, when he sold it and embarked on a yearlong journey abroad. Starting in December 1847, he published the monthly journal Nord og Syd [North and South] (which, starting in September

11

17

Miscellaneous Jottings

21

22

33

37 38

162

3 4 13

1849, became a weekly), where he was both the editor and the principal contributor. With Nord og Syd, Goldschmidt claimed to have begun a new phase of activity, in which he played the role of a man of moderation and good sense (→ 162,23 and → 172m,3). ― Student: variant: added. ― His Transition: Variant: changed from “the Transition”. His first period of activity was, as is known, The Corsair: an endeavor that continued over the course of 6 years] In October 1840, Goldschmidt founded Corsaren [The Corsair], a satirical and political weekly journal, and served as its actual editor and contributor until he sold it in October 1846. The journal’s satirical articles were accompanied by drawings by Peter Klæstrup, which helped it gain a broad readership; in the mid1840s, it had a press run of about three thousand, twice as many as the leading liberal paper, Fædrelandet, and only a few hundred fewer than the semi-official government newspaper Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times]. In its issue of November 21, 1845 (no. 270, col. 4), Corsaren claimed to have almost five thousand subscribers. as one of my pseudonyms . . . contemptibleness―of prostitutes] Refers to the fact that in the article “The Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action,” published in Fædrelandet, January 10, 1846, no. 9, cols. 65–68 (COR, 47–50; SKS 14, 85–89), Kierkegaard, using the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, indicts Corsaren’s “contemptible trade,” and writes that the paper’s “fallen cleverness” and its helpers “ought to be ignored in the literary world, just as prostitutes are ignored in the civic world” (COR, 49, 47; SKS 1, 88 and 87). a pair of desperate talents] i.e., M. A. Goldschmidt and P. L. Møller (→ 172,1). ― desperate: Variant: added. otherwise] Variant: added. the power of dissemination] Refers to Corsaren’s large press run (→ 161,21). truly comes to mean something, gets] Variant: added. weighty] Variant: added. At the time . . . I chose to accentuate matters ethically] Refers to Kierkegaard’s newspaper article “The Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action” (→ 161,22).

•

P a p e r 388 1848 •

535

he explained that The Corsair was a transitional phase in his development] Kierkegaard here refers to the short autobiographical sketch in Goldschmidt’s article “Svar til Fædrelandet af 24de, 27de, 29de og 31te December 1847” [Reply to The Fatherland, December 24, 27, 29, and 31, 1847] in Nord og Syd. Et Maanedskrift [North and South: A Monthly], ed. and pub. M. Goldschmidt, vol. 1, first quarter, 1848 (Copenhagen, 1848), pp. 209–255; pp. 226–227: “Corsaren wrote indirectly, satirically, destructively; it could perhaps tear a house down, but could not set a foundation for a new one. This eventually became, as Fædrelandet writes, unbearable for ‘Mr. G[oldschmidt].’ ” In a footnote to this, Goldschmidt replies, “But in no way do we ‘denounce’ Corsaren. It continues to be our opinion that it was the kind of paper that is justified as a part of any literature if it acquires a readership and is correctly understood. It stood in the way of G[oldschmidt]’s development, which is why he left it, but it has now found others for whom it is not a hindrance” (p. 227n). in a different sense] Variant: added. it is] Variant: deleted, preceding this: “and altogether precisely as impudent as The Corsair”. Judas was honorable enough that he gave the money back] i.e., Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and the one who betrayed him; see Mt 26:14–16, 48–50; Lk 22:47–48. When Judas regretted his betrayal of Jesus, he returned the thirty pieces of silver he had received as payment from the high priests and elders; see Mt 27:3–5. editor of Nord og Syd] → 161,17. firm] Variant: added. and attack him] Variant: added. he suffered so much as a Jew, he depicted that so movingly in A Jew] A reference to Goldschmidt’s novel, En Jøde (→ 161,17), in which the Christian children bully the main character, Jacob Bendixen, rejecting him as a “dirty Jew.” With no friends, he feels lonely and cut off from the rest of the world; see En Jøde, pp. 18–19 and 42–43. When he begins school in Copenhagen, he is again bullied by the other boys, who yell “Jew!” and “Hep, hep!” or treat him with silence and coldness; see En Jøde, pp. 123ff. and 132ff. These episodes are also mentioned in the review of En Jøde in Berlingske

23

24 25 39

6 8 9 13

163

536

18

21 22 28

164

1

10 11

Miscellaneous Jottings

Tidende, no. 283 (November 27, 1845), and in Nordisk Literatur-Tidende [Nordic Literary Times], a Sunday replacement for Fædrelandet (which did not appear on Sundays), ed. J. F. Giødwad and P. C. Ploug, no. 2 (January 11, 1846), cols. 9–13. Ach vey mir] In one episode in Goldschmidt’s En Jøde (→ 161,17), “the entire class swarmed around him [Jacob Bendixen] and, laughing, cried out ‘Jew!’ or ‘Ach vey mir!’ ” (p. 123). not merely] Variant: added. beneath all criticism] Variant: added. just as in France where, as is well-known, the goddess of reason was a prostitute] See, e.g., Karl Friedrich Beckers Verdenshistorie, omarbeidet af Johan Gottfried Woltmann [Karl Friedrich Becker’s World History, Reworked by Johan Gottfried Woltmann], trans. J. Riise, 12 vols. (Copenhagen, 1822–1829; ASKB 1972–1983; abbreviated hereafter as Beckers Verdenshistorie), vol. 11 (1827), p. 532: “The destroyers of the Christian ecclesiastical establishment invented the Cult of Reason and held their first celebration on November 10, 1793, in the Church of Notre Dame. A notorious whore was conveyed half naked on a triumphal car to the altar, and there honored with hymns and incense.” behind the back of a rogue] These expressions refer to the fact that during the period 1840–1846, Goldschmidt, as editor of the satirical weekly Corsaren, was able to hide in anonymity and behind straw men whom Corsaren hired as its legally responsible editors. Goldschmidt went so far as to revel in his use of straw men, as in Corsaren no. 27 (May 7, 1841): “People accuse us of retaining working-class men and rogues as responsible editors.” of course get to see] Variant: “get to” has been added. What goes around comes around!] Danish, Det kommer igjen, lit., “It will come back again,” i.e., it will pay off in the long run (see also Paper 391 in the present volume). Kierkegaard is referring to the saying “ ‘It will come back again,’ said the tailor, as he gave pork to his sow.” See Stages on Life’s Way, SLW, 48; SKS 6, 51. The saying is recorded in Dansk Ordbog [Danish Dictionary], 8 vols. (Copenhagen: Videnskabernes Selskab,

•

P a p e r 388–389 1848 •

1793–1905), vol. 3, p. 247, col. 2, and is collected as no. 4921 in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat [A Treasury of Danish Sayings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1879), vol. 1, p. 550. When, at the time, I helped him get carried away] In December 1845, Kierkegaard, alias Frater Taciturnus, had published a newspaper article in which he provoked Corsaren into attacking him, and as consequence of this in the following years, and especially during the first part of 1846, he was ridiculed in the columns of Corsaren and was abused on the street. Could Become a Pseudonymous Little Article] See NB20:18 (1850) in KJN 7, 408; SKS 23, 400, where Kierkegaard refers to the present article draft as having been composed in 1849 or earlier. now let us be hum. beings] Lit., “Let us now be hum. beings,” i.e., let us be reasonable, a common phrase used several times by Kierkegaard; collected as no. 6422 in E. Mau, Dansk OrdsprogsSkat (→ 164,11), vol. 2, p. 21. In H. C. Andersen’s fairy tale “The Galoshes of Fortune,” published in his collection Tre Digtninger [Three Poetic Pieces] (Copenhagen, 1838) and with which Kierkegaard may have been familiar, these are the only human words mastered by the parrot, who repeats them continually. inmates at the workhouse] i.e., an inmate at the Ladegaard workhouse, located outside the Copenhagen city walls, but operated by the municipality from 1822 to 1908 as a workhouse for vagabonds and petty criminals. The workhouse building was a large barn (Danish, ladegård) that had originally been built in 1623 as a barn for the farm serving Copenhagen Castle; in the 18th century, the building had been used as a military hospital. It was situated on Ladegaardsvej (now Åboulevard), just past the dam separating St. Jørgen’s Lake from Peblinge Lake (see map 2, A4). anguished conscience] In NB:79, from 1846, in KJN 4, 68, the phrase “the struggle of an anguished conscience” is attributed to Luther; see, e.g., Luther’s sermon on the gospel for the first Sunday in Advent in En christelig Postille, sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirke- og Huuspostiller [A Christian Book of Sermons Drawn from Dr.

12

18

164

23

20

35

165

Miscellaneous Jottings

36

40

166

19 29

167

2 12

24 27 30

168

1

16

Martin Luther’s Church and House Sermons], trans. J. Thisted, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283; abbreviated hereafter En christelig Postille), vol. 1, pp. 15–30, esp. pp. 18, 20–21, 27–28. to suffer everything for the sake of the truth, to be mocked, . . . put to death] Based on the stories of Jesus and the apostles, Kierkegaard frequently used this as a description of what it is to be a Christian. It animated him in the same way as, long ago, whippings animated the penitent.] Variant: added. Refers to the asceticism that consisted of whipping oneself, which was practiced during the Middle Ages by monks, Christian hermits, and especially by the so-called flagellants (13th and 14th centuries). Self-flagellation was regarded as a special form of penance that recalled how Christ had permitted himself to be whipped for humanity, and was regarded by its practitioners as more efficacious than the Church’s sacraments and ceremonies. hungry person] Variant: first written “greedy person”. that Xnty does not command marriage, that is easy to see] See 1 Cor 7:8–9. A Sort of Idyll.] Variant: changed from “Essay in Dialogue Form”. the Temperance Society] The first Danish temperance society, the Danish Temperance Union, was founded in October 1843; its members pledged abstinence from the drinking of distilled spirits and moderation in the drinking of beer and wine. wholly] Variant: added. in the Society’s interests] Variant: added. What difference does it make] Variant: added. on the assumption . . . two back again] Variant: added. ― the man who said, [“]It will pay off in the long run,[”] . . . two back again: → 164,11; see also Paper 388 in the present volume, where the same Danish proverb is translated as “what goes around comes around.” like Peer Degn, it pains me to think . . . loves and respects me in return] A reference to act 1, sc. 4 of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Erasmus Montanus (1731), in which Peer Degn recounts his

•

P a p e r 389–392 1848–1849 •

537

merits to Nille and Jeppe: “Ten years ago I was offered the position of cantor in the School of Our Lady, but I did not want it, for why should I do it, Jeppe? Why should I leave my congregation that loves and honors me and which in turn I love and honor[?] I live in a place where I have my daily bread and where I am respected by everyone, for the district governor never comes here himself: I am immediately sent for to pass the time with him and sing for him” (see Den Danske Skue-Plads (→ 160,18), vol. 5). You, who indeed in addition are more than Degn, have become a “priest” and something great in the world] This is both a reference to the career of Peer Degn (see the previous note) and a play on the fact that Degn means “deacon” in Danish and it was often applied to a schoolteacher who also served as cantor in the local church. ― indeed in addition: Variant: added. And so there is . . . to be a priest] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard, but restored by the editors of SKS. for proclaiming that we should not seek earthly honor] Variant: “earthly” has been added. in style] Variant: added. as a member] Variant: changed from “in the Temperance Society”. go forth from the Temperance Society] Variant: “the Temperance Society” has been changed from “it”. Goldschmidt] → 161,17. it was not because you were a Jew that you were shut out] → 163,13. year after year, you kept wanting to earn the wages of contemptibleness] A reference to Goldschmidt’s six years as editor of the satirical weekly Corsaren, whose activity Kierkegaard compared to prostitution (→ 161,22). The Corsair] → 161,21. a large audience] → 161,21. the passage from the discourse in Works of Love . . . the one about slander] A reference to the following passage in WL, 291; SKS 9, 288–289: “Ah, there are crimes that the world does not call crimes, that it rewards and almost honors ―and yet, I would rather, God forbid, arrive in eternity

19

20

15

169

35 4

167m

8

8 8 9

11 16 17

170

538

Miscellaneous Jottings

with three repented murders on my conscience than as a retired slanderer with this dreadful, incalculable load of crime that had piled up year after year, that may have spread on an almost inconceivable scale, put people into their graves, embittered the most intimate relationships, defiled the immature, led astray and corrupted both young and old―in short, spread on a scale of which the most vivid imagination cannot form a conception―this dreadful load of crime of which I never had the time to begin to repent because the immeasurability of the crimes had secured for me money, influence, almost esteem, and above all a pleasurable life! In connection with arson, we make a distinction if someone who sets fire to a house knows that it has many occupants or that it is unoccupied; but by means of slander to set fire, as it were, to a whole society―that is not even regarded as a crime! We quarantine against the plague―but to the plague that is even worse than the Asiatic plague, slander, which corrupts the soul and the mind, to that we all open our houses; we pay money to be infected; we greet as a welcome guest the one who brings the infection!” 170

21

33

171

3

8

Friendly Appeal to Contemporaries] See the “Critical Account of the Text” for this collection of papers (Paper 385–Paper 399), particularly note 4. I earn no money as an author; sometimes I support it with my own money] An assertion often made by Kierkegaard that may reasonably be interpreted by considering the total expenses associated with producing Kierkegaard’s books in the light of his rapidly diminishing fortune; see Frithiof Brandt and Else Torkelin, Søren Kierkegaard og pengene [Søren Kierkegaard and Money], 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1993 [1935]), pp. 23–64. exposed myself to abuse by the vulgarity and crudity of the mob] A reference to the street abuse Kierkegaard suffered after being satirized in Corsaren (→ 164,12). what it had once begun.] Variant: changed from “the abuse.”

•

P a p e r 392–394 1849–1850 •

7 costly years] Kierkegaard regarded his authorship as having properly begun with the publication of Either/Or in 1843. in the language that, as I hope . . . the honor of writing in it] Compare the end of the preface to Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays: “I would wish and would permit myself . . . to present, as it were, and to commend these writings to the people whose language I with filial devotion and with almost feminine infatuation am proud to have the honor to write, yet also with the consolation that it will not be to their discredit that I have written it” (WA, 166; SKS 12, 281). While these lines were first published in 1851, they were first drafted in 1848 (see Pap. IX B 63) and revised in 1849 (see the “Critical Account of the Text” of To Taler ved Altergangen om Fredagen in SKS K12, 349). See also “The Accounting” in On My Work as an Author, where Kierkegaard refers to “the language he as an author has the honor to write” (OMWA, 5; SKS 13, 11). Concluding Postscript] Concluding Unscientific Postscript was published on February 27, 1846. the rage of the mob’s vulgarity against me] A reference to the street abuse Kierkegaard suffered after being satirized in Corsaren (→ 164,12). ― rage: Variant: changed from “revolt”. the size of The Corsair’s present circulation] → 161,21. In its issue of November 21, 1845 (no. 270, col. 4), Corsaren claimed almost five thousand subscribers. After Goldschmidt stepped down as editor, the paper lost ground and ultimately ceased publication in March 1855. However, in the third quarter of 1848, it still had 992 postal (i.e., out-of-town) subscribers and perhaps twice as many in all. See J. D. Søllinge and N. Thomsen, De danske aviser 1634–1989 [Danish Newspapers, 1634–1989], 3 vols. (Odense, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 170. such editors as the present ones] In October 1846, in the aftermath of the dispute with Kierkegaard, Goldschmidt sold Corsaren to the xylographer A.C.F. Flinch, under whose direction the journal survived until 1855. Apart from “straw” editors (i.e., those who allowed their names to be used in order that they could take legal responsibility for what was published), the editor from October 1846 onward was J. Jørgensen, a former customs

23

25

29 30

33

34

171

Miscellaneous Jottings

37

172

1

3 4 7

11

17

19

23 25

official, while the responsible editor, from April 6, 1849 onward, was “N. P. Olsen,” i.e., the illustrator Niels Peter Olsen. the almost insanely disproportionate prevalence that it had in its day] Refers to Corsaren’s large circulation during the years when Goldschmidt was its editor (→ 161,21). a talent like G. and such a schemer as P. L. M. as editors] While Goldschmidt (→ 161,17) was the principal editor of Corsaren, the critic Peder Ludvig Møller (1814–1865) also edited the paper for a short period, contributing “a number of satirical critiques and poems to Corsaren” as well, as he himself described it in T. H. Erslew’s Almindeligt Forfatter-Lexicon [Universal Encyclopedia of Authors], 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1843–1853; ASKB 954–969), vol. 2 (1847), p. 406. dangerous.] Variant: first written “dangerous for”. than me] Variant: added. The trap that was set] Kierkegaard is implying that he had set a trap by publishing an article requesting to be included in Corsaren (→ 164,12). That I may have been . . . I was deceived.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard, but restored by the editors of SKS. no reason to complain about that.] Variant: first written “no reason to complain about that,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. journalists of honor and esteem, who after preaching long enough in private . . . remained silent and betrayed me] Kierkegaard is no doubt referring to such journalists as Parmo Carl Ploug (1813–1894) and Edvard Philip Hother Hage (1816–1873), as well as to Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791–1860). In NB17:64, probably from April 1850, Kierkegaard writes: “Privately, Heiberg and Ploug and Hage . . . and others have thanked me,” i.e., for his attack on Corsaren (KJN 7, 214). Another likely target is Jens Finsteen Giødwad (1811–1891); see NB9:28, from January 1849 (KJN 5, 222). when I finally acted] i.e., published the article provoking Corsaren (→ 164,12). I “complain” . . . historical present tense.] Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 394 1849–1850 •

539

did . . . intended to do anyway,] Variant: changed from “did it”. this is also pointed out explicitly in that first article against P. L. Møller] A reference to the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner,” which Kierkegaard published under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus in Fædrelandet, no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84), and in which the pseudonymous author remarks: “I really believed, too, that I would be doing some people a service” by criticizing P. L. Møller (COR, 45; SKS 14, 84). A similar claim, though much less explicit, is made in “The Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action” (→ 161,22), in which Kierkegaard alias Frater Taciturnus writes that he is taking “the step for the sake of others,” namely, the step of “requesting that I myself be abused” (COR, 47; SKS 14, 87). At the end of ’47. . . Christian Discourses] Christian Discourses was published on April 25, 1848. In NB7:114, from November 1848, Kierkegaard recollects that after having sold the family house at 2 Nytorv at the end of 1847, he had considered “traveling abroad for 2 years, and then coming home and becoming a priest” (KJN 5, 144). ― At: Variant: first written “I was once again”. last section is “Discourses at the Communion on Fridays,” . . . preached in the Church of Our Lady] Confession and communion services were held at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen every Friday at 9 a.m., where in addition to the reading of scripture and confession, a short sermon was also held between confession and communion. Kierkegaard himself preached at these Friday communion services three times, on June 18, 1847; August 27, 1847; and September 1, 1848. Two of the sermons were published as the second and third discourses in the fourth part of Christian Discourses, under the title “Discourses at the Communion on Fridays: Christian Discourses” (CD, 262–274; SKS 10, 277–292), and another in the first exposition in No. III of Practice in Christianity (PC, 151–156; SKS 12, 151–160). On the dating of

30 35

1

4

173

540

6

6 9

Miscellaneous Jottings

the three discourses, see the commentary by the editors of SKS in SKS K10, 218–219. the year 1848] 1848 was the year in which absolute monarchy in Denmark was replaced by a constitutional monarchy based on near-universal male suffrage. Kierkegaard noted on several occasions that the year 1848 had been particularly wearing for him, both because of political upheavals and because it was the year of his greatest literary productivity (→ 173,9). incomparably] Variant: added. the productivity from 1848] In addition to The Sickness unto Death (→ 173,10), the reference is to the two pieces “Come unto Me All You Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I Will Give You Rest” and “Blessed Is He Who Is Not Offended in Me,” written between April and November 1848 (later brought together with a third piece, “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself,” presumably written at the beginning of 1849, to constitute Practice in Christianity [1850]). See also the following pieces concerning Kierkegaard’s work as an author: “The Point of View for My Work as an Author,” written in the course of the summer and autumn of 1848; “Three ‘Notes’ concerning My Work as an Author” (consisting of no. 1, “To the Dedication to ‘That Single Individual,’ ” originally written in 1846; no. 2, “A Word about the Relation of My Work as an Author to ‘the Single Individual,’ ” originally written in 1847; and no. 3, “Preface to the ‘Friday Discourses,’ ” originally written in 1847, but in 1848 was added as a supplement to “The Point of View”); “One Note concerning My Work as an Author,” written in 1848, with its appended sequel “Armed Neutrality or My Position as a Christian Author in Christendom”; and “Everything in One Word,” presumably written in 1848 (see Pap. X 5 B 144). In addition, see “Hr. Phister as Captain Scipio (in the singspiel Ludovic): A Recollection and for Recollection” (see Pap. IX B 67–73, pp. 383–407) from the end of 1848 (see NB12:133, from ca. September 1, 1849, in KJN 6, 224, with its accompanying explanatory note). Last, A Cycle of Ethical-Religious Essays, which was prepared in the summer of 1848, but was written in 1846– 1847 and consisted of five essays from The Book

•

P a p e r 394 1849–1850 •

on Adler and a later essay, “Does a Human Being Have the Right to Allow Himself to Be Put to Death for the Truth?” (see NB10:3, from February 1849, in KJN 5, 269, along with its accompanying explanatory note); of the preceding group of essays, no. 3 (“Does a Human Being Have the Right to Allow Himself to Be Put to Death for the Truth?”) and no. 6 (“On the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle”) were published in Two Ethical-Religious Essays by the pseudonym H.H. (in WA, 47–108; SKS 11, 49–111) on May 19, 1849 (see the “Critical Account of the Text” of Tvende ethisk-religieuse Smaa-Afhandlinger in SKS K11, 59 and 79–96). the little work by the new pseudonym Anti-Cl., The Sickness unto Death] The Sickness unto Death was written during the period from January 1848 to May 1848, and was published under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus on July 30, 1849. part of which . . . from before the catastrophe of ’48] See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Sygdommen til Døden in SKS K11, 157, including note 1. If I have been] Variant: deleted, preceding “have been”, the words “by someone or by some people”. the unreasonable ones] Variant: changed from “those who are guilty”, which was been changed from “their”. the saying of Thomas a Kempis about Paul . . . his silence. 3rd book, chap. 36] Cited from bk. 3 (“On Inward Consolation”), chap. 36 (“On the Vain Judgments of Human Beings”), in pt. 2 of Thomas a Kempis, om Christi Efterfølgelse, fire Bøger [Thomas à Kempis, On the Imitation of Christ, Four Books], trans. and newly edited by J.A.L. Holm, 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1848 [1826]; ASKB 273), pp. 130–131, where it is said with reference to Paul: “He did everything he could to edify and to save others, but he could not prevent being despised and unfairly judged by people. Therefore he surrendered everything to God, who knows everything, and defended himself only by means of patience and humility against the words of those who alleged evil things about him or thought up foolish and mendacious rumors and whatever other despicable things that

10

11

17

18

1

171m

Miscellaneous Jottings

172m

3

19

occurred to them about him. Occasionally he defended himself, so that the weak would not take offense at his silence.” ― Thomas a Kempis: Thomas à Kempis (ca. 1380–1471), German monk, mystic, author, ordained a priest in 1414. There is a dispute concerning his authorship of the four books of De imitatione Christi [On the Imitation of Christ], published anonymously in 1418, and which went on to become one of the most widely read works of world literature. ― Paul: Paul is the most important figure of the earliest Christian era; he was probably executed in Rome ca. a.d. 65. In Kierkegaard’s day all thirteen letters in the NT that are attributed to Paul were regarded as genuine; today only seven or nine of them ―including the letter to the Romans, the two letters to the Corinthians, and the letter to the Galatians ―are believed to have been written by Paul. who has now admitted in passing, in Nord og Syd from March or February 1848, that he was the author of The Corsair] See chap. 2, “Forsvar for Udgiveren” [In Defense of the Editor], of Goldschmidt’s article “Svar til ‘Fædrelandet’ af 24de, 27de, 29de og 31te December 1847” (→ 162,23), p. 224, where Goldschmidt writes: “The editor did not follow the program. The role he [had intended] to take upon himself―to remain calm and impartial to all the parties―was too much for him during his youthful days and he lacked experience and knowledge. The comical, satirical element [in Corsaren]―that was so much appreciated by the great public audience―overcame him, and instead of remaining fair to all parties, who fought against each other so strongly and passionately at the time, he used their follies in aesthetic, witty pieces. Corsaren took on a character―a negative character―that was impossible to alter. The editor satisfied his inner urge to express something positive in his novel, En Jøde, a volume of stories, and a few lead articles that were smuggled into Corsaren.” On January 24 or 28, 1848, Goldschmidt was released from the lifelong censorship order that had been imposed on him on June 7, 1843; this allowed him to admit openly what he had written. Vol. 3 of Nord og Syd was published on March 9, 1849. had to spend money to be an author] → 170,33.

•

P a p e r 394–395 1849–1850 •

541

“contemptibleness”] → 161,22. the most illustrious of all ways of making a living] A reference to Goldschmidt’s financial success as editor of Corsaren. as an author, in order then to become a country priest, which has continually been my wish, to end] Refers to the fact that even as early as the period following publication of Either/Or (1843), and again following the publication of Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), and repeatedly thereafter, Kierkegaard had considered stopping his writing and seeking a position as a priest in rural parish. See, e.g., JJ:415 in KJN 2, 257; NB:7, NB: 57, and NB2:136 in KJN 4, 16, 50, 193–194. See also chap. 3, “The Role of Governance in My Writings,” in The Point of View for My Work as an Author (PV, 86; SKS 16, 65). what concerns me . . . has been shown me . . . as an author] See the following passage from “The Accounting” (dated March 1849) in On My Work as an Author (1851): “Whether the opposite has in any way been my experience, whether I have been treated shabbily by anyone or by some persons, is really not my concern but quite properly is their business. What is my concern, however― and I am so happy that it is my concern―is that I should and ought to give thanks for whatever favors and kindness and courtesy and appreciation have been shown to me in general or by particular individuals” (OMWA, 5; SKS 13, 11).

23

who surely] Variant: “surely” has been changed from “probably”. long ago] Variant: added. as an author] Variant: added. one of the naughty ones . . . a grade of “very good” or at any rate a grade of “very good?”] Refers to M. A. Goldschmidt (→ 161,17), who it is implied had been “improper” as editor of the satirical weekly Corsaren (1840–1846), but now, as editor of Nord og Syd (from December 1847), had become “proper” again. See the unused piece “Reply in Character” (1849–1850), where Kierkegaard writes: “The naughty child in literature, the little Goldschmidt (who after all, parenthetically noted, is now supposed to have become entirely proper, so that according to what the bar-

29

24

1

173m

4

29 30 32

173

542

174

9 13

14

Miscellaneous Jottings

ber says, almost ‘every month’ or ‘every week’ he receives very good in the gradebook for behavior and is regarded by the public as belonging to the same class as other editors, albeit with the difference that he also receives grades for behavior” (Pap. X 6 B 125, p. 166). ― quite: Variant: preceding this, “to a certain degree” has been deleted. ― proper, . . . a grade of “very good” or at any rate a grade of “very good?”: Variant: changed from “proper.” ― almost every month, or every week: Variant: “almost” has been added. In September 1849, Nord og Syd switched from a monthly to a weekly. ― “very good” . . . “very good?”: The Danish for “very good” is meget godt, which was usually abbreviated mg (a practice Kierkegaard follows here and which, coincidentally, echoes Meïr Goldschmidt’s initials). These terms are part of the grading scheme introduced to Denmark in 1809, in which the highest grade was “outstandingly good”, and the two next grades, still above the midpoint of the scale, were “very good” and “good”; the three grades below the midpoint were “fairly good,” “mediocre,” and finally “poor.” Adjustments up or down were added to these grades, e.g., “very good +” for a grade slightly above “very good,” and “very good –” or “very good?” for a grade slightly below “very good.” Grades for behavior were used in schools and not least in connection with preparatory lessons for church confirmation. I serve] Variant: deleted, following this, “with the utmost of assets”. I am regarded as odd, queer] A reference to attacks on Kierkegaard published in the satirical weekly Corsaren (→ 164,12), with the consequence that he was abused on the street. Kierkegaard drew parallels between this fate and that of Socrates, e.g., in Works of Love (1847) (WL, 320; SKS 9, 317). mocked, ridiculed] → 174,13. Basing his account on the New Testament, Kierkegaard wrote on several occasions that Christ was scorned, insulted, and spat upon; see, e.g., NB10:112 (KJN 5, 326) from ca. March 1849, and the first of the “Discourses at the Communion on Fridays,” included in Christian Discourses from 1848 (CD, 259; SKS 10, 272).

•

P a p e r 395 1849–1850 •

in a quiet, quiet, quiet Sunday hour] The expression “a quiet hour” was often used by J. P. Mynster (→ 176,16) with respect both to private devotions and to church services. See, e.g., Betragtninger over de christelige Troeslærdomme [Observations on the Doctrines of the Christian Faith], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1833]; ASKB 254–255), vol. 1, p. 240; vol. 2, pp. 298, 299, 301, 306; Prædikener paa alle Søn- og Hellig-Dage i Aaret [Sermons on Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Year], 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1823]; ASKB 229–230 and 2191), vol. 1, pp. 8, 38, 215, 384; Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), p. 63; Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232), pp. 10, 11, 14; Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1849 og 1850 [Sermons Given in the Years 1849 and 1850] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 233), pp. 204, 216; and Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1852 og 1853 [Sermons Given in the Years 1852 and 1853], ed. F. J. Mynster (Copenhagen, 1855), pp. 43, 103. that one be a handsome man . . . the preaching of Xnty] Variant: changed from “theatrical talent and the preaching of Xnty”. ― in a fitting priestly vestment: Variant: added. ― knows his business, item, can: Variant: added. ― declaim: Variant: following this, “and give assurances, make portentous gestures” has been deleted. Even if . . . one thing] Variant: added. the category: to make aware] See “The Accounting,” in On My Work as an Author, where Kierkegaard writes: “This in turn is the category of my whole authorship: to make aware of the religious, the essentially Christian ―but ‘without authority’ ” (OMWA, 6n; SKS 13, 12n). See also the two pages appended to On My Work as an Author (OMWA, 12; SKS 13, 18–19), where Kierkegaard writes: “ ‘Without authority’ to make aware of the religious, of Christianity, is the category for my work as an author, regarded as a totality” (OMWA, 12, translation slightly modified; SKS 13, 19). See the manuscript of the two separate pages at the conclusion of “The Accounting,” presumably written in 1849, where Kierkegaard writes: “ ‘To direct attention’ with respect to the religious

22

24

29 35

Miscellaneous Jottings

39

174m

3 16

27

―specifically, Christianity ―is really the category for my work as an author” (Pap. X 5 B 148, p. 350). from the moment I began, I have emphasized . . . “I am without authority.”] Refers to the preface to his first collection of edifying discourses, Two Edifying Discourses (1843), where Kierkegaard notes that he “does not have authority to preach” (EUD, 5; SKS 5, 13). This is repeated unchanged in the prefaces to the subsequent collections of edifying discourses (1843–1844; see EUD, 53, 107, 179, 231, and 295; SKS 5, 63, 113, 183, 231, and 289), and in varying form in the prefaces to Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (1845) (TDIO, 5; SKS 5, 389) and to the two first parts of Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits (1847) (UDVS, 5, 157; SKS 8, 121, 257). In Works of Love (1847) Kierkegaard writes that “we [i.e., Kierkegaard] are well-taught and trained in Christianity from childhood on, and in our more mature years we have dedicated our days and our best powers to this service, even though we always repeat that our discourse is ‘without authority’ ” (WL, 47; SKS 9, 54). to the degree . . . emerge] Variant: added. ― opposite, the: Variant: added. speaker whose personal existence . . . distance from actuality] Variant: written across the entire width of the page. ― opposite of what: Variant: added. ― existentially: Variant: preceding this, “personally” has been deleted. Personally, I occupy myself unconditionally . . . expected, could have expected, dared expect] Variant: written across the entire width of the page. See the manuscript of the two separate pages at the conclusion of “The Accounting,” where Kierkegaard writes: “And truly, that which is, after all, more important to me than all the writings, and which concerns me more profoundly, is to express as honestly and as emphatically as possible something for which I can never give sufficient thanks, something which when I someday have forgotten all the writings, I will remember eternally and unchanged: How Governance has done infinitely much more for me than I had ever expected, could have expected, or dared to expect” (Pap. X 5 B 148, p. 349; see the two pages

•

P a p e r 395–396 1849–1850 •

543

in “The Accounting” in On My Work as an Author [OMWA, 12; SKS 13, 18–19], of which this manuscript is a draft). See also The Point of View for My Work as an Author: “And now, when I am to speak of my relationship to God, of what is repeated every day in my prayers which gives thanks for the indescribable things he has done for me, so infinitely much more than I could ever have expected” (PV, 72; SKS 16, 52). would presumably . . . will earnestly] Variant: written across the entire width of the page. ― presumably: Variant: added. ― the strict and serious Christians: Variant: “the” has been added. ― in fear and trembling] Allusion to Phil 2:12. witness to the truth] i.e., an apostle. in effigie] Variant: added. What is this, then?] Variant: changed from “But what is this, then?”; first written “And what is this, then?”. 2] This is a draft of aphorism 2 in “Brief and to the Point” in The Moment, no. 6 (M, 203; SKS 13, 257). the magnificent] Variant: changed from “a magnificent”. cathedral] Variant: changed from “palace church”. handsome] Variant: changed from “elegant”. Senior Court Preacher] The word Kierkegaard uses for “Senior Court Preacher” is Oberhofprædikant, from hofprædikant, the Danish word for “court preacher,” plus the German prefix ober, which here means “senior,” corresponding to its use elsewhere in the Danish system of rank and precedence established by decree on October 14, 1746. Kierkegaard himself coined the word Oberhofprædikant (see NB16:60, from 1849, in KJN 6, 175, with its accompanying explanatory note) and is presumably using it here as an oblique reference to H. L. Martensen (→ 176,12), who had recently been appointed a court preacher in Copenhagen. and select] Variant: added. the passage: God has chosen the lowly and despised of the world] Refers to 1 Cor 1:28. ― of the world: Variant: added. laughs!] Variant: changed from “laughs?”.

1

175m

14

175

15 18

3

4 4 4 5

7 7

8

176

544 12

14

15 16

16

17 18 23

35

Miscellaneous Jottings

Prof. Martensen] Hans Lassen Martensen (1808– 1884), Danish theologian and priest; licentiate in theology from the University of Copenhagen in 1837; honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1840; appointed extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen in 1840, and ordinary professor on September 1, 1850; made a member of the Royal Danish Scientific Society in 1841; appointed court preacher in 1845, and Knight of the Dannebrog in 1847. 4] The latter of the two paragraphs of this section appears to be an expansion of NB12:71 (1849) in KJN 6, 182. “Clothed in purple and costly linen,”] A reference to Lk 16:19–31. star of a royal order] Variant: first written “glittering star of a royal order”, which was changed from “star of a royal order”. As a clerical knight of the Order of the Great Cross of the Dannebrog, Jakob Peter Mynster (1775–1854), the bishop of Zealand, was to bear a gold cross suspended from a ribbon around his neck, and on his left breast a large cross decorated with silver rays forming a star. His Eminence] According to the Danish system of rank and precedence, starting in 1847, J. P. Mynster (→ 176,16) was ranked number thirteen in the first class and was the only person to be referred to as “His Eminence.” into a circle] Variant: changed from “before a congregation”. rank] Variant: deleted, following this, “and dignity”. but why does he cry?] Variant: “but” has been added. It is evident from NB11:224 in KJN 6, 134, that Kierkegaard is thinking of J. P. Mynster (→ 176,16) in this context. Paul was free, though he stood in chains] A reference to a sermon by J. P. Mynster (→ 176,16) on Jn 8:31–36 for the eighth Sunday after Trinity Sunday in 1848, published as “Hvor Herrens Aand er, der er Frihed” [Where the Lord’s Spirit Is, There Is Freedom], in Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 (→ 174,22), pp. 98–99, where Mynster states: “When Paul stood before that prince [King Agrippa], who half-mockingly said, ‘It wouldn’t take much for you to convince me to become a Christian,’ and he replied, ‘I could pray to God

•

P a p e r 396–397 1849–1850 •

that not only you, but all who hear me today might become such as I am, except for these chains’ [Acts 26:28–29], he was certainly subjected to compulsion outwardly, which he might wish to have taken away, but was there anyone in that whole assembly surrounding him―of whom none were wearing chains―who was as free as he?” See Acts 25:23–26:32 on the defense speech given by the imprisoned and chained Paul before the Roman procurator Porcius Festus and the Jewish king Agrippa. ― Paul: → 171m,1. the arm movement]Variant: changed from “his arm movement”. I am not surprised . . . through her pince-nez] Variant: added. this is the difference] Variant: added. free in chains] Variant: changed from “in chains, yet free”. captive] Variant: added. there lives His Reverence] Variant: changed from “there he lives”. ― His Reverence: According to the Danish system of rank and precedence established by decree of October 14, 1746 (with amendments of August 12, 1808), “His Reverence” (Danish, Hans Velærværdighed) was the title for the lowest-ranking members of the clergy and was also used for those with no rank at all. the congregation makes still more plentiful offerings to him] A reference to the fact that on holy days, members of the congregation could pay their priest a voluntary sum of money called an “offering.” Ein, Zwei, Drei] Presumably, a reference to the tendency in Hegelian philosophy to conceptualize everything in three moments. Reflections] Variant: added. most respectfully . . . than the author.] Variant: added, in part across the width of the page. ― a most esteemed: Variant: changed from “the most esteemed”. ― attempt: Variant: following this, “on the path of an author” has been deleted. 1] This reflection, which is anticipated in EE:158 (1839) in KJN 2, 50, and NB12:49 (1849) in KJN 6, 166, was ultimately published as aphorism no. 8 in “Brief and to the Point” in The Moment, no. 6 (M, 204; SKS 13, 259).

36 1

177

5 6 6 11

17

20

20 21

29

177

Miscellaneous Jottings 178

10

11

13 15

16

20 22 24

26

28

29

31

179

2

2] This reflection, which is anticipated in NB2:93 (1839) in KJN 4, 177, was ultimately published as aphorism no. 4 in “Brief and to the Point” in The Moment, no. 6 (M, 204; SKS 13, 258). “Did the apostle Paul have any formal office?”] Variant: “the apostle” has been added. According to Acts 18:3, Paul worked as a tentmaker; 1 Cor 9:3–18 implies that he received no payment for his work as a missionary. ― Paul: → 171m,1. he was not married] See 1 Cor 7:7. not a serious man] Variant: changed from “not a serious man (this will be easily understood, particularly by every tradesman.”. 3] This reflection, which is anticipated in NB2:7 (1839) in KJN 4, 138, was ultimately published as aphorism no. 3 in “Brief and to the Point” in The Moment, no. 6 (M, 203; SKS 13, 257–258). be born, become a human being] Variant: changed from “be born”. has the honor of suffering] Variant: changed from “suffering”. 4] This reflection was ultimately published as aphorism no. 2 in “Brief and to the Point” in The Moment, no. 6 (M, 203; SKS 13, 257). It is anticipated in NB14:53 (1849), where instead of “cathedral” (Domkirke), the text reads “palace church” (Slotskirke), referring to the church over which both Martensen and Mynster presided; see KJN 6, 380. Senior Court Preacher] Danish, Overhofprædikant, a variant on Kierkegaard’s usual coinage, Oberhofprædikant (→ 176,5). I say “movingly,” I do not say “dryly”] Variant: added. Kierkegaard is making a play on words with “movingly” (Danish, rørt) and “dryly” (Danish, tørt). the words of the apostle: God has chosen the lowly and despised of the world] Refers to 1 Cor 1:28. 5] See Paper 396, reflection no. 3, in the present volume, along with Paper 364–Paper 371, Kierkegaard’s draft lectures on “The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication,” also in the present volume. this and that] Variant: first written “this”.

•

P a p e r 397–398 1849–1850 •

545

student at a teachers’ college] Here used in a derogatory sense to refer to a half-educated person. sticks strictly to the tempo, just as Holophernes says: “Ein, Zwei, Drei”] Allusion to act 2, sc. 3, of Holberg’s comedy Ulysses von Ithacia, Eller En Tydsk Comoedie [Ulysses of Ithacia, or a German Comedy] (published 1725), in which General Holophernes urges on the Greek troops: “You proud knights and warriors! We have come here not to conquer land or enrich ourselves, but to avenge the kidnapping of a maiden, so that no war has ever been conducted more honorably. . . . The noblest thing you need to consider is your tempo, which consists of Ein, Zwey, Drey, and that you beat your hands on your ammunition cases, for if you don’t pay attention to this, then I wouldn’t give four shillings for the rest.” Den Danske Skue-Plads (→ 160,18), vol. 3. On the expression Ein, zwei, drei, → 177,20. ― the tempo: Variant: changed from “the systematic tempo”. speculation] Variant: first written “philoso”. artful] Kierkegaard here uses the word udspeculeret (Danish, “artful,” “cunning”) in an apparent allusion to “speculation,” i.e., Hegelian speculative philosophy. The reflection that is found under no. 1 of the reflections . . . to be mistaken for a witness to the truth] See Paper 396, reflection no. 1, in the present volume; and see the “Critical Account of the Text” of the present text, also in the present volume. (Most respectfully, Johannes de silentio.)] Variant: changed from “Most respectfully, Johannes de silentio.” ― Johannes de silentio: Latin, “John of silence,” the pseudonymous author of Fear and Trembling (1843). Victorin Victorius Victor] All three Latin names mean “the winner,” “the conqueror.” In Either/Or (1843) and Stages on Life’s Way (1845), Kierkegaard used the name Victor Eremita (“the victorious hermit”) as a pseudonym.

4

Ein, Zwei, Drei] See the title of Paper 397 in the present volume. The one about geniuses and thunderstorms] See Paper 397, reflection no. 1 in the present volume.

21

7

11 13

15

19

20

24

179

546 26

30 31

180

3

180

9

23

Miscellaneous Jottings

The one that ends: ergo, Paul was not a serious man] See Paper 397, reflection no. 2 in the present volume. The one that ends with: Poor world] See Paper 397, reflection no. 3 in the present volume. Jews’ harp] Danish, Mundharpe, lit. “mouth harp.” Boys shall rule over you] A reference to Isa 3:4–5. the only person who is sufficiently close to the pseudonym . . . is myself] A reference to Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Anti-Climacus, who appears as the author of The Sickness unto Death (1849) and Practice in Christianity (1850), with Kierkegaard named as editor. In particular, this refers to the “Editor’s Preface” to “Come unto Me All You Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I Will Give You Rest: For Awakening and Inward Deepening,” No. I in Practice in Christianity, where Kierkegaard, writing in his own name, makes the following claim about Anti-Climacus’s work: “Yet the requirement must be stated, presented, heard; from a Christian point of view there must be no reduction of the requirement, nor ought it be suppressed―instead of making an admission and confession concerning oneself. The requirement should be heard―and I understand what is said as spoken to me alone―so that I might learn not only to resort to grace but to resort to it in relation to the use of grace” (PC, 7; SKS 12, 15). This preface is referred to again in Nos. II and III of the book (PC, 73 and 149; SKS 12, 85 and 153). demands of the infinite.] Variant: first written “demands of the infinite,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue.

•

P a p e r 398–399 1849–1850 •

Notes for Paper 400–Paper 420 “Loose Papers from ’48 That Lay in the Bible Case”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Steen Tullberg Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by David D. Possen Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

548

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Loose Papers from ’48 That Lay in the Bible Case” is no. 144 in B-cat. It is among the portion of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay in “the box in the writing desk” (see illustration 3).1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. According to Kierkegaard’s own indications on the wrapper, the papers are from the year 1848. This is supported by indirect evidence in several of the papers. Paper 402 appears to have been written in early May 1848, shortly after Kierkegaard’s birthday: “And it is only now, now in my 35th year, that―with the help of heavy sufferings, and with the bitterness of repentance―I have perhaps learned to die away from the world sufficiently for there truly to be any talk of my finding my entire life and salvation through faith in the forgiveness of sins.” Paper 404:1 was written at approximately the same time. “A bumbling idiot like Pastor Boiesen dismisses Dr. Rudelbach’s erudition, etc., for he (Boiesen) is a patriot!” refers to the polemic between F. E. Boisen and A. G. Rudelbach, and the former’s reply in Dansk Kirketidende [Danish Church Times], May 7, 1848, vol. 3, no. 35, col. 567.2 Kierkegaard’s reservations in Paper 405 about a “people’s government” and “the downfall of all that is great and lofty” relate to Denmark’s domestic political turmoil during the spring of 1848. In ) See Henrik Lund, “Ordenen af Papirerne” [The Order of the Papers], enclosed in L-cat. See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxxi–xxxiv in the present volume. Lund goes on to note that the materials were packed “in a paper wrapper.”

1

) Dansk Kirketidende, ed. R. Th. Fenger and C. J. Brandt (Copenhagen, 1848; ASKB 321–325).

2

Critical Account of the Text April and May of that year, the country’s Provincial Assemblies of Estates were convened, and a committee had been established in order to draw up an electoral law governing the election of delegates to a general assembly of the realm, which would be charged with the responsibility of writing a constitution for a parliamentary government.1 In Paper 406:1, the Three Years’ War―which was then a few months old―had become a consistent theme in Sunday sermons: “But if he simply says, ‘in these times, now that the war . . .’― then, instantaneously the congregants prick up their ears.” Here Kierkegaard is presumably alluding directly to Bishop J. P. Mynster’s sermon on Acts 2:1–11, held on Pentecost Sunday, June 11, 1848.2 In Paper 412, Kierkegaard refers to an entry in “Journal NB4, somewhere toward the end.” This reference is formulated in a manner that indicates that NB4 had already been completed, implying that Paper 412 was written after May 1848, namely, in June or July 1848.3 In midsummer 1848, Kierkegaard writes as follows about F. C. Sibbern in Paper 416: “In a recent issue of Aftenbladet, he orients us for the 37th time about the domestic political situation.” This refers to Sibbern’s serial article “Foranledigede Betragtninger i politisk Hensigt” [Considerations Occasioned in Regard to Politics], which appeared as a feuilleton during the period February– July 1848. The thirty-seventh installment of the article was published on Saturday, July 15, 1848.4 In Paper 420:1, mention is made of the vaudeville Kammeraterne [The Comrades], which was revived as part of the Danish Royal Theater’s repertoire on November 17, 1848, after a hiatus of over four years.5 Entry NB8:45, from November–December 1848, contains an identical first sentence and a more developed and edited version of the rest of the material in this paper. It can be inferred ) See the explanatory notes to Paper 405.

1

) See the explanatory notes to Paper 406:1.

2

) This entry can be identified as NB4:135 (KJN 4, 351), written in March–April 1848; see the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB4” in KJN 4, 578.

3

) Nyt Aftenblad [New Evening Paper], no. 164, July 15, 1848.

4

) See the explanatory notes to Paper 420:1.

5

549

550

P a p e r 400–420 L o o s e P a p e r s f r o m ’ 4 8 •

that Paper 420:1 was written before this, probably in November 1848. Paper 420:2 was written during the final weeks of 1848. It includes a critique of M. Hammerich’s “laughable bagatelle, containing a number of quite amusing curiosities regarding the use of loanwords in the Danish language.” Kierkegaard here has in mind Hammerich’s book Om de fremmede Ord i vort Modersmaal. Om deres Mængde og Skadelighed [On the Foreign Words in Our Mother Tongue: On Their Quantity and Harmfulness] (Copenhagen, 1848), which was published in mid-December 1848.1

) The book is discussed in Literaturbladet. Følgeblad til “Flyveposten” [The Literature Page: A Supplement to “The Flying Post”], no. 3, December 16, 1848.

1

Explanatory Notes 182

1

Bible Case] See the “Critical Account of the Text of Paper 400–Paper 420,” just above in the present volume.

182

3

Luther speaks . . . of how his faith increased . . . without coming] A reference to the following passage in Luther’s sermon for the third Sunday after Epiphany, Mt 8:1–13, in En christelig Postille, sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirke- og Huuspostiller [A Collection of Christian Sermons, Gathered from Dr. Martin Luther’s Collections of Sermons for Church and Home], trans. Jørgen Thisted, 2 pts. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283; abbreviated hereafter as En christelig Postille), pt. 1, pp. 159–167; pp. 165–166: “Yet we will dwell a bit longer in contemplation of the rare, lofty, and great faith of which the Centurion gives us such an excellent example that the Lord himself praises it in exceptional terms, when he testifies: Not once, even in Israel, among the Holy People, had he found the like. One finds this faith, first, in the fact that this captain, even though he is no Jew, but a pagan, nevertheless sends a messenger to the Lord Christ in complete trust that He will not spite him for it, but that, as He can help him, so too He will help him. For if this trust had not been firmly rooted in his heart, he would not have troubled the elders of the Jews and sent them to Him, as Luke reports [Lk 7:3]. But that he sends them to Him is proof that he hopes for his prayers to be answered. Alongside this faith and trust we find an especially high and great humility, inasmuch as he does not regard himself as worthy of going to Christ and asking Him on his own, but first sends the notables of the synagogue on his behalf. And once he hears that the Lord is coming, then as Luke reports [Lk 7:6], he sends his friends to meet Him and to request that He ‘not trouble’ Himself, for he is ‘not worthy to have [Him] come under [his] roof.’ For even if He is not present in person, the Lord can, with a

single word, take care of the matter that He is being requested to solve.” ― Luther: Martin Luther (1483–1546), German theologian, Augustinian monk, professor at Wittenberg. As a reformer of the Church, Luther was the central figure in breaking with the medieval theological tradition, papal power, and the Roman Church, which resulted in the transformation of worship services and ecclesiastical life and in the founding of a number of evangelical Lutheran Churches, particularly in northern Europe. Luther was the author of a great many theological, exegetical, and edifying works, as well as works on ecclesiastical policy and organization, and many sermons and hymns. He also translated the Bible into German. In an older theology, much was said . . . the sin was against God . . . so great . . . In a later age, this was considered foolish] See, e.g., Kierkegaard’s summary of §30, point 3, “Om den evige Fordømmelse og Helvedstraffene” [Concerning Eternal Damnation and Punishment in Hell], in H. N. Clausen, “Dogmatiske Forelæsninger” [Lectures on Dogmatics] (1833– 1834), in Not 1:6, where he remarks that “[o]lder Lutheran dogmaticians” cited “God’s infinite majesty” as “the basis for the eternity of punishment” (KJN 3, 26–27). See also Karl Hase, Hutterus redivivus oder Dogmatik der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche [Hutterus Redivivus, or a Dogmatics for the Evangelical Lutheran Church], 4th ed. (Leipzig, 1839 [1828]; ASKB 581; abbreviated hereafter as Hutterus redivivus), §82, “Begriff der Sünde” [The Concept of Sin], pp. 193–195, where sin is defined as “violatio amoris divini s. religionis” (Latin, “a violation against the divine or religious love”), and in the succeeding citation from the orthodox Lutheran dogmatician D. Hollaz (1648–1713) as “aberratio a lege divina, creaturas rationales obligante, culpabilis, et poenam corporalem atque aeternam inferens” (Latin, “a culpable deviation from the divine law

10

552

Loose Papers from ‘48

that governs rational creatures, a deviation that brings with it bodily and eternal punishment”; p. 194 n. 2). The same note closes with the following remark: “In der neuern Moral wird Sünde gemeinlich bezeichnet als ‘eine dem Sittenges[etz] zuwiderlaufende Selbstbestimmung des Willens zur gesetzwidrigen That o[der] Unterlassung’ ” (German, “In modern morality, sin is commonly defined as ‘a self-determination of the will, in defiance of the ethical law, toward a deed or a neglect in violation of the law’ ”). See also §87, “Eintheilungen der Sünde” [Classifications of Sin], in Hutterus redivivus, pp. 208–211, where a distinction is drawn between peccatum habituale (Latin, “original sin”) and peccatum actuale (Latin, “active sin”); this is followed by a review of how “the old Church dogmaticians” distinguished among various forms of active sin, concerning which it was always the case that “mediately, all sins are against God” (p. 209). Here Hase remarks that many “more recent Church dogmaticians” and “rationalist theologians” treat each individual sin separately, discounting the “general concept” of sin and the fact that, as he puts it, “die Größe der Schuld nicht nach äußern Verhältnissen [sondern] nach der innern Triebfeder zu messen sey” (German, “the enormity of the guilt is to be measured not according to external relations, but according to its inner impulse”; p. 211). ― the punishments of hell had to be eternal: A reference to the doctrine of eternal punishment in hell. By Kierkegaard’s day, the doctrine of the eternal condemnation of the ungodly, who are to be punished with eternal pain in hell―which was a part of early Lutheran dogmatics (see above)―had gradually been toned down but found scriptural support in Mt 25:41, Mk 9:47–48, and 2 Thess 1:9–10. See also article 17 of Confessio Augustana [The Augsburg Confession], the first Lutheran confession of faith from 1530; see Den rette uforandrede Augsburgske Troesbekjendelse [The True and Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Faith], trans. A. G. Rudelbach (Copenhagen, 1825; ASKB 386), pp. 57–58. 182

26

The difficulty] Variant: first written “Let us assume” followed by a line break.

•

P a p e r 401–403 1848 •

he is like a new person] Allusion to 2 Cor 5:17. an old man] A reference to Kierkegaard’s father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, who was baptized Michel on December 12, 1756, and died in the early hours of August 9, 1838, at the age of eighty-one. now in my 35th year] See the “Critical Account of the Text of Paper 400–Paper 420,” just above in the present volume. to die away from the world] One of the apostle Paul’s fundamental ideas is that in Christ a human being has died away from sin. See, e.g., Rom 6:2 and Col 2:20. See also 1 Pet 2:24. Mysticism and pietism accentuated this notion, making a person’s daily life one of dying away from sin and the pleasures of the world in self-denial and in complete separation from everything temporal, finite, and worldly. Thus the point changed from human beings having died away from sin through Christ to an insistence that human beings must also die away from sin through faith. falling in love with] Variant: first written, instead of “with”, “and anything of that sort”. and anything of that sort.] Variant: first written “and anything of that sort,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue.

7

“Your sins are forgiven”] → 184,26. see Luther’s sermon . . . 19th Sunday after Trinity, the conclusion] See the passage in Luther’s sermon on Mt 9:1–8, the gospel for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday, in En christelig Postille (→ 182,3), vol. 1, pp. 558–559, where Luther says that Christ communicates the forgiveness of sins “with the saying, Your sins are forgiven! This is a public preaching of the inward forgiveness. All human beings who are baptized Christians have this power, for by this they praise Christ. They have the comfort of the forgiveness of sins on their lips; as often as is necessary, they can say, ‘Behold, O human being, God offers you his grace and relieves you of all your sin: take heart, your sins are forgiven―just have faith, then it is certain!’ This voice shall not cease in Christendom before the last day: Take heart, your sins are forgiven! These words a Christian always

19

183

20

23

26

30 31

26

184

Loose Papers from ‘48 has on his lips; publicly he communicates the saying by which sins are forgiven. In this way a Christian has the power to forgive sins.”

184

30

Pastor Boiesen dismisses Dr. Rudelbach’s erudition . . . is a patriot] A reference to an untitled article by F. E. Boisen in Dansk Kirketidende [Danish Church Times], ed. R. Th. Fenger and C. J. Brandt (8 vols., 1845–1853; ASKB 321–325), May 7, 1848, vol. 3, no. 35, col. 567, where Boisen writes: “Dr. Rudelbach has become very angry about the little piece that I recently had published in Fædrelandet under the title ‘Olshausen and Rudelbach.’ This I had to prepare myself for, just as it is in its proper German order that he looks down at me as contemptuously as an elephant would at an ant. Luckily, a portion of the insulting expressions he uses against me is foreign and I only half-understand them. If someone wants to berate me, then do it in Danish; if it happens in German, French, or Latin, it doesn’t affect me at all. One of these expressions was in Danish, however: namely, he accuses me of furious arrogance. This immediately struck me as strange: how could he find anything arrogant in what I had spoken against him ―but now I see well enough that the arrogance must lie, first of all, in my having dared oppose him, who among learned Germans is not far from being reckoned among their stars of the second order ―and also, that I have declared that in the future we will not live on German crumbs. This must indeed be furious arrogance on the part of us wretched Danes. Dr. Rudelbach has also gotten a very-much-wished-for opportunity to acquaint us with his renown at home and abroad, supported with a proof, in Latin, from Erlangen, thereby truly obscuring his little opponent, the whole of whose renown consists in that, within his own little circle, he is regarded as an honest Danish man who means well for God and his fatherland.” Boisen’s patriotism emerges even more strongly in the next column (568), where he writes “that at the moment a life-and-death battle is being fought against Germans and the German [language]. A hero’s battle is being fought in Slesvig against German arrogance and tyranny, and even though

•

P a p e r 403–404 1848 •

553

our heart bleeds to see noble Danish blood flow in rivers, we are nonetheless uplifted with proud joy in the certain premonition that whatever the cost, victory will nonetheless be won, even though more blood will flow and more tears will be shed than has already been the case. But also, in our very midst, a life-and-death battle is being fought against the German monster-serpent, which with its poison and serpentine coils is near to killing and strangling the Danish heart.” Boisen’s article “Olshausen og Rudelbach” [Olshausen and Rudelbach] appeared in Fædrelandet (→ 187,1), April 20, 1848, no. 107, cols. 341–342; Rudelbach’s defense, “Svar paa Præsten F. E. Boisens Pasquill imod mig” [Reply to Priest F. E. Boisen’s Libel against Me], appeared in Fædrelandet, April 24, 1848, no. 110, cols. 367–368. ― Boiesen: Frederik Engelhart Boisen (1808–1882), Danish theologian and priest; theology graduate, 1830; from 1831, teacher at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn, Copenhagen; from 1834, catechist and teacher in Store Heddinge; and from 1837, priest in Skjørpinge, Zealand; became an adherent of N.F.S. Grundtvig and the Grundtvigian movement from ca. 1845. ― Dr. Rudelbach’s: Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach (1792–1862), Danish theologian, pastor, and author; theology graduate, 1820; dr. phil., 1822; pastor in Glauchau in the principality of Saxony, 1829–1845; lectured as a privatdocent at the University of Copenhagen, 1847–1848; from 1848, parish priest in Slagelse on Zealand. In his early years, while still a biblical theologian, Rudelbach was a strong adherent of N.F.S. Grundtvig and was his comrade-in-arms against rationalism, but he subsequently broke openly with him, coming ever closer to J. P. Mynster and H. L. Martensen. luxury.] Variant: first written “luxury,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. in these times] Refers to the Schleswig-Holstein civil war between the German and Danish portions of the Danish monarchy. The Three Years’ War or the First Schleswig War had broken out in April 1848, by which point Danish patriotic nationalism had already grown widespread in the kingdom.

2

5

185

554 185

186

13

8 12

Loose Papers from ‘48

a people’s government] i.e., majority-rule, democracy; Kierkegaard here uses the Danish word Folkeregjering, lit. “people’s government.” Denmark’s transition to rule by a democratically elected parliament took place peacefully. A royal decree of April 4, 1848, summoned the Provincial Assemblies of Estates for Zealand, Funen, and Lolland-Falster, plus the Faroe Islands to convene in Roskilde on April 26, 1848, while the Provincial Assembly for northern Jutland was to convene in Viborg on June 13, 1848. A law of July 7, 1848, called for the election of representatives to a Constitutional Assembly comprising 193 members from the various districts. This election took place on October 5, 1848, and the newly elected representatives met for the first time in Copenhagen on October 23, 1848, with the aim of drafting and ratifying a free constitution. See Chronologisk Register over de Kongelige Forordninger og Aabne Breve, samt andre trykte Anordninger [Chronological Catalogue of Royal Decrees and Public Letters, as well as Other Printed Ordinances], ed. J. H. Schou, continued by J.L.A. Kolderup Rosenvinge, vol. 25, tome 1 (Copenhagen, 1849), pp. 22–24, 60, 95–105, and 126. benefit as Joseph’s brothers did from Joseph] See Gen 37. one longing: . . . the Socratic one to die and to be dead] A reference to Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, 63e–64a, where Socrates explains to Simmias and Cebes why the philosopher can go to his death in good spirits: “A man who has really devoted his life to philosophy should be cheerful in the face of death . . . Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death [in Kierkegaard’s Danish edition, at døe og være død, lit. “to die and be dead”]. If this is true, and they have actually been looking forward to death all their lives, it would of course be absurd to be troubled when the thing comes for which they have so long been preparing and looking forward.” Udvalgte Dialoger af Platon [Selected Dialogues of Plato], trans. C. J. Heise, 8 vols. (Copenhagen, 1830–1859 [vols. 1–3, 1830–1838]; ASKB 1164–1166), vol. 1, p. 14. English trans-

•

P a p e r 405 1848 •

lation: Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961; abbreviated hereafter as Plato: The Collected Dialogues), p. 46. For Socrates, he endured . . . that numerus is the government] Presumably refers to a number of Plato’s dialogues, particularly the Apology, Gorgias, and Republic, where opposition between the philosopher Socrates and the majority or mob is an essential theme; see, e.g., Apology, 31e–32a; Republic, 473d–e; Gorgias, 488d–e. In Apology, 31e–32a Socrates says that no one who opposes the many and tries to put a stop to lawlessness in the city can count on surviving; a man who really fights for what is just must keep to himself and not enter the public sphere if he wants to survive for even a short time. This same idea is present at many points in Republic, especially in the central books 5–7, which discuss the education of a philosopher and in which rule by a philosopher is juxtaposed with the power of the mass, finding expression in the important passage (473d–e) about the philosopher as the ideal leader of the state. In both Gorgias and Republic, democracy is described as a society devoted to the desires of the majority, where those who ought to teach others (intellectuals such as poets, orators, and politicians) try instead to please the crowd, as that is where the power lies. ― Socrates: The Greek philosopher Socrates (ca. 470–399 b.c.). With his maieutic method (i.e., midwifery), and by developing his thoughts in dialogue with his contemporaries, he sought to deliver others who were already pregnant with knowledge, thus helping them get rid of their errors. He was condemned to death by a court of the Athenian people for acknowledging gods other than those recognized by the state and for corrupting the youth of Athens; the sentence was carried out when he drank hemlock and died. He left no writings, but the main outlines of his character, activity, and teachings were depicted by three of his contemporaries: Aristophanes in his comedy The Clouds; Xenophon in his four “Socratic” writings, including the Memorabilia; and Plato in his dialogues.

13

Loose Papers from ‘48

186

18

is also used pointedly in the Book of Revelation] A reference to “the number of the beast” at Rev 13:18; see also Rev 15:2.

28

“in these times, now that the war . . .”] → 185,5. The first time J. P. Mynster made an unequivocal reference to the war in his sermons was on June 11, 1848, in his Pentecost sermon on Acts 2:1–11, and published as “Vort Samfund i Christi Kirke. Paa første Pintsedag” [Our Society in the Church of Christ: For Pentecost], no. 6 in Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232), pp. 67–81, e.g., p. 79: “In these times’ monstrous movements, the question has now been posed to you: Will you preserve and defend your fathers’ land, the land for which they spilled their blood, which they cultivated and set in order for you, and bequeathed to you as a beautiful inheritance, which you are to own and use? Will you make it the prey of violence and injustice, of deceit and faithlessness and perjury? Will you let the foreigners invade, and disturb your laws and rights, and teach you other customs and another tongue? Then the people stood up and answered with one voice: No! And what indeed the Almighty, who rules over the kingdoms of the earth, has decided for us, this shall be written in the annals of the world, that, in these days of danger, our people, from first to last, were prepared to sacrifice life and blood and treasure and the lasting calm of peace in order to protect the treasures of which violence and cunning wanted to deprive them.” For another reference to the war, see Mynster’s sermon held on June 25, 1848, “Der er en retfærdig Gud over os Alle. Paa første Søndag efter Trinitatis” [There Is a Righteous God above Us All: For the First Sunday after Trinity Sunday], no. 7 in Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848, pp. 82–95, p. 86. is now] i.e., in this time of war (→ 185,5). Fædrelandet] Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], the younger of the two leading liberal newspapers (the other was Kjøbenhavnsposten [The Copenhagen Post]), was founded by Prof. C. N. David and secondary school teacher J. Hage in 1834. In late 1839, Fædrelandet went from being a weekly to a daily paper, and starting in 1841 it

36

187

1

•

P a p e r 405–409 1848 •

555

had the jurist J. F. Giødwad as its editor and as staff writer, and the liberal politician Carl Ploug as its legally responsible publisher. During the period leading up to Denmark’s transition to popular government in 1848, Fædrelandet was the most powerful organ of the liberal opposition and remained the principal National Liberal paper thereafter. Beyond fighting for freedom and popular participation in government, the paper also sought to further nationalist causes, e.g., the Danishness of Schleswig and the unity of Scandinavia. In 1848, Fædrelandet had about one thousand postal subscribers and probably just under two thousand subscribers in all. a woman anointed Xt’s head . . . she alone is remembered] See Mt 26:6–13.

9

Unless You See Signs and Wonders, You Will Not Believe] A free rendering of Jn 4:48. a Providence] See chap. 2, sec. 2, “Hvad Skrivten lærer om Guds Forsyn og de skabte Tings Opholdelse” [What Scripture Teaches about God’s Providence and the Sustaining of Creation], §2a: “God takes care of all his creatures, the least as well as the greatest, and obtains for them everything that is necessary for their sustenance, and guards and protects them”; §3: “God, who is Lord and Regent of the world, governs with wisdom and goodness whatever happens in the world so that both good and evil achieve an outcome that he considers most suitable”; and §5: “Whatever we encounter in life, whether distressing or pleasing, gets allotted to us by God for the best purposes, so that we always have reason to be gratified with his reign and governance,” in N. E. Balle and C. B. Bastholm, Lærebog i den Evangelisk-christelige Religion indrettet til Brug i de danske Skoler [A Primer for the Evangelical Christian Religion, Prepared for Use in Danish Schools] (Copenhagen, 1791; ASKB 183 is an edition from 1824), pp. 23 and 24–25. requires] Variant: first written “would also prefer to be free of”.

12

4

189

manages only] Variant: “only” has been added. or their Zuthat] A reference to the introduction to Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes [The

19

189

188

17

28

556

190

20

Loose Papers from ‘48

Phenomenology of Spirit], ed. J. Schulze (Berlin, 1832 [1807]; ASKB 550), in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Werke. Vollständige Ausgabe [The Works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Complete Edition], 18 vols. (Berlin, 1832–1845), vol. 2, pp. 70–72 (Jub. vol. 2, pp. 78–80). See also Paper 283:1, from 1843–1844, with its the associated explanatory notes, in KJN volume 11.1. sermon by Löffler (see Handbuch . . . Beredsamkeit . . . Weber. 1845. 1st part p. 189.)] A reference to “Predigt über Matth. 9, 1–8. Von der Vergebung der Sünden. Aus Dr. Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler’s Predigten, dritter Band, zweite Ausgabe. Jena und Leipzig 1798” [Sermon on Mt 9:1–8, on the Forgiveness of Sins, from Dr. Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler’s Sermons, vol. 3, 2nd ed., Jena and Leipzig 1798] in Handbuch deutscher Beredsamkeit: Enthaltend eine Uebersicht der Geschichte und Theorie der Redekunst, zugleich mit einer vollständigen Sammlung deutscher Reden jedes Zeitalters und jeder Gattung [Handbook of German Oratory: Containing an Overview of the History and Theory of the Oratorical Art, along with a Complete Collection of German Speeches from Every Period and Every Genre], ed. Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Carl B. Lorck, 1846; see ASKB 250–251, where vol. 1 is from 1845), vol. 1, Die geistliche Beredsamkeit [Spiritual Oratory], pp. 189–200. Löffler begins his sermon as follows: “My Christian hearer! Among the important religious doctrines that we were instructed in frequently in our youth and in the following years, that of the forgiveness of sins is undeniably one of the most formidable” (p. 189); he proceeds to attack common ways of relating to this doctrine, whether tending toward a superficial indifference or toward an excessive anxiety about sin, extending “even [to] trembling before God” (p. 190), which  Löffler dismisses as a misguided, exaggerated response to the doctrine. ― Löffler: Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler (1752–1816), German Lutheran rationalist theologian. From 1782, he was professor at Frankfurt an der Oder; and from 1788, general superintendent and upper consistory councillor at Gotha. He was critical of the doctrine of the Trinity and the satisfaction theory. ― Weber: Refers to

•

P a p e r 409–411 1848 •

Johann Jacob Weber (1803–1880), German bookseller and publisher based in Leipzig from 1834. In 1837, Danish-born Carl Berendt Lorck became joint owner of Weber’s publishing house, but in 1845, by mutual agreement, the two divided their operations and titles into separate houses. In the case of Handbuch deutscher Beredsamkeit, the first edition of vol. 1 appears to have been published by Weber in 1845; then, in 1846, the unsold copies were republished by C. B. Lorck with a new title page. to the paralytic: Stand up and walk] See Mt 9:1– 8, the gospel text for the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday (→ 184,26); see also Mk 2:1–12 and Acts 3:6.

26

the Augsburg Confession teaches . . . must be revealed . . . how great a sinner he is] Presumably, a reference to §2, “On Original Sin,” and §25, “On Confession,” in Confessio Augustana; see Den rette uforandrede Augsburgske Troesbekjendelse (→ 182,10), p. 46: “In the same way, they [the reformers] teach that after Adam’s fall, all men who are born according to nature are conceived and born in sin; that is, that from their mothers’ wombs they are filled with evil desires and inclinations and could not by nature have any true fear of God or any true belief in God; and that this inborn sickness or original defect is in truth sin, which condemns and also leads to the eternal death of so many who have not been born again through baptism and the Holy Spirit”; see also pp. 83–84. the Law does indeed make one into a sinner] Presumably, a reference to Rom 7:7–14.

12

a true saying by Luther (somewhere in his Postille) . . . God has to make use of the weak ones] Possibly a reference to the following passage in Luther’s sermon on Rom 15:4–13, the epistle for the second Sunday in Advent, in En christelig Postille (→ 182,3), vol. 2, p. 24, col. 2: “For a Christian human being lives only to be of advantage and use to others, in order to wipe out the human beings’ faults, but not the human beings themselves. Now, if he cannot stand someone, cannot have anything to do with someone who is weak, then he is not fulfilling his call

30

191

24

191

Loose Papers from ‘48 . . . If you won’t stand having any wicked or weak person in your presence, you have thereby shown that you do not want to help any person to improve. Let us therefore learn from this epistle that a Christian way of life, Christian love, does not consist in a Christian’s discovering pious, justified, holy human beings, but in his making human beings pious, justified, holy, his letting that be his work, his practice here on earth, whether it be by punishing, pleading, compromising, or by means of something else that he is capable of. Just as little does the Christian human being live to find rich, strong, healthy human beings? But why? In order to transform the poor, weak, and sickly ones into that.” 191

34

34

an eternal image] The concept of eternal images is treated by J. L. Heiberg in “Om Malerkunsten” [On Painting], in Perseus, Journal for den speculative Idee [Perseus, Journal for the Speculative Idea], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1837–1838; ASKB 569); vol. 2, p. 122: “The painting must depict the element of the transitory that we wish was not transitory. This means that the painting must show us transitory, visible beauty as if it were immutable and permanent, that is, the transitory under the form of eternity.” Heiberg’s discussion is a commentary on Lessing’s thought in G. E. Lessing, Laokoon oder über die Grenzen der Malerey und Poesie [Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry], chap. 3, in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s sämmtliche Schriften [Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Collected Works], 32 vols. (Berlin 1825– 1828; ASKB 1747–1762), vol. 2 (1825), pp. 147–152. see Journal NB4, somewhere toward the end] See NB4:135, from March or April 1848, where Kierkegaard writes: “It could be interesting sometime to explore, using examples, the aesthetic and artistic understanding of eternal images ―[to explore] what fundamental relationship of mood must be present betw. the individual elements of the image in order for them to cohere as an eternal image. A boat at Kallebro Strand, a boat with a man standing at the back end, guiding it through canals with a barge pole, raising its opposite end―finely nuanced overcast skies: that is an eternal image. An ordin. sailboat at Kallebro

•

P a p e r 411–413 1848 •

557

Strand is not an eternal image. And why not [?] Because a sailboat has no essential relationship to the characteristic features of Kallebro Strand. Lake Esrom requires a sailboat, but with women sailing in it” (KJN 4, 351). Ladegaard Brook] A watercourse, now buried, that conveyed water from the Damhus and Leer lakes to Peblinge Lake, then on the outskirts of Copenhagen (see map 3, A–B, 2–3). even travelers . . . realm of fantasy.] Variant: added along the edge of the paper. that rose in the Song of Solomon] See Song 2:1. a Scheherazade (in 1001 Nights)] In the Arabian collection of tales 1001 Nights, the underlying narrative recounts that King Shahryar, having discovered his wife’s unfaithfulness and having had her put to death, instructed his vizier to bring him a young virgin every evening for his entertainment, after which she would be put to death. After three years, it was the turn of the vizier’s own daughter, Scheherazade, to be brought to the king, but with her tales she enchanted the king for one thousand and one nights. On the morning after the final night, she presented the king with his children, to which she had secretly given birth, and he married her. See Tausend und eine Nacht. Arabische Erzählungen [One Thousand and One Nights: Arabian Tales], trans. G. Weil, ed. A. Lewald, 4 vols. (vol. 1, Stuttgart, 1838; vols. 2–4, Pforzheim, 1839–1841; ASKB 1414–1417). 70 years] The traditional notion that seventy years is the duration of a human life goes back to Ps 90:10. his governance] → 188,17. you would be the architect of your own happiness] A play on the proverb Enhver er sin egen lykkes smed (“Everyone forges his own fate”), collected as no. 5794 in E. Mau, Dansk OrdsprogsSkat [A Treasury of Danish Sayings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1879), vol. 1, p. 639. in that . . . young man’s palace, one window was missing] Refers to the scene “Aladdin’s Palace” in act 3 of Adam Oehlenschläger’s comedy Aladdin, eller Den forunderlige Lampe [Aladdin, or The Wonderful Lamp], in Poetiske Skrifter [Poetic Writings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1805, ASKB 1597–1598), vol. 2, pp. 75–

2

192

7

192

16 19

26

28 29

31

558

35

Loose Papers from ‘48

436; see the dialogue between Aladdin and Sultan Suleiman on pp. 247–248: “Suleiman: I have never, as long as I have lived, seen so splendid and beautiful a palace, but tell me, beloved son, even though everything has been done so diligently and artfully, why has the one window, here in the middle of the room, not been finished? Aladdin: Great Suleiman, my sultan and my father! I owe everything to your generosity. As a feeble proof of my deference and love, I let this window remain unfinished, so that you, my father, with your hand, could finish it, so that the building would, as it were, be compelled to thank you for its completion. Suleiman: An ingenious compliment. Tomorrow I will send my master craftsman right away.” God’s Providence] → 188,17.

193

17

the draft “Something about Loving”] A reference to Paper 415, in the present volume.

193

19

Something about Loving] See Paper 414, in the present volume. because I feel] Variant: preceding “because”, “precisely” has been deleted.

28

194

25

25

As a political author] → 194,38. F. C. Sibbern (→ 194,25) emerged as a political author in the 1830s amid the debate about introduction of provincial estates in Denmark and went on to write numerous essays and articles on political affairs in the newspapers and magazines of the day. See Bemærkninger ved den kongelige Anordning angaaende Provindsialstænders Indførelse i Danmark med nogle almindelige Forerindringer, Undersøgelser og Forslag betræffende det endnu Ubestemte samt et Tillæg om Trykkefrihedsstanden hos os [Remarks on the Royal Decree concerning the Establishment of Provincial Estates in Denmark, along with Some Prefatory Comments, Investigations, and Suggestions concerning what has not yet been Decided, plus a Supplement on Freedom of the Press in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1832). Starting at this time, and continuing thereafter, Sibbern appeared in periodicals and newspapers with a long series of pieces and articles on political subjects. Sibbern] Frederik Christian Sibbern (1785–1872), Danish philosopher and author; appointed ex-

•

P a p e r 413–416 1848 •

traordinary professor of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen in 1813; from 1829, ordinary professor of philosophy and assessor in the Copenhagen University consistory. In the 1830s, Sibbern was one of Kierkegaard’s teachers. Geert W.] The character Gert Westphaler in Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer [Master Gert Westphaler, or The Very Talkative Barber] (1724). Gert Westphaler bores everyone around him with his disquisitions on all subjects, including all that he did and experienced during his trip to Kiel; see scenes 7, 8, 18, and 24 in the one-act version from 1724; see Den Danske Skue-Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 1. The volumes are undated and unpaginated. In a recent issue of Aftenbladet . . . for the 37th time] A reference to F. C. Sibbern’s (→ 194,25) serial article “Foranledigede Betragtninger i politisk Hensigt” [Considerations Occasioned in Regard to Politics] on the front page of Nyt Aftenblad (see below), whose first installment appeared in no. 50, February 29, 1848. The thirty-seventh installment, subtitled “Ogsaa et Ord om Uroen og atter eet om Reactionen” [A Further Word on the Unrest, and Still One More about the Response], appeared in no. 164, July 15, 1848. ― Aftenbladet: Nyt Aftenblad [New Evening Paper], a conservative Danish newspaper, was first published in 1824–1826 (after an initial run in 1822–1823 under the name Aftenblad [Evening Paper]), edited by the writer A. E. Boye, and reappeared under the editorship of the jurist H. Trojel from September 1844 to October 1848 (after a short run from January 1843 to August 1844 under the title Aftenbladet [The Evening Paper]). Nyt Aftenblad received a subvention from King Christian VIII and supported the king politically, but by the start of 1848 it had dwindled to about four hundred subscribers. See Jette D. Søllinge and Niels Thomsen, De danske aviser 1634–1989 [The Danish Newspapers 1634– 1989], 3 vols. (Odense, 1988–1991), vol. 1, pp. 144 and 177–178. ― for the 37th time: Variant: added. He warns of a reaction against the ministry . . . Nord og Syd] A reference to the following passage in the thirty-seventh installment of Sibbern’s

25

38

4

195

Loose Papers from ‘48

11 15

serial article “Foranledigede Betragtninger i politisk Hensigt” (→ 194,38): “They speak of a reaction that lurks. Indeed, it certainly does lurk. But what does that mean? It readies itself to arise from the grave in order to oversee the day of judgment upon all those who sit highly elevated in their own imaginations. And it will come from all four corners of the earth. From the direction of the old diligence it will come, and would that we then might get a thorough and comprehensive critique of all the behavior of the Opposition since 1840, which we could hope to receive from that capable hand. From the direction of the young ingeniousness it will come, or it is already standing there, alive and well, in the shape of ‘North and South,’ and will no doubt take care that it does not go to waste. From the already long-developed crucible of the future’s great social tasks it will come, or surely it has already been present for a long time. From the side of Christian, religious, and ethical enthusiasm it will come, and here, too, I believe that we already have it.” By the phrase “North and South,” Sibbern refers to Goldschmidt’s monthly magazine Nord og Syd (→ 195,31). ― the ministry currently in office: On March 21, 1848, King Frederik VII yielded to the demand by the opposition that he appoint a new and vigorous ministry; the old ministry was dismissed, and the next day the king swore in a new ministry (called the March Ministry) under the leadership of A. W. Moltke. These events took place in the aftermath of political upheavals elsewhere in Europe, especially in Paris, in February and March 1848. The March Ministry tendered its resignation on November 11, 1848; four days later the resignation was accepted, and on November 16, 1848, A. W. Moltke formed a new ministry, known as the November Ministry. Here the reference is presumably to the March Ministry. ― First comes the first corner . . . laudable.] Variant: changed from “The first corner is the old bureaucratic competence. All honor to it!” especially a corner of the world] Variant: added. find comfort amid the confusion . . . “the editor of Adresseavisen and Flyveposten.”] Paraphrase of a line in the thirty-eighth installment of Sibbern’s serial article “Foranledigede

•

P a p e r 416 1848 •

559

Betragtninger i politisk Hensigt” (→ 194,38), subtitled “Angaaende Vaabenstilstandsbetingelserne” [Concerning the Conditions for a Cease-Fire], published together with the previous (thirty-seventh) installment in Nyt Aftenblad, no. 164, July 15, 1848. Sibbern writes: “By no means do I regard the conditions [of the cease-fire] as disadvantageous for us, and I also hope that it turn out that our diplomats’ toughness has a good share in this result. If people in Holstein―that is, if the men of the Schleswig-Holstein party―regard them as disheartening, then it is quite clear that they must regard them in this way, but we have all the less reason to do so . . . But what matters now is sufficiently to enlighten the popular masses in Copenhagen in advance of the day on which the seized ships are to be released, so that there will be no dangerous tumult, indeed, an actual hindrance on the part of the crowd, against whom it would always be very precarious―and very offensive to our feeling of nationhood and honor to have to pose―to want to position the forces of the National Guard, which, furthermore would presuppose that one first had it on one’s side. In this respect, I take comfort especially in the sober-minded, patriotic thoughtfulness and sense for the importance of the maintenance of good order on the part of the editors of Adresseavisen and Flyveposten.” ― 4: Variant: added. ― Adresseavisen: A popular abbreviation for Kiøbenhavns kongelig allene privilegerede Adresse Contoirs Efterretninger [Information from Copenhagen’s Only Royally Licensed Advertising Office], published from 1759 to 1909 (with minor changes to the name), Copenhagen’s most important organ for public announcements, advertisements, and obituaries, and at certain periods also contained news, literary contributions, and political articles. Apart from Berlingske Tidende (→ 197,34), Adresseavisen was the only other newspaper permitted to accept paid advertising. From 1800 onward, Adresseavisen was published six days a week, and in 1848 the daily print run was approximately seven thousand copies. In the period 1836–1839, Adresseavisen included articles of a politically conservative bent by F. C. Sibbern and N.F.S. Grundtvig, among others. See

560

24 30

31 31

Loose Papers from ‘48

Jette D. Søllinge and Niels Thomsen, De danske aviser 1634–1989 (→ 194,38), vol. 1, pp. 108–112. ― Flyveposten: Flyveposten [The Flying Post] was a conservative daily newspaper founded in 1845 and edited until 1852 by Eduard Meyer. It was a popular organ for news and entertainment and had a large readership, with about seven thousand subscribers in 1848–1852. In 1848, this included 287 subscribers outside Copenhagen, who received their newspaper by mail. See Jette D. Søllinge and Niels Thomsen, De danske aviser 1634–1989 (→ 194,38), vol. 2 (1989), pp. 114–115. orient, . . . emphasized this.] Variant: changed from “orient.” drinking “Du’s” with the executioner] A custom in which friends who had previously referred to one another with the formal form of “you” (De) drink a toast to each other using the informal form of “you” (Du). Here the allusion is to an episode recounted by Gert Westphaler in Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Mester Gert Westphaler eller Den meget talende Barbeer, sc. 8 in the one-act version from 1724 (→ 194,25), in which the person with whom Gert Westphaler drank Du’s turned out to be the official executioner for the province of Schleswig. worn-out] Variant: added. literary contemptibleness . . . Student Goldschmidt] Refers to the Danish-Jewish journalist and publicist Meïr Aron Goldschmidt (1819– 1887), who founded the satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair] in October 1840 and was the journal’s actual editor (owing to censorship rules, there were a number of “straw editors”) until October 1846, when he sold it and embarked on a yearlong journey abroad. Goldschmidt was the author of a number of works, including En Jøde. Novelle [A Jew: Novella] (by the pseudonym Adolph Meyer, edited and published by M. Goldschmidt) (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1547); and Fortællinger af Adolph Meyer [Tales by Adolph Meyer], published by M. Goldschmidt (Copenhagen, 1846; ASKB U 43). Starting in December 1847, he published the monthly journal Nord og Syd. Et Maanedsskrift [North and South: A Monthly Journal], which became a weekly starting in September 1849, to which he was the prin-

•

P a p e r 416 1848 •

cipal contributor. As a student, Goldschmidt had matriculated in 1836 and completed his exams in 1839, but he never completed a final examination for a degree. ― Sibbern, his Du’s-brother, calls him: the youthful genius: → 195,4. ― Sibbern: Variant: first written instead of “Sibbern”, “Sibbern calls”. naturally] Variant: added. Councillor of State Sibbern] On June 28, 1845, F. C. Sibbern (→ 194,25) received the title of “Actual State Councillor”; according to the Danish system of rank and precedence established by decree on October 14, 1746 (with amendments dated August 12, 1808), this title placed Sibbern at the third rank in the third of nine classes. political Peter-the-Fool] Variant: changed from “naughty”. made a practice of complimenting one another] See, e.g., the third installment of Sibbern’s serial article “Foranledigede Betragtninger i politisk Hensigt” (→ 194,38), subtitled “Angaaende Maanedskrivtet ‘Nord og Syd’ ” [Regarding the Monthly Magazine “North and South”], which appeared on the front page of Nyt Aftenblad (→ 194,38), no. 57, March 8, 1848, in which Sibbern praises the third issue of Goldschmidt’s magazine Nord og Syd (→ 195,31) for its comparatively prudent liberalism, writing: “I take real joy in the fact that, in similar fashion, the publisher of Nord og Syd defends the true, but little known cause of freedom against imperiousness while at the same time he also shows that the so-called aspiration for freedom merely means that instead of having one, we shall have a great many most gracious lords.” Sibbern writes further: “But I must emphasize especially that Hr. Goldschmidt has the courage to say directly to our men of the party of movement that we should ‘make the era of Frederick VII a genuine time of preparation, the goal of which is not to be attained in haste, in May, but whose duty is let all sprouts grow and ripen.’ ” In the next issue of Nord og Syd, Goldschmidt returns the compliment in the Denmark section of the article “Europæisk Forhold” [European Situations] and in the section “5. ‘Aftenbladet’ ” in the article “Politiske Kritiker” [Political Critics]; see Nord og Syd, vol. 2, “Andet Qvartal 1848” [Second

34 35

36 38

Loose Papers from ‘48

39

196

9 10 11

15

196

22

Quarter, 1848], pp. 1–8, esp. pp. 5–6, and pp. 66– 69, where Goldschmidt writes on p. 67: “We turn to Aftenbladet; we can do so. Our position among the press is unusual: one and one-half years separate our previous and our present activity [i.e., between Corsaren and Nord og Syd], and, used in a reasonable manner, a year and a half is a gulf of time into which one can cast everything that ought to be forgotten. What is more, Aftenbladet praises us; we would wish nothing more fervently than for an opportunity to do the same.” already received] Variant: changed from “the custom of receiving”. Goldschmidt] → 195,31. is the admired individuality] Namely, admired by Sibbern (→ 195,4). The Corsair] Here Kierkegaard is presumably referring to the short autobiographical sketch in Goldschmidt’s “Svar til ‘Fædrelandet’ af 24de, 27de, 29de og 31te December 1847” [Reply to The Fatherland on December 24, 27, 29 and 31, 1847], in Nord og Syd, vol. 1, 1st quarter, no. 2, pp. 226– 227: “Corsaren wrote indirectly, satirically, destructively; it could perhaps tear a house down, but could not set a foundation for a new one. This eventually became, as The Fatherland writes, unbearable for ‘Mr. G.[oldschmidt].’ ” In a footnote to this, Goldschmidt replies, “But in no way do we ‘denounce’ The Corsair. It continues to be our opinion that it was the kind of paper that is justified as a part of any literature if it acquires a readership and is correctly understood. It stood in the way of G.[oldschmidt]’s development, which is why he left it, but it has now found others for whom it is not a hindrance” (p. 227). 7 years in a house of correction] Refers to the rehabilitation that was supposed to be undergone by prisoners in the House of Punishment, Rasping, and Betterment in Christianshavn (see map 2, C4). talk of how nowadays no one becomes a martyr anymore] If there is a source for this, it has not been identified.

•

P a p e r 416–420 1848 •

561

in the theater we all laugh at The Comrades] A reference to A. E. Scribe’s vaudeville La Camaraderie [Camaraderie] (1836), translated by Carl Borgaard into Danish as Kammeraterne. Comedie i fem Acter af Scribe [The Comrades: A Comedy in Five Acts by Scribe] (Copenhagen, 1839), which had its premiere at the Royal Theater on November 14, 1839, and was performed fifteen times between then and January 2, 1844. The piece was revived in the 1848– 1849 season, when it played on November 17, 19, 22, and 27 and on December 7 and 19. The comedy shows how one can advance in the world by means of camaraderie in which all members of a group praise one another, whereas someone not in the group has no chance. On the relation between Paper 420:1 and NB8:45, see the “Critical Account of the Text of Paper 400–Paper 420,” just above in the present volume. Martin Hamerich] Martin Johannes Hammerich (1811–1881), Danish theologian, educator, and historian of literature; in 1836, he received the magister degree for his dissertation, Om Ragnarokmythen og dens Betydning i den oldnordiske Religion [On the Ragnarok Myth and Its Significance for Old Norse Religion] (Copenhagen, 1836; ASKB 1950), and in 1842, he became the headmaster of the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn. Hammerich’s dissertation was the first one written in the Danish language to be accepted by the University of Copenhagen. Kierkegaard’s own dissertation, On the Concept of Irony, was only the third such dissertation accepted, and in petitioning the University of Copenhagen for permission to submit a dissertation written in Danish, Kierkegaard cited the precedents set by Hammerich and by Adolph Adler, whose dissertation was the second dissertation written in Danish. Kierkegaard owned a copy of Hammerich’s dissertation with a dedicatory inscription from its author. M. H.] Martin Hammerich (→ 197,14). An official school program, every year, with a little essay by the good Magister] This refers to Efterretninger om Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn i Skoleaaret 1842–43 udgivne af Mag. M. Hammerich, Skolens Forstander. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen fra 14de til 19de Juli

8

14

21 24

197

562

Loose Papers from ‘48

1843 [Information about the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn during the School Year 1842–1843, Published by Mag. M. Hammerich, the School’s Headmaster; Invitation to the Annual Examination on July 14–19, 1843] (Copenhagen, undated), 42 pages; Om de lærde Skolers Reform. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn, fra 15de til 18de Juli 1844 [On Reform of the Learned Academies: Invitation to the Annual Examination for the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn on July 15–18, 1844] (Copenhagen, undated), 46 pages, including Hammerich’s essay “Om de lærde Skolers Reform” [On Reform of the Learned Academies] on pp. 1–23); Om Realskolens Væsen, og om Realclasserne i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen, fra 17de til 21de Juli 1845, udgivet af Mag. M. Hammerich, Skolens Forstander [On the Essence of the Vocational Secondary School, and on Vocational Classes at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn: Invitation to the Annual Examination from July 17–21, 1845, Published by Mag. M. Hammerich, the School’s Headmaster] (Copenhagen, undated), 56 pages, including Hammerich’s essay “Om Realskolens Væsen, og om Realclasserne i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn” [On the Essence of the Vocational Secondary School, and on Vocational Classes at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn] on pp. 3–28); Bemærkninger om Religionsunderviisningen i den lærde Skoles høiere Classer af L. Gude, Candidat i Theologien. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn fra 15de til 18de Juli 1846, udgivet tilligemed Skoleefterretninger af Mag. M. Hammerich, Skolens Forstander [Remarks on the Religious Instruction in the Higher Classes of the Learned Academy, by L. Gude, Candidate in Theology: Invitation to the Annual Examination at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn, July 15–18, 1846, Published and Supplemented with School Information by Mag. M. Hammerich, the School’s Headmaster] (Copenhagen, undated), 66 pages, including Gude’s essay “Bemærkninger om Religionsunderviisningen i den lærde Skoles høiere Classer” [Remarks on the Religious Instruction in the Higher Classes of the Learned

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

Academy], on pp. 1–29); Om den rette Grundighed, i Anledning af den store Trængsel af Lærefag især i lærde Skoler. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn fra 19de til 22de Juli 1847, udgivet tilligemed Skoleefterretninger af Mag. M. Hammerich, Skolens Forstander [On Proper Thoroughness, Occasioned by the Great Number of Academic Disciplines, Particularly in Learned Academies: Invitation to the Annual Examination at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn, July 19–22, 1847, Edited and Supplemented with School Information by Mag. M. Hammerich, the School’s Headmaster] (Copenhagen, undated), 50 pages, including Hammerich’s essay “Om den rette Grundighed” [On Proper Thoroughness], on pp. 3–24); and Kort Udsigt over det høiere Skolevæsen i Sverrig, med Ønske om et nøiere Samqvem mellem de tre Rigers Skoler. Indbydelsesskrift til den aarlige Hovedexamen i Borgerdydskolen paa Christianshavn fra 17de til 20de Juli 1848, udgivet tilligemed Skoleefterretninger af Mag. M. Hammerich, Skolens Forstander [A Brief Look at the Higher Education System in Sweden, with a Wish for Closer Cooperation among the Schools of the Three Realms [i.e., Norway, Sweden, and Denmark]: Invitation to the Annual Examination at the School of Civic Virtue in Christianshavn, July 17–20, 1848, Published and Supplemented with School Information by Mag. M. Hammerich, the School’s Headmaster] (Copenhagen, undated), 60 pages, including Hammerich’s essay “Kort Udsigt over det høiere Skolevæsen i Sverrig” [A Brief Look at the Secondary Education System in Sweden], on pp. 3–46. 30 or 40 rix-dollars] The rix-dollar, properly “Rigsbank dollar” (rigsbankdaler), was a Danish currency denomination in use from 1713 to 1875, when it was replaced by the krone (crown), at the rate of two crowns to one rix-dollar. According to a law of July 31, 1818, passed in the wake of the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813, the rix-dollar was divided into six marks, each of which was further subdivided into sixteen shillings; thus there were ninety-six shillings in a rix-dollar. A judge earned 1,200–1,800 rix-dollars a year; a mid-level civil servant earned 400–500 rix-dollars a year; a qualified artisan would receive 5

28

197

Loose Papers from ‘48

28 32 34

198

2

rix-dollars a week; a maidservant received at most 30 rix-dollars a year in addition to room and board. A pair of shoes cost about three rix-dollars, and a one-pound loaf of rye bread (the staple of the day) cost between two and four shillings. Christian Discourses (1848) sold for two rix-dollars and three marks. Kierkegaard’s paper and printing expenses for his fifty-nine-page Two Upbuilding Discourses (1844), for a print run of five hundred copies, came to 43 rix-dollars and 61 shillings; see SKS K5, 31. A very large print run . . . get their individual copies] This claim has not been verified. 8 to 10 to 20 pages] → 197,24. Berlingske T.] Den Berlingske politiske og AvertissementsTidende [Berling’s Political and Advertisement Times], generally referred to as Berlingske Tidende, was founded in 1748; starting in January 1845, it appeared twice a day, carrying political material, news, reviews, business information, a literary supplement, and advertisements. Until 1848, the paper had a royal monopoly on publishing political news. In Kierkegaard’s day, Berlingske Tidende and Adresseavisen were the only newspapers permitted to accept paid advertising. The German-Danish-Jewish businessman and economist Mendel Levin Nathanson (1780–1868) was editor of Berlingske Tidende from 1838 to 1858 (and subsequently in 1865–1866). writing-sample by a university graduate] According to DD:29, from July 1837 (KJN 1, 222), the expression derives from the German satirist G. C. Lichtenberg. See G. C. Lichtenberg’s Ideen, Maximen und Einfälle. Nebst dessen Charakteristik [G. C. Lichtenberg’s Ideas, Maxims, and Notions: With a Description of Him], ed. G. Jördens, 2 vols. (vol. 1, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1831 [1827]; ASKB 1773; vol. 2, 1st ed., Leipzig, 1830; ASKB 1774), vol. 1, p. 122: “A person picks a topic, illuminates it with his little light as best he can and then jots down his mundane remarks in a certain tolerably fashionable style, just as any sixth former would do it but not so comprehensibly. For this kind of writing, which is favored by mediocre and undergifted minds . . . I can’t find a better term than ‘graduate prose.’ At the most what is explained is

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

563

what sensible readers already thought on hearing the mere words.” a speech at the Scandinavian Society] → 198,12. The Scandinavian Society was founded in September 1843 largely on the initiative of J. L. Heiberg. Heiberg served on its board of directors, of which H. N. Clausen was the first chairman. The society was in existence from 1843 to 1856; its goal was to promote knowledge of cultural and political life in the other Nordic countries, to host gatherings from across the Nordic countries, and to sponsor lectures on themes connected to national identity. the newspapers report] → 198,12. is read] Variant: this reading is suggested by the editors of SKS; Kierkegaard’s ms. has “is not read”. then it is published] A reference to Om de fremmede Ord i vort Modersmaal. 1. Om deres Mængde og Skadelighed. Et Foredrag i det skandinaviske Selskab den 18de December 1847 af Mag. Martin Hammerich [On the Foreign Words in Our Mother Tongue: 1) On Their Quantity and Harmfulness: A Lecture Held at the Scandinavian Society on December 18, 1847, by Mag. Martin Hammerich] (Copenhagen: The Scandinavian Society, 1848; abbreviated hereafter as Om de fremmede Ord i vort Modersmaal). The lecture was reviewed on the front page of Literaturbladet. Følgeblad til “Flyveposten” [The Literature Paper: A Supplement to “The Flying Post”], no. 3, December 16, 1848, an enclosure within The Flying Post (→ 195,15) that dates the lecture as having been held on October (not December) 18, 1847. According to the reviewer, “Those who attended that lecture at the Scandinavian Society will remember the interest with which it was listened to, despite the fact that it dealt with a matter concerning which it is very difficult to find an aspect that interests listeners. But indeed, upon rereading it, we have found ourselves captivated to an unusual degree, not merely by the thoroughness with which the matter was treated, but also with the good humor demonstrated by the author in his examples of the use of foreign words in the Danish language, many of which are just as striking as they are comical. Incidentally, this lecture could have

7

8 11 12

564

13 13

14

18

38

Loose Papers from ‘48

served as a valuable contribution to the language dispute in Parliament; certainly it would have made that dispute quite a bit more interesting.” “Now is the moment”] → 198,18. now Parliament has been convened] A reference to the fact that Denmark’s Constitutional Assembly (→ 185,13) was formally convoked by a bill posted on October 3, 1848, and met for the first time on October 23, 1848. it says in the book . . . had first thought . . . yet another essay] This refers to a remark by Hammerich at the start of the postscript set in smaller type following his printed lecture Om de fremmede Ord i vort Modersmaal (→ 198,12), p. 28, where he writes: “after having pointed out that the purification of language cannot be a matter of indifference to the person who loves his mother tongue, it was my intention in so doing to point out the procedure that corresponds to the language’s natural development.” Then Hammerich sets forth ideas concerning how foreign words can be purged from the Danish and Scandinavian languages. “Now is the moment for it,” says the auth. . . . to publish this lecture] This refers to the end of Hammerich’s postscript (→ 198,14) to his printed lecture Om de fremmede Ord i vort Modersmaal (→ 198,12), where Hammerich writes: “I had just completed the preliminary work for a lecture on this topic, when the events of this year led my thoughts to an entirely different dimension of our development as a people. But although I had neither the disposition nor the opportunity to complete the work thus begun, I did believe that I had found, in the support for the purity of the mother tongue that has revealed itself as both alert and active―and even more in the opposition that unsuccessful efforts can evoke and justify―I had met with a call to publish the lecture held separately last year. Here it appears in the form of the original draft, without the (in fact, not insignificant) omissions that I had found necessary in order to modify it for oral presentation” (p. 29). one of the meetings of Parliament . . . setting forth meaningless remarks about language] See, e.g., the following report in Fædrelandet (→ 187,1) no. 277, October 31, 1848, col. 2203: “In its session

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

today, the Assembly completed the preliminary negotiation of the rules of order or it reviewed the elements of the draft of §§11–32. On a couple of the points, namely, the question of whether or not members were to speak from a specific location (a rostrum) and whether balloting was to take place by means of [black and white] balls, the debate became somewhat more lively than negotiations about purely formal matters tend to be. After the negotiations themselves were completed, a number of remarks were exchanged with regard to the attempt made in the draft to replace foreign terms of art with Danish terms, to the extent that such exist or could be formed in a natural manner. This attempt met with approval from most quarters.” For a more detailed account of the discussion of the danification of foreign words, see the account of the seventh meeting, held on October 31, 1848, in Beretning om Forhandlingerne paa Rigsdagen [Report on the Negotiations at the Parliament], no. 18 (1848), col. 133–136, where it emerges that debate was opened by pastor C. H. Visby and that Martin Hammerich attempted to conclude the debate, saying (col. 135): “Inasmuch as the honored member of Parliament for Copenhagen’s 5th electoral district (Duntzfelt) has sought support for foreign words precisely because we have very serious things to negotiate, I must remark that if it is our task to negotiate the constitution and the other draft documents that have been placed before us, then it is also our task to adopt the expressions in which the law is to be written, and in so doing also to help along one or another Danish word that awaits linguistic usage in political life. With respect to what the honored member of Parliament for Copenhagen’s 6th district (Visby) has said, I must merely say that in the present case I regard it as one of the dangerous principles to want to establish here an ‘either/or’ such as he has done. He gives us a choice between retaining all the foreign words ―and not merely those we have inherited from the Prussian Provincial Estates, but also those we could hereafter adopt from French and English: ‘bureau,’ ‘cloture,’ etc. (I assume that this is not something people will decide to do) ―or to exchange them all at once for Danish words, and that is something people surely are even less likely to do, for we can

Loose Papers from ‘48

40

41

199

6

7

7

be reasonably certain of getting the foreign words out of the language, but it will be difficult to get rid of a misbegotten Danish word. If we want to let the language develop as it has until now, we must abandon the rule of either having nothing but Danish words or simply retaining all the foreign words. The rule must be to retain the foreign words that we are not yet able to replace, but as soon as possible to get rid of those we can do without.” Mag. H. . . . in Parliament] Martin Hammerich was elected to the Constitutional Assembly as representative of Copenhagen’s First District; see Fr. Barfod, Dansk Rigsdagskalender (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 79. perhaps he wants to join a committee] The Constitutional Assembly formed numerous committees to prepare proposals for discussion in plenum, such as the committee charged with preparing “rules of order” for the future parliament (→ 198,38). every member of Parliament] Or, more accurately, every member of the Constitutional Assembly (→ 185,13). Prayers are said for it in every church] On October 12, 1848, the king instructed his cultus minister “that on the upcoming eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday, which is the 22nd of this month [i.e., October 22, 1848], prayers be said in all the land’s churches for the convocation that was to meet the following day and for its serious task, so that the congregations everywhere call upon the Almighty for his support and blessing, that all that is undertaken might be unto God’s honor, unto what is best for the people, from generation to generation, and unto the good fortune and happiness of us who do not seek our strength in the power handed down to us by our forefathers, but in the love of the people. It is our will that priests everywhere will arrange their sermons and the entire worship service in accord with this” (Dansk Kirketidende [→ 184,30], October 22, 1848, vol. 4, no. 4, col. 80). its demeanor . . . been that of the utmost seriousness] See Martin Hammerich’s contribution to the parliamentary debate about language use (→ 198,38).

•

P a p e r 420 1848 •

565

that unforgettable language-day] → 198,38. speed-writers . . . recorded these eternally memorable words] Refers to the fact that stenographers were present to record every word spoken during the meetings of the Constitutional Assembly, after which they were printed in their entirety in Beretning om Forhandlingerne paa Rigsdagen (→ 198,38). 150 people ―not ordinary menfolk, but members of Parliament] The Constitutional Assembly consisted of 152 members, of whom 114 were popularly elected and 38 were appointed by the king. See Fr. Barfod, Dansk Rigsdagskalender (→ 198,40), pp. 79–84. as the tailor said, what goes around, comes around] Kierkegaard is referring to the saying “ ‘It will come back again,’ said the tailor, as he gave pork to his sow.” See Dansk Ordbog [Danish Dictionary] (Copenhagen, 1820), vol. 3, p. 247, col. 2; also, compare proverb no. 1473 in N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danske Ordsprog og Mundheld [Danish Proverbs and Sayings] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1549), p. 56; and no. 4921 in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat (→ 192,29), vol. 1, p. 550. See Stages on Life’s Way, SLW, 48; SKS 6, 51.

8 8

14

19

Notes for PAPER 421–PAPER 423 “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin’! 7 Discourses”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

568

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin’: 7 Discourses” is no. 264 in B-cat. The group belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay “on the left,” in “the top space,” of “the other chest of drawers. B.”1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. The material consists of a draft for a series of discourses that Kierkegaard conceived in December 1848. At that point, he wrote in NB8:46: “Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin” Under this title I would like to write a pair of discourses, which treat what are, humanly speaking, the noblest and most beautiful forms of despair . . .”2 Paper 421 is clearly a reworked version of NB8:46, and since the papers in “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin’: 7 Discourses” appear to be a development of the original pair of discourses mentioned, the papers were written no earlier than December 1848. In Paper 421, Kierkegaard writes: “Let not the heart in sorrow sin―consider: and then the theme, e.g., over one who has died―description―let not the heart in sorrow sin, consider: the joy in [“]at last[”] and [“]in a little while[”]

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. Lund notes that the material was “in a folder.”

1

) KJN 5, 173.

2

Critical Account of the Text are one and the same (however this is used lyrically in another piece, ‘From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself’); or consider this: the joy in its being out of joy that one does not believe the highest. etc.” “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself” is the title of the treatise that became “No. III” in Practice in Christianity (1850). Kierkegaard himself terms it a “treatise,” and according to his own information, it existed in manuscript at “the beginning of ’49.”1 Thus, Paper 421–Paper 423 were written in the first half of 1849, probably as early as January–February.

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Indøvelse i Christendom (Practice in Christianity), SKS K12, pp. 70ff.

1

569

Explanatory Notes 202

1

3

Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin] A Danish rendering of lines from the first verse of a hymn in Latin composed by Marcus Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, born in a.d. 348 in northern Spain and thought to have died ca. 405 or perhaps ca. 413. An English translation of the first verse reads: “Set bounds to thy sorrow and grieving, / In God’s word seek though they relieving; / Let mourning not grow into sinning; / At death is true life’s beginning.” Anonymous, The Christian Treasury, Containing Contributions from Ministers and Members of Various Evangelical Denominations (Edinburgh, 1866), p. 72. The hymn was first translated into Danish by P. Hegelund in 1586; see no. 228 in C. J. Brandt and L. Helweg, Den danske Psalmedigtning [Danish Hymnody], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1846–1847; ASKB 191–192); vol. 1, p. 170. This translation was included in Thomas Kingo’s hymnal Den Forordnede Ny Kirke-Psalme-Bog [The New Prescribed Hymnal] (1699) in the section titled “Psalmer at bruge ved Liig-Begængelse” [Funeral Hymns]; see Den Forordnede Kirke-Psalme-Bog [The Authorized Church Hymnal (known as “Kingo’s Hymnal”)] (Copenhagen, 1833 [1699]; ASKB 204), pp. 183–184; p. 183, where the third line of the first verse is identical with Kierkegaard’s wording. The portion cited was retranslated into Danish by C. U. Sundt and was published as no. 584 in W. A. Wexel, ed., Christelige Psalmer [Christian Hymns] (Copenhagen, 1840); thereafter, reworked and shortened to nine verses, it was included by Bishop J. P. Mynster as no. 529 in his Tillæg til den evangelisk-christelige Psalmebog [Supplement to the Evangelical Christian Hymnal] (Copenhagen, 1845). ― in Sorrow Sin: Variant: changed from “in Sin not Sorrow”. To be treated here . . . destiny in life] See NB8:46, from December 1848, where Kierkegaard writes: “ ‘Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin’ Under this title I would like to write a pair of discourses,

which treat what are, humanly speaking, the noblest and most beautiful forms of despair, which ‘the poet’ loves and which only Christianity dares to call sin, while from the hum. point of view the lives of such people are of infinitely more value than all the prosaic millions,” and the associated marginal entry NB8:46a: “unhappy love, grief over the death of someone beloved, sorrow over not having achieved one’s proper place in the world” (KJN 5, 173). the 3 or 4 themes . . . from “Moods in the Strife of Suffering,” . . . in a journal] Alludes to NB4:19, presumably from January 1848, where Kierkegaard writes: “In ‘Moods in the Strife of Suffering’ only 7 themes were used; here are three that were set aside. No. 1. The joy in the thought that even if the believer doesn’t manage to hold on to the anchor in the midst of spiritual trial, the anchor manages to hold on to the believer. see Journal NB2, p. 73. No. 2. The joy that these ideas are related: that troubles bring steadfastness, steadfastness experience, experience hope. see Journal NB2, p. 238. No. 3. The joy in the thought that it is because of joy that one does not dare believe the most blessed thing. see Journal NB2, pp. 190 and 191. As in Acts 12:14. The girl, Rhoda, who was supposed to open the door for Peter: when she recognized Peter’s voice, ‘out of joy, she did not open the door’―out of joy she left him standing outside” (KJN 4, 296). ― Moods in the Strife of Suffering: The second section of Christian Discourses, which was published on April 25, 1848. [“]at last[”] and [“]in a little while[”] . . . used lyrically in . . . “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself”] See NB8:4, presumably from November 1848: “ ‘In a Little While―and ‘at Last’! . . . That these words say one and the same thing; it only depends on how close the eternal is. If it is very close, then all our suffering and unhappiness and misery is ‘in a little while’; if

7

13

Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin it is far away, we sigh [‘]at last[’]” (KJN 5, 151). ― at last: See EE:180, dated September 11, 1839: “The expression [‘]at last’ that appears in all our collects is the most epically fateful and the most lyrically impatient, the true Xn watchword.” The word occurs not in all, but at the conclusion of several of the collects, see, e.g., the collect to “Christi Fødsels Dage” [The Day of Christ’s Birth]: “and at last to be eternally saved on account of the same your dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives with you and reigns in unity of the Holy Spirit, one true God from eternity and unto eternity. Amen!” Forordnet Alter-Bog for Danmark [Prescribed Service Book for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1830 [1688]; ASKB 381), p. 12.― a little while: Refers to John 16:16. ― used lyrically in . . . “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself”: Allusion to a passage in “From On High He Will Draw All unto Himself,” which was written between November 1848 and the beginning of 1849 and later included as No. III in Practice in Christianity; see PC, 195–196; SKS 12, 194. 202

23 33

203

4

5

Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin] → 202,1. ancient poet] → 202,1. Juliet kills herself] The main female character in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) is driven to suicide and empties a chalice of poison from grief over losing her beloved Romeo. See William Shakspeare’s Tragiske Værker [William Shakespeare’s Tragedies], trans. P. Foersom and P. F. Wulff, 9 vols. (vols. 8 and 9 bear the title Dramatiske Værker [Dramatic Works]) (Copenhagen, 1807–1825; ASKB 1889–1896), vol. 2 (1811), pp. 227–418. The play was performed nineteen times at the Royal Theater during the period 1828–1848, with the last performance on December 9, 1848. Brutus] Alludes to the Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42 b.c.), who took part in the murder of Julius Caesar and is one of the main characters in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1623). See act 5, sc. 5, where with his servant’s help Brutus commits suicide after he and Cassius, one of his co-conspirators in the murder of Caesar, have suffered final defeat in the fight against the

•

P a p e r 421–423 1849 •

571

triumvirate of Antonius, Octavian, and Lepidus. Later, Antonius (Mark Antony) declares Brutus to have been the noblest of all Romans and describes him as a complex person who alone among Caesar’s murderers carried out the deed for reasons of conscience. See William Shakespeare’s Tragiske Værker, vol. 1 (1807), pp. 147–152 (where the tragedy is separately paginated). Shakespeare bases his portrayal on the account of Brutus’s death after the battle of Philippi (42 b.c.) as given by the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch in Vitae parallelae [Parallel Lives]; see Plutarchi vitae parallelae, 9 vols., stereotype ed. (Leipzig 1829; ASKB 1181–1189), vol. 9, pp. 106–126; and “Marcus Brutus,” in Plutarch’s Lives, trans. John Dryden, rev. A. H. Clough, 5 vols. (London: Everyman’s Library, 1910), vol. 3, pp. 371–415. Let Not the Heart in Sorrow Sin] → 202,1. love of God . . . love of hum. beings . . . love of yourself] See Mt 22:37–40; see also Mt 91:19 and Lk 10:25–37.

12 28

203

Notes for Paper 424–Paper 430 “ ‘The Story of Suffering’! Christian Discourses”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Thomas Eske Rasmussen Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

574

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘The Story of Suffering’! Christian Discourses” is no. 263 in B-cat. and belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay “to the left” in “the uppermost space” of “the chest of drawers itself.”1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. It appears from Paper 426 that “The Story of Suffering” was conceived as a book.2 The material was presumably ready in August–September 1850, when NB20:128 was written: About Myself. Presenting the story of Xt’s suffering was a task I once thought of undertaking; I already have quite a lot of suitable material. I do not doubt that in terms of inwardness, imagination, and heart-rending and gripping eloquence it would have become a masterpiece, yes, would have been as enthralling as those paintings that depict Xt.3 This account of an interrupted work sounds very much like “ ‘The Story of Suffering’! Christian Discourses” and must be considered to be identical with it.

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. Lund notes that the material was “in a folder.”

1

) See the comment in Paper 426: “This verse could be printed on the reverse side of the title page.”

2

) NB20:128, in KJN 7, 468.

3

Critical Account of the Text Paper 425, which was written in close connection with Paper 424, strengthens the assumption of a genesis in 1850: Still, we must be reminded of the words: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me―where this suffering is intimated. In the journals there is quite a lot on this, sure enough particularly in the one from spring last year. The journal entries in which Kierkegaard is occupied with Christ’s voluntary suffering, and which can reasonably be said to have been composed in “the spring,” are found in NB10 and NB11, written, respectively, in March–April and May–June 1849.1 If Kierkegaard is trying to call to mind material he had written previously, this would explain his uncertain reference in Paper 426 to “somewhere” in precisely the journals “NB10 or NB11” (see p. 207:4 in the present volume). Paper 429 is based on “Luther’s sermon on the epistle for the second Sunday after Easter” and “the discourse on Good Friday in the epistle sermons.” In Kierkegaard’s day, during Lent there were successive sermons on the story of Christ’s suffering, so this entry and the other entries in the group could already have been written in February–March 1850. In summary, it can be said that the entries were written between February and August 1850.

) E.g., NB10:164 (KJN 5, 348), NB11:7 and NB11:117 (KJN 6, 7 and 61–62). See also the Critical Account of the Text for NB10 in KJN 5, 517 and NB11 in KJN 6, 446–448.

1

575

Explanatory Notes 206

1

5

13

14

206

17 24 26

The Story of Suffering] See the compilation of the four Gospels’ differing accounts of Christ’s suffering in “Vor Herres Jesu Christi Lidelses Historie” [The History of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Suffering], in Forordnet Alter-Bog for Danmark [Prescribed Service Book for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1830 [1688]; ASKB 381; abbreviated hereafter as Forordnet Alter-Bog), pp. 263–288. During Lent, passages on Christ’s suffering were the subject of weekday sermons. There is one thing and another on this here and there in the journals] See, e.g., the following journal entries on Christ’s suffering as differing qualitatively from any human suffering: NB2:261, from November 1847; NB4:95 and 96, presumably from March 1848, in KJN 4, 238–239 and 333–334; NB11:106, from June 1849, in KJN 6, 56; and NB15:87, from January 1850, in KJN 7, 59. “There they had sung the hymn of praise”] Cited from Mt 26:30 in the account of Peter’s denial (Mt 26:30–35); see “Vor Herres Jesu Christi Lidelses Historie,” in Forordnet Alter-Bog, p. 264. “at that moment the cock crowed for the third time―and Xt looked at Peter.”] Free rendering of Lk 22:60–61; see “Vor Herres Jesu Christi Lidelses Historie,” in Forordnet Alter Bog, p. 270. ― Peter: His actual name was Simon. Peter (Petrus) is the Latinate form of the Greek word for “stone” (petros), which in turn is a translation of the Aramaic “Cephas”; see Jn 1:42. Peter was one of the twelve apostles; see also Mk 3:13–19, esp. v. 16, and Mt 4:18–20. Peter appears to have had a leading position among the twelve apostles To “The Story of Suffering”] → 206,1. the words: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me] Mt 27:46. In the journals there is quite a lot . . . in the one from spring last year] See the following journal entries on Christ’s voluntary suffering: NB10:164, presumably from April 1849, in KJN 5,

348; NB11:7, from May 1849, in KJN 6, 7; and NB 11:117, from June 1849, in KJN 6, 61. But see also NB4:95, presumably from March 1848, in KJN 4, 333–334; NB7:77, from November 1848, and NB 8:35, from December 1848, in KJN 5, 122 and 166. To “The Story of Suffering”] → 206,1. Liguori] Alfonso Maria de Liguori (1696–1787), Italian bishop; in 1732 founded the Redemptorists, a congregation of the Catholic Church dedicated to missionary work; canonized in 1839. to be found cited in the journal NB11 or NB 10] See NB11:54, from May 1849, in KJN 6, 33. Süßer Jesus, um zu sterben . . . Laß mich sterben Herr mit Dir] Cited from the closing verse of the first eleven of fourteen “stations” in “KreuzwegAndacht” [The Way of the Cross Prayer], in Vollständiges Betrachtungs- und Gebetbuch von dem heiligen Alphons von Liguori. Neu aus dem Italienischen übersetzt von einem Priester aus der Versammlung des allerheiligsten Erlösers [Complete Book of Observations and Prayers by the Holy Alphons von Liguori: New Translation from the Italian by a Priest from the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer] (Aachen 1840; ASKB 264), pp. 651–680; pp. 654, 656, 658, 660, 662, 664 (where the first line has the word Heiland [Savior] instead of “Jesus”), 666, 668, 670, 672, 674. In Kierkegaard’s copy, which is in the Kierkegaard Archive at the Royal Library, the verse on p. 654 is marked with a vertical line in the margin outside lines 2–4.

1

the natural hum. being] The merely earthly, i.e., sensual and prudential but not spiritual being. From 1 Cor 2:14, which reads, in the NRSV: “Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The Danish translation, “det naturlige Menneske”

20

207

3

3 5

207

The Story of Suffering

21 23 24

208

1 6 8 16 30 32 33 33

34

209

4 11

12 12

209m

2 5 6

(“the natural human being”) occurs in a Danish version of Luther’s translation of the Bible, where Luther uses the German equivalent, “der natürliche Mensch.” The Danish translation of the New Testament from 1819, which was the authorized version in Kierkegaard’s day, has “det sandselige Menneske” (“the sensate human being”). that never a sufferer] Variant: preceding “never”, “we” has been deleted. presumptuously] Variant: added. that humbles] Variant: added. To the Story of Suffering] → 206,1. invites people] Variant: preceding “people” the word “all” has been deleted. directly; and] Variant: changed from “directly. And”. deny yourself] Presumably, a reference to Mt 16:24. he nonetheless] Variant: first written “he was”. finally mocked] See Lk 22:63–65; Mt 27:29–31, 39; see also Lk 18:32. spat upon] See Mk 14:65, 15:19, and Lk 18:32. treated as so abominable a criminal] Refers to Luke 23:32–33. ― treated: Variant: first written “crucify”. Barrabas] Or Barabbas. See Mt 27:15–26, Mk 15:7, Lk 23:19, Jn 18:39–40. insane] Variant: changed from “insane, least”. intercedes for Barrabas] See “Vor Herres Jesu Christi Lidelses Historie,” in Forordnet Alter-Bog (→ 206,1), p. 280: “Then Pilate released to them Barabbas, who was thrown into jail for insurrection and murder, whom they pleaded for; but he let Jesus be flogged and abandoned him to their will that he be crucified.” That is to say . . . encourages.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. hum. view of] Variant: changed from “hum. view. But what, then does Christianity mean? It means”. All the hum.] Variant: changed from “Humanly speaking, indeed all”. which can] Variant: preceding “can”, the word “indeed” has been deleted. in the words of the O.T. . . . not seen the cause of the righteous forsaken by God”] Refers to Ps

•

P a p e r 427–429 1850 •

577

37:25 in Jens Møller’s translation in Det Gamle Testaments poetiske og prophetiske Skrifter, efter Grundtexten paa ny oversatte [The Poetic and Prophetic Writings of the Old Testament, Newly Translated from the Original Text], trans. J[ens] Møller and R[asmus] Møller, 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828–1830; ASKB 86–88 and 89–91), vol. 1, p. 153: “I have been young and have become old; but I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed search for bread.” Compare NB 11:7, where Kierkegaard writes: “All hum. religiosity, including Jewish religiosity, culminates in the words of Solomon (or David): I have been young, and have become old, but never have I seen the righteous abandoned by God. Merciful God. And then there’s Xt, who says: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; and it’s Christianity that makes this entire earthly existence into suffering, crucifixion. How can then one find a mild ethic in Christianity!” (KJN 6, 7). ― God”―: Variant: first written “God.” ” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me] → 206,24. tried in the agony] Variant: preceding this, “abandoned by God” has been deleted. that is reserved solely . . . no doubt . . . more righteous.] Variant: added, moved from marginal note 428.c. ― solely: Variant: added. ― no doubt: Variant: added. and then . . . in the agony] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. striving . . . this world.] Variant: added. To the Story of Suffering] → 206,1. see Luther’s sermon . . . p. 228 . . . 3) he has suffered altogether innocently] See Luther’s epistle sermon on 1 Pet 2:20–25 (on Christ who suffered and left an example to be followed) for the second Sunday after Easter in En christelig Postille, sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirke- og Huuspostiller [A Collection of Christian Sermons, Gathered from Dr. Martin Luther’s Collections of Sermons for Church and Home], trans. J. Thisted, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283; abbreviated hereafter as En christelig Postille), vol. 2, pp. 226–240; p. 228, col. 2, where Luther says that the apostle Peter “presents the main points that

21 24 24

32 1

210m

6

210

9

578

14

22

211

5 8 18

The Story of Suffering

make all our suffering quite slight and insignificant when compared with the Savior’s. Because this passion―he wants to say―[‘]this, our Lord’s passion,[’] receives supremely high praise and a great advantage above all others. Because: I. He has left all of us an example; II. He has suffered for us; III. He has suffered altogether innocently. These three elements we shall and will let him retain solely for himself and, rather, humble ourselves, even if we were to have suffered death a thousandfold, knowing that our suffering is nothing, nothing compared to his.” ― Luther’s: Martin Luther (1483–1546), German theologian, Augustinian monk, professor at Wittenberg. As a reformer of the Church, Luther was the central figure in breaking with the medieval theological tradition, papal power, and the Roman Church, which resulted in a transformation of worship services and ecclesiastical life and in the founding of a number of evangelical Lutheran churches, particularly in northern Europe. Luther was the author of a great many theological, exegetical, and edifying works, as well as works on ecclesiastical policy and organization, and many sermons and hymns. Luther also translated the Bible into German. ― left us all an example: Variant: “all” has been added. the discourse on Good Friday in the epistle sermons] Refers to Luther’s “En Tale om Christi hellige Lidelses Betragtning” [A Discourse on Regarding Christ’s Holy Sufferings] for Good Friday in the epistle sermons section of En christelig Postille (→ 210,9), vol. 2, pp. 198–203. in an earlier time . . . through revelations . . . 60 . . . how . . . big the whips were etc.] No source has been identified. ― 60: Variant: changed from “65”. To the Story of Suffering] → 206,1. love, etc.] Variant: “etc.” has been added. as far as] Variant: changed from “every time”.

•

P a p e r 429–430 1849–1853 •

Notes for Paper 431–Paper 432 “In Adresseavisen”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

580

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘In Adresseavisen’ ” is no. 244 in B-cat. and belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay “to the left” in “the uppermost space” of “the chest of drawers itself.”1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. The topic of Paper 431 is a newspaper announcement, to which Kierkegaard refers by date: “The matter referred to is in Adresseavisen for 18 Sept. 1851 under the heading: Literature.”2 From Paper 432:2 it appears that Kierkegaard wrote Paper 431 “immediately after reading the paper,” which must mean on the same day. From the same entry it appears that Kierkegaard later discussed the newspaper announcement with J. F. Giødwad, who was able to provide the background. Paper 432:2 was probably written before the end of September 1851.

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. Lund further notes that the material was placed “in paper.”

1

) See Kjøbenhavns kongelig alene privilegerede Adressecomptoirs Efterretninger [Information from Copenhagen’s Only Royally Licensed Advertising Office], no. 220, September 18, 1851.

2

Explanatory Notes 214

1

3

18 22 37

39

215

3

Adresseavisen for 18 Sept. 1851 under the heading: Literature] Refers to Adresseavisen, no. 220, September 18, 1851, where the following announcement is inserted under the heading “Literature”: “When an author is alone in saying: The public is in the wrong―then he makes himself ridiculous; but when all think: It is in fact strange that no one buys the book!―What then? It cannot occur to the undersigned to beg the reader for four marks; but on the other hand he asks you not to belittle his four-shilling paper: The extra post. ‘The coachman hopes for 4 shil[lings]. The paper is supplied to the seller at half price, if they do not request fewer than 16 copies; and can be acquired at printer Quist’s in Badstuestrædet 124. Auth[or] of ‘Invaliden’ [The Invalid].” ― 1851: Variant: added. Adresseavisen] The everyday name for Kiøbenhavns Kongelige allene privilegerede Adresse Contoirs Efterretninger [Information from Copenhagen’s Only Royally Licensed Advertising Office], established in 1759 and the most important organ for advertising in Copenhagen because, with the exception of Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times], it was the only newspaper in the city that had the right to accept paid advertising; starting in 1800, it was published six days a week, and in the 1840s the average press run was ca. seven thousand copies. names: the esteemed] Variant: “esteemed” has been added. and the cultivated most highly esteemed] Variant: following this, “etc.” has been deleted. invalid―then . . . by an invalid.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. His first proposition is . . . makes himself ridiculous] → 214,1. so it must be said in the public’s name,] Variant: first written, instead of “name,” “name.”, with the

period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. every person who says it] Variant: changed from “he”. The next proposition is: And then assume that no one buys the book] → 214,1. As for me, . . . do that] Variant: changed from “Now, I can do that, too”. my answer is] Variant: first written, instead of “is”, “that”. That there are despicable . . . their spirit.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. author of The Invalid] → 217,8. in itself] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. a proposition . . . the public.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. New conclusion] Variant: added. Suppose this were untrue] Variant: changed from “Now suppose, e.g., that it was a lie”. Yes, something occurs . . . this notice] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. scarcely] Variant: added. by peddling her body] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. In Adresse-Avisen] The title of the preceding paper, Paper 431. 4 marks] The mark was a Danish coin that had been in circulation since 1713. According to a law of July 31, 1818, passed in the wake of the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813, the rix-dollar was divided into six marks, each of which was further divided into sixteen shillings; thus there were ninety-six shillings in a rix-dollar. A pair of shoes cost about three rix-dollars, and a one-pound loaf of rye bread (the staple of the day) cost between two and four shillings. A judge earned 1,200– 1,800 rix-dollars a year; a mid-level civil servant

10 14 21 22 15

216

16

214m

22 1

215m

3

216m

9 9

18 27

1 4

217

582

4

7

8

11

13

In Adresseavisen

earned 400–500 rix-dollars a year; a qualified artisan would receive 200 rix-dollars a year, plus free food and lodging from his master; a maidservant received at most 30 rix-dollars in addition to room and board. as does For Self-Examination] Kierkegaard’s book, For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age, which came out in September 1851, sold for sixty-four shillings, which amounted to four marks. Gjødwad] Jens Finsteen Giødwad (1811– 1891), Danish jurist and journalist; editor of Kjøbenhavnsposten [The Copenhagen Post], 1837– 1839, and from 1839, coeditor and publisher of Fædrelandet [The Fatherland]. Giødwad was Kierkegaard’s close friend and helped him with proofreading and as a middleman in dealings with his printer and his publisher. Lector Buchvald, who really has written a book titled “The Invalid,” which costs 4 marks] Johan Heinrich Buchwald (1787–1876), after a long military career served as a teacher of French at the University of Kiel from 1828, resident in Copenhagen from 1848. He had published a series of books, including the war diary Invaliden, eller Soldater-Perspective [The Invalid, or the Soldier Perspective] (1840, orig. in French from 1824), reprinted in his Udvalgte Skrifter [Selected Writings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1851), vol. 1. In Adresseavisen, no. 200, August 26, 1851, The Invalid was advertised for sale for one rix-dollar, of which one-third was to go for supporting invalided soldiers and four marks to the author. Goldschmidt once brought up in The Corsair] Presumably refers to Corsaren [The Corsair], no. 279, January 23, 1846, where a satirical sketch shows how Kierkegaard, alias Frater Taciturnus, summons his last military forces in a remote corner; see the illustration in KJN 3, 455. ending publication of Nord og Syd . . . an invalid of one’s own ideas] On March 28, 1851, Mëir Aron Goldschmidt had brought publication of his monthly Nord og Syd [North and South] to a close. He did so with these words: “I have now published Nord og Syd for nearly 3½ years and written about 260 signatures. To write so much and such varied material―which nevertheless belongs together and should be brought under

•

P a p e r 432 1851 •

a common heading―is not good; one fails to get the real benefit of one’s intellectual existence, because bit by bit one comes to dispatch thoughts and feelings in haste, before they have been enriched with all facts that the matter in question requires. I will not take back any of what I have written; for I have at least expressed it with goodwill and with eagerness for the truth; but often I have been unable to say everything that I believe could be said, and even more frequently I have had to lay aside work that I would rather have finished. The result of this has been that recently I have been unable to satisfy myself with the editing of Nord og Syd. It may be that the journal has not yet ceased to satisfy its public―at any rate I may acknowledge my deep gratitude that no sign of this has been given me; the reason may nevertheless rest in the circumstance that the public discovers literary deficiencies later than the critics. But in my opinion it is an author’s duty, when he comes to recognize what is expressed here, to stop at the right time if it is possible for him, and make up for what has been neglected, in order that he not come to fail his reader’s trust, so that he does not become, before his time, the invalid of his ideas . . . To those for whom it appears that I have hitherto expressed something good and who, because of that, nurture goodwill toward Nord og Syd, I would like to address sincere words of gratitude, were it not for fear of introducing the slightest sentiment into this matter” (Nord og Syd [1851], vol. 6, pp. 343–344).

Notes for Paper 433 “The Income Tax—The Temporary”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

584

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘The Income Tax―The Temporary’ ” is no. 33 in B-cat. and belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay “between the right and the left compartments,” which were “at the front,” in the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology Paper 433 is undated, but because Kierkegaard mentions a political event, the time of composition can be narrowed down. The background is a meeting of the parliament on Tuesday November 25, 1851, at which the minister of finance, W.C.E. Sponneck, presented the draft of a law introducing an income tax that was to take effect starting in 1853.2 A second debate on the proposal was slated for March 19, 1852, but owing to an election to the lower house, this did not take place, whereupon and the proposal failed.3 Thus Paper 433 was written between the end of November 1851 and mid-March 1852. In Kierkegaard’s spirited treatment, Sponneck’s proposal appears to be very much the issue of the day, which suggests November or December 1851 as the time of its composition.

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume.

1

) Mentioned in, e.g., Berlingske Tidende, no. 276, November 26, 1851.

2

) See Anders Monrad Møller, Dansk Skattehistorie V―Fra skat på hartkorn til indkomstskat 1818–1903 [Danish Tax History, V: From Land Tax to Income Tax, 1818–1903] (Copenhagen: Told- og Skattehistorisk Selskab, 2009).

3

Explanatory Notes 220

1

2

3

The Income Tax] Kierkegaard paid attention to the debate on taxing income because in his view the proposed tax would have “fatal” consequences for his economy; see NB12:143 (September 1849), KJN 6, 233–235 and NB24:54 (1851), KJN 8, 354–361, which mention the threat during the summer of 1849, and NB18:51 (1850), KJN 7, 290– 291. The finance minister has presented the income tax plan in parliament] Count Wilhelm C. E. Sponneck (1815–1888) took over the Ministry of Finance on November 16, 1848, and remained until minister A. S. Ørsted’s government fell on December 12, 1854. In 1850–1851, he had put through legislation for a war tax (which took effect January 17, 1851), but was also spokesman for a form of progressive income tax. (In fact, such a tax would not be introduced in Denmark until 1903.) Sponneck presented a proposal for income tax in the lower house of parliament on November 12 and 13, 1850, but the unpopular tax had been debated in the newspapers since October 1850 (see, e.g., Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times], no. 232, October 5, 1850), and the debate continued through the entire month of November of that year (see the double article in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], nos. 277–278, November 27 and 28, 1850). The finance minister’s proposal did not pass. The following year, he presented a revised draft. Berlingske Tidende, no. 176, November 26, 1851 (see also Fædrelandet, no. 276, November 26, 1851) reports that the finance minister presented his new income tax proposal in the lower house of parliament on November 25, 1851. This law was supposed to take effect on January 1, 1853, and to remain in force for five years. He believes this money is needed . . . it is only to be temporary] It has not been possible to determine to which parliamentary proceeding or newspaper Kierkegaard is referring.

people can be] Variant: first written, instead of “people”, “they”. Everyone who has] Variant: preceding “has”, the word “even” has been deleted. may perhaps be right] Variant: “perhaps” has been added. a restitutio in integrum] Variant: first written instead of “a”, “no”. the parliament] i.e., Rigsdagen, the Danish name of the representative legislative body established by the constitution of June 5, 1849, and consisting of two chambers, the Lower House, or People’s Parliament (Folketinget), and the Upper House (Landstinget). The name Rigsdag fell into disuse with the abolition of the Upper House in 1953.

25 38

221

3

222

11 25

Notes for Paper 434 “ ‘The Shepherd’—‘The Hired Hand’ ”

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

588

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “ ‘The Shepherd’―‘The Hired Hand’ ” is no. 324 in B-cat. and belongs to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay “in the Bible case,” which was “at the front” in the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”1 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The paper is undated. The earliest possible date of its composition is at the beginning of 1852. At the top of the first page of the entry, Kierkegaard refers to NB25:97, which was written between January and May 1852.2 Both Paper 434 and NB25:97 deal with John 10:11–16, the gospel story of the Good Shepherd. Because this biblical passage is the text for the second Sunday after Easter, which in 1852 fell on April 25, Paper 434 probably originated during the first three weeks of April 1852.

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. The Bible case also contained B-cat. 325 and 326 (Paper 435–Paper 439).

1

) See the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB25” in KJN 8, 801–802.

2

Explanatory Notes 224

1

2

The gospel: the Good Shepherd] Refers to John 10:11–16, the gospel for the second Sunday after Easter, which in 1852 fell on April 25. see Journal NB25 p. 214] In NB25:97, from April or May 1852, Kierkegaard writes: “The Gospel Story of the Good Shepherd. Theme: that the difference between the hireling and the shepherd only becomes clear―when the wolves come. This is aimed at ‘Xndom.’ In calm weather, when everything is secure, when there are no dangers for Xnty―when, in fact, every advantage is connected with it―the shepherd and the hireling can easily be confused: then it indeed entirely suits the hireling to be the shepherd. But when the wolves come” (KJN 8, 521). In the margin of p. 521, Kierkegaard continues: “―That is why it was actlly the hirelings who invented the sort of security that is ‘Xndom’: they know very well that when the wolves come it will be obvious that they are not shepherds. To this extent they have an interest in preventing the wolves from coming. This could give them a fleeting likeness to shepherds.a For―when the wolves come, when it can no longer be prevented, then it becomes obvious that the hirelings are―hirelings.” In the additional note “a”, Kierkegaard adds the following: “yet the difference is easy to see: the hireling does not fear the coming of the wolves for the sake of the flock, but for his own sake because he might lose the profits and because, in addition, it would also become obvious that he is a hireling.” And in another marginal note Kierkegaard adds the following: “ ‘The hireling’ ” and “ ‘the shepherd’ ” are of course not as different from one another as, e.g., red and black, so that one immediately sees the difference with one’s eyes half open. One must remember that the secret and the art of the hireling consist precisely in doing everything to resemble the shepherd as deceptively as possible. The hireling, of course, does not write

[‘]Hireling[’] on his hat―Lord, no, at all costs, do not let anyone know anything other than that I am the shepherd.” Kierkegaard rounds off the entry by adding: “Incidentally, it is worth noting that the epistle of Peter, which deals with imitating Xt, is accompanied by the gospel story of the good shepherd [1 Pet 2:21–25, epistle for the second Sunday after Easter], though those who have chosen this epistle have most likely let their choice be determined by the closing words: [‘]You were like sheep without a shepherd.[’] [1 Pet 2:25]” “The Shepherd”―“The Hired Hand”] See the two preceding notes. metaphor: a shepherd] Variant: changed from “metaphor.” In youth . . . blush] Variant: changed from “In youth one blushes”. day and night] Variant: added. the one who knows the heart] Allusion to Luke 16:15; see also Acts 1:24 and 15:8. In the scripture we read: the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few] Cited from Mt 9:37. the sheep can open] Variant: first written, instead of “the sheep”, “we”. tender virgins gave their lives] See “Martyrerne” [The Martyrs], in K. Hase, Kirkehistorie. Lærebog nærmest for akademiske Forelæsninger [Church History: A Textbook Primarily for Academic Lectures], trans. C. Winther and T. Schorn (Copenhagen, 1837 [German, 1834]; ASKB 160– 166), pp. 56–57: “But the confessors’ and martyrs’ dauntless joy was paramount and so great that people often pressed themselves toward death in a way of which the circumspect teachers in the Church themselves disapproved. Even children found joy in death and noble virgins suffered patiently, which was harder.”

4 12 33 16

225

25 27

226

6

227

18

225m

Notes for Paper 435–Paper 439 Drafts of Two Sermons

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, and Jon Tafdrup Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Hermann Deuser Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

592

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Drafts of Two Sermons”1 are numbers 325 and 326 in B-cat. and belong to the part of Kierkegaard’s papers that at his death lay in the “Bible case,” “at the front” of the “lowest space in chest of drawers B.”2 The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. Paper 439 is the latest; that entry’s description of a draft “in an envelope on quarto sheets” refers to Paper 435. It is stated that the envelope contains the “draft of Nicodemus,” that is, Paper 436–Paper 438. In Paper 439, Kierkegaard also refers to a journal entry: “The draft of Stephen,” which “is right at the beginning of this year’s journal. It is probably in NB25.” The draft mentioned is indeed in NB25:12–13 and NB25:15, written during the Christmas period of 1851.3 Kierkegaard’s reference indicates that Paper 439 was written at a time when all of Journal NB25 was complete, that is, no earlier than the end of May or early June 1852.4 Paper 436 and Paper 437 contain drafts of sermons on the texts for Trinity Sunday and the second Sunday after Trinity, respec-

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. The Bible case also contained B-cat. 324 (Paper 434).

2

) See KJN 8, 451–454.

3

) The entry in Journal NB25 with the latest date is from May, and Journal NB26 begins on June 4; see the “Critical Account of the Text for Journal NB25” in KJN 8, 801–802.

4

Critical Account of the Text tively. In 1852, these Sundays fell on June 6 and June 20, and it is roughly during this period that we may assume Kierkegaard got the inspiration for the sermons. The Papers must thus have been written in the late spring or early summer of 1852.

593

Explanatory Notes 230

1

1

3

230

4 5 12

19

24

30

231

3

Trinity Sunday] According to Forordnet AlterBog for Danmark [Prescribed Service Book for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1830 [1688]; ASKB 381), pp. 104–106, the gospel text for the sermon on Trinity Sunday is John 3:1–15. the 2nd Sunday after Trinity] According to Forordnet Alter-Bog, pp. 111–112, the gospel text for the sermon on the second Sunday after Trinity is Luke 14:16–24. The Kingdom of Heaven resembles] In various forms, these words introduce the parable of “the kingdom of heaven” in Mt 13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47; 18:23; 20:1; 22:2; and 25:1. Trinity Sunday] → 230,1. Nicodemus] → 230,1. confirmed as children] According to an edict from May 25, 1759, no children were to be confirmed before they had reached their fourteenth or fifteenth birthdays (§1), while confirmation was required before they reached nineteen (§ 2). God is spirit; therefore he cannot truly be worshiped with poems] Refers to John 4:7–26; see esp. vv. 23–24. something meritorious] In Lutheran dogmatics, this is an expression of the erroneous view that one can deserve God’s justice and righteousness through one’s own actions and achievements; see, e.g., art. 4, art. 6, and art. 20 of the Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana) from 1530, which is the earliest of the Lutheran confessional documents. not to confess Xt,] Variant: changed from “not to confess Xt.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. in hidden inwardness] See, e.g., NB20:74, presumably from August 1850, where Kierkegaard writes: “Hidden inwardness arose when concern and enthusiasm for actually being Xn gradually faded away even though, at the same time, no one wanted to break completely with Xnty. Hidden

inwardness excuses one from actual renunciation, excuses one from all the inconvenience of suffering for Xnty’s cause. This became the agreement and on this condition everyone continued to be Xn―it was convenient” (KJN 7, 443). And: “The notion that one could be a Xn, with an inwardness so hidden that Satan himself could never discover it, was glorified and admired as a matter of refinement” (KJN 7, 443). And further: “As for that, I confess that I have been a lover of hidden inwardness both as an ironist and melancholic, and it is certainly true that I have cultivated inwardness and made great efforts to conceal it. There is also something true in the shyness that conceals its inwardness. But as for me, I have tried to order my actions as a striving for what is Xn. I have never maintained that I was Xn in hidden inwardness and then otherwise, with all life’s energy, organized my life secularly. To the contrary, I have kept my inwardness secret, appeared as an egotistical, frivolous person, etc.―and yet I have acted in such a way so as to experience the Xn collisions” (KJN 7, 443–444). The entry concludes: “And hidden inwardness was the very thing to be prodded, which can only be done indirectly” (KJN 7, 444). there is so much talk . . . to have state and Church separated] During the negotiations in the Constitutional Assembly of 1848–1849, a proposal to separate the Church from the state, and have it ruled by an elected synod, was presented. Failing a majority vote, the debate ended with the following provision in § 3 in the constitution of June 5, 1849: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Danish People’s Church and supported as such by the State,” and with the supplement § 80 (often referred to as “the promissory paragraph”): “The constitution of the People’s Church is to be ordered by law”; see Danmarks Riges Grundlov. Valgloven. Bestemmelser angaende Forretningsorden i begge Thingene [Constitution of the Kingdom of

26

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

30

Denmark, Electoral Law, Procedural Rules concerning Both Houses of Parliament] (Copenhagen, 1850), pp. 6 and 26; with §§ 82–84 religious freedom was introduced at the same time. These provisions in the constitution led to a running and at times violent debate on the relationship between state and church. Although a majority favored retaining a close connection with the state, there were also those who preferred separation, e.g., A. G. Rudelbach, who in his Den evangeliske Kirkeforfatnings Oprindelse og Princip, dens Udartning og dens mulige Gjenreisning fornemmelig i Danmark. Et udførligt kirkeretligt og kirkehistorisk Votum for virkelig Religionsfrihed [The Constitution of the Evangelical Church: Its Origin and Principle, Its Decline, and Its Possible Restoration, Principally in Denmark; A Detailed Vote, Based on Canon Law and Church History, for Real Religious Freedom] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 171) opposed the Danish arrangement and made himself spokesman for full religious freedom and the separation of church and state. And there were those who would rather see the Church and state unified, though in such a manner that the Church was afforded real self-rule, e.g., H. L. Martensen, who presented his view in Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Danish People’s Church’s Constitution] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 655). The unambiguously State Church position was expressed, e.g., in J. P. Mynster’s Grundlovens Bestemmelser med Hensyn til de kirkelige Forhold i Danmark [The Constitution’s Provisions with Regard to the Ecclesiastical State of Affairs in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1850) and Yderligere Bidrag til Forhandlingerne om de kirkelige Forhold i Danmark [Further Contribution to the Negotiations on the Ecclesiastical Situation in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1851). draw attention] See the introduction to the last part of the text appended to “Regnskabet” [The Accounting], in On My Work as an Author from 1851: “ ‘Without authority’ to make aware of the religious, of Christianity, is the category for my work as an author, regarded as a totality” (OMWA, 12, translation slightly modified; SKS 13, 18–19).

•

P a p e r 436 1851 •

595

inward deepening in Xnty] See especially the subtitle to “ ‘Come unto Me All You Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I Will Give You Rest’: For Awakening and Inward Deepening” (No. I, in Practice in Christianity [1850]) (PC, 5; see also 11 and 23; SKS 12, 13, 21, 37). reformations] A presumed reference to the introduction―pursuant to a vote by a parliamentary majority―of various reforms in the Danish State Church and of provisions for ecclesiastical freedom. First, there was a proposal for a new synodal constitution for the People’s Church, which would loosen the tie between the state and the Church or separate them altogether (→ 231,26). Then there was a proposal for complete confessional and religious freedom, with the introduction of civil marriage and repeal of enforced baptism and confirmation, which was presented in the Folketing (lower house of parliament) in October 1850 by Judge N. M. Spandet, with the support of N.F.S. Grundtvig, and which provoked violent debate. Spandet’s proposal was referred to committee prior to its second consideration by the Folketing, and a majority of the committee voted to revise the proposal by changing it to a “Law about Entering into Marriage outside the Recognized Religious Societies or between Members of Different Religious Societies.” It was adopted by an overwhelming majority in the Folketing in February 1851. And lastly, it refers to the wish to dissolve “parish bonds” (which prevented Danes from participating in ecclesiastical matters outside the parish of their residence) and for freedom of conscience in matters of dogma and liturgy for all priests in the Danish State Church; these were proposals that had been advanced by Grundtvig as early as the 1830s and that had the support of Grundtvig and many of his adherents. See also Kierkegaard’s “Open Letter: Prompted by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach” (Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], January 31, 1851), where he writes: “There is nothing about which I have greater misgivings than all that even slightly tastes of this disastrous confusion of politics and Christianity, a confusion which can very easily bring about a new kind and mode of Church-reformation, a reverse ref-

33

18

232

596

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

ormation which in the name of reformation puts something new and worse in place of something old and better, although it is still supposed to be an honest-to-goodness reformation, which is then celebrated by illuminating the entire city” (COR, 53; SKS 14, 112). 232

19 25

232

30

233

3 4 7 8 11

16

The Second Sunday after Trinity] → 230,1. “we have Abraham as our father”] Cited from Mt 3:9; see also Jn 8:39. “What is the kingdom of God like? . . . compare it?”] Cited from Lk 13:18. ― compare it?: → 230,1. this kingdom is not of this world ] Reference to Jn 18:36. yet is to be in this world . . . nevertheless not of this world] Reference to Jn 17:13–18. which is shown] Variant: preceding “shown”, “often” has been deleted. either the kingdom of God is in heaven―or it is in you] → 233,25 and → 233,27. there is an observation . . . in Matthew where the parables are] Refers to Kierkegaard’s copy of Vor Herres og Frelsers Jesu Christi Nye Testamente [The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ] (Copenhagen, 1820; ASKB 33); the volume is in KA at the Royal Library and consists of twelve separate folders modestly bound in stiff covers. In the first folder, Kierkegaard put a vertical line outside Mt 13:44–45 and wrote in the margin: “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” At the foot of the page Kierkegaard wrote, “the parable of the field (→ 233,24) and of the fishnet is the kingdom of heaven on earth” (see Pap. X 6 C 1, 11). See Mt 13:44–51. he was the God-Man] i.e., Christ. According to the dogma of Christ’s double nature, he is at once true God and true human being; see, e.g., art. 3 of the Augsburg Confession (→ 230,24): “that . . . the Son of God . . . did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man.” Kierkegaard owned Augsburgske Troesbekjendelse med sammes, af Ph. Melanchthon forfattede, Apologie [Augsburg Confession Together with the Apology for Same

•

P a p e r 436–439 1851 •

by Ph. Melanchthon], trans. A. G. Rudelbach (Copenhagen, 1825; ASKB 386), p. 47. in the guise of the poor servant] Refers to Phil 2:6–11; see esp. v. 7. the kingdom of God that is within you] Refers to Lk 17:21. the catch of fish . . . his field, etc.] See the parable of the fishnet in Mt 13:47–51. ― Variant: changed from “catch of fish”. ― a man who sowed good seed in his field: Refers to the parable of weeds in the wheat in Mt 13:24–30. the kingdom of God is within you, see that passage in Matthew] The passage cited is actually from Luke 17:21; see the King James version, which has “within” (equivalent to inden in the Danish authorized version from 1819, which Kierkegaard generally used), whereas the NRSV has “among.” For Kierkegaard’s reference to Matthew, → 233,11. the kingdom of God is in heaven] Presumably, a reference to Lk 14:16–24; see also Mt 22:1–14. the gate is narrow.] Reference to Mt 7:13–14. Variant: written lengthwise along the margin. Nicodemus] → 230,1. Stephen ] Stephen was the most prominent among the seven “men of good standing” called by the twelve apostles to wait on the tables for the poor (see Acts 6:1–6) and served as a preacher of the gospel along with the apostles. Stephen was brought before the Jewish council and was accused of speaking against the temple and the Law of Moses; he delivered a speech in his own defense (Acts 7:2–53) but was dragged out of the city and stoned (Acts 7:54–60). See the reading for the second day of Christmas, “St. Stephen’s Day” (→ 234,4), Acts 6:8–15 and 7:55–60. Established Christendom and the Church Militant] Allusion to the Latin dogmatic expression ecclesia militans, “the Church militant,” which in early Christian theology designated the opposition from the surrounding world (see Eph 6:12) to which the Church was to be subjected until Christ’s return; only then would the Church triumph and become the ecclesia triumphans, “the Church triumphant” (see Heb 12:23). See, e.g., Karl Hase, Hutterus redivivus oder Dogmatik

17 19 24

25

27 3

233m

28

233

28

30

D r a f t s o f Tw o S e r m o n s

31 32

234

1 2 2

3

4

der Evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche [Hutterus Redivivus, or a Dogmatics for the Evangelical Lutheran Church], 4th ed. (Leipzig, 1839 [1829]; ASKB 581), pp. 312–313. For Self-Examination Recommended to the Age] See FSE, 1–88; SKS 13, 29–108. The draft of Nicodemus is in an envelope . . . with the draft of the sermon] See the “Critical Account of the Text” above. chest of drawers] See the “Critical Account of the Text” above. rather, Trinity Sunday] → 230,1. “the long Trinity,” as it is called] See the introduction to “Anden Bog. Sommerhalvaaret” [Second Book: Summer-Half Year], in W. Rothe, Det danske Kirkeaar og dets Pericoper, en Haandbog for Prædikanter og Kirkegjængere [The Danish Church Year and Its Pericopes: A Handbook for Preachers and Churchgoers], 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1843 [1836]; ASKB 747), p. 201, where Rothe writes that we “enter now into the long series of Trinity Sundays, up to 27 in number, that follow upon each other in a uniform series.” begins quite characteristically with “Nicodemus”] Refers to the account of Nicodemus in Jn 3:1–15, which is the gospel text for Trinity Sunday (→ 230,1). The draft of Stephen . . . this year’s journal . . . probably NB25] Refers to NB25:12–13 and 15, from December 1851, in KJN 8, 451–454.

•

P a p e r 439 1851 •

597

Notes for Paper 440–Paper 446 Miscellaneous, 1843–1852

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Elise Iuul, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse Explanatory Notes by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn Edited by Thomas Eske Rasmussen Quotations and References Checked by Irene Ring Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

600

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Diverse, 1843–1852” comprises six papers from L-cat. and B-cat. plus a single paper not in those catalogues: Paper 440, listed as L-cat. 383, which at Kierkegaard’s death lay in “a large sack,” “in an envelope with mss. for 4 Edify. Discourses by S. K.”;1 Paper 443, listed as B-cat. 154, which lay in “the box in the writing desk,” “rolled up with a ribbon around it”; Paper 445, listed as B-cat. 331, which was placed “inside the red box” in the “lowest space in the cabinet. B,” “at the front”; Paper 446, listed as B-cat. 243, which lay “to the left” in “the uppermost space” of “the chest of drawers itself”; Paper 442, listed as B-cat. 394, which is lost, the text of which is transmitted indirectly in EP; Paper 441, listed as B-cat. 410, which is not identified in Lund’s survey, but which we may assume to have been kept in “a bag with drafts, fair copies, proofs and a little note, which was not used,” which was itself in the large sack; Paper 444, which is known only from EP and not registered either in L-cat. or in B-cat., may also have been found in this same location. The transmitted manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology The papers are undated. H. Lund’s discovery of Paper 440 in an “envelope” together with the print-ready manuscripts of Four Edify-

) See Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” included in L-cat. See also “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume. “L-fortegn. 383” (i.e., L-cat. 383) is written directly on the ms. Because H. P. Barfod, in drawing up his catalogue came as far as L-cat. 382, he wrote in his catalogue: “Lund’s catalogue has an additional 8 nos., which however are no longer to be found―or at least have not yet been found―among the Papers.” L–cat. 383 therefore consists of quite different mss. than does B-cat. 383.

1

Critical Account of the Text ing Discourses places the genesis of Paper 440 in the spring of 1844.1 The earliest date on which Kierkegaard would have placed the contents in the envelope would have been after the print-ready manuscript had served its function. This can scarcely have been long after August 29, 1844, the date on which the book was ready at Bianco Luno’s Printing House. There is no explicit mention of Four Edifying Discourses in Paper 440, but this does not exclude a connection. In Paper 441 Kierkegaard mentions Rasmus Nielsen’s Den propædeutiske Logik [Propaedeutic Logic] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 699). This book appeared on January 7, 1845,2 and Paper 441 thus dates from the beginning of 1845, depending on how soon after publication Kierkegaard read the book. The original manuscript of Paper 442 is lost (see above). Its tone and content bring to mind what occupied Kierkegaard in the discourse “At a Graveside” from Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions, on which he had been working between February and April 1845.3 It is, however, certain that Kierkegaard later used the entry in a revised version in Works of Love. Thus Paper 442 was written before that book’s publication in September 1847.4 Paper 443 deals with “The Literary Prostitution” in Denmark. Taking as his point of departure M. A. Goldschmidt and Goldschmidt’s monthly journal Nord og Syd [North and South], which began publication in December 1847, Kierkegaard develops a theme familiar from Papers 376, 388, and 392. The entry was presumably written in February–March 1848.5 Paper 444 contains a retrospective glance at “the time I was proofreading Either/Or.” The external circumstance that occasioned this was presumably the possibility of a new edition of Ei) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Fire Opbyggelige Taler (1844) in SKS K5, 287–302. The envelope also contained a loose sheet with a draft and sketch for the book’s third discourse (ms. 6.3).

1

) Nielsen’s book was advertised in Adresseavisen, no. 5, January 7, 1845, as having “left the press.”

2

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Tre Taler ved tænkte Leilig heder in SKS K5, 393–402. 3

) See SKS 9, 340, and the “Critical Account of the Text” of Kjerlighedens Gjerninger in SKS K9, 7.

4

) See also the relevant explanatory notes for Paper 443.

5

601

602

P a p e r 440–446 D i v e r s e , 1 8 4 3 – 1 8 5 2 •

ther/Or, the first edition of which had been sold out after a few years. Kierkegaard’s thoughts about a publishing new edition received new nourishment in April 1847, and an agreement with C. A. Reitzel concerning the printing of a second edition was entered into in August of that year.1 Paper 444 was written subsequently, presumably between the spring of 1848 and May 1849, when the second edition appeared. Paper 445 bears the title “A Kind of Fable or a Simple Story.” In the entry’s outer column, Kierkegaard states that it is “[H]inted at in an older journal.” The theme of “the extraordinary” and the story of a dancing troupe is indeed to be found in preliminary form in NB5:11,2 the introduction to which reads as follows: In a market town there lived a little company of dancers. There was just one of them who could leap two feet high, the others only 6 inches. But there was one of them who could leap 8 inches, and he was very much admired and praised. The one who could leap two feet high was laughed at, and regarded as crazy and queer. (KJN 4, 375) Kierkegaard describes the journal in which the entry is found as “older,” which suggests that it may originate from a year earlier.3 Paper 445 was presumably written in 1849. In Paper 446, Kierkegaard refers to “A First and Last Explanation” in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), where he urges readers to cite the names of his works’ pseudonymous authors instead of his own.4 Pseudonymity is again topical for Kierkegaard, and the background is possibly the same as for Paper 444, namely, the republication of Either/Or in May 1848, or considerations

) See the “Critical Account of the Text” of Enten ― Eller in SKS K2– 3, 62–64.

1

) See the “Critical Account of the Text of Journal NB5” in KJN 4, 619.

2

) Kierkegaard seems to identify his references more exactly within comparatively short intervals of time, as, e.g., in Paper 439: “The draft of Stephen is right at the beginning of this year’s journal. It is probably NB25.”

3

) See CUP 626–630; Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. A Hannay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 527–531; SKS 7, 569–573.

4

Critical Account of the Text regarding the publication of The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity, which appeared, respectively, in June 1849 and September 1850, both with Anti-Climacus as author. In sum, these entries can be said to originate from between 1844 and 1850.

603

Explanatory Notes 236

236

1

4

Lavendelstrædet 83 to the courtyard Hansen] According to Copenhagen census data, as of February 1, 1845, the following people with the surname Hansen lived in the “back room,” i.e., a small house situated in the courtyard: Inger Marie Hansen, sixty-two years old, widow, born in Copenhagen, with needlework as her livelihood, and her son Julius August Hansen, twenty-four years old, unmarried, also born in Copenhagen, with iron smelting as trade. The census of February 1, 1840, shows no one with the name Hansen living in the “back room.” ― Lavendelstrædet: A street in Copenhagen that ran from Halmtorvet to Ny Torv (see map 2, AB2). The difference between το ειναι–and το ον . . . in Hegelian philosophy] See the following passage in “Første Afsnit. Begyndelsesbegreberne” [First Section: The Beginning Concepts] in “Første Kapitel. Læren om de enkelte Begreber” [First Chapter: Doctrine of the Individual Concepts], “A. Væren” [A. Being] in a fragment of Poul Martin Møller’s unfinished lectures on “Ontologien eller Kategoriernes System” [The Ontology or System of the Categories], held in the winter term 1837– 1838: “It has become customary, following the authority of Hegel, to regard pure being as the category on which the Eleatics’ worldview was based. Without deciding whether philosophy can properly be compared with this portion of the ontology (which from a strictly historical point of view must perhaps be denied), it is here noted in passing that τὸ ὄν [Greek, “what is”] in the Eleatics―instead of τὸ εἶναι [Greek, “what it is to be”]―at the very least does not correspond precisely to pure being or to what it is to be, inasmuch as the hypostasis implicit in the Greek word makes the concept more concrete than it here ought to be, according to its definition. The Danish Væren [“being”] is here more adequate than the corresponding words among many oth-

er cultivated nations. The French être [“to be”] is more ambiguous, for example, as is the German Seyn [“being”], which―at least when it is used with the definite article―is also used to designate the epitome of all that is.” Printed in Efterladte Skrifter af Poul M. Møller [Posthumous Writings of Poul M. Møller], 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1839–1843; ASKB 1574–1576), vol. 3, ed. Chr. Thaarup, p. 350. See Paper 25, from 1837–1838, in KJN 11.1, 78, with explanatory notes. observation on this by R. Nielsen in his Propaedeutic Logic] Refers to § 13 “Væren og Væsen” [Being and Entity], in Rasmus Nielsen, Den propædeutiske Logik [The Propaedeutic Logic] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB. 699), pp. 115–116, where Nielsen reproduces the passage from Poul Martin Møller’s unfinished lectures on “Ontologien eller Kategoriernes System” [The Ontology or System of the Categories], cited in the preceding note. For the timing of the book’s publication, see the “Critical Account of the Text,” above. ― R. Nielsen: Rasmus Nielsen (1809–1884), Danish theologian and philosopher; 1837, cand. theol.; 1840, lic. theol.; in the winter term 1840–1841, privatdocent (unsalaried university lecturer); and from 1841 extraordinary professor of moral philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. In the early 1840s, he was much influenced by the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. At the cemetery] Presumably, a reference to Assistens Kirkegård (Assistens Graveyard) in Nørrebro, ca. one mile outside Nørreport (see map 3, A1). The small families . . . the same size . . . is still a little difference . . . more than the other] According to § 1 in the regulation of February 15, 1805, for “The Graveyards outside Copenhagen’s Nørreport,” the maximum size for a common grave was “5 Alen in length and 4 in breadth

5

7

10

236

Diverse, 1843–1852 [ca. 10 feet long by 8 wide].” According to § 5, if a larger grave was desired, one must be content with a place indicated “at the boundary of the graveyard” and pay proportionally more. See Chronologisk Register over de Kongelige Forordninger og aabne Breve samt andre trykte Anordninger [Chronological Register of the Royal Ordinances and Open Letters Together with Other Printed Regulations], ed. J. H. Schou (Copenhagen, 1806), vol. 14.2, pp. 274–277. 236

26

238

8 14

19 29 30 30 36

239

13

I beg my reader’s indulgence . . . understood to him.] Variant: added. ― Denmark is a small country: According to the census of February 1, 1845, Denmark had 1,350,327 inhabitants. with respect to town gossip] Variant: preceding “town gossip”, “printed” has been deleted. Cph. has become a market town] A “market town” is properly a provincial town as opposed to a capital and city of (royal) residence―here in the derogatory sense that Copenhagen has become a provincial town. In the census of February 1, 1845, Copenhagen had 126,787 inhabitants. the literary prostitution] Allusion to the satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair] (→ 239,15). the children―] Variant: changed from “the children,”. talked about in that way.] Variant: changed from “talked about in that way―”. He who has seen . . . provoke laughter.] Variant: added. one whom the press had murdered] The reference has not been identified. be a good deed to do everything to bring it to a halt] Allusion to the circumstance that Kierkegaard, under the pseudonym “Frater Taciturnus,” had identified P. L. Møller with the satirical weekly Corsaren and at the same time begged that he might “come soon in The Corsair,” since he could not accept being the only Danish author who had not yet been castigated, but only praised, by the paper; see the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84). Corsaren responded by publishing a series

•

P a p e r 442–443 1844–1848 •

605

of satirical articles on, allusions to, and caricatures of Kierkegaard (see KJN 3, 453–456), first on January 2, 1846 (no. 276) and regularly thereafter until July 17, 1846 (no. 304); the teasing continued after M. A. Goldschmidt’s departure as editor in October 1846 (→ 239,15). After the second Corsaren article appeared on January 9, 1846 (no. 277), Kierkegaard responded, under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, with a sharp attack on the weekly in “The Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action,” in Fædrelandet, January 10, 1846, no. 9, cols. 65–68 (COR, 47–50; SKS 14, 85–89); in this he writes that he has taken “the step for the sake of others”―that is to say, the step of “himself asking to receive abuse” (COR, 47; SKS 14, 87). Goldschmidt] Meïr Aron Goldschmidt (1819– 1887), Danish-Jewish journalist and publicist, author of a number of works, including En Jøde. Novelle [A Jew: A Novella], by Adolph Meyer (pseud.), edited and published by M. Goldschmidt (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1547); founded Corsaren in October 1840 and was the paper’s real editor until October 1846, when he sold it and departed for a yearlong journey abroad; starting in December 1847, he published and edited Nord og Syd [North and South], a monthly to which he was the principal contributor. behind a scoundrelly common laborer] Alludes either to Corsaren’s (→ 239,15) anonymous (and thus free of legal responsibility) “collaborators,” or to the strawmen the paper used in its first years as responsible editors; thus as early as Corsaren, no. 2, May 7, 1841, it was noted that “people charge us with having engaged workmen and casual laborers as responsible editors.” ― common laborer: Or casual laborers, used derogatively of crude persons lacking morals; scoundrels. injured] Variant: first written “had done a single”. for 6 years, once a week] Alludes to the fact that Goldschmidt was the actual editor of the weekly Corsaren 1840–1846 (→ 239,15). ― 6 years,: Variant: changed from “6 years!”. letting one laborer fall after the other] → 239,17. And now he wants, without further ado, to be a respectable author!] Refers to Goldschmidt, who after his return from abroad founded the

15

17

19 19

21 24

606

33

33

Diverse, 1843–1852

weekly Nord og Syd, the first issue of which appeared in December 1847 (→ 239,15), and to the fact that in his “Response to ‘Fædrelandet’ of the 24th, 27th and 29th and 31st of December 1847” in Nord og Syd, 1st quarter, 2nd issue (announced in Adresseavisen, no. 20, on January 25, 1848, vol. 1, “First Quarter 1848” as “having come out”), pp. 226–227, he wrote of his earlier activity: “The Corsair spoke indirectly, satirically, destructively; it might be able to pull a house down but not to lay a stone for a new one. In the end it became, as Fædrelandet says, ‘intolerable for Herr G[oldschmidt],’ ” to which Goldschmidt adds in a footnote, p. 227: “But we do not at all ‘condemn’ The Corsair. It remains our opinion that it was a paper that is legitimate in any literature when it manages to create its public and be properly construed. It got in the way of G[oldschmidt]’s development, and for that reason he left it; but it has now found others for whose development it does not stand in the way.” Guizot] François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787– 1874), French historian, author, and politician; from 1840 until the February Revolution of 1848, minister of foreign affairs and later minister president, but in February 1848 was deposed by the king (Louis Philippe), after which his political career ended. Guizot is discussed in “Program” and in the article “Reform-Banketterne i Frankrig” [The Reform Banquets in France]” in the first issue of Nord og Syd (→ 239,15) as well as in “Dagbog” [Diary] in the second issue; see vol. 1, pp.1–34, 35–40, and 267, and in the section on France in the article “Europæiske Forhold” [The State of Affairs in Europe], in the fourth issue of Nord og Syd; see vol. 2, pp. 13–26. Lamartine] Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790–1869), French author and politician; played a leading part in the February Revolution of 1848 and became minister of foreign affairs in the ensuing provisional government and its real leader; was elected to the National Convention and later in 1848 left the government. Lamartine’s party is discussed in the article “Program” and in the article “ReformBanketterne i Frankrig” in the first issue of Nord og Syd (→ 239,15); see vol. 1 (“First Quarter

•

P a p e r 443–444 1847–1848 •

1848”), pp. 1–34 and 35–40; and Lamartine himself is discussed in the section on France in the article “Europæiske Forhold,” in the fourth issue of Nord og Syd; see vol. 2 (“Second Quarter 1848”), pp. 13–26. it is rlly] Variant: changed from “it is a”. I will continue] Variant: “continue” has been added. to what must] Variant: first written “to what is”. During the time I was proofreading Either/Or] In the “Critical Account of the Text” of Enten ― Eller in SKS K2–3, 7–70, we learn that the work appeared in two volumes on February 20, 1843, that it had been finished by the printer Bianco Luno on February 15, 1843, that the proofreading had been begun on the day before Christmas Eve 1842, and that Kierkegaard’s friend, then editorial secretary and manager at Fædrelandet, cand. jur. J. F. Giødwad, assisted with the proofreading; see pp. 7 and 54. This means that the proofreading for Either/Or began on December 23, 1842, and ended at some point near the end of January 1843. writing the edifying discourses] In the “Critical Account of the Text” of To opbyggelige Taler (1843) in SKS K5, 9–30, we learn that the volume appeared on May 16, 1843, that it had been finished by the printer Bianco Luno on May 6, 1843, that the manuscript had been delivered for typesetting in the first part of April, and that―on the basis, among other things, of the information provided here in Paper 444―the manuscript or rough draft for the two discourses had presumably been written between New Year’s Day and the end of January 1843; see pp. 9 and 14–15. Mini’s] A café on Kongens Nytorv that Kierkegaard had frequented since the mid-1830s and that also supplied his household with coffee beans. See the Veiviser [City Directory] (Copenhagen, 1843), p. 416: “Mini, Jacob, café owner, Kongens Nytorv 3” (see map 2, D2–3). of my former betrothed] Regine Olsen (1822– 1904), daughter of Regina Frederikke and Terkild Olsen. Kierkegaard was engaged to Regine for slightly more than a year, from September 10, 1840, until October 12, 1841, when he definitively broke the engagement. See NB14:44.a, from

36 13

240

14 33

240

33

36

3

241

Diverse, 1843–1852 November 1844, in KJN 4, 373 and its explanatory note. On August 28, 1843, Regine Olsen became engaged to J. F. Schlegel, whom she married on November 3, 1847, in the Church of Our Savior in Christianshavn. In Notebook 15, which bears the heading “My Relationship to ‘Her.’ Aug. 24th 49. somewhat poetical,” Kierkegaard gives a retrospective account of his relationship to Regine; see KJN 3, 427–445. 241

12 25

242

7

10

26

243

12

22 37

244

28 38

241m

1

market town] → 238,14. as rarely as possible] Variant: “as” has been changed from “only”, and “as possible” has been added. had in fact] Variant: first written instead of “had”, “was”; “in fact” has been changed from “probably”. extraordinary;] Variant: first written “extraordinary.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. a single word] Variant: first written “a single word.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. Providence] See chap. 2, second section, “Hvad Skriften lærer om Guds Forsyn og de skabte Tings Opholdelse” [What Scripture Teaches about God’s Providence and the Conservation of All Creation], § 3, p. 23: “God, who is the lord and ruler of the world, governs with wisdom and goodness over everything that happens in the world, such that both good and evil events result in something he finds most beneficial,” and § 5, pp. 23–25: “Whatever happens to us in life, whether it be joyful or sorrowful, is assigned to us by God for the best reasons, such that we always have reason to be joyful about his governance and management.” extraordinariness] Variant: first written “genius”. in relation to greatest;] Variant: changed from “in relation to greatest.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. collides with the egotism] Variant: first written “collides with ignoranc[e].” prayed: Forgive them, for they know not what they do] Allusion to the first words of Jesus on the cross, according to Luke 23:34. Hinted at in an earlier journal] Refers to NB5:11, from May 1848, in KJN 4, 375–376.

•

P a p e r 444–446 1849–1850 •

607

I have once and for all time solemnly asked . . . cite the pseudonym] Refers to the following passage about quoting from the pseudonymous books in “A first and last declaration”, signed “S. Kierkegaard,” placed at the very end of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, a work attributed to the pseudonym Johannes Climacus (1846): “It’s my wish, my prayer, that he will do me the kindness of citing the respective pseudonymous author’s name, not mine―that is, of separating us in such a way that the passage femininely belongs to the pseudonymous author, civilly to me” (CUP 627; Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. A. Hannay [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009], p. 529; SKS 7, 571). ― solemnly: Variant: first written “as solemnly as possible”. ― if people would not: Variant: “not” has been added. therefore I am so willing] Variant: “I” has been added. despite this] Variant: added.

4

8 15

245

Notes for PAPER 447–PAPER 591 1852–1855

Notes for Paper 447–Paper 468 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

611

Notes for Paper 469–Paper 550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

633

Notes for Paper 551–Paper 591 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

663

Notes for Paper 447–Paper 468 After the Final Change of Address October 1852–October 1853 Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Bjarke Mørkøre Hansen Translated by Alastair Hannay and Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Bruce H. Kirmmse

612

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “After the Final Change of Address”1 comprises L-cat. and B-cat. nos. 13–18, 31–33, 37–47, and 50–51. According to Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” nos. 13–18 lay “in the writing desk,” while the rest were “in the lower drawer of the writing desk” (see illustration 3, p. xliii ). The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology None of the twenty-two papers is dated. The sequence and thus chronology of the papers in what follows have been determined by the order in which Henrik Lund may have found them and by how he went about his cataloguing work. This is made clear both by his catalogue (L-cat.) and by his survey, “The Order of the Papers.” It can be inferred from these that the highest number in L-cat. must have been the first to be written in a given pile of manuscripts. In other words, Lund numbered the papers “backwards,” so that the paper lying on top of the piles was the first to have been registered.2 Papers 447–452 lay by themselves in Kierkegaard’s writing desk at some place that is not specifically indicated (see illustration 3, p. xliii, which shows one possibility). Unlike many of the loose papers from the period 1852–1855, this material was not placed together with drafts and sketches for articles in connection with the attack on the Church. This suggests that Papers 447–452 were written long before the materials that precede and follow them in L-cat., that is, before 1854. Since Kierkegaard arranged some of his papers in connection with his move from Østerbro to Klædebod) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents; see “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume.

1

) See “Introduction to the Loose Papers,” pp. xxix–xlv.

2

Critical Account of the Text erne on October 19, 1852, these papers may be assumed to have been written immediately after that move. Papers 453–468 lay in the lowest drawer in Kierkegaard’s writing desk together with papers that included several sketches dated in 1853.1 Paper 453 is presumably from about the turn of the year 1852–1853 or shortly thereafter, because it was placed immediately after a pair of drafts of articles on Rasmus Nielsen from March 1853.2 The numerous entries on Bishop J. P. Mynster also give the impression of having been written before the latter’s death in January 1854. In L-cat., the last in this group of papers, Paper 468, is followed by a manuscript (Paper 474), which was written after H. L. Martensen’s installation as bishop in June 1854. This marked jump in time corresponds to a temporal jump between some entries in Kierkegaard’s journal from the same period, respectively NB28:54 from October 13, 1853, NB28:55 from November, 1853, and lastly, NB28:56 from March 1, 1854. In this latter entry, Bishop J. P. Mynster’s death, which took place on January 30, 1854, is mentioned for the first time.3 In other words, Kierkegaard stopped making entries in his journal in October–November 1853 and returned to his journal only in March 1854. It is the editors’ opinion that this gap reappears between Papers 468 and 469, inasmuch as Paper 469 seems to be the first loose paper that mentions Mynster’s death.4 In sum, this makes it reasonable to suppose that these papers were written in the period from October 1852 to October 1853.

) See Pap. X 6 B 100, 232–234 and 235.

1

) See Pap. X 6 B 101 and 102.

2

) See KJN 9, 259–262.

3

) See Paper 469 in the present volume: “the now deceased Bishop Mynster.”

4

613

Explanatory Notes 250

3

The first example of indulgence . . . avoid the persecution] See NB23:106.a (1851), in KJN 8, 257–258; Kierkegaard’s source is presumably the chapter “Cyprian,” in F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographieen [The Church of Christ and Its Witnesses, or the History of the Church in Biographies], 7 vols., numbered 1.1–1.4 and 2.1–2.3 (Zurich, 1842–1855; ASKB 173–177; abbreviated hereafter as Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen); this does not include two additional volumes published after Kierkegaard’s death, namely, vols. 2.4 and 2.5 (Zurich, 1856–1858). In vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 387, Böhringer discusses the increasing apostasy among the Christians in Carthage and writes: “In one of his writings, Cyprian has a dismal description of those who had fallen away from the faith. Many thoughtlessly permitted themselves to sacrifice [to the pagan gods] or bought for themselves papers certifying that they had obeyed the imperial laws. At the very first words from the threatening enemy, a great number of brothers abandoned their faith as traitors, were not cast to the ground by the impetuous persecution, but rather cast themselves down by falling voluntarily . . . They were conquered [i.e., abandoned Christianity] before the battle and without a fight and did not even care to give others the impression that they were worshiping the idols against their will.” Böhringer then relates how the apostates sought to purchase, with small sums, their reinclusion in the fellowship of the Church: “They turned to the confessors and the martyrs, begging for ‘letters of indulgence.’ . . . Some confessors were weak and vain, and some were so easygoing that they issued letters to just about everyone, worded more or less like this: ‘This person, along with his family is permitted to participate’ ” (pp. 387–388). ― Cyprian: Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus (200–258); a convert to Christianity; baptized in 245; served as bishop

of Carthage from 248 or 249 until his martyrdom by decapitation just outside of Carthage in 258. With Rome’s support, he fought against the right of “confessors” to grant indulgence to those who had fallen away from the faith. He left a comprehensive body of work, including apologetics, ecclesiology, dogmatics, ethics, and pastoral care, in addition to confessions of his conversion and a work encouraging martyrdom. He avoided martyrdom during the violent persecutions under the emperor Decius in 249–250 but was subsequently martyred on September 14, 258. ― letters of indulgence: Remissions of temporal punishment granted by the Church for sins already forgiven― especially widespread in the later Middle Ages. gives joys their proper taste] Presumably, a reference to J. P. Mynster’s sermon on John 10:11–17 (on the good shepherd) for the second Sunday after Easter (which in 1851 fell on May 4), “At vi alle, eenfoldigen og oprigtigen, skulle [skal] holde os til den samme christelige Tro” [That We All, Simply and Candidly, Are to Keep to the Same Christian Faith], no. 29 in Prædikener paa alle Son- og Hellig-Dage i Aaret [Sermons on Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Year], 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1823]; ASKB 229–230 and 2191), vol. 1, pp. 358–369; pp. 362–363: “It is . . . true that most people have many adversities in the world, but it is also true that the greatest among these are dissatisfaction, doubt, fear, and worry, and that the good they actually lack is one that could sweetly relieve life’s sorrows and give the joys their proper savor.” This “good,” Mynster explains, “we [have] no other name for this great good than faith, the true, living Christian faith; in it is the foundation for all our relief, the source of everything that can fill the heart and make it happy and blessed.” Kierkegaard had referred to the same passage previously: see NB15:122 (1850) in KJN 7, 82–87; NB22:169.a (1851) in KJN 8, 195; also NB23:184 (1851) in KJN 8, 293–294.

9

After the Final Change of Address 11

250

20

21

32 32 33

251

10

251

14 15

25

252

1

252

24

253

12

Ergo Xnty simply does not exist] Kierkegaard’s point, that Christianity simply does not exist, is first properly expressed in Practice in Christianity (1850), written in 1848–1849, where, e.g., he states: “Christendom has abolished Christianity without really knowing it itself. As a result, if something is to be done, one must attempt again to introduce Christianity into Christendom,” or “Christianity has been quite literally dethroned in Christendom; but if this is so, then it has also been abolished” (PC, 36 and 227; SKS 12, 49 and 221). This assertion subsequently became a leitmotif in Kierkegaard’s attack on the church. “Grace.”] This paper, together with the two that follow it, was written on a loose sheet. All three papers bear the same heading and are undated. We are all saved by grace] Allusion to the Lutheran doctrine that it is through faith and not good works that one deserves God’s grace. See also, e.g., the section on being saved by grace in Eph 2:1–10. the requirement to imitate Xt] See, e.g. Mt 10:38. forsake the world] See Luke 14:33; see also 1 Jn 2:15–16. die away] A central idea in Paul is that, in Christ, a human being has died to the world; see Rom 6:2; see also 1 Pet 2:24 and Col 2:20. In mysticism and pietism this notion was made more stringent, so that human life is a daily dying-away, in self-denial, from sin, from temporality, from finitude, and from the world. Thus the emphasis was shifted from a person dying to sin through Christ to include a person dying to sin through faith. if one says] Variant: “says” has been changed from “were to say”. “Grace.”] → 250,20. We speak of a government being able to hold on for another 20 to 30 years by easing up] No source for this has been identified. a way that the] Variant: first written, instead of “the”, “we are born”. “Grace.”] → 250,20. Bishop M.] Bishop J. P. Mynster (→ 296,11). or will become] Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 447–451 1852 •

615

my most complete defeat] Variant: changed from “my most complete downfall”. Christian heterogeneity with this world] See, e.g., Jas 4:4; see also Rom 8:7–8 and Luke 14:26. worldly cultivation] Variant: changed from “cultivation and enjoyment of the”. renunciation and self-denial] → 250,33.

15

Man of God] Usual designation of a God-fearing person; here used ironically. the one who is hated by peop. . . . to him shall befall all possible misfortune and evil] See, e.g., Mt 10:17–18; see also Mt 10:22 and 24:9, and Jn 15:20 and 16:1–4. have the best slice of the roast] → 291,23. highest place at the table, etc.] → 255,26. Xnty simply does not exist?] → 250,11.

32

3

254

To Sew without Tying a Knot on the Thread] → 254,11. or “It Is the Numbers That Do It”] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. A saying to the effect that it is the turnover that matters, even if the profits are poor. See no. 6673 in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat [A Treasury of Danish Sayings], 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1879), vol. 2, p. 49. See also Kierkegaard’s anecdote below (→ 255,11). It was . . . Eulenspiegel . . . they would lose the first stitch] A reference to a story from the popular book about Till Eulenspiegel (English, Howleglas) from the 16th century. In the volume Kierkegaard owned, the forty-ninth story tells of how the itinerant prankster Eulenspiegel sent a letter to Germany’s tailors, promising to teach them an art that would benefit them and their children and be remembered for all time. When the expectant tailors assembled in Rostock, they received the following lesson: “When you have threaded the needle, do not forget to tie a knot at the end, otherwise you make many stitches in vain.” Underlig og selsom Historie, om Tiile Ugelspegel, En Bondes Søn, barnefød udi det Land Brunsvig [Wondrous and Strange Stories of Till Eulenspiegel, a Peasant’s Son Born out in the Province of Brunswick] (Copenhagen, “Printed in

7

254

27 28 29

253

33

37 38

8

11

616

26 29 33

36

255

5

9

11

After the Final Change of Address

this year” [presumably between 1812 and 1842]; ASKB 1469), pp. 82–83. self-denial, renunciation of the world] → 250,32. rich man;] Variant: changed from “rich man,”. fruit bowl] See “That Pastors Are Cannibals, and in the Most Abominable Way,” in The Moment no. 9, where it is said of the priest: “Does he not deserve a silver cruet-stand, knight’s cross, a complete set of embroidered armchairs [→ 255,25], a few thousand more a year, this glorious man who, himself moved to tears, can describe the sufferings of the glorious ones [i.e., the martyrs] in this way” (M, 321, 322; SKS 13, 384). accepts] Variant: perhaps an error for “thanks”, which is how it is rendered in Pap. landau] A light, low-bodied, four-wheeled luxury carriage with facing seats and a convertible top that made it possible for its occupants to be driven about the city with maximum visibility, both for the occupants and of the occupants and their clothing. a Christian nation] Slogans such as “the Christian people,” “the Christian state,” etc. were current at the time. See, e.g., H. L. Martensen, Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Danish People’s Church’s Constitution] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB. 655), in which a case is comprehensively argued for a “Christian state” and “a Christian people,” and indirectly for a “Christian land.” See, e.g., p. 7, where it is claimed: “That the Christian state has an intimate relation to the Christian Church is ordinarily a consequence of the fact that a Christian state presupposes a Christian people; but inasmuch as it is thus the same people who are in the state and in the Church, there cannot and ought not be any disagreement between the principles of the state and the Church, despite the fact that, to be sure, the shared point of contact, the area where the Church and the state encounter one another, is not primarily and immediately that of faith and doctrine, but of morals and of moral-religious principles.” Similar expressions were also widespread in the Grundtvigian literature. the story of an innkeeper . . . the numbers that do it] The source for this has not been identified. Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis

•

P a p e r 451 1852 •

tells this same story in The Concept of Anxiety (1844); see CA, 67–68; SKS 4, 372; see also Kierkegaard’s newspaper article “The Religious Situation,” published March 26, 1855 (M, 35–38; SKS 14, 163–164). 4 shillings and selling for 3 shillings] → 290,31. the embroidered armchairs] → 254,33. In Meddelelser om mit Levnet [Communications about My Life] (Copenhagen, 1854), which appeared on April 8, 1854, Bishop Mynster (→ 296,11) writes that upon his arrival as a new bishop at the bishop’s residence, “I met with several of our circle in the parlor, but they seemed not want to prolong the conversation because they were really eager that I go into the other room. I had almost traversed the room, sunk in my own thoughts, when my eye suddenly fastened on something unusual, and in the drawing room I saw new splendid furnishings, a sofa and 10 armchairs, embroidered in the most tasteful, artistic way―the work of female confirmands and other friendly beings” (pp. 242–243). turtle banquet] i.e., a large and sumptuous dinner. at the head of the table] Allusion to Luke 14:8– 11. have dinner music―like Jeppe shout: “Strike up the music”] Allusion to act 3, sc. 1 of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Jeppe paa Bierget, eller Den forvandlede Bonde [Jeppe of the Hill, or The Transformed Peasant], where the drunken peasant Jeppe savors his role as baron, with trumpets blown every time he takes a drink. See Den Danske Skue-Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 1. The volumes are undated and unpaginated. to myself] Variant: added. permit me] Variant: “me” has been added. to speak for 3 quarters of an hour] This was the typical length of a sermon in Kierkegaard’s time; see §15 in “Forslag til et: Kirke-Ritual for Danmark” [Proposal for a Church Ritual for Denmark], in J. P. Mynster, Udkast til en Alterbog og et Kirke-Ritual for Danmark [Draft for a Service Book and Church Ritual for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1839), p. 11, where it is stipulated:

17 25

25 26 34

36 38 5

256

After the Final Change of Address

10

21

23

256m

1

13

15 19

257

13

16 35 35

“The sermon should last no longer than one hour, but by no means less than half an hour.” live instead in want and poverty (which, according to the N.T. . . . God has reserved to himself the right to require)] See Mt 19:21; see also Mt 10:7–10 and Luke 10:4. to Fredriksberg] i.e., Frederiksberg Gardens, a large royal park at Frederiksberg Castle, about two miles from the center of Copenhagen; public access was permitted, and the park was especially popular in the summer. 1 mark] → 290,31. I believe that God . . . jam in it.] Variant: begun in the main text column and finished in the margin. learn the index in Riise’s Geography by heart] i.e., the comprehensive index in three columns in the last fifty pages of J. Riise, Lærebog i Geographien for den studerende Ungdom [Geography Textbook for Young Students], 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1830 [1821), pp. 531–580. the end is to be tied] → 254,11. make admissions] → 282,22. comes like a sneeze and goes like a sneeze] i.e., comes and goes suddenly; a proverb used by J. L. Heiberg in the vaudeville Kong Salomon og Jørgen Hattemager [King Solomon and Jørgen the Hattmaker] (Copenhagen, 1825), sc. 10. The proverb can be found in E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat (→ 254,8), vol. 2, p. 79. what is decisive] Variant: first written “a”. trombone and trumpet] These instruments were used on special church occasions. silk and velvet] In Kierkegaard’s day, the vestments of the various ranks of the clergy were specified. Very prominent theologians and clerics were to wear velvet; see the ordinance of March 13, 1683, chap. 1, §5, concerning dress of the clergy: “The bishop of Zealand and royal confessor are to wear a black, high-collared velvet gown, velvet cap and bonnet, while other bishops are to wear black silk gowns with velvet collars and also black velvet caps and bonnets. Doctors of theology are to wear velvet bonnets and collars with velvet gowns, together with silk cloaks.” A journal entry (Paper 515, in the present volume)

•

P a p e r 451–453 1852–1853 •

617

distinguishes between deans in silk and bishops in velvet. e.g., 595 in Mynster’s Supplement. vol. 2] Allusion to B. S. Ingemann’s hymn “Til Naadens store Aandefest” [To the Great Spiritual Feast of Grace] (1825), which under the heading “Kierlighed og Tillid til Gud” [Love and Trust in God] was included as number 595 in the authorized Tillæg til den evangelisk-christelige Psalmebog [Supplement to the Evangelical Christian Hymnal] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 197): “To Spirit’s Great Feast of Grace / The Lord’s voice calls me: / Go hence, what here pleased me most, / Has with God no home! / Go hence, what cannot follow me! / Not gold, not goods, not ploughland / Shall compel the guest of the Lord. // Break, break every bond, that holds me fast, / And draws me away from God! / Even though, with these bonds, the heart should break, / Even though the wounded soul complained, / ‘O, Lord, give me strength and courage!’ / If not for you I gave up all, / With you, my all were lost” (pp. 37–38). ― Mynster: → 296,11. to be borne by . . . be aimed at] Variant: written lengthwise along the margin. ― God is spirit: See, e.g., Jn 4:24; see also 2 Cor 3:17–18. Luther] Martin Luther (1483–1546), German theologian, Augustinian monk (1505–1524), professor at Wittenberg. In 1505, after great deliberation Luther entered the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt, where he studied the Bible and lived the life of a religious ascetic. In 1521, he put aside his monk’s cowl, and in 1524 left the monastery for good. In 1525, he married Katharina von Bora, who had fled from a convent in Nimbschen, and they lived together in Wittenberg, where they had six children. As a Reformer of the Church, Luther was the central figure in breaking with the medieval theological tradition, papal power, and the Roman Church, which resulted in a transformation of worship services and ecclesiastical life and to the founding of a number of evangelical Lutheran churches, particularly in northern Europe. Luther was the author of a great many theological, exegetical, and edifying works, as well as works on ecclesiastical policy and orga-

1

257m

3

2

258

618

3

7 8 10 18

24 27 28 29 29 30

259

4

After the Final Change of Address

nization and many sermons and hymns. Luther also translated the Bible into German. then there were 95 theses . . . Xnty simply does not exist.] Luther took issue with the rampant trade in indulgences in his Ninety-Five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences, which according to traditional accounts he posted on the door of the palace church in Wittenberg on All Saints’ Day (October 31) 1517. It is from this day that the Reformation is said to have officially begun, although Luther did not break with the pope until 1520. See NB23:112 (1851) in KJN 8, 260, where under the heading “One Thesis,” Kierkegaard writes: “Luther nailed 95 on the church door: it was indeed a conflict about doctrine. Nowadays one could place a single, solitary thesis in Adresseavisen: Christianity simply does not exist―and offer to debate it with all the priests and professors.” See also the newspaper article “One Thesis―Just a Single One,” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 74, March 28, 1855, in M, 39–40; SKS 14, 169. ― when there were: Variant: changed from “there were”. ― Xnty simply does not exist.: → 250,11. ― exist.: Variant: first written “exist, but we more or less”. ―by having the objective doctrine―] Variant: added. illusion that we are Christians.] Variant: changed from “illusion.” I―who indeed have said from the beginning . . . I am without authority] → 292,15. I may have let far too much time pass . . . emphatically enough] See NB36:26 (December 1854) in KJN 10, 435–436. much was entrusted to me] Allusion to Lk 12:48. of him shall much also be required!] Allusion to Lk 12:48. my troubled conscience] → 264,20. a hundredweight] i.e., 100 pounds, or ca. 50 kilograms. glorious] Variant: Pap. reads this as having been deleted by Kierkegaard. I have faith to lift a mountain] Allusion to Mt 17:20. voluntarily exposed myself to ridicule . . . as a caricature in Cph.] → 294,4.

•

P a p e r 453–454 1853 •

known under nicknames . . . in that manner] → 286,43. more or less] Variant: first written “in”. in order] Variant: added. at this moment] Variant: added. Bishop M.] Bishop Mynster (→ 296,11). “Why should it be put so pointedly?”] Kierkegaard’s envisaged objection by Mynster to his presentation of Christianity. I have truly] Variant: “truly” has been added. have voluntarily exposed myself to ridicule etc.] → 294,4. played in the comedy] → 287,1.

6

1

260

Bishop Mynster] → 296,11. the right reverend old man] In his most recent publication, For Self-Examination: Recommended for the Present Age (1851), Kierkegaard had mentioned Bishop Mynster as follows: “There is among us a highly revered old gentleman, the highest prelate of this Church . . .” (FSE, 21; SKS 13, 49). ― right reverend: → 293,35. How instructive to see a man preserving himself in this way . . . the blood etc.] See the unpublished dedication from 1850 to the “highly revered old man who, young, survives the generations,” i.e., Bishop Mynster (Pap. X 6 B 163), and where, in elaborating this, Kierkegaard writes: “What is it, in fact, to preserve oneself? It is, in the days of youth, while the blood is warm and the heart beats strongly, to be able to cool oneself with something close to an old man’s circumspection; and it is, when the day declines and the evening draws nigh, then to be able to burn with something close to a young man’s ardor. But in preserving oneself in this way, he has also preserved the established order; he has never shaken the pillars of the established order―on the contrary he has stood and stands unshaken as its firmest [pillar].” through more than a generation he] Variant: changed from “he was and is”. when is a girl to marry? . . . a wife in understanding] Refers to the Greek tyrant and sage Cleobulus from the 6th century b.c., of whom Diogenes Laertius wrote: “He said that we ought to give our daughters to their husbands maid-

8

260

16 16 16 21 23

32 42

15

18

22 23

After the Final Change of Address

34

261

7

20

ens in years but women in wisdom; thus signifying that girls need to be educated as well as boys” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, trans. R. D. Hicks [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972], p. 91). See Diogen Laërtses filosofiske Historie, eller: navnkundige Filosofers Levnet, Meninger og sindrige Udsagn [Diogenes Laertius’s History of Philosophy, or the Lives, Opinions and Wise Sayings of Eminent Philosophers], trans. B. Riisbrigh, ed. B. Thorlacius, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1812; ASKB 1110–1111); vol. 1, p. 41. when he is dead] Bishop J. P. Mynster died on January 30, 1854. for the sake of a deceased father] In his later years, Kierkegaard’s father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard (1756–1838), to whom Kierkegaard dedicated most of his edifying discourses, preferred Mynster (→ 296,11) as his and his family’s priest. As first resident curate at Vor Frue Kirke (Church of Our Lady) in Copenhagen, J. P. Mynster was confessor for Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard from 1820 until 1828, when Mynster became chaplain at the Royal Chapel. The family heard and read Mynster’s sermons there, but he was also called upon for family weddings, burials, and confirmations. Kierkegaard was confirmed by Mynster on April 20, 1828; see LD, ix, 4. According his own account, after his father’s death, Kierkegaard heard all of Mynster’s Sunday sermons. He often refers to having inherited his father’s association with Mynster; see, e.g., NB:107 (1847), where he writes that he “will never forget him, always honor him, always think of my father when I think of him, and more need not be done” (KJN 4, 82). See also, e.g., Kierkegaard’s article from the dispute on witnessing for the truth, “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of the Authentic Witnesses to the Truth―Is This the Truth?” (1854), where he writes: “My life’s misfortune . . . was that I, brought up by a deceased father with ‘Mynster’s Sermons,’ also out of piety to that deceased father, honored this false promissory note instead of protesting it” (M, 8; translation modified). it is too lofty] See NB24:99 (1851), where Kierkegaard remarks on what he says was Bishop

•

P a p e r 454–455 1853 •

619

Mynster’s view of his position: “[‘]It is too lofty[’] is what he has so often said to me” (KJN 8, 386). in silence] Variant: added. only a tiny little remark by Bishop M, almost accidentally tossed off] → 297,20. lèse-majesté] Technically, a crime against the king; see Chr. V’s Danske Lov [Christian V’s Danish Law] (1683), which was still in force at the time, despite the adoption of the constitution of June 5, 1849. The supreme punishment was reserved for lèse-majesté; see bk. 6, chap. 4, § 1. Xnty is God’s cause] See NB22:138 (1851) in KJN 8, 172. if I may put it in Lutheran fashion] Reference to Luther’s (→ 258,2) challenging and direct manner of speech; see, e.g., PC, 68. wise men and fortune-tellers] → 289m,18. a couple of fishermen were given orders to take care of the matter] Refers to the disciples Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, who are said to be fishermen in Mt 4:18–22 and Mark 1:16–20. then Xnty simply does not exist] → 250,11. or Lutheranism] Variant: added. properly seen, for] Variant: “for” has been added. both in the tension . . . and in the smoke] Variant: “both” and “and” have been added. it is shown] Variant: following this, the word “briefly” has been deleted. from generation to generation] Variant: added. judgment] A reference to Judgment Day, when all human beings must give an accounting before God, and God closes the accounts; see Mt 12:36, 25:31–46; Rom 9:28; 1 Pet 4:5. See also Mt 25:31–46 on the judgment of the world. flagellating themselves] Refers to the ascetic practice of whipping oneself; during the Middle Ages, Christian monks, hermits, and especially the so-called flagellant sects of the 13th and 14th centuries, whipped their naked bodies and praised Christ who had let himself be whipped for them. out of a monastery cell he broke, the man Luther] → 258,2. Completely remove] Variant: “Completely” has been added.

26 30 8

262

8 11

17 18

31 5

263

10 11 20 40 42

43

1 19

264

620 32

265

2 14 24

33

266

12 21 29 42

267

12

267m

1

267

15 20

268

6

21

After the Final Change of Address

the Lutheran position about reassurance for the troubled conscience] See, e.g., Luther’s evangelical sermon for the first Sunday in Advent in En christelig Postille, sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirke- og Huuspostiller [A Collection of Christian Sermons, Gathered from Dr. Martin Luther’s Collections of Sermons for Church and Home], trans. J. Thisted, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283), vol. 1, pp. 15–30, or, e.g., chap. 11 (“Vom Gesetz und Evanglio” [On Law and Gospel]) in Martin Luthers Geist- und Sinnreiche auserlesene Tisch-Reden und andere erbauliche Gespräche [Selections from Dr. Martin Luther’s Brilliant and Profound Table Talk and Other Edifying Conversations], ed. Benjamin Lindner, 2 vols. (Salfeld, 1745; ASKB 225–226), vol. 1, p. 415, where Luther says: “The Gospel is really for the frightened, distressed, and anxious conscience; the Law, however, is for godless, secure, crude folk, and hypocrites.” Protest. is not] Variant: first written: “Prot. is based”. It is this refinement . . . demonstrate.] Variant: added. Epicurean] Originally, a follower of the philosophical movement derived from Epicurus (ca. 341–270 b.c.), who saw happiness as the chief aim of life. The term is used here in the pejorative sense of one who is addicted to pleasure. a person] Variant: changed from “an ascetic, an”. forsaking the world] → 250,33. prelate would perhaps] Variant: “perhaps” has been changed from “surely”. turtle soup banquet] → 255,25. contemporaries] Variant: first written “we”. But why can it not] Variant: “not” has been added. assumption, that . . . admissions.] → 282,22; variant: written lengthwise along the margin. ― bring in: Variant: first written “recommend.” Luther] → 258,2. is off again] Variant: “again” has been added. After a score of years in fear and trembling and spiritual trial] Refers to the years when Luther was an Augustinian monk (→ 258,2). ― fear and trembling: Allusion to Phil 2:12. as the only] Variant: added.

•

P a p e r 455–457 1853 •

and spiritual trial.] Variant: first written “and spiritual trial,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. [is not there]] Variant: suggested reading, added in parentheses by the editors of EP and Pap. In conclusion . . . by making admissions . . . we come into relationship with what is true.] → 282,22. Variant: written lengthwise along the margin; this note suggests that Kierkegaard had thought of publishing this entry on Luther. is reassurance . . . or only just the thieves . . . Christian pers. . . . such an individual is to be found . . . taking advantage of L.] Variant: written lengthwise along the margin. ― only: Variant: preceding “only”, the words “was it” have been deleted. ― Christian pers.: Variant: changed from “pers.”. ― to be found: Variant: changed from “was found”.

26

In the Middle Ages there lived . . . conflict with the king of England] Refers to the conflict between Anselm and William II of England in the period 1093/94–1097, as described in the chapter “Anselm von Kanterbury” [Anselm of Canterbury], in the section “Seine Konflikte mit König Wilhelm” [His Conflict with King William], in F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 250,3), vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 284–297. ― Anselm: Anselm of Canterbury (ca. 1033–1109) also called Anselm of Aosta after his birthplace in Italy. From 1063, prior, and from 1078, abbot of the monastery Bec in Normandy; in 1093, chosen against his will as archbishop of Canterbury. Exiled twice for his resistance to William II and Henry I on behalf of the Church. Sometimes credited with being the founder of scholasticism. He expounded the ontological argument for the existence of God and left a large number of theological works. open-hearted exultation etc.] Variant: first written “open-hearted exultation”. Anselm. As mentioned . . . “If . . . then we could not cling to you.”] See F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 250,3), vol. 2, pt. 1, on the conflict in 1097 between Anselm and William II. The king had charged that the soldiers Anselm had put at his disposal were incompetent and poorly equipped, and he therefore threatened

33 18

267m

2

269m

30

269

5

270

9

After the Final Change of Address

15

32

270m

1

to bring legal charges against Anselm. Later, however, the king abandoned the idea of a legal case but demanded that Anselm confess his guilt and either pay him a large sum of money or beg for his mercy and thus be forever humiliated. Anselm refused. That October, the king’s last words at the parliament in Winchester were that when Anselm left, he would take the archbishopric from him and no longer recognize him as archbishop. Anselm had counted in vain on the support of the English bishops in this dispute, which is made clear in the following from p. 295: “As A[nselm] gave preference to his obligations to the pope, they [the English bishops] felt that they were to give preference to their obligations to the ruler of the land. This emerges even in the words that Anselm’s admirer and biographer, Eadmer, directs at Anselm: ‘We know you to be a pious and holy man, whose business is in heaven, but we have to take things into account, we have relatives, are engaged in worldly activities. We confess that we are not able to lift ourselves up to your height. If you will condescend to us and walk our path, we will support you. But if you will adhere to God alone, then you must also stand alone, as you have hitherto: we cannot support you; we cannot break the vow of loyalty that we owe the king.’ For his part, A[nselm] adhered, equally unwavering, to his principles: his cause being ‘the cause of your well-being and benefit, being the cause of Christendom; go to your lord, he concluded, I will cling to God.’ ” See also NB23:198 (1851) in KJN 8, 300. “On God alone.” I build all my trust etc.] Refers to the hymn “Paa Gud alene, Jeg sætter Haab og Lid” [On God Alone, I Place My Hope and Trust], included as no. 297 in the authorized hymnal; see Evangelisk-christelig Psalmebog, til Brug ved Kirkeog Huus-Andagt [Evangelical Christian Hymnal for Use with Church and House Devotions] (Copenhagen, 1845 [1798]; ASKB 197), pp. 231– 232. ― trust etc.: Variant: changed from “trust”. as I constantly propose . . . to come into relation to the truth by making admissions] → 282,22. see Bøhringer 2nd vol., 1st sec[tion], p. 295] → 270,9.

•

P a p e r 457–458 1853 •

621

the Principle of Works . . . the Principle of Faith] For Luther, a basic point of difference with the Roman Church was over the latter’s emphasis on works. Luther stressed faith on the principle that hum. beings are exculpated by faith alone (“sola fide”), an interpretation that Luther read into Paul’s letter to the Romans, see esp. 1:17: “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” ought not be necessary,] Variant: changed from “ought not be necessary;”. the meritoriousness of works] In Lutheranism, an expression for the false doctrine that one gains merit from God by virtue of one’s own actions and works as, e.g., voluntary poverty, asceticism, and fasting. See, e.g., art. 4, art. 6, and art. 20 in the Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana) from 1530, which is the earliest of the Lutheran confessional documents. Morten Fredriksen] Morten Johan Frederiksen was a notorious criminal known as “The Master Thief.” In 1812, after a number of successful escapes from prison, he was incarcerated in the Roskilde jail with heavy chains on his arms and his neck and with one leg chained to the floor. Nonetheless, he escaped on November 23, 1812, after having made a false leg of hay and rags, covered it with a stocking, and fooled a guard into binding it with a chain. See Den berygtede Mestertyv og Rasphuusfange Morten Frederiksens sandfærdige Levnetshistorie [The True Life Story of the Notorious Master Thief and Rasping House Prisoner Morton Frederiksen] (Copenhagen, n.d. [ca. 1820]), pp. 14–15. as Hummer says to Klister . . . [“]Yes [a very long drawn out yes], yes, I see![”]] Refers to sc. 11 in J. L. Heiberg’s vaudeville De Uadskillelige [The Inseparables] (1827), where the debtor Klister is pursued into the forest by officer of justice Hummer, who wants to put him in debtors’ prison. After Klister’s repeated assurances that he has the money, but not there and then, and, finally, his insistence that he can get security, Hummer asks where and from whom, to which Klister replies after a pause: “A Lieutenant, like . . .” Hummer: “Aha, so it’s like that.” J. L. Heibergs Samlede Skrifter. Skuespil [Collected Writings of J. L. Heiberg: Plays], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1833–

36

270

2

271

4

27

28

622

35 38 40

272

9 14

273

1

11 12 21 27

274

4

11

After the Final Change of Address

1841; ASKB 1553–1559); vol. 4 (1835), pp. 264–265. The play was performed at the Royal Theater seventy-three times between 1827 and 1849, an additional fifteen times in the 1853–1854 season, and another eight times in the 1854–1855 season. Kierkegaard’s memory of where the pause came is erroneous. Luther] → 258,2. indeed rlly studies] Variant: “indeed” has been added. still has not found] Variant: preceding this, “suddenly” has been deleted. different when he now] Variant: first written, instead of “now”, “says”. can be the truth.] Variant: first written “can be the truth,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. When the gospel requires that we renounce this world] → 250,32. ― When: Variant: first written, instead of “When”, “Yes, indeed, it betrays the L.”, followed by a line break. still clings too much] Variant: “still” has been added. make it one’s own] Variant: first written “dare maintain”. coming into relationship with the truth by means of admissions] → 282,22. fear and trembling] Allusion to Phil 2:12. The Mynsterian Government’s Shrewdness] J. P. Mynster (→ 296,11) was primate of the Danish Church for twenty years, from 1834, when he became bishop of Zealand, until his death in 1854. the man, rlly the only one, to represent movement . . . conflicts over the doctrine] When, in 1834, Mynster (→ 296,11) became bishop of Zealand, and thus primate of the State Church, a sizable ecclesiastical opposition party coalesced around Grundtvig, now no longer the uncompromising opponent of the State Church, but more the critical reformer. The Grundtvigian reform movement, advocating freedom within the Church in liturgical and doctrinal matters and loosening parish ties, had begun after the revolutionary wave in Europe in 1830. This opposition gained additional strength from the democratic reforms of 1848, which then contrib-

•

P a p e r 458–459 1853 •

uted to the adoption of Denmark’s constitution of June 5, 1849. ― during the time . . . power: Variant: changed from “during the time he was in the government”. ― earlier on: i.e., in the later 1820s. After H. N. Clausen published Catholicismens og Protestantismens Kirkeforfatning, Lære og Ritus [The Constitution, Teachings, and Rituals of Catholicism and Protestantism] in 1825, Grundtvig, in Kirkens Gjenmæle mod Professor Theologiæ Dr. H. N. Clausen [The Church’s Retort to Professor of Theology Dr. H. N. Clausen] (Copenhagen, 1825), accused him of heresy and rationalism (i.e., the notion that all articles of faith should be capable of being based on reason and the rejection of any belief that transcends human powers of reasoning). This gave rise to the socalled Church conflict. Clausen charged him with defamation of character. Grundtvig resigned his position, and in 1826 he was sentenced to pay a fine and put under censorship (which was lifted in 1837). As a reaction to his sentence, Grundtvig argued for the right to establish free congregations outside the State Church; see his piece “Om Religions-Frihed” [On Freedom of Religion], in Theologisk Maanedsskrift [Theological Monthly], ed. N.F.S. Grundtvig and A. G. Rudelbach, 13 vols. (Copenhagen, 1825–1828; ASKB 346– 351), vol. 8 (1827), pp. 28–59, 136–171. In 1832, Grundtvig was allowed to preach at evensong in Frederick’s Church (today Christian’s Church) in Christianshavn. In 1834, Grundtvig formulated a demand concerning pastors’ dogmatic and liturgical freedom within the Danish State Church, along with a general loosening of parish ties, which would permit Danes to seek formal ties with a pastor other than the pastor of the parish in which they resided; see Den Danske StatsKirke upartisk betragtet [The Danish State Church Impartially Considered] (Copenhagen, 1834). ― Grundtvig’s: Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783–1872), Danish theologian, priest, hymnodist, historian, politician, and much more; 1832– 1839 (unsalaried), evensong preacher at Frederik's Church in Christianshavn; from 1839, priest at the at church at Vartov Hospital, where he remained until his death (see map 2, A2).

After the Final Change of Address 275

2

10 17

276

3

5

19

28

277

3 28 30

278

28

279

5

281

1

the great conflagration of Copenhagen] Refers to the great fires that ravaged Copenhagen in 1728 and 1795. no outbreak of fire, there will be no ringing of bells . . . the fire hoses remain at rest] → 287,6. L’ombre] A card game for three or four players, originally from Spain, which at the time was a popular diversion among the bourgeoisie, presumably including J. P. Mynster (→ 296,11). When someone proposes the Creed as the principle] Refers to the Grundtvigians’ view that the source of Christianity is not the Bible but “the living word,” which has been uttered throughout the centuries, i.e., the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the words of institution of the Eucharist. the principle of scripture] Refers to the Lutheran principle according to which Christian doctrine must be based on the Bible. This principle of sola scriptura (Latin, “scripture alone”) means that the Bible is the sole norm and final authority for all dogmatic thought. Church tradition cannot be a parallel authority. the principle that faith is a paradox] That faith is the “absolute paradox” that “the God as the eternal comes to be in time as human being” is presented in Philosophical Fragments; see PF, 37–71; SKS 4, 242–271. the other party is a friend of tricks and exaggerations] → 290,23. though quite far off] Variant: “though” has been added. for, like devilry, . . . closer,] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. how it must be done] Variant: preceding this, “probably” has been deleted. I am of course] Variant: “of course” has been added. the shrewd thing is] Variant: “shrewd” has been changed from “shrewdest”. “being carried in a bottomless sedan chair”] Possibly an allusion to an anecdote noted by a Norwegian priest, Claus Pavels, in his diary for December 12, 1817, that one might say “like the farmer who ran in a bottomless sedan chair ‘Were it not for the sake of honor, I could just as well walk.’ ” Claus Pavels’ dagbøger for aarene 1817–1822

•

P a p e r 459–460 1853 •

623

[Claus Pavels’ Diaries for the Years 1817–1822], ed. Ludvig Daae, 2 vols. (Christiania [Oslo], 1899– 1904); vol. 1, p. 291. Sedan chairs were used in Copenhagen until the end of the 18th century as public transport, especially for eminent persons and, until the beginning of the 1850s, by hospitals for transporting patients. Mynsterian] → 296,11. When a surgeon . . . knife] Variant: changed from “From the moment the surgeon has drawn the knife”; first written: “When surgeon”. in every case] Variant: changed from “exactly”. need not always] Variant: “always” has been added. why is] Variant: first written “why?”. giving up the world] → 250,32. the path . . . the gospel predicts―what he indeed knows . . . he will miss what is earthly and temporal] → 253,33. the mild form that I propose . . . then have recourse to grace] This is a theme in Kierkegaard, that the Church must make an admission or confession that it is far from being true Christianity. He had already presented this in the “Editor’s Preface” to Practice in Christianity (1850): “Yet the requirement must be stated, presented, heard; from a Christian point of view there must be no reduction of the requirement, nor ought it be suppressed―instead of making an admission and confession concerning oneself. The requirement ought to be heard, and I understand what is said as spoken to me alone, so that I might learn not only to take refuge in ‘grace,’ but to take refuge in it with respect to the use of ‘grace’ ” (PC, 7; SKS 12, 15). the laughter] Variant: changed from “the ridiculous”. dare expose himself to] Variant: first written, instead of “himself to”, “himself, but”. I have also acted accordingly] In Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846), Johannes Climacus points to the significance for a true human life of a sense of the comic; during that same period Kierkegaard let himself be put in a comic light in Corsaren [The Corsair] (→ 297,20). the gods would have said: “that pers. . . . kept what we originally promised him” (see Either/

6

281

8

16 17 38 13

282

17

22

38 42 1

4

283

624

20

23

40 41

41

284

10

After the Final Change of Address

Or―last diapsalm)] Alludes to the last of the ninety “Diapsalmata” (aphorisms) that introduce the first part of Either/Or (1843). “Something marvelous has happened to me. I was transported to the seventh heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a special dispensation, I was granted the favor of making a wish. ‘What do you want,’ asked Mercury. ‘Do you want youth, or beauty, or power, or a long life, or the most beautiful girl, or any one of the other glorious things we have in the treasure chest? Choose―but only one thing.’ For a moment I was bewildered; then I addressed the gods, saying: My esteemed contemporaries, I choose one thing―that I may always have the laughter on my side. Not one of the gods said a word; instead, they all began to laugh. From that I concluded that my wish was granted, and I decided that the gods knew how to express themselves with good taste, for it would indeed have been inappropriate to reply solemnly: It is granted to you” (E/O 1, 43–44; SKS 2, 151). ― we originally] Variant: first written “he”. this is to be special,] Variant: first written “this is to be special.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. laughed at.] Variant: first written: “laughed at,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. have to put up with] Variant: preceding this, “first” has been deleted. counterproof] Verification of a calculation or the like by doing the arithmetic in reverse order or other methods. in those early times of Christianity . . . thrown to the wild animals] A reference to the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity, who were persecuted and killed because of their Christian faith. Thus the historian Eusebius reports a number of instances of martyrs being thrown to wild animals; see Kirkens Historie gjennem de tre første Aarhundreder af Eusebius [Eusebius’s History of the Church during the First Three Centuries], trans. C. H. Muus (Copenhagen, 1832; ASKB U 37), e.g., bk. 4, chap. 5, pp. 205–206; bk. 5, chap. 1, pp. 259–268; and bk. 8, chap. 7, pp. 496–498. a quiet hour] An expression often used by J. P. Mynster with respect both to private devotions

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

and to church services. See, e.g., Betragtninger over de christelige Troeslærdomme [Observations on the Doctrines of the Christian Faith], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1833]; ASKB 254–255), vol. 1, p. 240; vol. 2, pp. 298, 299, 301, 306; Prædikener paa alle Søn- og Hellig-Dage i Aaret [Sermons on Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Year], 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1823]; ASKB 229–230 and 2191), vol. 1, pp. 8, 38, 215, 384; Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), p. 63; Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232), pp. 10, 11, 14; Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1849 og 1850 [Sermons Given in the Years 1849 and 1850] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 233), pp. 204, 216; and Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1852 og 1853 [Sermons Given in the Years 1852 and 1853], ed. F. J. Mynster (Copenhagen, 1855), pp. 43, 103. those glorious ones] Idiomatic expression for the Christian martyrs of the first centuries after Christ who were persecuted and put to death for their faith. teaches self-denial and renunciation] → 250,32. to have profit] Variant: preceding “have”, “want to” has been deleted. in the gentlest and weakest form, as I, a weak person, propose it] → 282,22. Christian earnest] Variant: “Christian” has been added. Here] Variant: first written “Insofar as I, who am”. e.g.] Variant: changed from “possible”. must hold] Variant: changed from “holds”. No] Variant: immediately following this, a line break was made and then cancelled. great entrance examination] Students at the University of Copenhagen had to pass an examination in general knowledge called “Examen Philosophicum” the year after matriculation. It was the second of two examinations that qualified for university studies, the first being “Examen Artium,” which had to be passed before matriculation. Only after passing the second examination could a student take the examination in his chosen course of study, e.g., in the faculty of philosophy or the faculty of theology. See chap. 3 in Nye Fundation og Anordning for Kiøbenhavns Universitet

14

23 38 40 1 13 20 21 33 37

286

After the Final Change of Address

38

41 43

287

1 1

af 7. Maj 1788 [New Foundation and Regulation for the University of Copenhagen of May 7, 1788]. After all, it is well known . . . Bishop M.’s present protégé, The Corsair’s G[oldschmidt]] Refers to Kierkegaard’s conflict with the satirical weekly Corsaren, whose editor M. A. Goldschmidt conducted a campaign against Kierkegaard that included caricature drawings (→ 294,4). ―well known: Variant: added. ― Bishop M.’s present protégé: i.e., M. A. Goldschmidt (→ 297,20). With all his might] See Deut 6:5. known under nicknames] Corsaren’s attack led to Kierkegaard’s being jeered at and mocked on the street; see, e.g., Georg Brandes’s memory of having heard “a street urchin shout ‘Either/ Or!’ after him” (Bruce H. Kirmmse, ed. and trans., Encounters with Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996], p. 98). Kierkegaard complains elsewhere that his first name “Søren” became used as a nickname and apparently cropped up increasingly; see NB7:109 (1848) in KJN 5, 140– 141; NB10:99 (1849) in KJN 5, 317–318; NB14:85 in KJN 6, 399; NB15:80 (1850) in KJN 7, 52–53; NB17:38 (1850) in KJN 7, 192–195; and NB23:85 (1851) in KJN 8, 249. so named even in books] It is uncertain which books are referred to. I am also played in comedy] Kierkegaard adverts, for instance, to J. C. Hostrup’s student comedy Gjenboerne [The Neighbors across the Way], first performed at the Hofteatret (the Court Theater) at Christiansborg on February 20, 1844, and in which a certain theology student named Søren Kirk has lines that allude to Kierkegaard. In later productions “Søren Kirk” was changed to “Søren Torp,” as also in the printed version, Gjenboerne. Vaudeville-Komedie [The Neighbors across the Way: Vaudeville Comedy] (Copenhagen, 1847). The comedy was produced at the Royal Theater for the first time on June 27, 1846, and on November 29, 1854, the play was performed for the eighteenth time (at the Casino Theater). Moreover, a student named Søren Torp occurs in Hostrup’s En Spurv i Tranedans. Folkekomedie fra 1846 [A Sparrow among Hawks: Popular Comedy from 1846]. The comedy was

•

P a p e r 460 1853 •

625

performed in Copenhagen at the Student Union and in Odense in 1846, and for the first time at the Royal Theater on August 17, 1848, and nine times thereafter in the season 1848–1849. everything comes to an end] Proverbial expression; see E. Mau, Dansk Ordsprogs-Skat (→ 254,8), vol. 1, p. 173. When the watchmen blow their whistles and shout fire] When there was an outbreak of fire, the watchmen blew their whistles and shouted, “Fire, fire!” The message gradually spread throughout the entire town, and crowds gathered, making it difficult for an already somewhat ineffective fire brigade to do its work. sound] Variant: changed from “noise”. Søndervoldsstræde] Today called Store Søndervoldstræde; at that time also called Voldgade (see map 3, B4). and when he has set himself . . . outbreak of fire.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. Amagerbro] In Kierkegaard’s time, Amager was a rural area with numerous small holdings. Amagerbro designates the part of Amager nearest Copenhagen. probably come to the point that the laughter has] Variant: “probably” has been added; “has” has been changed from “more or less”. or . . . something else] Variant: added; changed from “or at any rate to mean something else”. just at the same time that this was to be introduced: that Xnty rlly does not exist] → 250,11. more truly] Variant: changed from “most truly”. chosen] Variant: first written “chosen the mildest”. getting G] Variant: changed from “getting him”. as far as reputation goes] Variant: following this, “after all, surely” has been deleted. clever it was of him] Variant: “of him” has been added. of love and of marriage] Variant: preceding “of marriage”, “thus” has been deleted. When someone] Variant: preceding “someone”, “one sees” has been deleted. to think poorly] Variant: “think” has been changed from “judge”. comes to nothing] Variant: preceding this, “he” has been deleted.

6

6

8 11

13

19

22

23 24 27 35 4

288

21 37 13 15 25 28

289

626 286m

3

287m

7 9

289m

18

290

2 10 16 23

31

291

20 21 21 23

After the Final Change of Address

it must be done . . . by several,] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. if it does not stop] Variant: “does not stop” is changed from “is not over”. perhaps more correctly] Variant: preceding this, “or” has been deleted. wise men and fortune-tellers] People (particularly in rural areas) without education or authorization as physicians, who treated illnesses, frequently with nonstandard remedies. An ordinance of September 5, 1794, branded them as quacks and provided for punishment. to renounce the world, to give up the world] → 250,32. try to see to it] Variant: following this, “to avoid this appreciation,” has been deleted. it is precisely] Variant: first written “in living”. by passing negative judgment on it, that this is unchristian exaggeration etc.] Presumably, a reference to Bishop Mynster’s judgment upon Kierkegaard. See, e.g., NB10:14 (1849): “What R. Nielsen told me is also true: that, in a way, Bishop Mynster considered me to be an exaggeration―in a time of peace. But now he thinks I’m a better fit” (KJN 5, 272). See also the later, unpublished articles “Is It True That I Am, from a Christian Point of View, ‘An Exaggeration,’ or Isn’t It Really Something Entirely Different: From a Christian Point of View, the Truth?” from March 1854 (Pap. XI 3 B 22), and “Settling of Accounts: Bishop Mynster Is Christian Wisdom; I (Søren Kierkegaard) Am an Odd Exaggeration” from 1854 (Pap. XI 3 B 30). Imagine] Variant: first written “Even the most miserly”, followed by a line break. the money!] Variant: changed from “the money,”. man of God] An idiomatic expression for a Godfearing man; here used ironically. sitting at the head of the table at social events] → 255,26. Holberg’s Henrich, that when being the most distinguished guest . . . the trial cup of coffee] Refers to act 2, sc. 9 in Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Henrich og Pernille [Henry and Pernille] (printed 1731). A farmhand points out to Henrich, who

•

P a p e r 460–462 1853 •

is the servant of the distinguished man Leander, that even if he were to become well-to-do, he would never become distinguished. To this, Henrich answers: “Of course. For when I and my master were guests, the master of the house gave my master the most dignified seat, but he gave me the most comfortable chair. When the fowl was to be served, the master received the first piece, though that was either the neck or the tail, while I, among the last, received the breast. Then the master was complimented for the sake of his title, while I received genuine honor because of my lands and because I could play host to the host twice over. Before I came to Mr. Leander, I served a distinguished man who had come down in the world. This fellow, I remember, was once invited to coffee at a place where there also was a rich butler. It looked like they were honoring my master the most, and poured the first cup for him, but that was in order to use his cup as a test of whether the coffee had settled, for the butler always had the last―but the best―cup. It was easy to understand the reasoning behind this, for the next time the host visited my master, he only received a pinch of tobacco, but a good meal at the butler’s” (Den Danske Skue-Plads [→ 255,34], vol. 4). nonetheless] Variant: added. without authority] See, e.g., “On My Work as an Author,” where Kierkegaard writes: “ ‘Without authority’ to make aware of the religious, the essentially Christian, is the category for my whole work as an author. From the very beginning I have enjoined and repeated unchanged that I was ‘without authority’ ” (PV, 12; SKS 13, 19). I assume] Variant: first written, instead of “I”, “But I wonder if the poetic”. “in eternity there is sheer joy and happiness”] If this is a quotation, the source has not been identified. “every suffering and pain is forgotten”] If this is a quotation, the source has not been identified. Variant: preceding “every”, “but” has been deleted. the glorious ones] Idiomatic expression for the Christian martyrs of the first centuries after Christ

13 15

15 18

20

29

292

After the Final Change of Address

33

293

4 29 35

294

4

6 7

8

who were persecuted and put to death for their faith. pleasures] Variant: changed from “sufferings”. ―Not Attaining Actuality] Variant: added. without further ado] Variant: first written “to”. our Right Reverend] Refers to Bishop Mynster (→ 296,11). According to the Danish system of rank and precedence, adopted in 1746 and revised in 1808, the term “Right Reverend” was reserved for the higher and highest clergy. There were nine rank classes, with the bishops of Zealand―at that time, the bishop of Zealand (Sjælland) was also the primate of the Danish State Church (there was no bishop of Copenhagen, as the episcopal seat was at Roskilde Cathedral)―and Christiania (now Oslo) in the third class and Copenhagen’s parish priests and royal chaplains in the sixth. In 1847, Bishop Mynster’s title had been elevated to “Eminence.” one specific person . . . here was the originator] Allusion to M. A. Goldschmidt (→ 297,20), editor of the satirical weekly Corsaren from 1840 to 1846. Under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, Kierkegaard published the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet, no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (see COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84), in which he begged that he not be praised but that he might “soon appear in Corsaren.” Corsaren responded by publishing a series of satirical articles on, allusions to, and caricatures of Kierkegaard (see KJN 4, 453–456), which led to Kierkegaard’s being jeered at and mocked in the streets. No one publicly supported Kierkegaard in the conflict and―to Kierkegaard’s continually increasing resentment―Goldschmidt never apologized for the paper’s attack. enough?] Variant: changed from “enough”. actuality.] Variant: first written “actuality,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. This specific person . . . public compliments] Refers to Bishop Mynster, who called Goldschmidt “one of our most talented authors” in a piece published in 1851 (→ 297,20).

•

P a p e r 462–465 1853 •

627

and then the Right Reverend preaches “on slander.”] It is uncertain what this refers to.

10

martyr.] Variant: first written “martyr,” with the comma apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. witness to the truth] A martyr; see also Jn 18:37. step into the character of] Kierkegaard often uses the expression “to step into character” in the sense of choosing to be something fully and totally, to stand behind one’s personal views and act in conformity with them. In coining the expression, Kierkegaard may have had in mind the Danish expression at træde i gevær, literally, “to step into arms,” i.e., to ready oneself for combat. just as the “attorney” procures cases] See NB31:129 (1854), where we read: “as one says that an attorney is a poor attorney if he does not immediately create 10 new cases out of each case he finishes” (KJN 10, 95). finally] Variant: added.

38

294

7

295

Concerning My Relationship to Bishop Mynster] In his journals, Kierkegaard kept a running record of his relationship with J. P. Mynster, especially starting in 1848, when at times he described himself as Mynster’s close ally, at others as his principal enemy. See, e.g., the unpublished article “Angaaende mit Forhold til Biskop Mynster” [On My Relationship with Bishop Mynster] (Pap. X 6 B 211–216; autumn 1852). ― Bishop Mynster: Jakob Peter Mynster (1775–1854), Danish pastor, writer, and politician; from 1834, bishop of the diocese of Zealand and thus primate of the Danish State Church. He was the great preacher of the age and the author of a good many scholarly works. He had a seat in a great many governing organs, but after 1848, he often complained that his position as head of the Church had been made subject to a cabinet minister. In accordance with the Danish system of rank and precedence, in 1847, Mynster, as bishop of Zealand, was ranked number thirteen in the first class and accordingly was to be addressed as “Your Eminence.” He died on January 30, 1854, and thus did not live to see the publication of the final three volumes of his Blandede Skrivter [Miscellaneous Writings],

11

28

3

295m

7

296

628

16

30

35

36

297

4 20

After the Final Change of Address

6 vols. (Copenhagen, 1852–1857; ASKB 358–363) or the publication of his Meddelelser om mit Levnet [Communications about My Life] (Copenhagen, 1854), edited by his son, F. J. Mynster. much is being done in public . . . in opposition to my efforts] Presumably, a reference to Mynster’s mention of Kierkegaard in connection with Goldschmidt (→ 297,20). Only one thing . . . forgive.] Variant: first written “Only one thing can he not forgive, only in one case can”. the Duc de la Rochefoucauld] François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680), who became well known as a moral philosopher, partly from his Mémoires [Memoirs] (1662), partly from his biting aphorisms in Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections or Sentences and Moral Maxims] (1664–1678 and many later editions). Kierkegaard owned the latter work in German translation, Des Herzogs de la Rochefoucault moralische Maximen mit Anmerkungen. Aus dem Französischen, Wien og Leipzig 1784 [The Moral Maxims of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, with Annotations, from the French] (Vienna and Leipzig, 1784; ASKB 739; abbreviated hereafter as Moralische Maximen). A Danish version was available: Moralske Betragtninger og Grundsætninger af Hertugen af Rochefocauld [Moral Observations and Principles by the Duke de la Rochefoucauld] (Copenhagen, 1809). One forgives the one who does one a wrong . . . whom one has oneself wronged] This seems to have occurred to Kierkegaard in the light of a passage in La Rochefoucauld’s Moralische Maximen, p. 162: “We often forgive those who bore us, but never those whom we bore.” (The passage also appears in the Danish translation, Moralske Betragtninger og Grundsætninger af Hertugen af Rochefocauld, p. 84.) do me wrong, nothing] Variant: preceding “nothing”, “but” has been deleted. To place The Corsair’s Goldschmidt and me on a par . . . Bishop M. did in his latest book] Kierkegaard is referring to J. P. Mynster’s Yderligere Bidrag til Forhandlingerne om de kirkelige Forhold i Danmark [Further Contribution to Negotiations concerning the Ecclesiastical

•

P a p e r 465 1853 •

Situation in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1851), which was advertised in Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times], no. 16, March 13, 1851, as having been published. Kierkegaard received the work shortly after its publication (see NB23:189 in KJN 8, 296) but was offended by Mynster’s friendly mention of Goldschmidt. As early as p. 5 of the work, Mynster writes, “as an excellent French author―with whom we have become acquainted thanks to the publisher of Nord og Syd [i.e., Goldschmidt]―says, there is nothing more worthy of respect than ‘a people that defends its morals.’ ” But the passage Kierkegaard found most offensive was on p. 44, where Mynster writes, “Among the gratifying [‘]emergent phenomena[’]―we adopt this term from one of our most talented authors―that have appeared in the course of these discussions, is the echo found in a voice that has recently (see Fædrelandet, no. 26) inveighed against ‘the faith that the error is to be found in external things, that what is needed is a change in external things, which supposedly is to help us’ oppose the ‘disastrous confusion of politics and Christianity, a confusion that can so easily give rise to and make fashionable a new sort of reformation of the Church―a backward reformation that in reforming posits something new and worse instead of what is older and better.’ The gifted author will permit me, in conclusion, to borrow his words, ‘that Christianity, which has its life in itself, is supposed to be saved by free institutions, is in my view a complete misunderstanding of Christianity, which, when it is true in true inwardness, is infinitely higher and infinitely freer than all institutions, constitutions, etc.’ ” In his use of the term “emergent phenomena,” Mynster is alluding to Goldschmidt, who a couple of years earlier had suggested this term (Danish, Fremtoning) as a translation of the German term Erscheinung (see Nord og Syd, 1849, vol. 5, pp. 143–144); Goldschmidt’s term gradually gained acceptance in the Danish language. The reference to a “gifted author” is to Kierkegaard, and the quoted passages are from Kierkegaard’s article “Occasioned by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach,” which had appeared in Fædrelandet on January 31, 1851, no. 26; see COR, 55–56;

After the Final Change of Address

26

31

297

34

36

37

298

1

SKS 14, 113. See NB24:30 and its accompanying note in KJN 8, 337−339. In the course of 1851, Kierkegaard wrote countless drafts of a polemical piece directed at Mynster in this connection; see Pap. X 6 B 171−208. ― Goldschmidt: Meïr Aron Goldschmidt (1819–1887), Danish-Jewish journalist and publisher, and the author of, among other things, En Jøde. Novelle [A Jew: Novella], by Adolph Meyer, edited and published by M. Goldschmidt (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1547). In 1840, Goldschmidt founded the satirical weekly Corsaren and was its editor until 1846, when he disposed of the paper and traveled abroad for a year. Starting in December 1847, Goldschmidt published and edited Nord og Syd, a monthly, to which he was the main contributor. Nord og Syd ceased regular publication on March 28, 1851, though from November 1, 1851, it appeared occasionally as an “at-will pamphlet,” and in 1852 it resumed regular publication as a “new series,” and from 1855 it appeared regularly. if the whole affair would pass off unnoticed] Kierkegaard complained to Mynster of this breach in their conversation of May 2, 1851, which is recorded in NB24:30 (1851) in KJN 8, 337–339. Mag. K.] Magister Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard defended his dissertation “Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn til Socrates” [On Irony with Constant Reference to Socrates] for the philosophical magister degree on September 29, 1841. In 1854, the magister degree, with disputation, was made equivalent to a doctorate with the right to the title “Dr.” “Halting”] See the section “The Halt” in “ ‘Come unto Me All You Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I Will Give You Rest’: For Awakening and Inward Deepening,” No. I in Practice in Christianity, (PC, 23–66; SKS 12, 35–80). help of the ideals] Variant: changed from “help of the ideals.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. the thousands . . . through the ideals.] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. with the help of the ideals] Variant: changed from “with the help of the ideals.”, with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence.

•

P a p e r 465–467 1853 •

629

have, a twofold power . . . the same.] Variant: changed from “have, a twofold power that despite being twofold is nonetheless, viewed deeply, one and the same.” there simply were no Xns at all] → 250,11. how meritoriously] → 271,4. engagingly] Variant: added. strike] Variant: changed from “stop”. mordantly] Variant: added.

3

If the “priest” is bound by oath to the N.T.] Refers to the oath taken by a priest upon ordination in the Danish State Church: “Juramentum, qvod in timore Domini præstabunt, qvi muneri Ecclesiastico initiabuntur” (Latin, “The oath that, in fear of the Lord, is to be sworn by those who are to be dedicated to an ecclesiastical office”), in Dannemarkes og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 379–380: “I, N.N., do swear and testify in holy awe before the countenance of God . . . that I will, with the greatest care, see to it that the divine teachings that are contained in the prophetic and apostolic writings and in the symbolic books of the Danish Church will be preached to the congregation pure and unsullied; that the sacraments will be administered properly and devoutly, in accordance with the manner prescribed by Christ; that the Church’s admonition will be carefully pronounced and catechetical instruction constantly maintained; that the universally accepted rituals of the Church will be observed; and that nothing that conflicts with Church regulations will be permitted.” (The term “apostolic writings” refers to the New Testament.) Furthermore, when being ordained by the bishop, priests were also exhorted to “undertake, in all things, to be good examples to those with whom they associate, in love, in spirit, in faith, in chastity, and all Christian virtues” (p. 369). defend being salaried, as is done now] In provincial towns, citizens were required to pay the priest a given amount of money called “priest money,” while in rural areas, farmers were required to donate a “tithe,” a certain percentage of their agricultural produce, often grain. The amount was determined by the Ministry of

3

31 41 3

297m

1

298m

1

4

299

630

8

After the Final Change of Address

Church and Education. On holy days, members of the congregation could also pay their priest a voluntary sum of money called an “offering.” Priests had a certain amount of additional income called “perquisites,” i.e., fees for performing clerical acts such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. In addition to this, priests in provincial towns were granted a rent subsidy, while priests in rural areas had income from the lands and farms attached to their call. In general, priests in Copenhagen had greater income than those in the provinces, but there was much variation from parish to parish. There was also the possibility of ”advancement,” i.e., preferment, by which a priest, in accordance with seniority, could be called to a position with a higher income; see J. D. Smith, “Om Præsters Avancement, personelle Kapellaner og entledige Præsters Pensionering” [On Priests’ Preferment, Curates and Pensioning of Discharged Priests], in Ugeskrift for den evangeliske Kirke i Danmark [Weekly for the Evangelical Church in Denmark], no. 40, September 14, 1855, vol. 6, pp. 145–152. A full survey can be found in Bloch Suhr, Kaldslexicon, omfattende en Beskrivelse over alle danske geistlige Embeder i alphabetisk Orden [Lexicon of Calls, Comprising All Danish Ecclesiastical Offices in Alphabetical Order] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 379). to use the police to enforce payment etc.] According to a proclamation of September 21, 1814, every permanently settled family (or individual who lived alone and was not a part of a family with whom he lived) was to pay an annual sum to the priest of the local parish. Each year, a couple of weeks after the May moving day, these parishioners were to pay the requisite sum in accordance with a register that was brought from house to house by the publicly appointed tax collector for the district; if necessary, the tax collector would also enforce such collection. In every parish a commission was established to go through the register and was authorized to assess a higher annual sum if it found that the sum previously assessed was too low in relation to a person’s occupation and rank. The possibility of using the police to collect unpaid “priest money”

•

P a p e r 467–468 1853 •

has not been verified. See NB29:14 (1854) in KJN 9, 307–308, also “What Christ Judges of Official Christianity” (1855), M, 130–131; SKS 13, 174–175. roughly] Variant: preceding this, “―or” has been deleted. but] Variant: added. According to the N.T. there is strife between God and hum. beings] → 253,27. everything called State Church, People’s Church] In the wake of the revolutionary events of 1848 and 1849, there was an extensive debate at the time concerning the relationship between state and Church, in which clarification was sought regarding the concepts of “State Church,” then associated with the absolute monarchy, and “People’s Church,” which was first given official status in the constitution of June 5, 1849; see § 3: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Danish People’s Church and as such is supported by the state” (a statement that can be read both descriptively and prescriptively) in Danmarks Riges Grundlov. Valgloven. Bestemmelser angaaende Forretningsordenen i begge Thingene [Constitution of the Danish State: Electoral Law; Provisions regarding the Order of Business in Both Houses of Parliament] (Copenhagen, 1850), p. 6. There were those who preferred to see unity of state and Church, though in such a way that the Church was granted genuine self-rule; see, e.g., H. L. Martensen, Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Constitution of the Danish People’s Church] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 655). And there were those who preferred to see the separation of the Church and state; see, e.g., A. G. Rudelbach, Om Begrebet Folkekirke. En historisk-kirkeretlig Betænkning betræffende den danske evangelisk-lutherske Kirkes fremtidige Stilling og Forhold til Staten, henvendt til den nu forsamlede Rigsdag [On the Concept of a People’s Church: A Deliberation, Addressed to the Parliament Now Assembled, concerning History and Canon Law as They Bear on the Future Position of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Its Relation to the State] (Copenhagen, 1854).

16 23 25 28

299

After the Final Change of Address 300

2 3

Christian nation, etc. etc.] → 255,9. high-ranking officials] Refers to the fact that, as state officials, the priests were part of the Danish system of rank and precedence (→ 293,35).

•

P a p e r 468 1853 •

631

Notes for Paper 469–Paper 550 Toward the Battle with the Church March–December 1854

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Elise Iuul, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Bjarke Mørkøre Hansen Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen

634

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “Toward the Battle with the Church”1 consists of L-cat. and B-cat. nos. 3–4, 9–10, 19–20, 27–28, 30, and 56–123. According to Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” upon Kierkegaard’s death, nos. 3–4 and 9–10 were found in the “desk space,” while nos. 27–28 and 30 lay “in the lower desk drawer.” Nos. 56–123 lay “in the desk” “in one stack” (see illustration 3, p. xliii). The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology None of the eighty-two papers is dated.2 Paper 469–Paper 473 lay in Kierkegaard’s writing desk together with a number of drafts of the article that contained reactions to J. P. Mynster’s death on January 30, 1854, and H. L. Martensen’s eulogy of Mynster on February 5, 1854. A number of these are dated in March 1854 and in December 1854, which was close to the date of the article with which Kierkegaard began his attack on the Church, December 18, 1854.3 Paper 469 seems to be the first ) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

) The sequence and thus the chronology of the papers has been determined by the circumstance that the highest number in L-cat. must as a rule be presumed to have been the first paper written within a given stack of papers. In other words, Lund numbered the papers “backwards,” so that the paper that lay uppermost in a stack of papers was registered first; see the “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume.

2

) See Pap. XI 3 B 15–21, 37–39, 59–69, and 72–81. Pap. XI 3 B 201–210 was also in this stack of papers and is dated February 1854. This material constitutes the source for the article that opened the attack on the Church, “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?” (M, 3–8; SKS 14, 123–126).

3

Critical Account of the Text loose paper in which Bishop J. P. Mynster’s death is mentioned, and therefore was probably written in March 1854.1 Paper 474–Paper 478 were placed together with a series of drafts from March 1854,2 but it is also evident from Paper 474 that they must have been written after H. L. Martensen’s consecration as bishop in June 1854.3 Similarly, the large group of papers (Paper 479–Paper 550) that lay in a stack in the desk seems to have been written after Mynster’s death and before the beginning of the attack on the Church. The group contains no sketches or drafts for the attack on the Church, but they had been in Kierkegaard’s writing desk together with a packet, bound with string, that contained drafts connected to the attack on the Church from December 1854 and after (see illustration 3, p. xliii). Thus it is reasonable to conclude that Paper 479–Paper 550 were written after Paper 474–Paper 478, which were from the summer of 1854, but before December 18 of that year. In sum, this makes it likely that the papers were written during the period March–December 1854.

) See Paper 469 in the present volume: “the now-deceased Bishop Mynster.” See also the “Critical Account of the Text of ‘After the Final Change of Address’ ” in the present volume.

1

) See Pap. XI 3 B 23–26.

2

) See the last lines of Paper 474 in the present volume.

3

635

Explanatory Notes 302

3

5 9

27 28

“long live profit,”] See The Moment, no. 7, where Kierkegaard writes: “These oath-bound teachers― indeed, most people do not feel alien to them and their way of life; the mass of people know this very well―it is of course their own view: long live profit, long live work in a job that pays in both one way and another. But these teachers are indeed priests―consequently, as bound by oath on the New Testament, they certainly must know what Christianity is; consequently they provide the multitude with the guarantee that this profiteering and the like are true Christianity” (M, 257, translation modified; SKS 13, 313). renunciation of this world and of what is of this world] See Lk 14:33; see also 1 Jn 2:15–16. 1000 royal officials] All clergy were civil servants of the state, appointed by the king. According to the lists in the Geistlig-statistisk Calender for Aaret 1854 [Ecclesiastical Yearbook for 1854], ed. Th. Hertz (Copenhagen, 1854 [went to press December 24, 1853]; cf. ASKB 378, an edition from 1848), there were about 987 principal parishes in the kingdom of Denmark (i.e., without the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg), which employed about 916 priests, including bishops and deans; in addition to this there were about 123 personal chaplains. And, all the while,] Variant: first written, instead of “And”, “But”. we are a Christian people, a Christian country, have Christian priests] Slogans such as “the Christian people,” “the Christian state,” etc. were current at the time. See, e.g., H. L. Martensen, Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Constitution of the Danish People’s Church] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 655), in which a case is comprehensively argued for a “Christian state” and “a Christian people,” and indirectly for a “Christian land.” See, e.g., p. 7, where it is claimed: “[t]hat the Christian state has an intimate relation to the Christian Church is or-

dinarily a consequence of the fact that a Christian state presupposes a Christian people; but inasmuch as it is thus the same people who are in the state and in the Church, there cannot and ought not be any disagreement between the principles of the state and the Church, despite the fact that, to be sure, the shared point of contact, the area where the Church and the state encounter one another, is not primarily and immediately that of faith and doctrine, but of morals and of moral-religious principles.” Similar expressions were also widespread in the Grundtvigian literature. makes true] Variant: the editors of SKS have substituted “true” for “untrue” in Kierkegaard’s ms. the words “Kill me, and let me live.”] The source of this saying has not been identified. Nonetheless, I have made known what the situation is here in this country] A reference to Practice in Christianity, in which it is maintained that Christianity does not exist. Kierkegaard’s point, that Christianity simply does not exist, is first properly expressed in Practice in Christianity (1850), written 1848–1849, where, e.g., he states: “Christendom has abolished Christianity without really knowing it itself. As a result, if something is to be done, one must attempt again to introduce Christianity into Christendom,” or “Christianity has been quite literally dethroned in Christendom; but if this is so, then it has also been abolished” (PC, 36 and 227; SKS 12, 49 and 221). This assertion subsequently became a leitmotif in Kierkegaard’s attack on the Church. Kierkegaard insisted that only when this is acknowledged or recognized will it be possible to reintroduce Christianity. This is a theme in Kierkegaard, that the Church must make the admission or confession that it is far from being true Christianity. He had already presented this in the “Editor’s Preface” to Practice in Christianity: “Yet the requirement must be stated, presented, heard; from a Christian point of view there must

41 41 13

303

Toward the Battle with the Church

14

23

be no reduction of the requirement, nor ought it be suppressed―instead of making an admission and confession concerning oneself. The requirement ought to be heard, and I understand what is said as spoken to me alone, so that I might learn not only to take refuge in ‘grace,’ but to take refuge in it with respect to the use of ‘grace’ ” (PC, 7; SKS 12, 15). I was understood by, for example, the now-deceased Bishop Mynster] Kierkegaard had continuing conversations with Bishop Mynster, particularly concerning Practice in Christianity, which had angered and embittered Mynster, who felt himself harshly attacked. See NB21:121 in KJN 8, 68–70. ― Bishop Mynster: Jakob Peter Mynster (1775–1854), Danish pastor, writer, and politician; from 1834, bishop of the diocese of Zealand and thus primate of the Danish State Church. He was the great preacher of the age and the author of a good many scholarly works. He had a seat in a great many governing organs, but after 1848 he often complained that his position as head of the Church had been made subject to a cabinet minister. In accordance with the Danish system of rank and precedence, in 1847, Mynster, as bishop of Zealand, was ranked number thirteen in the first class and accordingly was to be addressed as “Your Eminence.” He died on January 30, 1854, and thus did not live to see the publication of the final volumes of his Blandede Skrivter [Miscellaneous Writings], 6 vols. (Copenhagen, 1852–1857; ASKB 358–363 [vols. 1–3]) or the publication of his Meddelelser om mit Levnet [Communications about My Life] (Copenhagen, 1854), edited by his son, F. J. Mynster. encourage boys in the street to do likewise] Refers to the fact that Kierkegaard was harassed on the street as a result of the attacks by Corsaren [The Corsair]. Under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, Kierkegaard published the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland], no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (see COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84), in which he begged that he not be praised but rather that he might “soon appear in Corsaren.” Corsaren responded by publishing

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

637

a series of satirical articles on, allusions to, and caricatures of Kierkegaard (see KJN 4, 453–456), which led to Kierkegaard’s being jeered at and mocked in the streets. No one publicly supported Kierkegaard in the conflict and―to Kierkegaard’s continually increasing resentment―Goldschmidt never apologized for the paper’s attack. by boosting The Corsair’s Goldschmidt . . . on the same level as him.] Kierkegaard is referring to J. P. Mynster’s Yderligere Bidrag til Forhandlingerne om de kirkelige Forhold i Danmark [Further Contribution to Negotiations concerning the Ecclesiastical Situation in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1851), which was advertised in Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times], no. 16, March 13, 1851, as having been published. Kierkegaard received the work shortly after its publication (see NB23:189 in KJN 8, 296) but was offended by Mynster’s friendly mention of Goldschmidt. As early as p. 5 of the work, Mynster writes, “as an excellent French author―with whom we have become acquainted thanks to the publisher of Nord og Syd [i.e., Goldschmidt]―says, there is nothing more worthy of respect than ‘a people that defends its morals.’ ” But the passage Kierkegaard found most offensive was on p. 44, where Mynster writes, “Among the gratifying [‘]emergent phenomena[’]―we adopt this term from one of our most talented authors―that have appeared in the course of these discussions, is the echo found in a voice that has recently (see Fædrelandet, no. 26) inveighed against ‘the faith that the error is to be found in external things, that what is needed is a change in external things, which supposedly is to help us’ oppose the ‘disastrous confusion of politics and Christianity, a confusion that can so easily give rise to and make fashionable a new sort of reformation of the Church―a backward reformation that in reforming posits something new and worse instead of what is older and better.’ The gifted author will permit me, in conclusion, to borrow his words, ‘that Christianity, which has its life in itself, is supposed to be saved by free institutions, is in my view a complete misunderstanding of Christianity, which, when it is true in true inwardness, is infinitely higher and infinitely freer than all institutions, constitu-

27

638

30

Toward the Battle with the Church

tions, etc.’ ” In his use of the term “emergent phenomena,” Mynster is alluding to Goldschmidt, who a couple of years earlier had suggested this term (Danish, Fremtoning) as a translation of the German term Erscheinung (see Nord og Syd, 1849, vol. 5, pp. 143–144); Goldschmidt’s term gradually gained acceptance in the Danish language. The reference to a “gifted author” is to Kierkegaard, and the quoted passages are from Kierkegaard’s article “Occasioned by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach,” which had appeared in Fædrelandet on January 31, 1851, no. 26; see COR, 55–56; SKS 14, 113. See NB24:30 in KJN 8, 337−339. In the course of 1851, Kierkegaard wrote countless drafts of a polemical piece directed at Mynster in this connection; see Pap. X 6 B 171−208. ― same level as him.: Variant: changed from “same level as him!” Bishop Martensen, in his eulogy of Bishop Mynster . . . whose loss is irreplaceable] Kierkegaard is referring to Martensen’s Prædiken holdt i Christiansborgs Slotskirke paa 5te Søndag efter Hellig Tre Konger, Søndagen før Biskop Dr. Mynsters Jordefærd [Sermon Delivered at Christiansborg Palace Church on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday Preceding Bishop Dr. Mynster’s Funeral] (Copenhagen, 1854), in which Martensen situates the late Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14) in “the entire series of witnesses to the truth, which stretch through the ages like a holy chain, from the days of the apostles up to our own” (p. 6). Kierkegaard protested against Martensen’s description of Mynster as a witness to the truth because he believed that Mynster had been precisely the opposite of that. Kierkegaard’s protest appears in the polemical newspaper article “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?,” which appeared in Fædrelandet, no. 295, December 18, 1854. Martensen replied in an article in Berlingske Tidende, no. 302, December 28, 1854, in which he protested against Kierkegaard’s narrow use of the term “witness to the truth.” Martensen maintained that the term in fact designates not only suffering martyrs, but has a much broader application, “For those who believe this article also know that in the Church there is a

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

testimony to the truth that has been transmitted from generation to generation and that both in the congregation and among the teachers there are those in every age and in every generation who bear this testimony, who confirm, in life and in person, the great fact that is Christianity” (col. 1). Kierkegaard continued to insist upon his concept of the suffering witness to the truth in his second newspaper article against Martensen and Mynster, in Fædrelandet, no. 304, December 30, 1854, which bore the title “There the Matter Rests!”: “To represent a man who, even in proclaiming Christianity, has attained and enjoyed every possible benefit and advantage―to represent him as a witness to the truth, one of the holy chain, is as ludicrous as to talk about a virgin with a flock of children” (M, 10, translation slightly modified; SKS 14, 149). But during the period between Kierkegaard’s first article (December 18, 1854) and Martensen’s reply (December 28, 1854), the latter had already made an indirect reply to Kierkegaard’s attack. This took place on December 26, when Martensen ordained two bishops and on that occasion also appointed them as Christian witnesses; see his “Tale ved Biskopperne Jørgen Hjorth Lautrup’s og  Hardenach Otto Conrad Laub’s Indvielse” [Discourse at the Ordination of Bishops Jørgen Hjorth Lautrup and Hardenach Otto Conrad Laub” in  Bispevielse i Frue Kirke paa anden Juledag, den 26de December 1854 [Ordination of Bishops in the Church of Our Lady on the Day after Christmas, December 26, 1854] (Copenhagen, 1855). See Kierkegaard’s article “Two New Witnesses to the Truth” in Fædrelandet, no. 24, January 29, 1855 (“Feuilleton,” i.e., supplement). Kierkegaard persisted in maintaining his conception of “the witness to the truth” and continued his criticism of Martensen’s use of the term, which―according to Kierkegaard―made virtually everyone a witness to the truth. In return, Kierkegaard was attacked by many for using a concept of witness to the truth that was so exclusive that apart from Jesus, there was virtually no one else who qualified. At the time, this debate was known as the “fight about witnesses to the truth.” ―  Bishop Martensen: Hans Lassen Martensen (1808–1884), Danish theologian and

Toward the Battle with the Church

304

3

4 8

priest; licentiate in theology from the University of Copenhagen in 1837; honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1840; appointed extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen in 1840 and ordinary professor on September 1, 1850; made a member of the Royal Danish Scientific Society in 1841; appointed court preacher in 1845 and Knight of the Dannebrog in 1847. On April 15, 1854, he was appointed J. P. Mynster’s successor as bishop of Zealand and was consecrated as bishop in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen on June 5, 1854, by Bishop G. P. Brammer. ― eulogy: Variant: first written “discourse”. Grundtvig] Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783–1872), Danish theologian, priest, hymnodist, historian, politician, and much more; 1832–1839 (unsalaried) evensong preacher at Frederikskirken in Christianshavn; from 1839, priest at the church at Vartov Hospital, where he remained until his death (see map 2, A2). He has, with profound Christian seriousness . . . monstrosity of the State Church] → 307,10. For his part, Pastor G. has secured himself . . . the joys of summer] See Kierkegaard’s unused article “Is Grundtvig a Kind of Apostle? Is This the Truth?” (1855), in which he remarks that Grundtvig occupies “a position in the State Church, with a salary of a couple of thousand rix-dollars” (→ 322,2) (M, 564, translation slightly modified; Pap. XI 3 B 182, p. 300) and that he has “settled down in just about the most pleasant and one of the most advantageous offices in the State Church, since Vartov has no ministerial functions and, as far as I know, Vartov has tithes . . .” (ibid.). Since 1839, Grundtvig (→ 304,3) had been hospital priest at Vartov, an institution that housed elderly, poor, and sick people. The position required many fewer administrative, clerical, and practical obligations than an ordinary priest’s call. According to Bloch Suhr, Kaldslexicon, omfattende en Beskrivelse over alle danske geistlige Embeder i alphabetisk Orden [Encyclopedia of Calls, Including a Description of All Danish Ecclesiastical Offices in Alphabetical Order] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 379), pp. 209–210, the position of priest at Vartov was estimated to carry an annual income of 1,400

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

639

rix-dollars, which places it at number 300 in the ranking of Denmark’s 1,027 clerical calls. This, however, is a low estimate and omits a number of various sources of income, including a so-called tithe (i.e., a specific percentage of livestock products and grain, which farmers were to pay to the priest). In 1855, merely the tithe of grain, which was pegged at the cash value of a certain quantity of barley, was 2,044 rix-dollars; see CapitelsTaxt for Sjællands Stift fra Aaret 1600 til 1855 [Tithe Rates for the Diocese of Zealand from 1600 to 1855] (Copenhagen, 1856), p. 8. See also CollegialTidende [Collegial Times], no. 16, April 20, 1839, p. 303, where the total value of the grain tithe for that year was 1,524 rix-dollars. In the summer of 1853, when cholera was rampant in Copenhagen, Grundtvig visited Vartov only every second Sunday, which gave rise to indignation by some people, including Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14). Mynster died on January 30, 1854, and two weeks later Grundtvig petitioned the king to grant him a personal chaplain (i.e., an assistant priest). Even though it was unusual for a hospital priest to make use of a chaplain, Grundtvig’s petition was granted, and soon thereafter, on April 8, 1854, Grundtvig’s son-in-law, P. O. Boisen took his position of chaplain at Vartov. an apostle of the North, acclaimed as such by younger theologians] Probably a reference in general to the special ecclesiastical status Grundtvig had attained among his adherents. He was often hailed as a new apostle of the North, particularly in the Grundtvigian journal Dansk Kirketidende  [Danish Church Times] (1845ff.), e.g., in connection with the celebration of Grundtvig’s seventieth birthday in 1853; see, e.g., Dansk Kirketidende, September 4, 1853, vol. 8, no. 36, cols. 561–566. See also The Moment, no. 6, in M, 207; SKS 13, 261. wanting to be] Variant: “wanting” has been added. Lic. theol. Pastor Kierkegaard] Peter Christian Kierkegaard (1805–1888), Søren Kierkegaard’s brother, Danish theologian and priest; cand. theol. from the University of Copenhagen, 1826; dr. phil. from Göttingen, 1829; lic. theol. from the University of Copenhagen, 1836; tutored theology students until 1842, when he accepted a call

15

22 26

640

27

28 31

Toward the Battle with the Church

to be parish priest in Pedersborg and Kindertofte by Sorø. He was a close ally of Grundtvig and a respected member of Grundtvig’s circle, which included his membership in the Roskilde Pastoral Conventicle. He was elected to the upper house of parliament on December 29, 1849, as a representative of the Society of Friends of the Peasant (or Venstre [Left]), but on February 11, 1850, he joined the Centrum (Center) group; see Peter Christian Kierkegaard, “Dagbog for 1828–50” [Diary for 1828–1850] (NKS 2656, 4o, I), p. 158. He published a series of essays and lectures, some of them in Nordisk Tidsskrift for christelig Theologie [Nordic Journal for Christian Theology (1840– 1842), of which he was coeditor; some in Dansk Kirketidende  (1845ff., ASKB 321–325); and some in his own ecclesiastical journal, Fortsættelser fra Pedersborg [Continuations from Pedersborg], published in fascicles, 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1848– 1853; ASKB 372–375). At the moment there is a vacant professorial post at the university] On April 15, 1854, Prof. H. L. Martensen (→ 303,30) was appointed successor to the late Bishop Mynster. This meant that Martensen’s position as professor of theology was now vacant. Four candidates applied for the chair: lic. theol. J.G.F. Steenberg, cand. theol. J.L.M. Hjort, lic. theol. J. A. Bornemann, and dr. theol. P. C. Kierkegaard. Because the first two candidates were untested, the choice came down to the unpopular Bornemann, who followed Martensen’s line, and the solid theologian Kierkegaard, who bore the stamp of Grundtvig. Despite the fact that university students, led by Thomas Skat Rørdam, had gathered signatures on a petition that expressed opposition to Bornemann and support for Kierkegaard, the matter ended with the Bornemann’s appointment on July 28, 1854. Pastor K.] i.e., P. C. Kierkegaard (→ 304,26). a newspaper editorial by Dr. Rørdam] The reference is to the newspaper article “Om Besættelsen af det ledige theologiske Professorat” [On Filling the Vacant Professorial Post on the Theology Faculty], in Berlingske Tidende, no. 124, May 31, 1854, written by Hans Christian Rørdam  (1803– 1869), priest; cand.theol., 1824; lic.theol., 1828; dr. theol., 1838; from 1850, parish priest in Hammer

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

and Lundby parish on Zealand. He discusses the question of the future professor in detail: “The filling of the vacant teaching post in theology must awaken a great deal of interest both with respect to scholarship and in the Church, and filling the place left vacant by Professor Martensen’s appointment as bishop will be a matter of great importance. The discipline of theology would not be well served by appointing a lesser light to replace Bishop Martensen, whose activity as an academic teacher has given the study of theology a new upturn, bringing fresh and beneficial life to academic theology. It would now be very desirable if the circumstances could turn out such that a wellknown and capable theologian could join the faculty and make up for the departure of Bishop Martensen, all the more so because the subjects to be covered are very important. If one casts about for men, here in this country, whose scholarship and competency could quality them for consideration, there are two who tower above all younger men, namely Dr. Rudelbach and Dr. Kierkegaard. There is no one among the younger theologians at the university who can bear comparison with these men with respect to learning and competency or are regarded as competent to be positioned ahead of either of them for the chair of theology. A professorship of theology ought, after all, be filled with a man who does not himself need to be taught, but who is already in possession of the requisite maturity and competency to be able teach others. Dr. Rudelbach’s exceptional and profound learning is well known, and there can be no doubt concerning his suitability for a professorship of theology, to the extent that his present age, 62 years, does not make him reluctant to enter upon academic activity. As is well-known, Dr. Kierkegaard possesses learning and brilliance. Certainly, his theological writings have, up to this point, at times had a notable stamp of originality in their method―on occasion he has been seen to choose an unusual point of departure in the treatment of a subject, but in reality one must grant that here is a man who can treat theology with thoroughness, liveliness, and lightness, and that he may be called a real scholar of theology. There have also been sufficient tests of his lively and

Toward the Battle with the Church stimulating lectures as a docent, and we believe that it will not be denied that he is in possession of a unique gift to awaken, stimulate, and move his listeners to independent intellectual activity. When one looks at the gifts and the acknowledged theological learning of these two men, if one had to choose between them, the choice would be difficult. But we find it quite reasonable that a group of theology students (numbering about 90) have expressed the wish that Dr. Kierkegaard might occupy the vacant teaching position in theology because his gifts and his competence as a docent are known here at the university. If one then considers the welfare of the Church under the conditions prevalent at this time, it is undeniable that a man with a wellknown ecclesiastical spirit, who stands freely and firmly upon the ground of faith and orthodoxy, could occupy the vacant position. With respect to an institution of theological learning, it is a principal requirement, as long as it is and shall be ecclesiastical, that right at the university it ought to provide students who will later occupy posts in the Church with generous opportunities to be fortified in the well-being of the Church. It is not sufficient for our theology students to be able to find opportunity for this elsewhere. In every case, the ecclesiastical and emphatically orthodox side of theology ought to be fully represented, alongside of other positions, at the Danish Church’s only institution of theological learning. We do not in any way wish for any anxiety-laden, literalistic servitude, but a free and confident embrace of Christian orthodoxy and the whole of the Church’s confessions, which can very well take place without stereotypical uniformity. We hold that it is beneficial both for the Church and for learning that it be possible for various different tendencies to encounter one another. It is useful for the students to learn to recognize different modes of learning and familiarize themselves with various treatments of systematic subjects just as is done now at the university, e.g., where one must become acquainted with the dogmatic systems of two professors, for in so doing, the student necessarily has an occasion to consider, judge, and choose between differences and is thus

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

641

awakened to work his way forward to independence and to the ability, with God’s assistance, to enter, well-equipped, upon the work entailed in a position in the Church. We do not believe that the possibility that, by permitting various ways of learning, there could arise an occasion for the student to enter upon divergent tendencies (which could, to greater or lesser degree, lead away from the Church’s confessions instead of uniformly adhering to them)―that this ought to prevent an ecclesiastical institution of learning from granting space for different theological views (though always attentive to the fixed ecclesiastical boundaries), because it is inherent in the nature of the free evangelical spirit that it wants and must be able to exercise its freedom. Indeed, we never get any free, living, and powerful faith and Christianity awakened in the Church―neither for teachers nor for listeners―without free and independent appropriation. A tree’s best fruit is always that which grows and ripens under variations in the weather. But precisely because we place so much emphasis upon evangelical freedom in faith and ecclesiastical matters as the most secure foundation for a true and powerful life for the Church, it is with greater right that we require that the faith of the Church be represented quite decidedly in scholarship at the institution of theological learning. In these times―though, to be sure, also at every time―the conditions necessary for the well-being of our Church require that, during their education, future priests can be led to knowledge of real, living faith and an understanding of the Church, that they learn to know and value the complete truth and solidity of Christian orthodoxy. For only when a priest takes up his task well-fortified in the truth and with his heart resting upon that basis―only then can he satisfy the faithful portion of the congregation, gather and fortify the Church’s members, and protect the Church from sectarians and fanatics. Our Church can no longer help itself with the half-measures and uncertainty in faith and confession that up to now have been noticeable in various places. The portion of the congregation that has come to Christian enlightenment and living faith is also in possession of sufficient inde-

642

Toward the Battle with the Church

pendence that it no longer permits itself to be satisfied with an uncertain preaching of the Word. And the invasive parties make it necessary that individual clerics, each one in his own circle, be capable of defending the truth and of rebutting, from a thoroughly Christian standpoint, what is false―otherwise, the cleric himself is only like a feather that is blown away when the power of error begins to move, and he knows neither how to prevail nor how to help himself in opposition to the clever assaults of the foe. In the past, the priest usually found rationalistic deviations and distortions of the Christian faith only among the learned or educated peers, and matters went as best they could, but now he finds the same or similar, obvious deviations among workingmen and common people, and no longer does he find these deviations as a theory about which one can debate in the house of the learned, but clad in fully practical form, with the goal, in all seriousness, of tearing down and dissolving the society of the Church. This is the case with every priest who has hitherto, consciously or unconsciously, himself taken up a deviant view, who now finds himself in a very unfortunate situation as soon as Mormons or other parties come with their zeal, with their apparent proofs and popular eloquence―he cannot defend the Church against the attacks because he himself, even if privately, has nonetheless stood upon the same deviant ground, and only now does he see the matter in its nakedness. Under the present conditions in the Church, it is therefore necessary to take care that we can offer the people a class of teachers who are well-grounded in Christian truth, who can in every way humanly possible be equal to their office through testimony and activity in the service of truth. If one takes this important point into consideration, then, once again, with respect to the Church, the two above-mentioned men are prominent by virtue of their unreserved and firm embrace of Christianity as well as their theological knowledge and proficiency. The portion of the congregation that possesses a living Christian faith has long been accustomed to regarding these men as two pillars of faith in the Church, and many for whom the well-being of the Church is

•

P a p e r 469 1854 •

of profound concern are fully convinced that appointing one of these two men to the university would be truly fortunate for the Danish People’s Church.” Pastor K. (this man of seriousness . . . have always busied themselves) . . . must stipulate a salary of 2000 rix-dollars] It is not known whether P. C. Kierkegaard (→ 304,26) stipulated a salary of 2,000 rix-dollars (→ 322,2) to accept the professorship that Martensen had vacated. As professor, Martensen’s salary had been 1,400 rix-dollars. A few years earlier, in 1851, when Professor C. T. Engelstoft became bishop of the Funen diocese, P. C. Kierkegaard had applied for the vacant position, but was passed over because of his Grundtvigianism. As professor, Engelstoft had had a salary of 1,800 rix-dollars. During the period P. C. Kierkegaard served as a priest in Pedersborg, he was repeatedly called upon by university students to seek vacant professorships of theology in Copenhagen, also following H. L. Martensen’s appointment as bishop of Zealand, which is clear from P. C. Kierkegaard’s diary for April–May (NKS 3013, 4o, vol. 1, sheet 5, recto). Here, in an overview of letters for the month of May, P. C. Kierkegaard writes: “fr[om] Carl Lund . . . the 9th, fr[om] Joh[annes] Chr[istian] Lund the 11th: both on my finally applying for the professorship after Martensen. fr[om] Cand. Holg[er] Rördam the 15th (with a petition from 90 theol[ogical students] on the same topic, the 3rd.)” so worldly that they] Variant: “they” has been changed from “they not only [understand] nothing and”. Year after year, I have worked without the least pay] Kierkegaard frequently stated that he had not earned anything from his writings or that he actually spent money on them. This statement ought reasonably be interpreted in relation to the sum of expenses related to his life as an author; see Frithiof Brandt and Else Thorkelin, Søren Kierkegaard og pengene [Søren Kierkegaard and Money], 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1993 [1935]). as Pastor K. presented it . . . represents sober-mindedness] Refers to the lecture P. C. Kierkegaard presented in Ringsted at the Roskilde Pastoral Conventicle on October 30, 1849. The lec-

42

12

25

31

305

Toward the Battle with the Church

34

305m

1

ture was printed in Dansk Kirketidende, December 16, 1849, vol. 5, no. 12, cols. 171–193. In an introductory note, P. C. Kierkegaard states that he wrote down the text of lecture afterward, from memory. After having developed the concepts of ecstasy and sober-mindedness in Paul (2 Cor 5:13), P. C. Kierkegaard undertakes a lengthy, somewhat critical exposition of “Magister S. Kierkegaard’s well-known works” as representative of “ecstasy” and of “Professor Martensen’s Dogmatics and his work on dogmatics in general” as representative of “sober-mindedness.” See NB14:81 and NB14:95 (KJN 6, 396–397 and 407), with their accompanying notes. very significant tithes accruing to the bishopric of Zealand] The bishop of Zealand’s large income was derived from tithes―i.e., a certain percentage of farmers’ agricultural produce, often grain― equal to the cash equivalent of ca. 5,400 barrels of grain (→ 309m,18). which Pastor K., understands very well] In 1833, P. C. Kierkegaard  attracted a good deal of attention by accepting a pastoral call (to VejerslevBildstrup on the island of Morsø) that he himself had sought, and immediately thereafter asking the Crown to be excused from it. In 1850, he had sought a call to the position of priest to the parish of Thorslunde-Ishøj, in order to be closer to Copenhagen. The call he occupied at the time, in the parish of Pedersborg, with an estimated income of 752 rix-dollars (→ 322,2) a year (corresponding to no. 884 on the list of calls) was among the less lucrative, whereas the call to Thorslunde-Ishøj, with an estimated income of 1,392 rix-dollars (ranked as no. 311 on the list) was in the better-paying half of calls. When he was given the post, however, he learned that the parish was in disrepair and that the grain income from tithes (→ 305,34) was significantly less than the estimate. He again succeeded in getting excused from his request, and after a couple of months’ resting at a spa, he was able to continue in the post he had occupied in Pedersborg. See  Carl Weltzer,  Peter og Søren Kierkegaard (Copenhagen, 1936), pp. 236–238.

•

P a p e r 469–470 1854 •

643

A Little Note to the Bishop of Zealand] This message had apparently been conceived as an official announcement in a newspaper. It is addressed to H. L. Martensen, who became bishop of Zealand on April 15, 1854, and was consecrated on June 12, 1854. Xnty simply does not exist] → 303,13. 1000 royal officials] → 302,9. persons of rank] i.e., persons listed in the Danish system of rank and precedence as published in “Rangfølgen efter Forordningerne af 14de Oct. 1746 og 12te Aug. 1808, samt de med Hensyn til disse givne nærmere Bestemmelser” [Rank in Order of Precedence in Accordance with the Decrees of October 14, 1746, and August 12, 1808, and Further Resolutions with Respect to These] in Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statscalender / Statshaandbog for det danske Monarchie for Aaret 1854 [Royal Danish Court and Government Almanac / Government Handbook for the Danish Monarchy for the Year 1854] (Copenhagen, [1854]), in which there were nine classes divided into varying numbers of ranks. The civil ranks and order of precedence were published each year in the Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Stats-Calender [Royal Danish Court and Government Almanac]. Not all clerics appeared in the rank classification. Palace and parish priests in Copenhagen were placed in class 6, rank 13. Those who had defended a doctoral thesis in theology were in class 6, rank 3. Court priests, all archdeacons, and the deans at Holmen’s Church (the official church of the navy) and Garnison’s Church (the official church of the army) were in class 5, rank 8. The first court preacher was in class 4, rank 4, and the superintendent (a German clerical rank corresponding to bishop) of Lauenburg as well as all bishops other than bishop of Zealand were in class 3, rank 9. Last, as the highest ranking cleric, the bishop of Zealand was in class 2, number 10 (though the late Bishop Mynster [→ 303,14] had been elevated to class 1, no. 13). we honestly and straightforwardly admit the true state of affairs] → 303,13. treat him as a fool] A recurrent theme in Kierkegaard’s attack on the Church is that in their worship, people were making a fool of God.

1

3 4 5

13 19

306

644

23 24

31

306

33

307

4

10

Toward the Battle with the Church

This was suggested in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846; CUP, 603; SKS 7, 548), stated in Christian Discourses (1848; CD, 178; SKS 10, 189), and emphasized in Practice in Christianity (1850; PC, 92; SKS 12, 100). During the attack on the Church, this point was presented a number of times, including the first part of the newspaper article (dated May 1854) titled “Is This Christian Worship of God, or Is It Making a Fool of God?” that appeared in Fædrelandet, no. 68, March 21, 1855 (SKS 14, 155). the late bishop] i.e., Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14). sit venia verbo] The expression stems from Pliny the Younger (a.d. 63–113), Epistolae [Letters], bk. 5, letter 6, sec. 46, where it appears in the form venia sit dicto. make a truthful] Variant: added. Mynster] → 303,14. resemblance to an action based upon character.] Variant: changed from “resemblance to an action based upon character?” the greatest religious movement we have had (Grundtvig 1825, ’26, ’27)] When theology professor H. N. Clausen published his Catholicismens og Protestantismens Kirkeforfatning, Lære og Ritus [The Church Constitutions, Doctrines, and Rites of Catholicism and Protestantism] (Copenhagen, 1825), Grundtvig accused him of false teaching and rationalism. Grundtvig’s charge in Kirkens Gjenmæle mod Professor Theologiæ Dr. H. N. Clausen [The Church’s Retort to Professor of Theology, Dr. H. N. Clausen] (Copenhagen, 1825), gave rise to the so-called Church conflict in which Grundtvig demanded that the priests and theologians who would not fully embrace the official Lutheran doctrines of the State Church, based on “the symbolic books,” should resign their positions. Clausen accused Grundtvig of libel. Grundtvig himself resigned his position and in 1826 was ordered to pay a fine, with his future publications placed under prior censorship (which was lifted in 1838). In reaction to this judgment, Grundtvig now argued for the right to form free congregations outside the State Church; see “Om Religions-Frihed” [On Freedom of Religion] in  Theologisk Maanedsskrift [Theological Monthly],

•

P a p e r 470–471 1854 •

ed. N.F.S. Grundtvig and A. G. Rudelbach, 13 vols. (Copenhagen, 1825–1828; ASKB 346–351); vol. 8 (1827), pp. 28–59 and 136–171. In 1834, Grundtvig instead formulated a demand for the priests to be granted dogmatic and liturgical freedom within the Danish State Church, along with the general loosening of the ties that obligated Danes to have ecclesiastical rituals performed in the parish in which they resided, i.e., for the right of citizens to seek formal attachment to a priest other than the priest of the parish of their residence; see Den Danske Stats-Kirke upartisk betragtet [The Danish State Church, Viewed without Partisanship] (Copenhagen, 1834). From 1834, Grundtvig was permitted to preach at evensong at Frederik’s Church (today, Christian’s Church) in Christianshavn, and on May 28, 1839, he was appointed priest of Vartov Hospital Church (see map 2, A2), where he remained until his death. the catastrophe of 1848, when his entire system went down the drain] Kierkegaard is referring to the fall of absolutism and the introduction of popular sovereignty in 1848, which led, among other things, to a new balance of power between Church and state, in which, e.g., the head of the Danish Church, the highly esteemed Bishop Mynster, was now subjected to a politically chosen minister. Overall, it was political considerations and points of view that seemed to gain ground, and Kierkegaard criticized the conservative Bishop Mynster for having failed to oppose this development, and for being more or less willing to go with the current. The days in which Bishop Mynster was the king’s supreme counselor were over. Now he adapted himself to the new situation instead of fighting against the current as Kierkegaard demanded. ― 1848: Variant: first written “185”. counterproof]  Verification of a calculation or the like, e.g., by doing the arithmetic in reverse order. always a mystifying confusion . . . the infinite] Variant: written vertically along the edge of the paper. Prof. Hiorth has chosen as his motto Mynster’s phrase “Without Reservations and Entirely”― and, satirically enough, he has placed Mynster’s name under it] Peder Hjort (1793–1871), Danish

13

16 20

22

Toward the Battle with the Church philosopher, critic, linguist; from 1822, lecturer in German at Sorø Akademi; at the closing of the academy in 1849, he was dismissed with pension and given the title of professor. The reference is to Hjort’s periodical Numererte Blade om Danmarks politiske Tilstande [Numbered Tracts on the Political Situation in Denmark], ed. Severus, nos. 1–26, April 15–July 15, 1854, where the following heading appears: “Motto: Entirely and without Reservations. / J. P. Mynster.” The tracts were collected under the common title page Numererte Blade. Især om den rette Forstaaelse af Grundlovens Gyldighed og Forbeholdets Betydning. Et politisk Tidsskrift [Numbered Tracts, Relating Especially to the Validity of the Constitution and the Significance of the Stipulated Reservation: A Political Journal] by P. Hjort (Copenhagen, 1854). A preface, dated “in August,” and signed by P. Hjort, makes it clear that he is the author of the tracts. See NB 32:29 (October–November 1854) in KJN 10, 136. ― Mynster’s: → 303,14. 307

27 28 29 32

308

2 5

Mynster] → 303,14. royal officials] → 302,9. persons of rank] → 306,5. (when Martensen became court preacher) . . . seriousness with respect to proclaiming Xnty] See NB18:12 (1850) in KJN 7, 264–265 and The Moment, no. 10 (M, 329–331; SKS 13, 393–395). With the assistance of Bishop Mynster, H. L. Martensen (→ 303,30) was appointed court preacher on May 16, 1845. For these duties, Martensen received 400 rix-dollars (→ 322,2) annually in addition to his ordinary annual professorial salary of 1,400 rix-dollars; see Fortegnelse over de Embedsmænd, der have en aarlig Gage af 600 Rbdlr. eller derover [List of Officials with an Annual Emolument of 600 Rix-dollars or More] (Copenhagen, 1851), p. 33. Bishop Mynster] → 303,14. I have provided cover for him in the literature (the System―Martensen)] Refers to the satire Kierkegaard directed at speculative theology in his pseudonymous writings, e.g., Prefaces, in which Mynster is put forth as a counterweight (see P, 31–34; SKS 4, 493–496), and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, which includes a continuing

•

P a p e r 471–473 1854 •

645

critique of Martensen (→ 303,30), though without mentioning him by name. combatted his enemies (Grundtvig, Rudelbach)] Refers in particular to the satire directed at N.F.S. Grundtvig (→ 304,3) in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (CUP, 34–46; SKS 7, 41–52) and to the article against A. G. Rudelbach (→ 345,25), “Occasioned by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach” in Fædrelandet, no. 26, January 31, 1851. taken upon myself problems he should have solved (The Corsair)] i.e., the task of opposing the ridicule that Corsaren directed at people. Under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, Kierkegaard published the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet, no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (see COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84), in which he begged that he not be praised, but rather that he might “soon appear in Corsaren.” Corsaren responded by publishing a series of satirical articles on, allusions to, and caricatures of Kierkegaard (see KJN 4, 453–456), which led to Kierkegaard’s being jeered at and mocked in the streets. No one publicly supported Kierkegaard in the conflict and―to Kierkegaard’s continually increasing resentment―Goldschmidt never apologized for the paper’s attack. transformed the recognition granted my work as an author into a triumph for him] Several times during his activity as an author, Kierkegaard planned to dedicate a book or his entire literary production to Bishop Mynster, but he did not do so. Nonetheless, in the last book he published, For Self-Examination, Recommended to the Present Age (1851), he did do so in indirect fashion: “Let me precisely state where I stand, so to speak. There is among us a highly revered old gentleman, the highest prelate of this Church. That which he, his ‘preaching,’ has wanted is just what I want, only with a stronger emphasis, something based on the difference of my personality and something that the difference in the times requires” (FSE, 20–21; SKS 13, 49). viewed as an exaggeration] Presumably, a reference to Bishop Mynster’s judgment upon Kierkegaard. See, e.g., NB10:14 (1849): “What R. Nielsen

8

9

11

14

646

19

20 22

24

25

Toward the Battle with the Church

told me is also true: that, in a way, Bishop Mynster considered me to be an exaggeration―in a time of peace. But now he thinks I’m a better fit” (KJN 5, 272). See also the later, unpublished articles “Is It True That I Am, from a Christian Point of View, ‘An Exaggeration,’ or Isn’t It Really Something Entirely Different: From a Christian Point of View, the Truth?” from March 1854 (Pap. XI 3 B 22), and “Settling of Accounts: Bishop Mynster Is Christian Wisdom; I (Søren Kierkegaard) Am an Odd Exaggeration” from 1854 (Pap. XI 3 B 30). the many years I lived with him] In his writings, Kierkegaard, who was confirmed by Mynster and who claimed to have listened to all his sermons except his last one (see NB 28:56 in KJN 9, 264–266), used Mynster as a fixed point of navigation. Starting in 1846, Kierkegaard regularly had conversations with the bishop, which he frequently summarized in his journals. He mentions Mynster at many points in his journals as well as in unpublished articles, e.g., “Concerning My Relationship to Bishop Mynster” from 1852 (Pap. X 6 B 15) and “Just a Few Words concerning My Relationship with Bishop Mynster” from 1855 (Pap. XI 3 B 99–100). he is dead] Bishop J. P. Mynster died on January 30, 1854. who through all those many years . . . officially dissociated himself from me] See, e.g., NB18:26 (1850): “Privately, you [Mynster] would say to me (and it was the first time I spoke with you, that is, after the publication of Concluding Postscript, which is now to be labeled an error) that we were ‘complements of one another’; privately, you would say (when R. N.’s Faith of the Gospels was published) ‘of course, Mag. K., we all acknowledge that we have been influenced by you’―but publicly, no, not one word; publicly Martensen was to be put on display, even after his impudent preface” (KJN 7, 271). made Martensen his protégé] For example, Bishop J. P. Mynster saw to it that H. L. Martensen (→ 303,30) was appointed court preacher in 1845. finally, even Goldschmidt] → 303,21.

•

P a p e r 473–474 1854 •

obligated by oath to the N.T. and ordained] Refers to the oath taken by a priest upon ordination in the Danish State Church: “Juramentum, qvod in timore Domini præstabunt, qvi muneri Ecclesiastico initiabuntur” (“The oath that, in fear of the Lord, is to be sworn by those who are to be dedicated to an ecclesiastical office”), in Dannemarkes og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 379–380: “I, N. N., do swear and testify in holy awe before the countenance of God . . . that I will, with the greatest care, see to it that the divine teachings that are contained in the prophetic and apostolic writings and in the symbolic books of the Danish Church will be preached to the congregation pure and unsullied; that the sacraments will be administered properly and devoutly, in accordance with the manner prescribed by Christ; that the Church’s admonition will be carefully pronounced and catechetical instruction constantly maintained; that the universally accepted rituals of the Church will be observed; and that nothing that conflicts with Church regulations will be permitted.” (The term “apostolic writings” refers to the New Testament.) Furthermore, when being ordained by the bishop, priests were also exhorted to “undertake, in all things, to be good examples to those with whom they associate, in love, in spirit, in faith, in chastity, and all Christian virtues” (p. 369). makes a career] In provincial towns, citizens were required to pay the priest a given amount of money called “priest money,” while in rural areas, farmers were required to donate a “tithe,” a certain percentage of their agricultural produce, often grain. The amount was determined by the Ministry of Church and Education. On holy days, members of the congregation could also pay their priest a voluntary sum of money called an “offering.” Priests had a certain amount of additional income called “perquisites,” i.e., fees for performing clerical acts such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. In addition to this, priests in provincial towns were granted a rent subsidy, while priests in rural areas had income from the lands and

28

35

308

Toward the Battle with the Church

37

309

2

9

12

16 27

farms attached to their call. In general, priests in Copenhagen had greater income than those in the provinces, but there was much variation from parish to parish. There was also the possibility of “advancement,” i.e., preferment, by which a priest, in accordance with seniority, could be called to a position with a higher income; see J. D. Smith, “Om Præsters Avancement, personelle Kapellaner entledige Præsters Pensionering” [On Priests’ Preferment, Curates and Pensioning of Discharged Priests], in Ugeskrift for den evangeliske Kirke i Danmark [Weekly for the Evangelical Church in Denmark], no. 40, September 14, 1855, vol. 6, pp. 145–152. A full survey can be found in Bloch Suhr, Kaldslexicon (→ 304,8). aspect] Variant: preceding this, the word “entire” has been deleted. the passages concerning] Variant: changed from “the passages, especially in the gospels, concerning”. “Beware of those who go about in long robes, who sit in the places of honor at the table during the Eucharist] Cited freely from Lk 20:46. See the second part of the newspaper article, dated Ascension Day, i.e., May 25, 1854, “Is This the Christian Worship of God, or Is It Making a Fool of God?,” in Fædrelandet, no. 68, March 21, 1855, in M, 30–32; SKS 14, 155. who are called guides and rabbis] See Jesus’ warning against the scribes and the Pharisees in Mt 23:1–10. the public worship of God . . . making a fool of God] → 306,19. what I have repeated again and again: [“]I am without authority, only a poet”] See, e.g., “On My Work as an Author,” where Kierkegaard writes: “ ‘Without authority’ to make aware of the religious, the essentially Christian, is the category for my whole work as an author. From the very beginning I have enjoined and repeated unchanged that I was ‘without authority’ ” (PV, 12; SKS 13, 19). See also “My Position as a Religious Author in ‘Christendom’ and My Tactics,” an “Appendix” to On My Work as an Author (1851), where Kierkegaard writes: “Yes, if I were a strong ethical-religious character―alas, instead of being

•

P a p e r 474 1854 •

647

hardly anything but a poet―and therefore justified and duty-bound in proceeding more rigorously on behalf of the truth, it would no doubt be possible that I would only encounter opposition instead of finding access to my contemporaries” (OMWA, 18; SKS 13, 25). See also the “Preface” to Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays (1851), where Kierkegaard writes: “An authorship that began with Either/Or and advanced step by step seeks here its decisive place of rest, at the foot of the altar, where the author, personally most aware of his own imperfection and guilt, certainly does not call himself a truth-witness but only a singular kind of poet and thinker who, without authority, has had nothing new to bring but ‘has wanted once again to read through, if possible in a more inward way, the original text of individual human existence-relationships, the old familiar text handed down from the fathers’― (see my postscript to Concluding Postscript)” (WA, 165; SKS 12, 281). See also the first essay in For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age (1851): “I have worked for this restlessness oriented toward inward deepening. But ‘without authority.’ Instead of conceitedly making myself out to be a witness to the truth and causing others rashly to want to be the same, I am an unauthorized poet who influences by means of the ideals” (FSE, 21; SKS 13, 50). The now-deceased Bishop M.] i.e., Bishop J. P. Mynster (→ 303,14). Prof. M[artensen], furthermore, I’ve heard him say it myself] It is not known which statement by H. L. Martensen (→ 303,30), Kierkegaard is referring to. Despite this, Prof. M[artensen], in his sermon . . . [“]the holy chain . . . to our own times[”]] → 303,30. playing at Christianity] 311,1. The new bishop] i.e., H. L. Martensen (→ 303,30). become a person of rank] → 306,5. the passages about self-denial, renunciation] See Lk 14:33; see also 1 Jn 2:15–16. about possessing nothing] See, e.g., Mt 19:21. “You have received without payment, give without payment,”] Cited from Mt 10:8.

34 38

39

4

310

5 3

308m

1

309m

2 3

648 5

12

17 18

19

21

Toward the Battle with the Church

about suffering for the teaching . . . persecuted etc. etc.] See, e.g., Mt 10:17–18; see also Mt 10:22, 24:9; Jn 15:20, 16:1–4. ( . . . what is taught)] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. velvet] In Kierkegaard’s day, the vestments of the various ranks of the clergy were specified. Very prominent theologians and clerics were to wear velvet; see the ordinance of March 13, 1683, chap. 1, §5, concerning dress of the clergy: “The bishop of Zealand and royal confessor are to wear a black, high-collared velvet gown, velvet cap and bonnet, while other bishops are to wear black silk gowns with velvet collars and also black velvet caps and bonnets. Doctors of theology are to wear velvet bonnets and collars with velvet gowns, together with silk cloaks.” A journal entry (Paper 515, in the present volume) distinguishes between deans in silk and bishops in velvet. stars and ribbons] → 338,12. the large incomes]  → 308,35. The bishopric of Zealand originally had an income reckoned in tithes, ca. 5,400 barrels of grain (probably barley, which usually had a market price of more than three rix-dollars [→ 322,2] per barrel), which was changed as of April 1, 1821, so that the state replaced the income of ca. 3,500 barrels of grain with a fixed cash amount of 4,000 rix-dollars plus an additional 800 rix-dollars for office expenses. This arrangement was voluntary, however, so that the bishop could choose the value of the grain if it was higher than the fixed amount (which it usually was), but as of February 21, 1850, Mynster renounced this right, thus giving up a handsome annual sum. Mynster’s income, however, had been considerably higher than that of all other public officials (→ 336,39). banquets] Variant: first written “banquets, the head of the table at”. There are many accounts of Mynster holding sumptuous dinners at which, e.g., genuine turtle meat could be served. the reckoning and judgment] A reference to Judgment Day, when all human beings must give an accounting before God, and God closes the accounts; see Mt 12:36, 25:31–46; Rom 9:28; 1 Pet 4:5. See also Mt 25:31–46 on the judgment of the world.

•

P a p e r 474–476 1854 •

the One who was crucified, mocked, and spat upon] Reference to Lk 18:32; see also Lk 22:63, 65; Mt 27:29, 31, 39; Mk 14:65, 15:19.

22

flesh and blood] An idiomatic designation of human beings as mortals; occurs six times in the NT. See, e.g., Gal 1:16, 1 Cor 15:50, Mt 16:17, and Eph 6:12. what we call Christianity . . . both in the one sense and in the other sense] i.e., understood as being both about the way in which it is preached and about what it is that is preached. the official sort] Variant: following this, the words “in this country” have been deleted.

13

Playing at Xnty] In “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?” (see M, 3–8; SKS 14, 123–126; probably written in February 1854), the first of the articles in his attack on the Church, Kierkegaard presents the theme that Christian worship is only a game and without seriousness, and this remained a theme during the attack; see, e.g., M, 32, 54–55; SKS 14, 156, 193. The person who proclaims is thus―a government official] → 302,9. on behalf of his official position] Or in the execution of the duties of his office. The expression is probably an allusion to the priest’s words during confession (which in Kierkegaard’s day was an absolute prerequisite for participating in the Eucharist): “Inasmuch as you heartily repent and regret your sins and, in continuing faith, take refuge in God’s mercy in Jesus Christ, also promising, with the grace of God, to endeavor to lead a better and more moral life hereafter, then, on God’s behalf and on behalf of my office, in accordance with the power God himself has given me from above, to forgive sins on earth, I promise you all the forgiveness of your sins, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!” Dannemarks og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 146–147. the teaching is not proclaimed on the street] Allusion to Lk 10:10 and 13:26. the state pays 1000 priests] → 302,9.

1

310

20

27

311

23 25

30 6

312

Toward the Battle with the Church 312m

1

6

312

14 9

313

1 3 5 21

314

2

5 6

the quiet hours] An expression often used by J. P. Mynster (→ 303,14) with respect both to private devotions and to church services. See, e.g., Betragtninger over de christelige Troeslærdomme [Observations on the Doctrines of the Christian Faith], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1833]; ASKB 254–255), vol. 1, p. 240; vol. 2, pp. 298, 299, 301, 306; Prædikener paa alle Søn- og Hellig-Dage i Aaret [Sermons on Every Sunday and Holy Day of the Year], 2 vols., 3rd ed. (Copenhagen, 1837 [1823]; ASKB 229–230 and 2191), vol. 1, pp. 8, 38, 215, 384; Prædikener holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231), p. 63; Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232), pp. 10, 11, 14; Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1849 og 1850 [Sermons Given in the Years 1849 and 1850] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 233), pp. 204, 216; and Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1852 og 1853 [Sermons Given in the Years 1852 and 1853], ed. F. J. Mynster (Copenhagen, 1855), pp. 43, 103. after the curtain comes down, an actor were to] Variant: following this, the words “draw his sword” have been deleted. Bishop Mynster] → 303,14. Thus must . . . his entire life.] Variant: written partly in the main text column. Bishop M.] i.e., Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14). enjoying] Variant: changed from “wanting to enjoy”. the simpler] Variant: preceding this, the word “merely” has been deleted. brilliantly] Variant: changed from “enormously”. the discourse, but] Variant: preceding “but”, the phrase “from a Christian point of view, confusing” have been deleted. “the quiet hours”] → 312m,1. daringly ventured] Presumably, an allusion to the Danish expression “Dristig vovet er halv vundet” (“daringly ventured, half won”), which was used by J. L. Heiberg as the title of a comedy in 1817. The expression is listed as nos. 383 and 2941 in N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danske Ordsprog og

•

P a p e r 476–481 1854 •

649

Mundheld [Danish Sayings and Adages] (Copenhagen, 1845; ASKB 1549), pp. 15 and 112. personal life] Variant: “personal” has been added. established a yawning gulf] Allusion to Lk 16:20–26. every situation,] Variant: added.

8 8 11

They forbid “Cyprianus” and other similar writings . . . conjure up spirits] Cyprianus was the designation for a broader array of superstitious folk books, often handwritten, which contained magic formulas and the like for the conjuring and controlling not only of evil spirits, but also of the devil himself. In Roman Catholic countries, Cyprianus and similar writings had been forbidden by the pope since the Middle Ages. According to Christian V’s Danske Lov [Christian V’s Danish Law] (1683), bk. 2, chap. 21, it had been forbidden to publish works of this sort, and bk. 6, chap. 1 prescribed the most gruesome death penalty for those who indulged in sorcery. they distribute the New Testament on the grandest scale . . . into everyone’s hands] Unlike the Catholic Church, where the laity was not to have access to the Bible, the Protestant Church saw it as its task to disseminate the Bible among the the population. In the 18th century, societies for the dissemination of the Bible were organized in Protestant countries, and the beginning of the 19th century saw the establishment of the major Bible societies, including, e.g., the Danish Bible Society (1814), which had the goal of publishing and distributing the Bible. ships’ ballast, cheaper than sand] Sandbags were commonly used as ships’ ballast so that an unloaded vessel could ride deep enough in the water to be able to maneuver properly. and zeal] Variant: first written “in order to”.

30

too great an effect.] Variant: first written “too great an effect―”.

17

315

thousands of priests] → 302,9. thousands; and] Variant: changed from “thousands: how reliable. And” every one of these priests is bound by an oath] → 308,28.

20

316

314

32

5

315

8

20 21

650 22

27

317

5

317

16

19

21 22

25

25 30

34

317m

1

4 5

8

Toward the Battle with the Church

reliability! But take a closer look, assume] Variant: preceding “assume”, the words “assume that every single one of these priests” have been deleted. of these thousands] Variant: added. making a fool of God] → 306,19. It is this I want . . . awakening] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. Or is it Christianity . . . they have been baptized] Probably a reference to Grundtvig and his adherents, for whom baptism played an absolutely central role in Christian life. Everyone (other than Jews) in fact had an obligation to let their children be baptized. Compulsory baptism was abolished by a law of March 4, 1857. ― Or is: Variant: changed from “Or”. came in order to abolish] Variant: added. abolish,c] Variant: The superscript “c” indicating a marginal note was deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. circumcised, Abraham’s children] Jews viewed circumcision as a sign of God’s pact with Abraham; see Gen 17 and Lev 12:3; see also Rom 2:25–3:2 and 4:11. (objectively?)] Variant: first written “would not”. uses a Samaritan . . . as praiseworthy in comparison with the Jew] Reference to Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk 10:30–35. Yes, if it was only a matter . . . But this is] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. woe to this disgusting deceit . . . state of affairs; and] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. was the sort of reassur] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. (so he therefore . . . to abolish it)] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. Is it Christianity . . . remain silent concerning the judgment?] Variant: written vertically along the edge of the paper. ― the judgment: → 309m,21.

•

P a p e r 481–486 1854 •

Christianity Simply Does Not Exist] Kierkegaard’s point, that Christianity simply does not exist, is first properly expressed in Practice in Christianity (1850), written in 1848–1849, where, e.g., he states: “Christendom has abolished Christianity without really knowing it itself. As a result, if something is to be done, one must attempt again to introduce Christianity into Christendom,” or “Christianity has been quite literally dethroned in Christendom; but if this is so, then it has also been abolished” (PC, 36 and 227; SKS 12, 49 and 221). This assertion subsequently became a leitmotif in Kierkegaard’s attack on the Church. the statement: [“]Everything is true[”]] The statement is attributed to the Sophist Protagoras, especially as he is presented by Aristotle (in bk. 4, chap. 4 of the Metaphysics [1007b 19ff.]). See  On the Concept of Irony, CI, 205; SKS 1, 250. In the manuscript of “Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est” (1842–1843), however, Kierkegaard uses the statement with a broader intent, as he refers to Plato’s opposition to the statement, in his dialogue Sophist, to Aristotle’s presentation of Heraclitus in his Metaphysics, and to Friedrich Schleiermacher’s notion of feeling in Der christliche Glaube [The Christian Faith] (see. Pap. IV B 1, p. 145).

1

to come to know] Variant: “to know” has been added.

27

318

The apostle speaks of faith’s obedience] See Rom 1:5; see also Rom 16:26. the Alexandrians] The theological tendency founded on the model of various philosophical schools in the 2nd century in Alexandria, where the first Christian scholarship took form under the influence of Platonic and Gnostic philosophy. One of the most influential representatives of the Alexandrian School was Origen (185–ca. 254), and another was Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150– 215); see F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographieen [The Church of Christ and Its Witnesses, or the History of the Church in Biographies], 7 vols., numbered 1.1–1.4 and 2.1–2.3 (Zurich, 1842–1855;

3

320

318

5

6

Toward the Battle with the Church

6

320

13 16 18

28 34

321

2

321

3 4 4

ASKB 173–177; abbreviated hereafter as Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen); this does not include two additional volumes published after Kierkegaard’s death, namely, vols. 2.4 and 2.5 (Zurich, 1856– 1858), vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 76–203. Then Augustine has also confused it . . . of his concept of “faith.”] Kierkegaard treats Augustine’s Greek concept of faith in detail in NB30:57 (1854) in KJN 9, 437–438; see also the explanatory notes to that entry. ― Augustine: → 349,4. to die away] → 322,14. the crisis] The decisive reversal, the turning point. the natural hum. being] The merely earthly, i.e., sensual and prudential but not spiritual being. See 1 Cor 2:14, which reads, in the NRSV: “Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The King James version, however, is closer to Kierkegaard’s Danish version: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Danish translation, “det naturlige Menneske” (“the natural human being”) occurs in a Danish version of Luther’s translation of the Bible, where Luther uses the German equivalent, “der natürliche Mensch.” The Danish translation of the New Testament from 1819, which was the authorized version in Kierkegaard’s day, has “det sandselige Menneske” (“the sensate human being”). blessed the person who is not offended!] Refers to Mt 11:6. the thousands of priests] → 302,9. that we should at least admit this] → 303,13. Turn the Expression Around!] Variant: “Expression” has been changed from “Situation”. something like] Variant: added. remark in a classical author: . . . [“]That man is not an axman.[”]] The reference is to the Greek philosopher Epictetus (ca. 55–135), whose lectures

•

P a p e r 486–490 1854 •

651

on moral questions were written down by his pupil, the historian Arrian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus, ca. 86–160) as the Discourses, four of which survive, along with an Enchiridion (i.e., a manual or handbook) that summarizes Epictetus’s most important teachings. In bk. 4, chap. 8, Epictetus says that one does not become a philosopher merely by resembling a philosopher, but only by thinking and acting like a philosopher: “When someone sees a fellow hewing clumsily with an axe, he does not say, ‘What’s the use of carpentry? See the bad work the carpenters do!’ but quite the contrary, he says, ‘This fellow is no carpenter, for he hews clumsily with the axe.’ ” English translation from Epictetus, The Discourses as Reported by Arrian, the Manual, and Fragments, trans. W. A. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols. (London: Heinemann, 1926–1928), vol. 2, p. 379. See Kierkegaard’s German translation, Arrians Unterredungen Epiktets mit seinen Schülern. Übersetzt und mit historisch-philosophischen Anmerkungen und einer kurzen Darstellung der Epiktetischen Philosophie begleitet von J. M. Schultz [Arrian’s Conversations of Epictetus with His Disciples: Translated and Accompanied with Historical and Philosophical Notes and a Brief Presentation of the Philosophy of Epictetus, by J. M. Schultz], 2 vols. (Altona, 1801–1803; ASKB 1045), vol. 2, p. 201. ― axman.: Variant: first written “axman, now it looks”. those 12 apostles] Jesus’ twelve apostles are listed in Mt 10:2–4 and Lk 6:13–16. the hum. race] Variant: preceding this, the word “not” has been deleted. humility, self-effacement] → 352,19.

12

(Learned Scholarship Is Evil)] Variant: added. 100,000 rix-dollars] According to a law of July 31, 1818, passed in the wake of the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813, the rix-dollar was the basic unit of currency. The rix-dollar was divided into six marks, each of which was further divided into sixteen shillings; thus there were ninety-six shillings in a rix-dollar. A pair of shoes cost about three rix-dollars, and a one-pound loaf of rye bread (the staple of the day) cost between two

30

321

2

322

321

25 29

652

6 13 14

323

1 3 8 21 21 24

324

1

Toward the Battle with the Church

and four shillings. A judge earned 1,200–1,800 rix-dollars a year; a mid-level civil servant earned 400–500 rix-dollars a year; a qualified artisan would receive 200 rix-dollars a year, plus free food and lodging from his master; a maidservant received at most 30 rix-dollars in addition to room and board. of God in Heaven] Variant: first written “God’s H”. about the narrow way] → 355,10. about dying away] A central idea in Paul is that, in Christ, a human being has died to the world; see Rom 6:2; see also 1 Pet 2:24 and Col 2:20. In mysticism and pietism, this notion was made more stringent, so that human life is a daily dying-away, in self-denial, from sin, from temporality, from finitude, and from the world. Thus the emphasis was shifted from a person dying to sin through Christ to include a person dying to sin through faith. Flesh and Blood] → 310,13. duty toward God] → 324,1. the battle of the spirit with flesh and blood] See, e.g., Gal 5:17. sense] Variant: added. die away] → 322,14. “Rehabilitation des Fleisches”] At the time, the expression referred to an objective of the Young Germany movement (i.e., authors such as Heinrich Heine, Heinrich Laube, Ludwig Börne, and Karl Gutzkow), which opposed narrow idealism and demanded liberation from religious, political, and moral restrictions. Here, the reference could be more specifically to Friedrich Schlegel’s shocking novel Lucinde (1799, 2nd ed. 1835), which Kierkegaard mentions in The Concept of Irony (1841), e.g.: “Friedrich Schlegel’s celebrated novel Lucinde, the gospel of Young Germany, and the system for its Rehabilitation des Fleisches” (CI, 286; SKS 1, 321). “the duty toward God,”] See chap. 6, “Om Troens Frugter i et helligt Levnet” [On the Fruits of Faith in a Holy Life], sec. A, “Om Pligterne imod Gud” [On the Duties toward God], in Lærebog i den Evangelisk-christelige Religion, indrettet til Brug

•

P a p e r 490–494 1854 •

i de danske Skoler [A Primer for the Evangelical Christian Religion, Prepared for Use in Danish Schools] (Copenhagen, 1824 [1791]; ASKB 183; abbreviated hereafter as Balles Lærebog), pp. 58–69. The book differentiates between duties toward God, toward oneself, and toward one’s neighbor. State Church―People’s Church] In the wake of the revolutionary events of 1848 and 1849, there was an extensive debate at the time concerning the relationship between state and Church, in which clarification was sought regarding the concepts of “State Church,” then associated with the absolute monarchy, and “People’s Church,” which was first given official status in the constitution of June 5, 1849; see § 3: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Danish People’s Church and as such is supported by the state” (a statement that can be read both descriptively and prescriptively) in Danmarks Riges Grundlov. Valgloven. Bestemmelser angaaende Forretningsordenen i begge Thingene [Constitution of the Danish State: Electoral Law; Provisions regarding the Order of Business in Both Houses of Parliament] (Copenhagen, 1850), p. 6. There were those who preferred to see unity of state and Church, though in such a way that the Church was granted genuine self-rule; see, e.g., H. L. Martensen, Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Constitution of the Danish People’s Church] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 655). And there were those who preferred to see the separation of the Church and state; see, e.g., A. G. Rudelbach, Om Begrebet Folkekirke. En historisk-kirkeretlig Betænkning betræffende den danske evangelisk-lutherske Kirkes fremtidige Stilling og Forhold til Staten, henvendt til den nu forsamlede Rigsdag [On the Concept of a People’s Church: A Deliberation, Addressed to the Parliament Now Assembled, concerning History and Canon Law as They Bear on the Future Position of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Its Relation to the State] (Copenhagen, 1854).

7

324

the last section of the younger Fichte’s Ethics . . . recommend celibacy] Kierkegaard is referring to § 97, pt. 5 in I. H. Fichte, System der Ethik

18

324

Toward the Battle with the Church [System of Ethics], pt. 2, sec. 2 (Leipzig, 1853; ASKB 504), pp. 101–105, where the problem of overpopulation, which had been raised by T. R. Malthus, is discussed. Neither Malthus nor the other political economists (J.C.L. de Sismondi, P. Rossi, J. P. Proudhon) has solved the problem: “M. A. Ott, on the other hand, has correctly seen that the decision concerning this can only be the province of the will. [The reference is to M. A. Ott,  Traité d’économie politique coordonnées au point de vue de progress [Treatise on Political Economy from the Point of View of Progress] (Paris, 1851), pp. 66–67]. However, the final, true, and just solution to the problem can scarcely lie there. If a portion of the human race dedicates itself to celibacy and by so doing must fail to participate in the profoundly moral effects of family life, this would then be such a bitter injustice that the solution to the problem cannot be found by going in this direction, even if the celibacy were voluntary. Rather, the most essential condition of a concept of justice appropriate to the political sphere remains this: that every person of age who is entitled to ‘full personhood,’ is granted the possibility of starting a family” (pp. 101–102). ― the younger Fichte’s: i.e., Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796– 1879), German philosopher, son of the philosopher J. G. Fichte and therefore commonly referred to as “Fichte the younger”; from 1836, extraordinary professor and from 1840, ordinary professor of philosophy at Bonn; from 1842 to 1863, professor at Tübingen. Kierkegaard owned a number of his works (see ASKB 501–511 and 877–911). 325

21

one of Grimm’s fairy tales . . . learn how to shudder] Refers to “Märchen von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen” [The Fairy Tale about Someone Who Went Out into the World in Order to Learn How to Shudder], no. 4 in Kinderund Haus-Märchen [Fairy Tales], ed. J.L.K. and W. K. Grimm, 3 vols., 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1819–22 [1812]; ASKB 1425–1427), vol. 1, pp. 14–25. The tale relates the story of a young man whose greatest wish is to learn how to shudder. When his father finds him to be quite impossible, he gives him some money so that he can go out into the world in order to get his wish fulfilled. Even though the

•

P a p e r 494–498 1854 •

653

young man has many ghastly experiences, none of them can make him shudder. By remaining in an enchanted castle for three nights without shuddering, he dissolves the spell upon it. As a prize, he wins the princess, but he continually complains that nothing can cause him to shudder. One night, the princess throws the quilt off her husband and pours cold water and wriggling fish on him; then he awakens and cries: “Oh, what is this that causes me to shudder, what is this that causes me to shudder! Dear wife! Yes, now I know what it is to shudder.” written by thousands] Variant: first written, instead of “thousands”, “M”. the learned question about whether the laity ought to be denied the blood of Xt in the Eucharist] See NB28:59 (1854) in KJN 9, 268–269. Starting in the 12th century, withholding the wine from the laity became increasingly widespread in the Roman Catholic Church; the wine was reserved for the priest. See H.E.F. Guerike, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte [Handbook of Church History], 2 vols. with continuous pagination, 3rd ed. (Halle, 1838 [1833]; ASKB 158–159), vol. 1, pp. 545–546. This usage was asserted at the Council of Constance in 1414 and confirmed at the Councils of Trent in the years 1545–1547, 1551–1552, and 1562–1563. the judgment] → 309m,21. as people say, one could feel where the fire is by touching the wall] Other instances of this saying have not been located. Then a bishop . . . replied . . . be denied the Lord’s blood!] Refers to the section on Bishop Cyprian in F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 320,6), vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 375–435; Böhringer cites Cyprian: “those whom we surely know are against the enemy, we must protect with the body and blood of Christ by arming them with the food of the Lord; for if, in confessing the name, we require them to shed their blood, can we deny them the blood of that name?” (p. 424). See KJN 9, 268–269. the Law] A term relating to the Pauline-Lutheran distinction between Law and Gospel, in which the Law judges human beings (see, e.g., Rom 7)

32 1

326

9 18

22

31

326

654

38

327

1 10 13

328

328

4

31 37 38

329

31 38

329m

1

330

21 23

331

4 11

Toward the Battle with the Church

and disciplines us into seeking Christ (see also Gal 3:23–24), while the Gospel is the joyful message that “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). 100,000 rix-dollars] → 322,2. a debt] Variant: “a” has been changed from “the”. 4 shillings] i.e., a very small amount of money (→ 322,2). make it clear] Variant: preceding “clear”, the word “very” has been deleted. his continual collisions with the Sabbath] Refers to the points in the NT where Jesus replies to the Pharisees, who reproach him for healing on the Sabbath, which was a day of rest for the Jews; see Mt 12.1–14; Mk 2:23–28; Lk 13:10–17, 14:1–6; Jn 5:10–18, 7:23, 9:13–17. on behalf of his office] → 311,25. Bishop M[ynster]] → 303,14. Bishop Brammer (in . . . Evangelisk Kirketidende) . . . confess Xt before the world] → 356,26. ― Evangelisk Kirketidende: Evangelical Church Times. Xnty does not want you to marry] See, e.g., 1 Cor 7:8–9. dance hall] A humorous or disdainful reference to locales and pubs that hosted dancing. An example] Variant: first written, instead of “An”, “Take”. Sigh.] Variant: preceding this, the word “A” has been deleted. being―i.e., that we call ourselves] Variant: changed from “call ourselves”. Because the priest is paid and has a regular salary] → 302,9. Socratic ignorance] In the conversations found in Plato’s dialogues, Socrates often mentions his ignorance; see, e.g., Apology (21a–23b), where he explains that the oracle at Delphi had indeed denied that anyone was wiser than he, for he knew that he knew nothing, unlike the many who imagine that they know something. See Platonis opera quae extant [Surviving Works of Plato], ed. Fr. Ast, 11

•

P a p e r 498–512 1854 •

vols. (Leipzig, 1819–1832; ASKB 1144–1154), vol. 8 (1825), pp. 108–113; see also Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), pp. 7–9. Kierkegaard discusses Socrates’ ignorance in On the Concept of Irony (CI, 169–176; SKS 1, 217–223). Christ says, [“]Believe in me, if only you believe in me you will be saved[”]] Presumably, an allusion to the beginning of Jesus’ farewell to his disciples in Jn 14:1; see also Jn 3:17–18.

22

331

―also with respect to Christian matters―] Variant: added.

33

331

Xt commands imitation] See, e.g. Mt 10:38. his life related to a judgment in the hereafter] → 309m,21. imitate Xt] → 333,1.

1

333

the matter concerning an eternal salvation and eternal perdition] → 353,1. we will all be saved] → 353,1.

20

Socrates, too, feared most of all being in error] A reference to Plato’s dialogue Cratylus (428d), where Socrates says: “Excellent Cratylus, I have long been wondering at my own wisdom. I cannot trust myself. And I think that I ought to stop and ask myself, What am I saying? For there is nothing worse than self-deception―when the deceiver is always at home and always with you―it is quite terrible” (Plato, The Collected Dialogues, p. 462). See JJ:131 in KJN 2, 169.

2

334

“in an official capacity”] → 311,25.

6

334

nil beatum nisi quietum, Epicurus] This aphorism is found with slightly different wording― Nisi quietum autem, nil beatum est―in bk. 1, chap. 20, l. 52, of De natura deorum [On the Nature of the Gods] by the Roman politician, jurist, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 b.c.), where it is used as a summary of Epicurus’s position without being attributed directly to him. See M. Tullii Ciceronis opera omnia [Complete Works

12

334

1 6

333

25

Toward the Battle with the Church

15

334

20

a teacher of Xnty who is obligated by an oath upon the N.T.] → 308,28.

27

a power that also] Variant: “also” has been added. hinder matters] Variant: preceding this, “forcibily” has been deleted. in order to prevent what would happen] Variant: changed from “precisely because the most dangerous thing would be if they opposed”. as is said about the bit of meat in the comedy . . . not a scrap of fat on it] Refers to act 2, sc. 12 of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Barselstuen [The Delivery Room] (1724), where the woman giving birth asks Gedske Klokkers about the situation at the butcher shop, because her serving maid had been unable to get hold of a proper piece of meat, and Gedske answers: “She’s right, ma’am! Things have never been as damnable as they are right now―they dare to ask 5 shillings for a pound of beef, and one doesn’t see the least speck of fat on it, and the soup was so bad that I had to make up for it by adding a piece of pork. (She weeps again.)” Den Danske Skue-Plads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 2; the volumes are undated and unpaginated. the priests wear cloth . . . the deans wear silk . . . the bishops―in velvet] → 309m,17. with the thousands in salary] According to Bloch Suhr, Kaldslexicon (→ 304,8), the group of Denmark’s most lucrative calls was estimated to have annual incomes between 1,980 and 4,000 rix-dollars (→ 322,2). The incomes of all bishops, which are included neither in Bloch Suhr nor in

30 36

336

of Cicero], ed. J. A. Ernesti, 6 vols., 2nd ed. (Halle, 1757 [1756]; ASKB 1224–1229); vol. 4, p. 485. For a standard English translation, see Cicero, De natura deorum, trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (London: Heinemann, 1933): “but repose is an essential condition of happiness” (p. 53). ― Epicurus: Epicurus (341–270 b.c.), Greek philosopher who founded the philosophical school “The Garden” in Athens. Epicurus’s philosophy is usually characterized as emphasizing the importance of happiness as the chief aim of life. spirit is restlessness] → 355,15.

19

35

•

P a p e r 512–515 1854 •

655

T. Hertz, Geistlig-statistisk Calender for 1854 (→ 302,9) were presumably somewhat higher. In 1854, it was decided that the three new bishops should receive a fixed salary rather than tithes (→ 308,35), which meant a considerable reduction in the income accruing to those offices. Thus, in connection with the accession of H. L. Martensen to the highest position in the Danish clergy, by a royal resolution of June 29, 1854, the salary for the bishop of Zealand was taken over by the national treasury, with the bishop receiving an annual salary of 4,000 rix-dollars plus the cash value of 600 barrels of barley in accordance with the tithe rates, which in 1855 amounted to 4,088 rix-dollars (see Capitels-Taxt for Sjællands Stift fra Aaret 1600 til 1855 [→ 304,8], p. 8), plus an additional 800 rix-dollars per year for office expenses. In the national budget for 1855–1856, however, the fixed sum was raised from 4,000 to 5,000 rix-dollars per year, which was one of the highest paid positions in the Danish government. Bishop J. H. Lautrup  of Lolland-Falster received a fixed salary of 2,000 rix-dollars plus the cash value of 600 barrels of barley (according to a royal resolution of October 6, 1854), while Bishop Otto Laub of Viborg (in Jutland) received 2,000 rix-dollars annually plus the cash value of 550 barrels of barley (according to a royal resolution of September 26, 1854). In 1855, Martensen attempted to get the other bishops, who had put on fixed salaries, to object to their loss of income, but Bishop Otto Laub found it inappropriate, to some extent because of the impression made by Kierkegaard’s attack on paid clergy (see Bishop Otto Laubs Levnet. En Livsskildring i Breve [Bishop Otto Laub’s Life: A Biographical Sketch in Letters], ed. F. L. Mynster [Copenhagen, 1885], vol. 1, pp. 307–311). in the country is] Variant: changed from “must become”. persons of rank] → 306,5. ombre] A card game for three or four players, originally from Spain, which at the time was a popular diversion among the bourgeoisie, presumably including J. P. Mynster (→ 303,14). what did Adam . . . do in his day? he hid himself] Refers to Gen 3:8.

4 10

14

337

656 337m

7

10

338

6

8 10 12 12

Toward the Battle with the Church

your Right Rev.] Refers to Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14). According to the Danish system of rank and precedence, adopted in 1746 and revised in 1808, the term “Right Reverend” was reserved for the higher and highest clergy. There were nine rank classes, with the bishops of Zealand―at that time, the bishop of Zealand (Sjælland) was also the primate of the Danish State Church (there was no bishop of Copenhagen, as the episcopal seat of Zealand diocese was at Roskilde Cathedral)― and Christiania (now Oslo) in the third class and Copenhagen’s parish priests and royal chaplains in the sixth. In 1847, Bishop Mynster’s title had been elevated to “Eminence.” ― Right Rev.: Variant: first written “Emi”. or the first swindler and the first hum. being] Variant: added. a windsucker] Variant: added. Here meant in a literal sense; otherwise the term designates a horse with the bad habit of gulping air; see NB30:13 (1854) in KJN 9, 394–395, with its accompanying explanatory note. relation] Variant: first written “or”. proclaim self-denial, renunciation] → 322,14. velvet] → 309m,17. stars and ribbons] Refers to the Great Cross, which was the highest grade in the Order of the Dannebrog. It was worn as a gold cross hanging from a ribbon around one’s neck and on the breast as a great cross with silver rays forming a star. The Order of the Dannebrog consisted of three classes: the Great Cross, Commander, and Knight of the Dannebrog. Following a reform in 1808, the symbols of the order constituted “an outward sign of acknowledged civic worth,” without regard to estate or age. This made it possible for clerics and professors to be decorated with orders, which soon became a widespread phenomenon. After the death of Bishop J. P. Mynster (→ 303,14), no clergy bore the Great Cross, but a few bishops were Commanders. In 1854, approximately ninety clerics were Knights of the Dannebrog. An overview of all members of the order is found printed as an appendix the annual government almanac, Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Stats-Calender. In addition to these or-

•

P a p e r 515–520 1854 •

ders, there was also the Silver Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog (discontinued in 1952), which was often used as an additional decoration for men who had already been made Knights of the Dannebrog. H. L. Martensen thus received a Silver Cross on October 6, 1854. And yet no one laughs.]  Variant: written vertically along the edge of the paper. Apparently an allusion to an anecdote or something similar, which has not been identified; see Stages on Life’s Way (1845): “But no one laughs at erotic love. For this I am prepared―prepared to be embarrassed in the same way as the Jew who after ending his story said: ‘Is there no one who laughs?’ ” (SLW 37; SKS 6, 41; see also SLW 47; SKS 6, 49 and NB14:53 (1849) in KJN 6, 380). curiously] Variant: preceding this the word “and” has been deleted.

15

17

the natural hum. being] → 320,18. an enormous exaggeration] → 308,14. syllogism] In classical logic, a categorical syllogism is an argument consisting of two premises and a conclusion. The one premise, which is to contain the subject concept of the conclusion, is called the minor premise; the other premise, called the major premise, contains the predicate concept of the conclusion. Kierkegaard here uses the term more or less synonymously with “conclusion.” The syllogism to which Kierkegaard is opposed could be formulated: Christianity is what everyone can grasp; everyone can grasp this; therefore this is Christianity. served in character] i.e., one’s deeds live up to one’s words.

21

Christian . . . confessing Xt.] Variant: changed from “Christian.”. Tertullian, as well, says . . . see in Böhringer] Refers to F. Böhringer’s chapter “Tertullian” in  Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 320,6), vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 270–374, where Böhringer cites Tertullian as follows: “one who fears suffering can never belong to those who have suffered. When we are burned out by fire and affliction, only then are we worth the wages of faith. Only then, when persecution is there is the confession also

1

338

30 2

339

11

2

340

Toward the Battle with the Church

15

340

27

36

341

3

341

14

in its place . . .” (p. 298). ― Tertullian: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (ca. 155–240), born in Carthage in North Africa, one of the Roman Catholic Church Fathers. A lawyer by training, Tertullian converted to Christianity between 195 and 197, and became an accomplished theologian and apologist; in 207, he presumably embraced Montanism, an ascetic Christian movement dating from the mid-second century, which resisted the worldliness of the orthodox Church. While Tertullian’s works include catechistic, dogmatic, and antiheretical writings, his main legacy is the body of apologetics with which he responded to the persecutions of Christians in 197/198 and that protest the unjust nature of these persecutions; generally speaking, his anti-pagan polemics are of an ethical cast. (other than in opposition)] Variant: added. gifts of the spirit as in the early Church] Presumably, a reference to Acts 10:44–45; see also 1 Cor 12:1–11 and 14:1–5. closer to swimming.] Variant: first written “closer to swimming;” with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. hypocrisy] Variant: changed from “lie”. Christ and the apostles prove . . . that one is put to death for it] Just as Jesus was crucified, many of the apostles (disciples) also suffered a martyr’s death: on the apostle Peter’s martyrdom in Rome under the persecutions of Christians by Nero in a.d. 64, see the First Epistle of Clement 5:3–4; Kierkegaard had a Danish version, Clemens Romanus Aposteldiscipel. Breve til Menigheden i Korinth [Clemens Romanus: Disciple of the Apostle: Letters to the Congregation in Corinth], trans. C. H. Muus (Copenhagen,1835; ASKB 141), p. 4. On Herod’s execution of the apostle James, son of Zebedee, see Acts 12:2. On the martyrdom of the apostles Andrew, Bartholomew, James the Younger, Judas Thaddeus, Matthew, Simon, and Thomas, see G. B. Winer, Biblisches Realwörterbuch zum Handgebrauch für Studirende, Kandidaten, Gymnasiallehrer und Prediger [Specialized Biblical Dictionary for Use as a

•

P a p e r 520–525 1854 •

657

Handbook for Students, Graduates, Preparatory School Teachers, and Preachers], 2 vols., 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1833–1838 [1820]; ASKB 70–71), vol. 1, pp. 68, 164, 621, 747; vol. 2, pp. 73, 541, 714. On the martyrdom of the apostle Paul, see vol. 2, p. 248. Someone is obligated by an oath upon the N.T.] → 308,28.

12

342

the Lutheran one] i.e., the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther (1483–1546), German theologian, Augustinian monk, professor at Wittenberg. As a reformer of the Church, Luther was the central figure in breaking with the medieval theological tradition, papal power, and the Roman Church, which resulted in a transformation of worship services and ecclesiastical life and in the founding of a number of evangelical Lutheran churches, particularly in northern Europe. Luther was the author of a great many theological, exegetical, and edifying works, as well as works on ecclesiastical policy and organization, and many sermons and hymns. Luther also translated the Bible into German. Christianity rlly does not exist at all] → 318,1. ― rlly: Variant: added. The pagan understood correctly that Xnty is hatred of humanity] Presumably refers to the Latin saying “odium generis humani” (“hatred of the human race”), which was applied to Christianity. The source for this saying is possibly the Church father Tertullian, Apologeticus adversus gentes pro christianis [Apology for Christians against the Pagans], 37, 8: “Sed hostes maluistis vocare generis humani” (“People have preferred to call them [the Christians] enemies of the human race”). Qu. Sept. Flor. Tertulliani opera [Tertullian’s Works], ed. E. F. Leopold, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1839–1841; ASKB 147–150); in Bibliotheca patrum ecclesiasticorum latinorum selecta [Library of Selected Latin Church Fathers], ed. E. G. Gersdorf, vols. 4–7, vol. 1, p. 109. See also Tacitus, Annales [Annals], bk. 15, chap. 44, 4, in C. Cornelii Taciti opera ex recensione Ernestiana [Tacitus’s Works from the Ernesti Edition], ed. I. Bekker (Berlin, 1825; ASKB 1282), p. 347, where it is related that Christians who were suspected of having burned Rome during

22

342

24 30

658

343

8 21 25 41

342m

344

2

7

12 14

Toward the Battle with the Church

the reign of Nero were not so much condemned for arson as for “odio humani generis.” In the Danish translation of Tacitus that Kierkegaard owned, the expression is rendered as “hatred of humankind.” J. Baden, trans., Cajus Cornelius Tacitus [Tacitus], 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1773–1797; ASKB 1286–1288), vol. 2 (1775), p. 282. God is patient] Allusion to 1 Cor 13:4. eternity’s accounting] → 309m,21. we all call] Variant: before “all”, the word “probably” has been deleted. the late bishop] i.e., Bishop Mynster (→ 303,14). “I wonder whether the faith is to be found on the earth”] Free rendering of Lk 18:8. the Christian is a guest . . . every year in the collect] Refers to 1 Pet 2:11; see also Eph 2:17 and Heb 11:13. The collect (i.e., the priest’s prayer before the altar) for the Sunday after New Year’s Day reads: “O Lord God, heavenly Father! You who let your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, become an alien and a foreigner in Egypt for our sake, and led him back, unscathed, to the land of his fathers! We pray that you would give us your grace, that we poor people, who are aliens and foreigners in this dangerous world, might soon come home to the kingdom of Heaven, our true fatherland.” Forordnet Alter-Bog for Danmark [Prescribed Service Book for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1830 [1688]; ASKB 381), p. 23. making a fool of God?] → 306,19. Bishop M.] i.e., Bishop Mynster. See NB22:104 (1851) in KJN 8, 159 and the piece “The Truth about ‘the Priest’s’ Importance for Society,” in The Moment, no. 7 (M, 257; SKS 13, 313).

344

20

of course Xt expressly says . . . and now the miracle comes] See Mk 16:17–18.

345

1

without the distinction between heaven and hell, we are all equally blessed] → 353,1.

345

12

Fenger from Slotsbjergbye wrote . . . having heaven–hell] No such article is found in Nordisk Kirketidende [Nordic Church Times] (1833–1841). The reference is presumably to the article “Til Læseren af evangelisk Ugeskrift” [To

•

P a p e r 525–529 1854 •

the Reader of the Evangelical Weekly] in Dansk Kirketidende, October 2, 1853, vol. 8, no. 40, cols. 625–640, esp. cols. 635ff., where Fenger rejects the view that everyone is to be saved and that hell is therefore meaningless. ―  Fenger from Slotsbjergbye: Peter Andreas Fenger (1799–1878), Grundtvigian parish priest in Slotsbjergby and Sludstrup, near Slagelse on Zealand, 1827–55; thereafter, until his death, parish priest at the Church of Our Savior in Christianshavn. He was known for his great engagement in the religious awakening movements and for his work in the Danish Mission Society. Rudelbach]  Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach (1792– 1862), Danish theologian, priest, and author; cand. theol., 1820; dr. phil., 1822; superintendent (effectively bishop), consistory council member, and principal pastor in Glauchau in Saxony, 1828–1845. He lectured as a privatdocent at the University of Copenhagen, and from 1848 served as parish priest at St. Mikkels Church in Slagelse and Heininge Church on Zealand, a well-remunerated call (annual income in excess of 2,000 rix-dollars [→ 322,2]), which also included a “good and attractive” parsonage with “good water, beautiful garden” and large surrounding lands; see Bloch Suhr, Kaldslexicon (→ 304,8), p. 348. Rudelbach was critical of the State Church in, among other works, his Den evangeliske Kirkeforfatnings Oprindelse og Princip, dens Udartning og dens mulige Gjenreisning fornemmelig i Danmark. Et udførligt Votum for virkelig Religionsfrihed [The Evangelical Church’s Constitution: Its Origin and Principle, Its Decline, and Its Possible Restoration, Principally in Denmark. A Detailed Vote, Based on Canon Law and Church History, for Real Religious Freedom] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 171). Rudelbach argued for the separation of Church and state in Om det borgerlige Ægteskab. Bidrag til en alsidig, upartisk Bedømmelse af denne Institution, nærmest fra Kirkens Standpunkt [On Civil Marriage: Contribution to a Comprehensive, Unbiased Evaluation of That Institution, Principally from the Church’s Point of View] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 752) and Om Begrebet Folkekirke. En historisk-kirkeretlig Betænkning betræffende den

25

Toward the Battle with the Church

25

345

31

danske evangelisk-lutherske Kirkes fremtidige Stilling og Forhold til Staten, henvendt til den nu forsamlede Rigsdag [On the Concept of a People’s Church: A Deliberation, Addressed to the Parliament Now Assembled, concerning History and Canon Law as They Bear on the Future Position of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Its Relation to the State] (Copenhagen, 1854). Grundtvig] N.F.S. Grundtvig was known for his criticisms of the State Church and had continued to threaten to leave it after he had been appointed priest at Vartov Hospital Church (→ 304,8). See, for example, the articles “Hvordan er levende Christendom stædt i den saakaldte Danske Folkekirke?” [How Is Living Christianity Doing in the So-Called Danish People’s Church?] and “Præste-Friheden i den Danske Folke-Kirke” [Freedom for the Priests in the Danish People’s Church] in Dansk Kirketidende, January 1, 1854, vol. 9, no. 1, cols. 3–11; and April 2, 1854, vol. 9, no. 14, cols. 209–217, where Grundtvig warns that if the People’s Church wants to continue with the same compulsion as that used by the State Church before 1849, he intends to leave it. For example, in the latter article he writes: “That I have held and do hold the hope of the introduction, by law, of mutual freedom in the People’s Church is perhaps unreasonable, and if I must abandon that hope, then at that very hour I will give up my position in the People’s Church, leave it, and advise all old-fashioned Christians to do likewise” (col. 216). The symbolic books of our Church . . . degrees of blessedness in the hereafter] Presumably, a reference to chap. 3 in Philipp Melanchthon, Apologia Confessionis Augustanae [A Defense of the Augsburg Confession]; see Den rette uforandrede Augsburgske Troesbekjendelse med sammes, af Ph. Melanchthon forfattede, Apologie [The True, Unaltered Augsburg Confession together with the Apology for Same by Ph. Melanchthon], trans. A. G. Rudelbach (Copen-hagen, 1825; ASKB 386), pp. 250–251, where it is maintained that good works cannot lead to justification (only faith can do that), but that they will lead to other rewards in accordance with what Paul states in 2 Cor 9:6: “the one who sows sparingly will also reap spar-

•

P a p e r 529–535 1854 •

659

ingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” makes a fool of God] → 306,19. God, who . . . does not let himself be mocked] Reference to Gal 6:7.

5

In the earliest Church . . . people disagreed about . . . back to the original complement] No source for this has been identified. willing to forsake everything, willing to suffer everything] → 322,14. In the comedy, when a peasant lad sings . . . an angel with white wings on] Refers to scene 6 of Rekrutten. Vaudeville i een Act [The Recruit: A Vaudeville in One Act] by J. T. Merle, A.J.B. Simonin, and Ferdinand (Laloue), trans. Thomas Overskou (Copenhagen, 1834). The unlikable farm boy Peer tries to win Marie, whose beloved has been called up for military service, but everything Peer does is in vain, and he sings: “When I am dead from all the sorrow I have had, / Only then will I gain your love and be glad. / But then it will be too late―you’ll be alone in your sufferings, / For then I’ll be an angel with lovely wings” (pp. 19–20). The piece was performed thirty-three times at the Royal Theater during the period 1834–1850, and it was revived and performed seven additional times between February 19 and March 23, 1855. a similar way] Variant: preceding “similar” the word “certain” has been deleted. 1000 men] i.e., the priests (→ 302,9). that this] Variant: changed from “to sustain the appearance that this”. fear and trembling] Allusion to Phil 2:12. a test . . . the outcome of which was eternal salvation or eternal perdition] → 353,1. The only thing that is] Variant: following this, the word “remaining” has been deleted.

12

that Xnty simply does not exist] → 318,1.

26

This is how Augustine always approaches the matter . . . precisely what is decisive] A summarizing reference to Augustine’s understanding of faith that is based on authority, as presented in

4

346

5

346

26 8

347

14 23 24 29 33 15

348

349

660

8

349

15 23

25

Toward the Battle with the Church

F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 320,6), vol. 1, pt. 3 (1845), pp. 248–260. The passage begins: “In the first instance, however, the truth of religion appears in the form of authority. Therefore, in the first instance, the relation of human beings to it is in the form of faith in authority. This form of faith is certainly grounded in the form of the authority in which the religion approaches the human being.” See also NB23:167 (1851) in KJN 8, 285, with its accompanying explanatory notes. ― Augustine: Aurelius Augustin(us) (354–430), bishop, one of the four Roman Catholic Church Fathers. Nowadays it is thought that scholarship is only true when all authority has been speculated away] Refers to the theology of the day (especially speculative theology) whose requirement of objectivity and scholarliness put subjective considerations, including authority, on a lesser level. Xnty demands that a hum. being is to hate himself] → 357,12. constructed a Xnty.] Variant: first written “contructed a Xnty;” with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. What Pascal says about Xndom . . . free themselves from the duty to love God] Kierkegaard is presumably referring to Pascal’s Gedanken über die Religion und einige andere Gegenstände [Pascal’s Thoughts on Religion and Several Other Subjects] in Pascal’s Sämmtliche Schriften über Philosophie und Christenthum [Pascal’s Complete Writings on Philosophy and Christianity], trans. K. A. Blech, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1840; ASKB 712–713), vol. 1, pt. 2, sec. 20, titled “Vergleichung der alten Christen mit den heutigen” [Comparison of Early and Contemporary Christians], where it states that Pascal believed that “no difference is made any longer between these two opposed realms [the world and the Church],” and that “people make use of the sacraments and enjoy this world, so that despite a fundamental difference between the two, people now see them so jumbled up and mixed together that they are practically unable to differentiate between them” (pp. 433–434). ― Pascal: Blaise Pascal (1623–62), French mathema-

•

P a p e r 535–538 1854 •

tician, philosopher, and theologian. See NB28:53 (1853) in KJN 9, 258. in God’s view] Variant: added. copyholders, the cottagers, the lodgers . . . in relation to lord of the manor] Refers to social and economic relations in the Danish agricultural world of Kierkegaard’s day, in which copyholders were those who had long-term leases on agricultural land, whereas cottagers were agricultural laborers who lived in a cottage with a small amount of adjacent land, and lodgers were agricultural laborers who rented rooms from, e.g., a cottager. All three groups were subordinate to the estate owner (lord of the manor) to whom they owed various payments. Hans Hansen] Fictitous name. thousands] i.e., thousands of rix-dollars (→ 322,2).

7

that, from a Christian point of view, things are going forward] → 351,13. Somewhere in a modern author . . . that it was the true Christian Church] Refers to the section “Augustin und die Donatisten” [Augustine and the Donatists] in the chapter “Aurelius Augustinus” in F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen (→ 320,6), vol. 1, pt 3 (1845), pp. 310–385: “This question could now be settled in several ways. One way was to sacrifice the predicate that had hitherto belonged to the Church: the view of it as something essentially Christian, as the body of the Lord. Yet this view had not come to her from the outside, not contingently, but had grown out of her own innermost heart and life. To abandon this basic concept would accordingly mean to abandon itself, to give oneself up and betray oneself, to commit suicide. The Church could not do that, nor could the schismatics. The Church could not do it―if it still wanted to be a Church. The schismatics could not do it―because their schism’s nobler cause was to restore the predicates that they  could no longer find in the empirical Church in truth and reality, yet which they unconditionally demanded of it: to renew the Church and return it to its original truthfulness. Now, if one could not and did not want to abandon the fundamental view of the Church as

22

350

11

16 18

26

350

Toward the Battle with the Church

351

13

14 15 15

352

16 16

19

the body of the Lord, or all of the other predicates that follow from this basic predicate; and if one was faced with the empirical phenomenon of the Church as apparently contradicting this view, then one was obliged to take hold of the Church and try to define it so that there was no incongruity between it and its predicates. This was the other way” (pp. 342–343). ―  Boehringer: Georg Friedrich Böhringer (1812–1879), German-Swiss theologian and Church historian; from 1842, pastor in Glattfelden, in the canton of Zurich. Xnty is perfectible] This expression was used in early Lutheran dogmatics in connection with Christianity’s capacity for development and perfection. In the latter part of the 18th century, the idea was adopted by rationalist theology, which regarded the history of Christianity as a progressive development toward ever greater perfection. In the 19th century, the idea of perfectibility was refashioned in connection with notions concerning the history of philosophy and of culture, e.g., by the Hegelians. The notion was widely embraced in Kierkegaard’s day, e.g., by H. L. Martensen and N.F.S. Grundtvig. makes a fool of God] → 306,19. that is,] Variant: added. the shamelessness that believes it is going further] This phrase “going further” was a slogan associated with Danish Hegelianism and its claim to have gone further than Cartesian doubt. Here the expression is used in the sense of going further than another philosopher, e.g., Hegel, and of going further than Christianity and the Christian faith. cunning and shrewdness . . . to conceal the truth] Allusion to J. P. Mynster (→ 303,14). all heresies and schisms] i.e., every sort of opposition to the orthodox Church; see NB29:21 (1854) in KJN 9, 313–314, where Kierkegaard expands upon this idea. modesty, humility] Perhaps an allusion specifically to F.L.B. Zeuthen, who wrote a magister’s thesis titled De notione modestiæ, inprimis philosophicæ [On the Concept of Modesty, Regarded from the Standpoint of Philosophy in Particular], and who later wrote an essay titled Om Ydmyghed [On Humility] (Copenhagen, 1852; ASKB 916).

•

P a p e r 538–542 1854 •

661

we will all be saved] → 353,1. cordiality] A term Kierkegaard often uses in characterizing Grundtvig and the Grundtvigians.

20

I Will Surely be Saved Just like All the Others] Here Kierkegaard is ironizing over one of the two competing dogmatic views, namely, the doctrine of apocatastasis, i.e., the view that there is a definitive reestablishment, a restitution, of all human beings, so that everyone will be saved and will return to the situation of the blessedness of paradise; the opposite of this is the doctrine of a double result, which expresses the dogmatic view that there is both eternal salvation and eternal damnation. ― Saved Just like: Variant: changed from “Just as Saved as”. we live here in Copenhagen, 120,000 peop.] In Kierkegaard’s day, Copenhagen had a steadily increasing population, which was reflected in the censuses of 1840, 1845, 1850, and February 1, 1855, which reported, respectively, populations of 120,819, 126,787, 129,695, and 143,591; see Departementstidenden [The Departmental Times], ed. J. Liebe (Copenhagen, 1855), nos. 53 and 54, October 13, pp. 801–802. furthermore] Variant: added. saved just like] Variant: changed from “just as saved as”. themselves invent or] Variant: changed from “and”. 120,000 hum. beings, yes] Variant: preceding “yes”, the words “are as nothing” have been deleted.

1

with fear and trembling] → 347,29. decision of eternity, the accounting, the judgment] → 309m,21. now the matter of eternity has become something imaginary] Refers to the Left Hegelian critique of religion, advanced by authors such as David Friedrich Strauß (1808–1874), Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872), and Bruno Bauer (1809– 1882); their critique became widely known in the 1840s, and after 1848 it spread with the growth of socialism. The Left Hegelians maintained that Christianity was poetry and mythology.

29

27

353

3

4 13 2

353m

14

31 35

353

662

354

37

write apocalyptic comedies] In his dissertation “Betragtninger over Ideen af Faust” [Observations on the Idea of Faust], published in Perseus, Journal for den speculative Idee [Perseus, Journal for the Speculative Idea], no. 1 (Copenhagen, 1837; ASKB 569), pp. 98ff., H. L. Martensen  developed the concept of apocalyptic poetry. Thereafter, J. L. Heiberg wrote his well-known apocalyptic comedy En Sjæl efter Døden [A Soul after Death], which formed part of his Nye Digte [New Poems] (1840), which Martensen also reviewed in Fædrelandet, nos. 398–400, January 10–12, 1841, cols. 3205–3224.

20

at least a guarantee] Variant: “at least” has been added. nonsense, it is] Variant: following this, the word “rlly” has been deleted. or make a confession] → 303,13. but not this] Variant: deleted, preceding this, “that what you are seeking is the earthly,”. the highest that you want.] Variant: changed from “the highest.”.

28 32 32 37

355

Toward the Battle with the Church

10

“Narrow is the way, and there are few who find it,” thus in the N.T.] Reference to Mt 7:14.

15

Spirit is restlessness . . . thus according to the N.T.] See, e.g., Mt 10:34. See also Kierkegaard’s repeated statement that “faith is a restless thing,” e.g., in For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age (1851) in FSE, 17; SKS 13, 46.

355

21

the critical time] From the Greek word krisis, a decisive reversal, turn, turning point.

356

15

“He who does not confess me before the world, etc.”] Refers to Mt 10:32. In a little article by Brammer . . . [“]He who does not confess etc.[”]] The reference is to an article by G. P. Brammer, “Biskop Mynsters Skriftsteder” [Bishop Mynster’s Scriptural Passages], published in  Ugeskrift for den evangeliske Kirke i Danmark [Weekly for the Evangelical Church in Denmark], ed. J.L.M. Hjort, no. 8, February 17, 1854, pp. 117– 123. Brammer lists from memory five scriptural passages that he finds characteristic of Mynster,

26

•

P a p e r 542–550 1854 •

namely, Jn 6:68, Lk 18:13, Jn 3:16, Jn 4:14, and Mt 10:32. In connection with Mt 10:32, Brammer writes: “When, to the joy and honor of Denmark, the bishop’s staff was placed in Mynster’s hand, he felt himself to be powerfully strengthened and admonished by the voice of the Master Shepherd: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. His principal activity as bishop was to confess his Master, Savior, and Lord before the many congregations to whom he was appointed as evangelist and supervisor. He carried it out with unflagging zeal, indeed, with the warmth of youth in an old man’s breast. He spoke of Christ because he believed in him, and he spoke to priests and congregations of the blessed in society with Christ because he loved them. The Master Shepherd will confess his believing and faithful servant before his Father who is in heaven. This was the hope of the precious leader of our Church while he performed his life’s task, and this is our consoling hope at his grave. When we see his venerable form transfigured and glorified on the day of resurrection, it will be made manifest that our hope was not in vain, for it was built upon God’s Word” (pp. 122–123). ― Brammer: Gerhard Peter Brammer (1801–1884), from 1843, bishop of the diocese of Lolland–Falster; from 1845, bishop of the diocese of Århus. make a fool of God] → 306,19. Mynster] → 303,14. [“]No,] Variant: changed from [“]No.[”], with the period apparently indicating the end of the sentence. To Hate Oneself] Reference to Lk 14:26; see also Jn 12:25. truly have power] Variant: “truly” has been added. him] Variant: changed from “him completely”.

30 33

356

4

357

12 33 34

Notes for Paper 551–Paper 591 During the Publication of The Moment April 18–September 25, 1855

Critical Account of the Text by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Elise Iuul, Thomas Eske Rasmussen, Jon Tafdrup, and Steen Tullberg Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen Explanatory Notes by Tonny Aagaard Olesen Edited by Johnny Kondrup Quotations and References Checked by Bjarke Mørkøre Hansen Translated by Bruce H. Kirmmse Edited by Joel D. S. Rasmussen

664

Critical Account of the Text I. Description of the Manuscript “During the Publication of The Moment”1 consists of L-cat. and B-cat. nos. 160–162, 164–167, 171, 179–184, 193–199, 202–206, 214– 224, 226–227, and 229–230. According to Henrik Lund’s “The Order of the Papers,” upon Kierkegaard’s death, these were found “on the right,” in “the top space,” of “the other chest of drawers. B” (see illustration 2 in “Introduction to the Loose Papers” in the present volume.) The manuscripts are in the Kierkegaard Archive (KA) at the Royal Library.

II. Dating and Chronology Of the forty-one papers, thirty-one are dated, with the dates falling in the period ranging from April 18, 1855 (Paper 551) to September 25, 1855 (Paper 591). Thus the papers were written during the period when Kierkegaard was preparing and publishing his journal The Moment, the first issue of which was for sale on May 25, 1855, and the last of which appeared on September 25, 1855 (see M, 87–126, 139–261, 283–325; SKS 13, 125–168, 183–317, 341– 387).

) The name of this material was assigned by the editors of SKS on the basis of criteria related to its contents.

1

Explanatory Notes 360

1

3

Historical Juxtaposition. April 18th, 55.] The entry was written during the period that Kierkegaard had begun serious work on his own journal,  Øieblikket [The Moment]. On April 11, Kierkegaard had published two more articles in Fædrelandet [The Fatherland] (M, 51–55; SKS 14, 189–193), and on April 27, he published the sixth article in the controversy about “witnesses to the truth” (M, 56–59; SKS 14, 197–198). The draft of the piece introducing The Moment, no. 1 (M, 91– 92; SKS 13, 129–130) is dated April 20, 1855. The scene from The Happy Capsize . . . what has happened to their masters] Refers to act 2, sc. 2 of Ludvig Holberg’s comedy Det lykkelige Skibbrud [The Happy Capsize] (1731), in which the two servants, Henrich and Gottfred, who do not see one another, each read aloud from his list the occasional poems written by their respective masters, Philemon, a disciplinarian, and Magister Rosiflengius (whose name means “full of lavish praise”), who is always overflowing with fulsome praise, mentioning also how much each of their masters has earned by his poems. For example: “Gottfred: ‘The 11th of this month, wrote congratulations on someone’s promotion, for which my lord was invited to dinner and sat at the head of the table.’ Henrich: ‘On the 12th of this month, made fun of someone’s promotion, for which my lord reaped hatred instead of dinner.’ . . . Gottfred: ‘On the 24th hujus [of this month] a poem, titled Jephtha’s daughter, to a girl who died unmarried, but who in her youth had bid farewell to her maidenhood 4 or 5 times, for which my lord received the gift of a tea table with a kettle and teapot. Who is it who’s talking there? (looks around) it must be my echo.’ Henrich: ‘On the 25th hujus wrote a poem about a girl who didn’t want to marry either, saying all that glitters is not gold, for which I almost had a permanent misfortune, getting, instead of teapot, a chamber pot over my head.’ Gottfred: ‘On the 26th of this month wrote

a verse titled “The Uses of Foreign Travel,” for which my lord’s brother immediately was taken into the service of a lord and was chosen to travel abroad with the man’s sons.’ Henrich: ‘The 27th of this month wrote a verse called the “The Bad Journey Abroad,” for which my lord’s brother, who was supposed to travel abroad with a gentleman, was dismissed.’ ” The scene continues like this until the two servants discover one another’s presence. See Ludvig Holberg, Den Danske SkuePlads [The Danish Theater], 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1758 or 1788 [1731–1754]; ASKB 1566–1567), vol. 4. The volumes are undated and unpaginated. the apostle Paul] Paul (originally Saul) of Tarsus (believed to have been executed in Rome ca. a.d. 63, a Jew who was the first Christian missionary, understood himself to be “a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures” (Rom 1:1–2; see also Gal 1:1–2). In Kierkegaard’s day, the first thirteen letters in the NT, all bearing Paul’s name, were generally accepted as having actually been written by Paul; today only seven (or nine) are usually counted as authentic, including 1 Thessalonians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. Privy-] A councillor entrusted with state secrets; originally reserved for the king’s highest confidential advisers. General-] A portion of the title of a high official with broad-reaching powers. Senior-Court] i.e., ober-hof (Danish borrowed from the German); Kierkegaard used it as an indicator of pomposity. Entirely-Silk-Quilted] In Kierkegaard’s day, the vestments of the various ranks of the clergy were specified. Very prominent theologians and clerics were to wear velvet while other important clergy were to wear silk. See the ordinance of March 13, 1683, chap. 1, §5, concerning dress of the clergy:

7

7

7 8

8

666

9

9 10 11

16

26

During the Publication of The Moment

“The bishop of Zealand and royal confessor are to wear a black, high-collared velvet gown, velvet cap and bonnet, while other bishops are to wear black silk gowns with velvet collars and also black velvet caps and bonnets. Doctors of theology are to wear velvet bonnets and collars with velvet gowns, together with silk cloaks.” A journal entry (Paper 515, in the present volume) distinguishes between deans in silk and bishops in velvet. ― Entirely: Variant: added. Consistorial-Council-President] Originally the presiding officer of a consistory, an organ of ecclesiastical governance; the title meant that its bearer ranked third in the sixth class in the official Danish system of rank and precedence as published as “Rangfølgen efter Forordningerne af 14de Oct. 1746 og 12te Aug. 1808, samt de med Hensyn til disse givne nærmere Bestemmelser” [Rank in Order of Precedence in Accordance with the Decrees of October 14, 1746, and August 12, 1808, and Further Resolutions with Respect to These] in Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statscalender / Statshaandbog for det danske Monarchie for Aaret 1854 [Royal Danish Court and Government Almanac / Government Handbook for the Danish Monarchy for the Year 1854] (Copenhagen, [1854]), in which there were nine classes divided into varying numbers of ranks. The civil ranks and order of precedence were published each year in the above-mentioned almanac. Clad-in-Velvet] → 360,8. Petersen] Variant: preceding this, “Paulus” has been deleted. Paul bore witness . . . was flogged for doing so] Paul was flogged when he was imprisoned in Phillipi (Acts 16:22–37), but he was not flogged while he was imprisoned by Felix (Acts 24). ― bore witness: Variant: changed from “said”. elevated to the rank of count] See the third piece in The Moment, no. 10 (in M, 334; SKS 14, 398), where Kierkegaard, presumably in a veiled reference to Bishop Mynster (→ 374,23), writes of elevating a Christian to the princely rank. witness to the truth] See Kierkegaard’s article “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?,” which appeared in Fædrelandet,

•

P a p e r 551 1855 •

no. 295, December 18, 1854. Kierkegaard is referring to H. L. Martensen (→ 365m,1), Prædiken holdt i Christiansborgs Slotskirke paa 5te Søndag efter Hellig Tre Konger, Søndagen før Biskop Dr. Mynsters Jordefærd [Sermon Delivered at Christiansborg Palace Church on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday Preceding Bishop Dr. Mynster’s Funeral] (Copenhagen, 1854), in which Martensen situates the late Bishop Mynster (→ 374,23) in “the entire series of witnesses to the truth, which stretches through the ages like a holy chain, from the days of the apostles up to our own” (p. 6). Kierkegaard protested against Martensen’s description of Mynster as a witness to the truth because he believed that Mynster had been precisely the opposite of that. Martensen replied in an article in Berlingske Tidende [Berling’s Times], no. 302, December 28, 1854, in which he protested against Kierkegaard’s narrow use of the term “witness to the truth.” Martensen maintained that the term in fact designates not only suffering martyrs, but has a much broader application: “For those who believe this article also know that in the Church there is a testimony to the truth that has been transmitted from generation to generation and that both in the congregation and among the teachers there are those in every age and in every generation who bear this testimony, who confirm, in life and in person, the great fact that is Christianity” (col. 1). Kierkegaard continued to insist on his concept of the suffering witness to the truth in his second newspaper article against Martensen and Mynster, in Fædrelandet, no. 304, December 30, 1854, which bore the title “There the Matter Rests!”: “To represent a man who, even in proclaiming Christianity, has attained and enjoyed every possible benefit and advantage―to represent him as a witness to the truth, one of the holy chain, is as ludicrous as to talk about a virgin with a flock of children” (M, 10, translation slightly modified; SKS 14, 149). But during the period between Kierkegaard’s first article (December 18, 1854) and Martensen’s reply to that article (December 28, 1854), the latter had already made an indirect reply to Kierkegaard’s attack. This took place on December 26, when Martensen ordained two bishops and on that

During the Publication of The Moment

360m

360

1

29 34

361

2 10

361

20

22 33

362

2

occasion also referred to them as Christian witnesses; see his “Tale ved Biskopperne Jørgen Hjorth Lautrup’s og  Hardenach Otto Conrad Laub’s Indvielse” [Discourse at the Ordination of Bishops Jørgen Hjorth Lautrup and Hardenach Otto Conrad Laub] in  Bispevielse i Frue Kirke paa anden Juledag, den 26de December 1854 [Ordination of Bishops in the Church of Our Lady on the Day after Christmas, December 26, 1854] (Copenhagen, 1855). See Kierkegaard’s article “Two New Witnesses to the Truth” in Fædrelandet, no. 24, January 29, 1855 (“Feuilleton,” i.e., supplement). Kierkegaard persisted in maintaining his conception of “the witness to the truth” and continued his criticism of Martensen’s use of the term, which―according to Kierkegaard―made virtually everyone a witness to the truth. In return, Kierkegaard was attacked by many for using a concept of witness to the truth that was so exclusive that in their view, apart from Jesus, there was virtually no one else who qualified. At the time, this debate was known as the “fight about witnesses to the truth.” in the modern style, he “witnessed” about how P[aul] witnessed] An ironic reference to H. L. Martensen’s language in his eulogy of Bishop Mynster; see the preceding note. Essence] Variant: changed from “History”. honest] Variant: preceding this, “as far as it goes” has been deleted. the freethinkers] Variant: changed from “the freethinker”. make obvious this babble of lies] See Gen 11:1–9 on the Tower of Babel. According to the Xnty of the N.T., Xnty is restlessness] See, e.g., Mt 10:34. See also Kierkegaard’s repeated statement that “faith is a restless thing,” e.g., in For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age (1851) in FSE, 17; SKS 13, 46. conceived in sin and born in iniquity] Reference to Ps 51:7. paganism;] Variant: first written “paganism in”. According to the N.T., God . . . wants to be loved by them] Allusion to Mk 12:30; see also

•

P a p e r 551–556 1855 •

667

Deut 6:5, Mt 22:37, Lk 10:27. See NB33:25 (1854) in KJN 10, 272. Christian peoples, kingdoms, lands, a Christian world] Slogans such as “the Christian people,” “the Christian state,” etc. were current at the time. See, e.g., H. L. Martensen, Den danske Folkekirkes Forfatningsspørgsmaal [The Question of the Danish People’s Church’s Constitution] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB. 655), in which a case is comprehensively argued for a “Christian state” and “a Christian people,” and indirectly for a “Christian land.” See, e.g., p. 7, where it is claimed: “That the Christian state has an intimate relation to the Christian Church is ordinarily a consequence of the fact that a Christian state presupposes a Christian people; but inasmuch as it is thus the same people who are in the state and in the Church, there cannot and ought not be any disagreement between the principles of the state and the Church, despite the fact that, to be sure, the shared point of contact, the area where the Church and the state encounter one another, is not primarily and immediately that of faith and doctrine, but of morals and of moral-religious principles.” Similar expressions were also widespread in the Grundtvigian literature. According to the N.T., a person’s eternal salvation is decided here in this life.] See, e.g., Mt 25:31–46. ― life: Variant: following this, a line break has been deleted.

15

21

God wants to be loved] → 362,2. asceticism of the Middle Ages] Refers to the monastic life of chastity, poverty, and obedience. a Christian people, a Christian world] → 362,15.

1

Xnty is always restless] → 361,20.

4

364

The Christian State “Denmark” and I in It] This entry was written during the period when Kierkegaard began to move the controversy about “witnesses to the truth,” which he had carried on in articles in Fædrelandet, to his own journal, The Moment. On May 10, Kierkegaard had published two additional articles in Fædrelandet (see M, 60–65; SKS 14, 201–205), and on May 15, he published the nineteenth article in the argument

6

364

363

4 20

668

16 18 23 32

365

3

During the Publication of The Moment

about witnesses to the truth (see M, 66–68; SKS 14, 209–210). The first issue of The Moment came out on May 25, 1855. Xnty grasps] Variant: first written, instead of “Xnty”, “eternity”. regarding everything earthly as “loss”] Refers to Phil 3:7–8. my life] Variant: added. of course everyone knows that . . . I do not earn any money, but put money into it] Kierkegaard frequently stated that he had not earned anything from his writings or that he actually spent money on them. This statement ought reasonably be interpreted in relation to the sum of expenses related to his life as an author; see Frithiof Brandt and Else Thorkelin,  Søren Kierkegaard og pengene [Søren Kierkegaard and Money], 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1993 [1935]). 1000 priests bound by an oath] Refers to the oath taken by a priest upon ordination in the Danish State Church: “Juramentum, qvod in timore Domini præstabunt, qvi muneri Ecclesiastico initiabuntur” (“The oath that, in fear of the Lord, is to be sworn by those who are to be dedicated to an ecclesiastical office”), in Dannemarkes og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 379–380: “I, N.N., do swear and testify in holy awe before the countenance of God . . . that I will, with the greatest care, see to it that the divine teachings that are contained in the prophetic and apostolic writings and in the symbolic books of the Danish Church will be preached to the congregation pure and unsullied; that the sacraments will be administered properly and devoutly, in accordance with the manner prescribed by Christ; that the Church’s admonition will be carefully pronounced and catechetical instruction constantly maintained; that the universally accepted rituals of the Church will be observed; and that nothing that conflicts with Church regulations will be permitted.” (The term “apostolic writings” refers to the New Testament.) Furthermore, when being ordained by the bishop, priests were also exhorted to “undertake, in all things, to be good examples to those with whom they associate, in love, in spirit, in faith, in chastity, and all Christian

•

P a p e r 556 1855 •

virtues” (p. 369). All clergy were civil servants of the state, appointed by the king. According to the lists in the Geistlig-statistisk Calender for Aaret 1854 [Ecclesiastical Yearbook for 1854], ed. Th. Hertz (Copenhagen, 1854 [went to press December 24, 1853]; cf. ASKB 378, an edition from 1848), there were about 987 principal parishes in the kingdom of Denmark (i.e., without the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg), which employed about 916 priests, including bishops and deans; in addition to this there were about 123 personal chaplains. a period of three-quarters of an hour on Sundays] This was the typical length of a sermon in Kierkegaard’s time; see §15 in “Forslag til et: Kirke-Ritual for Danmark” [Proposal for a Church Ritual for Denmark], in J. P. Mynster, Udkast til en Alterbog og et Kirke-Ritual for Danmark [Draft for a Service Book and Church Ritual for Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1839), p. 11, where it is stipulated: “The sermon should last no longer than one hour, but by no means less than half an hour.” ― a: Variant: first written “between 10 and 10:15 o’clock on Sunday”, changed from “between 10 and 10:15 on Sunday”. When, after having for a great many years . . . a sort of villainy] Kierkegaard is referring to the fact that he had always defended Bishop Mynster (→ 374,23), e.g., against criticism from those who supported speculative theology (see the satire Kierkegaard directed at speculative theology in his pseudonymous writings, e.g., Prefaces, in which Mynster is put forth as a counterweight [P, 31–34; SKS 4, 493–496], and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, which includes a continuing critique of Martensen, though without naming him by name) and Grundtvigianism (see in particular the satire directed at N.F.S. Grundtvig in Concluding Unscientific Postscript [CUP, 34–46; SKS 7, 41–52] and the article against A. G. Rudelbach, “Occasioned by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach” in Fædrelandet, no. 26, January 31, 1851). Kierkegaard often remarks that this was done out of piety for his late father (→ 374,27). Kierkegaard apparently expected that the bishop would admit to him that the Christianity of the times contrasted with original Christianity, and he

4

16

During the Publication of The Moment therefore felt that the Church should make an admission or confession that it is far from being true Christianity. He had already presented this in the “Editor’s Preface” to Practice in Christianity (1850): “Yet the requirement must be stated, presented, heard; from a Christian point of view there must be no reduction of the requirement, nor ought it be suppressed―instead of making an admission and confession concerning oneself. The requirement ought to be heard, and I understand what is said as spoken to me alone, so that I might learn not only to take refuge in ‘grace,’ but to take refuge in it with respect to the use of ‘grace’ ” (PC, 7; SKS 12, 15). But Mynster never took this position. Prompted by H. L. Martensen’s eulogy of Mynster, in which he called the late bishop a witness to the truth (→ 360,26), Kierkegaard therefore wrote the newspaper article voicing his objection. Even before Martensen replied to that article, a number of people had already complained publicly that Kierkegaard had not criticized Mynster while the latter was alive, but only now, after his death. See, e.g., the article “Et Angreb paa Biskop Mynster” [An Attack on Bishop Mynster] in Dagbladet [The Daily News], no. 299, December 21, 1854, in which the author writes: “When Mr. Søren Kierkegaard here abandons the (at any rate, apparent) indifferent calm of ‘indirect communication’ and, making no use whatever of ‘the maieutic method,’ sets forth his objection not only to the canonization of Bishop Mynster, but also to the whole of Mynster’s life and his activity as a cleric―in this, he may certainly be fully justified and does not have to appeal to anything other than his own conviction, his enthusiasm for truth. On the other hand, a more detailed explanation is needed when he then speaks of the deceased in this manner after having spoken quite differently of him when he was alive, after having always spoken of him with veneration and having sent him his works with ‘veneration.’ Mr. Kierkegaard himself also senses this peculiarity here, for despite the fact that he begins by saying that he does not want to speak of his relationship to him, he nonetheless concludes with an attempt at an explanation. Despite the fact that Mynster was thus ‘his life’s misfortune,’ he [Kierkegaard]

•

P a p e r 556–557 1855 •

669

nonetheless remained silent, out of piety toward his deceased father, as long as the man was alive. It is, however, difficult to understand how this piety can require silence about the living and permit speaking of the dead, and the fact that the author can permit himself to be governed by such motives is equally impossible to understand.” The article was signed by “A.” See also the anonymous poem published in Kjøbenhavnsposten [The Copenhagen Post], no. 299, December 23, 1854: “But when, while he was here below and breathing, you behaved as an admirer of this man. Now―when he cannot reply from the shelter of the grave―you mistreat him shamelessly.” ― velvet: → 360,8. ― dares: Variant: deleted, preceding this, “someone, after his death,”. a successor] i.e., Hans Lassen Martensen (1808– 1884), Danish theologian and priest; licentiate in theology from the University of Copenhagen in 1837; honorary doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1840; appointed extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen in 1840 and ordinary professor on September 1, 1850; made a member of the Royal Danish Scientific Society in 1841; appointed court preacher in 1845 and Knight of the Dannebrog in 1847. On April 15, 1854, he was appointed J. P. Mynster’s successor as bishop of Zealand and was consecrated as bishop in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen on June 5, 1854, by Bishop G. P. Brammer. That . . . “the Priest’s” Existence Is Suspect. May 16th] This entry was written during the period when Kierkegaard began to move the controversy about “witnesses to the truth,” which he had carried on in articles in Fædrelandet, to his own journal, The Moment. On this same day, May 16, Kierkegaard had published the next-to-last of his articles in Fædrelandet (see M, 69–70; SKS 14, 213– 214) about witnesses to the truth. The first issue of The Moment came out on May 25, 1855. a kingdom that is not of this world] Refers to Jn 18:36. he is a royal official] → 365,3. rank] → 360,9. Knight’s Crosses] Refers to Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog, which was established

1

365m

35

365

6

366

8 20 20

670

During the Publication of The Moment

by King Christian V on October 12, 1671. On June 18, 1808, shortly after he ascended to the throne, King Frederik VI issued a decree democratizing the order, which would no longer be limited to the nobility. In Kierkegaard’s day, the Order of the Dannebrog included three classes, in descending order: those permitted to bear the Great Cross, which was the highest grade in the order and was worn as a gold cross hanging from a ribbon around one’s neck and on the breast as a great cross with silver rays forming a star; the next-highest class were those who bore the title “Commander”; and the third class were those who bore the title “Knight.” Membership in the order was an “external sign of acknowledged civic virtue,” regardless of age or social estate. It now became possible for clergy and professors to be decorated with membership in the order. In Kierkegaard’s time, approximately ninety clerics were members of the Order of the Dannebrog. 366

25

367

3 6

That Those We Call Priests Are the Unhappiest of All Beings . . . May 17th, 55] → 365,35.  he has obligated himself by an oath upon something as lofty as the N.T.] → 365,3. bears . . . a troubled conscience] An allusion to a frequently occurring theme in Luther. See, e.g., Luther’s evangelical sermon for the first Sunday in Advent in En christelig Postille, sammendragen af Dr. Morten Luthers Kirke- og Huuspostiller [A Collection of Christian Sermons, Gathered from Dr. Martin Luther’s Collections of Sermons for Church and Home], trans. J. Thisted, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1828; ASKB 283), vol. 1, pp. 15–30; or, e.g., chap. 11, “Vom Gesetz und Evanglio” [On Law and Gospel], in Martin Luthers Geistund Sinn-reiche auserlesene Tisch-Reden und andere erbauliche Gespräche [Selections from Dr. Martin Luther’s Brilliant and Profound Table Talk and Other Edifying Conversations], ed. Benjamin Lindner, 2 vols. (Salfeld, 1745; ASKB 225–226), vol. 1, p. 415, where Luther says: “The gospel is really for the frightened, distressed, and anxious conscience; the Law, however, is for godless, secure, crude folk, and hypocrites.” ― bears: Variant: first written “drags all of”.

•

P a p e r 557–560 1855 •

which, on his death] Variant: first written, instead of “which”, “which cannot either in death free him from”. the accounting in the hereafter] A reference to Judgment Day, when all human beings must give an accounting before God, and God closes the accounts; see Mt 12:36, 25:31–46; Rom 9:28; 1 Pet 4:5. See also Mt 25:31–46 on the judgment of the world. in the days of their youth] Variant: added.

9

The Personal―The Official. May 17, 55]  → 365,35.  1000 teachers of Xnty]  → 365,3. ― teachers: Variant: first written “officia”. on behalf of their office] Or in the execution of the duties of his office. The expression is probably an allusion to the priest’s words during confession (which in Kierkegaard’s day was an absolute prerequisite for participating in the Eucharist): “Inasmuch as you heartily repent and regret your sins and, in continuing faith, take refuge in God’s mercy in Jesus Christ, also promising, with the grace of God, to endeavor to lead a better and more moral life hereafter, then, on God’s behalf and on behalf of my office, in accordance with the power God himself has given me from above, to forgive sins on earth, I promise you all the forgiveness of your sins, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!” Dannemarks og Norges Kirke-Ritual [Ecclesiastical Rites for Denmark and Norway] (Copenhagen, 1762 [1685]), pp. 146–147.

31

367

5

368

This Is the Movement in the Deterioration in Christendom. May 19, 55] → 365,35. To become what] Variant: “become” has been changed from “be”. the natural hum. being] The merely earthly, i.e., sensual and prudential but not spiritual being. See 1 Cor 2:14, which reads, in the NRSV: “Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The King James version, however, is closer to Kierkegaard’s Danish version: “But the natural man receiveth

10

10

17

8

14 24

368

During the Publication of The Moment

28

37

369

369

3

26

30

370

4

not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Danish translation, “det naturlige Menneske” (“the natural human being”) occurs in a Danish version of Luther’s translation of the Bible, where Luther uses the German equivalent, “der natürliche Mensch.” The Danish translation of the New Testament from 1819, which was the authorized version in Kierkegaard’s day, has “det sandselige Menneske” (“the sensate human being”). With “the apostle” there is already a bit of a reduction in the price] Refers to Paul, who permits marriage; see, e.g., 1 Cor 7:8–9. Nowadays entire countries, kingdoms, are, as people say, Xn] → 362,15. it means to die away] A central idea in Paul is that, in Christ, a human being has died to the world; see Rom 6:2; see also 1 Pet 2:24 and Col 2:20. In mysticism and pietism this notion was made more stringent, so that human life is a daily dying-away, in self-denial, from sin, from temporality, from finitude, and from the world. Thus the emphasis was shifted from a person dying to sin through Christ to include a person dying to sin through faith. “The moment” is when: the person is there, the right person] See the piece, “When Is ‘the Moment’ ” in The Moment, no. 10: “The moment is when the man is there, the right man, the man of the moment” (M, 338; SKS 13, 402). Therefore, “Xndom” . . . in opposition] Variant: added. The statement by Magister Boisen (in Nordisk Kirketidende) . . . theory of the Church] Refers to the lengthy article “Indlæg i Sagen: S. Kierkegaard contra ‘det Bestaaende’ ” [Contribution to the Matter: S. Kierkegaard against “The Established Order”] in Dansk Kirketidende [Danish Church Times], May 6, 1855, no. 20, cols. 313–327; cols. 316–317. L. N. Boisen writes: “I will now speak freely about where I, for my part, have found light in this darkness, consolation in this altogether too deeply seated anxious concern. The views set forth in the New Testament have

•

P a p e r 560–564 1855 •

671

not been able to console me in the face of the annihilating assertions concerning present-day Christianity set forth by Kierkegaard―nor even against those set forth by the Mormons. I believe it is precisely situations of this sort that make clear the extent to which the New Testament, or scripture in general, is suited to serve as a basis for our faith and our consolation right there, when scripture itself is used, as it were, to pull out the ground from under our uncertain feet. I have found my consolation and reassurance in the so-called Grundtvigian view of the Church and of the basis of the Church.” ― Magister Boisen: Lars Nannestad Boisen (1803–1875), cand. theol., 1824; magister, 1827; from 1831, priest in the parishes of Vesterborg and Birket on the island of  Lolland. ― Nordisk Kirketidende: i.e., Dansk Kirketidende. ―  Grundtvig’s theory of the Church: Refers to the Grundtvigians’ view that the source of Christianity is not the Bible but “the living Word,” which has been uttered throughout the centuries, i.e., the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the words of institution of the Eucharist. the outcome will be the same for my contemporaries . . . they must go through. May 23, 55] The present entry, which consists solely of this heading, was written during the period when Kierkegaard began to move the controversy about “witnesses to the truth,” which he had carried on in articles in Fædrelandet, to his own journal, The Moment. On May 16, Kierkegaard had published the next-to-last of his articles in Fædrelandet about witnesses to the truth (in M, 69–70; SKS 14, 213– 214). The polemical piece, “This Must Be Said, so Let It Be Said” (in M, 71–77; SKS 13, 113–124), appeared on May 24, while the first issue of The Moment appeared on May 25, 1855.

11

370

Church-State and State-Church. May 23, 55] This entry was written during the period when Kierkegaard began to move the controversy about “witnesses to truth” to his own journal, The Moment (→ 370,11). ― Church-State and StateChurch.: Variant: under this, the words “the two forms of counterfeiting.” have been deleted.

17

370

672 20

23

25

371

17

29

371m

372

1

1

During the Publication of The Moment

•

P a p e r 564–568 1855 •

God, the almighty ruler of heaven and earth]  Refers to the first article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I (we) believe in the God the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” ― almighty: See Lærebog i den Evangeliskchristelige Religion, indrettet til Brug i de danske Skoler [A Primer for the Evangelical Christian Religion, Prepared for Use in Danish Schools] (Copenhagen, 1824 [1791]; ASKB 183; abbreviated hereafter as Balles Lærebog), chap. 1, “Om Gud og hans Egenskaber” [On God and His Attributes], sec. 3, §3: “God is almighty and can do anything he wills without difficulty. But he does only that which is wise and good, because he wills nothing other than this and this alone” (p. 13). how to govern.] Variant: changed from “how to govern―”, with the dash apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. an eternal salvation―or an eternal perdition] Kierkegaard is referring to two competing dogmatic views, namely, the doctrine of apocatastasis, i.e., the view that there is a definitive reestablishment, a restitution, of all human beings, so that everyone will be saved and will return to the situation of the blessedness of paradise; the opposite of this is the doctrine of a double result, which expresses the dogmatic view that there is both eternal salvation and eternal damnation. odd situation.] Variant: first written “odd situation;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. We all get saved] → 370,25. he, Peter of the keys or Peter of the lies] Variant: changed from “him”. ― Peter of the keys: See Mt 16:18–19. According to the Roman Catholic Church’s traditional view, Peter was the first leader of the Church and at his death gave the power of the keys (i.e., to bind or release people from their sins) to the next pope and so on. ― Peter of the lies: A Danish word play: the Danish word for “keys” is nøgler, and the Danish word for “lies” is løgne.

condition of a happy life is that we commit no sin against ourselves and suffer no wrongs from others. Now there is no great difficulty about the first condition, but grave difficulty in compassing a power to protect oneself from suffering wrongs; ‘tis, indeed, only to be fully got in one way, by becoming fully good.” Translation from Plato: The Collected Dialogues, Including the Letters, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961; abbreviated hereafter as Plato: The Collected Dialogues), p. 1395. Yet the apostle presents things . . . cause God to hear ill] See, e.g., Rom 2:24. An Observation at This Moment. June 17] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. He had published the second issue of The Moment on June 6, while the contents of the third issue, which would appear on June 28, and which had as its theme the relationship between Church and state, had already been completed. On the day preceding this, Kierkegaard had published “What Christ Judges of Official Christianity” (included in M, 127–137; SKS 13, 171–181). had therefore indeed been the obligation] Variant: “indeed” has been added.

29

372

1

372m

Difference between Pers. and Pers. June 19, 55]  The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment (→ 372,29). Christianity’s proposition, the formula “to be loved by God . . . unhappy in this life.”] This proposition of Christianity is Kierkegaard’s own formulation. He developed this theme in The Moment, no. 6, article 3, “Fear Most of All to Be in Error!” (M, 211–213; SKS 13, 266–267); the draft of this piece was placed in a torn page of Berlingske Tidende dated June 19, 1855; see the “Critical Account of the Text” in SKS K13, 444. the God of love] See, e.g., 1 Jn 4:7–8 and 16.

28

373

2

374

What was said, as early as Plato . . . nor suffers wrong] Presumably, a reference to Plato’s dialogue The Laws (829a), where the happiest life is described as follows: “[T]he indispensable pre-

A metaphor that Socrates continually uses in the Republic . . . taken from the beehive] See bk. 8 of Plato’s Republic in Platons Stat [Plato’s Republic], trans. C. J. Heise, 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1851;

6

374

7

31

During the Publication of The Moment

9

vols. 4–6 of Udvalgte Dialoger af Platon [Selected Dialogues by Plato], 6 vols., 1830–1851; ASKB 1164–1167), vol. 3, p. 21 (552b–c), where Socrates says: “Shall we, then, say of him that as the drone springs up in the cell, a pest of the hive, so such a man grows up in his home, a pest of the state” (translation from Plato: The Collected Dialogues, p. 781). See also Platons Stat, vol. 3, pp. 25, 26, 29, 38, 49–50, 53, and 58. This metaphor] Variant: changed from “What he says about the”.

374

18

all-decisive] Variant: “all-” has been added.

374

23

Some Historical Data . . . Bishop Mynster. June 29]  The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. Kierkegaard had published the third issue of The Moment on the preceding day, June 28. ― Mynster: Jakob Peter Mynster (1775–1854), Danish pastor, writer, and politician; from 1834, bishop of the diocese of Zealand and thus primate of the Danish State Church. He was the great preacher of the age and the author of a good number of scholarly works. He had a seat in many governing organs, but after 1848, he often complained that his position as head of the Church had been made subject to a politically appointed cabinet minister. In accordance with the Danish system of rank and precedence, in 1847, Mynster, as bishop of Zealand, was ranked number thirteen in the first class and accordingly was to be addressed as “Your Eminence.” He died on January 30, 1854, and thus did not live to see the publication of the final three volumes of his Blandede Skrivter [Miscellaneous Writings], 6 vols. (Copenhagen, 1852–1857; ASKB 358–363) or the publication of his Meddelelser om mit Levnet [Communications about My Life] (Copenhagen, 1854), edited by his son, F. J. Mynster. How matters concerning Mynster . . . when Father died]. In his later years, Kierkegaard’s father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard (1756–1838), to whom Kierkegaard dedicated most of his edifying discourses, preferred Mynster as the priest for his family and himself. As first resident curate at Vor Frue Kirke (Church of Our

27

•

P a p e r 568–571 1855 •

673

Lady) in Copenhagen, J. P. Mynster was confessor for Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard from 1820 until 1828, when Mynster became chaplain at the Royal Chapel. The family heard Mynster’s sermons, but Mynster was also called upon for family weddings, burials, and confirmations. Kierkegaard was confirmed by Mynster on April 20, 1828 (see LD, ix, 4). When Kierkegaard’s father died, Kierkegaard decided to commemorate him by honoring Mynster. Kierkegaard wrote in a number of places of how, owing to his father, he had been brought up with Mynster’s sermons. For example, writing of his father in NB10:59 (1849), Kierkegaard notes that his father “promised me 1 rd. [rix-dollar (→ 402,25)] if I read one of Mynster’s sermons aloud to him, and 4 rd. if I’d write up the sermon I’d heard in church. I didn’t do it, of course” (KJN 5, 299). And in NB18:77 (1850), which is headed “Mynster’s Sermons―and Me,” Kierkegaard writes: “I was brought up on Mynster’s sermons―aber [“but”] by my father, a simple and unassuming and earnest and strict man to whom it would never in all the world have occurred not to act in accordance with what he read. Had I been brought up by Mynster, I would of course have found out on Mondays, Tuesdays, etc.―on weekdays―that a person is not after all a fantast who simply acts accordingly” (KJN 7, 310). According to his own account, after his father’s death, Kierkegaard attended all of Mynster’s Sunday sermons. He often refers to having inherited his father’s association with Mynster; see, e.g., NB:107 (1847), where he writes that he “will never forget him, always honor him, always think of my father when I think of him, and more need not be done” (KJN 4, 82). See also, e.g., Kierkegaard’s article from the dispute on witnessing for the truth, “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?” (1854), where he writes: “My life’s misfortune . . . was that I, brought up by a deceased father with ‘Mynster’s Sermons,’ also out of piety to that deceased father, honored this false promissory note instead of protesting it” (M, 8, translation modified; SKS 14, 126).

674 375

1

8

During the Publication of The Moment

I myself was the one who brought the news . . . how well he could remember Father] Kierkegaard has not written elsewhere of what was presumably his first conversation with Mynster at the bishop’s palace, when the bishop apparently had had difficulty in remembering Kierkegaard’s father. But six years later, in 1844, Mynster had no problem doing so. In the article “Kirkelig Polemik” [Ecclesiastical Polemic], which the bishop published in Intelligensblade [Intelligence Papers], nos. 41–42, January 1, 1844, under the mark “Kts,” he stated that “I have found it rather moving that Mag. S. Kierkegaard has always dedicated his edifying discourses to the memory of his late father. For I, too, knew that worthy man; he was a plain citizen, went his undemanding and quiet way through life, had never undergone any sort of philosophical bath . . . The son saw his father undergo bitter loss, as have I; he saw him fold his hands, bow his venerable head, he heard his lips speak those words, but has also seen his entire being speak it in such a fashion that he felt that what he wrote so beautifully concerning Job―‘he, too, is a teacher of mankind who has no doctrine to communicate to others, but who left posterity himself as an example, his life as a guide for every person’ who witnessed it; he felt that the old man ‘had, with his pious words, achieved victory over the world, was, in his pious words, greater and stronger and more powerful than the entire world’ ” (Intelligensblade, ed. J. L. Heiberg, 4 vols. [Copenhagen, 1842–1844; cf. ASKB U 56)] vol. 4, pp. 97–114; pp. 111–113). ― 6 years after: Variant: changed from “later”. Mynster sent Either/Or back to Reitzel . . . requested it] Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous works, including Either/Or (1843), were published on commission with the book dealer and publisher C. A. Reitzel. Reitzel’s usual practice was to send good customers new books that might interest them, and if this was not the case, the customer had the right to send it back. When Either/Or appeared, it attracted a good deal of attention owing, not least, to “The Diary of the Seducer,” which was captivating and provoked moral dis-

•

P a p e r 571 1855 •

approval. Kierkegaard does not enlarge upon this elsewhere. Fear and Trembling. The system. Mynster’s discussion in . . . Intelligensblade]  Fear and Trembling, by the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, appeared on October 16, 1843. It was in this work that Kierkegaard began his critique of “the System,” i.e., Hegelian philosophy, not least in the form represented by Danish Hegelians. In a debate on the principle of contradiction, Mynster had argued vehemently against Hegelianism, especially in the form represented by J. L. Heiberg. In his critique of modern philosophy in the article “Kirkelig Polemik,” published in J. L. Heiberg’s periodical Intelligensblade (→ 375,1), Mynster refers to Kierkegaard, both by emphasizing the pseudonymous work Fear and Trembling and by praising Kierkegaard’s recently published edifying discourses. Kierkegaard frequently adverts to this in his published work and his journals. The step I took against The Corsair] That is, Kierkegaard’s attack on M. A. Goldschmidt’s satirical weekly Corsaren [The Corsair]. Under the pseudonym Frater Taciturnus, Kierkegaard published the article “The Activity of a Traveling Aesthetician and How He Still Happened to Pay for the Dinner” in Fædrelandet, no. 2078, December 27, 1845, cols. 16653–16658 (see COR, 38–46; SKS 14, 77–84), in which he begged that he not be praised but rather that he might “soon appear in Corsaren.” Corsaren responded by publishing a series of satirical articles on, allusions to, and caricatures of Kierkegaard (see KJN 4, 453–456), which led to Kierkegaard’s being jeered at and mocked in the streets. No one publicly supported Kierkegaard in the conflict and―to Kierkegaard’s continually increasing resentment―Goldschmidt never apologized for the paper’s attack. Concluding Postsc. I brought it to him] The pseudonymous work Concluding Unscientific Postscript, with which Kierkegaard intended to conclude his work as a writer and in which Mynster is praised (see CUP, 622, 629; SKS 7, 564– 565, 572), was published on February 28, 1846. When Kierkegaard brought Mynster a copy is not known, but according to NB:57, which is dated

10

12

14

During the Publication of The Moment

16

19

November 5, 1846, Kierkegaard had already had a conversation with Mynster, who had advised him to seek a call as priest in a rural parish (KJN 4, 50–51). “We are complements.” For my part . . . the memory of my father] Kierkegaard returns to this event at several points in his journals; see, e.g., NB2:210 (1847), where Kierkegaard writes of Mynster’s pronouncement: “As soon as I spoke with him for the first time, and many times thereafter, I told Bishop Mynster as solemnly as possible that I expressed the opposite of what he expressed, and that (in addition to my respect for him) it was precisely for this reason that he was important to me. He solemnly conceded this in the conversation and, fully attentive, he replied that he understood me. At one point he said that we were one another’s complements; I, however, did not agree with this because it was more polite than what I could require, but merely repeated my difference categorically” (KJN 4, 222). He sent me his books, just as I sent him mine] Kierkegaard’s and Bishop Mynster’s practice of exchanging books probably began after Kierkegaard had given Mynster a copy of Concluding Unscientific Postscript, i.e., in 1846. It is likely that Kierkegaard had had copies of his edifying discourses, published under his own name, as well as Philosophical Fragments (1844), in which Kierkegaard appears as editor, sent to Mynster before then. Kierkegaard’s gift copies of the books he presented to Mynster are all impressively bound and contain exquisite dedications (see SKS 28, pp. 498, 501, 503, 506, 511, 513, 518, 521; and Gert Posselt, “Kierkegaard som boggiver” [Kierkegaard as a Giver of Books], in Tekstspejle. Om  Søren Kierkegaard  som bogtilrettelægger, boggiver og bogsamler [Textual Mirrors: On Søren Kierkegaard as a Designer, Giver, and Collector of Books] [Copenhagen, 2002], pp. 90–94). A bill from book dealer C. A. Reitzel, dated March 7, 1846, shows that Kierkegaard had himself purchased the second volume of Mynster’s Taler ved Præste Vielse [Discourses at Ordinations], 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1840–1851; ASKB 235–236), while the third volume could have been a gift. Mynster may, in addition, have given Kierkegaard Prædikener

•

P a p e r 571 1855 •

675

holdte i Kirkeaaret 1846–47 [Sermons Given in the 1846–1847 Church Year] (Copenhagen, 1847; ASKB 231); Prædikener holdte i Aaret 1848 [Sermons Given in the Year 1848] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 232); Om Hukommelsen, en psychologisk Undersøgelse [On Memory: A Psychological Investigation] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 692); Den hedenske Verden ved Christendommens Begyndelse [The Pagan World at the Beginning of Christianity] (Copenhagen, 1850; ASKB 693); Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1849 og 1850 [Sermons Given in the Years 1849 and 1850] (Copenhagen, 1851; ASKB 233); Den christne Kirkes Stiftelse [The Founding of the Christian Church] (Copenhagen, 1852; ASKB 72); Blandede Skrivter [Miscellaneous Writings], 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1852–1853; ASKB 358–363); and Prædikener holdte i Aarene 1851 og 1852 [Sermons Delivered in the Years 1851 and 1852] (Copenhagen, 1853; ASKB 234). did he try to use his position . . . “No, Your Right Rev., . . . another time.”] Kierkegaard’s Works of Love was advertised on September 29, 1847, as having been published. Bishop Mynster was presumably sent a copy as soon as the bookbinder was finished with it. Kierkegaard visited Mynster at the episcopal palace on November 4, and on the same day wrote about it in his journal, NB2:260: “Today I looked in at Bishop Mynster’s place. He said he was very busy―so I left immediately. But he was also very cool to me. He is probably offended by the most recent book. That is how I understood it. Perhaps I’m wrong. But I’m not wrong about something else: that it is precisely this that has given me a serenity I’ve not had before. I have always shrunk from writing what I knew would offend him, indeed, almost embitter him. I assume it has happened now. It has happened many times before, but he would not permit himself to be offended. But look, precisely what wounds for an instant is the very thing that gives me life and delight. I have never done the least thing to win his approval and consent, but it would have made me indescribably happy to have had him agree with me―for his sake as well, because the fact that I am right is something I know better than anything―from his sermons” (KJN 4, 238). ― the first time:

21

676

27

31

During the Publication of The Moment

Variant: changed from “shortly”. ― Your: Variant: Kierkegaard here uses the polite Danish form of address for “Your,” namely, Deres; what was first written was simply Bisho, i.e., “Bishop”. ― Right Rev.: According to the Danish system of rank and precedence (→ 360,9), the term “Right Reverend” was reserved for the higher and highest clergy. There were nine rank classes, with the bishops of Zealand (at that time, the bishop of Zealand was also the primate of the Danish State Church―there was no bishop of Copenhagen, as the episcopal seat was at Roskilde Cathedral) and Christiania (now Oslo) in the third class and Copenhagen’s parish priests and royal chaplains in the sixth. In 1847, Bishop Mynster’s title had been elevated to “Eminence.” Practice in Xnty. His remark per Pauli. The conversation with him the next day] Practice in Christianity was published on September 25, 1850. This provocative book, a copy of which was sent to Bishop Mynster, received very little public attention. On October 21, Kierkegaard met Paulli on the street, and the latter related that after having read the book, Mynster was angry and that he would say as much to Kierkegaard the next time Kierkegaard visited him. The next day, Kierkegaard visited the episcopal palace, an event he describes in detail in NB21:121 (1850) in KJN 8, 69–70. ― Pauli: Just Henrik Voltelen Paulli (1809–1865), Danish theologian and priest; theology graduate, 1833; from 1835, catechist at Church of the Holy Spirit; from 1837, palace priest at Christiansborg Castle Church (see map 2, B2), and from 1840, also court priest; member of the hymnal committee of the Copenhagen Clerical Conventicle, 1841–1844. Paulli was one of the most popular orators in Copenhagen. He was a schoolmate and friend of H. L. Martensen (→ 365m,1) and a close associate of Bishop J. P. Mynster, whose eldest daughter, Maria Elisabeth, Paulli married in 1843. The line with Goldschmidt. My conversation with him concerning it] In a piece from 1851, Yderligere Bidrag til Forhandlingerne om de kirkelige Forhold i Danmark [Further Contribution to Negotiations concerning the Ecclesiastical Situation in Denmark] (Copenhagen, 1851),

•

P a p e r 571 1855 •

Mynster had praised Goldschmidt as “one of our most talented authors.” Kierkegaard received Mynster’s work shortly after its publication (see NB23:189 in KJN 8, 296) but was offended by Mynster’s friendly mention of Goldschmidt. As early as p. 5 of the work, Mynster writes, “as an excellent French author―with whom we have become acquainted thanks to the publisher of Nord og Syd [i.e., Goldschmidt]―says, there is nothing more worthy of respect than ‘a people that defends its morals.’ ” But the passage Kierkegaard found most offensive was on p. 44, where Mynster writes, “Among the gratifying [‘]emergent phenomena[’]―we adopt this term from one of our most talented authors―that have appeared in the course of these discussions, is the echo found in a voice that has recently (see Fædrelandet, no. 26) inveighed against ‘the faith that the error is to be found in external things, that what is needed is a change in external things, which supposedly is to help us’ oppose the ‘disastrous confusion of politics and Christianity, a confusion that can so easily give rise to and make fashionable a new sort of reformation of the Church―a backward reformation that in reforming posits something new and worse instead of what is older and better.’ The gifted author will permit me, in conclusion, to borrow his words, ‘that Christianity, which has its life in itself, is supposed to be saved by free institutions, is in my view a complete misunderstanding of Christianity, which, when it is true in true inwardness, is infinitely higher and infinitely freer than all institutions, constitutions, etc.’ ” In his use of the term “emergent phenomena,” Mynster is alluding to Goldschmidt, who a couple of years earlier had suggested this word (Danish, Fremtoning) as a translation of the German term Erscheinung (see Nord og Syd, 1849, vol. 5, pp. 143–144); Goldschmidt’s term gradually gained acceptance in the Danish language. The reference to a “gifted author” is to Kierkegaard, and the quoted passages are from Kierkegaard’s article “Occasioned by a Reference to Me by Dr. Rudelbach,” which had appeared in Fædrelandet on January 31, 1851, no. 26; see COR, 55–56; SKS 14, 113. In the course of 1851, Kierkegaard wrote countless drafts of a polemical piece di-

During the Publication of The Moment

33 34

39

376

5

rected at Mynster in this connection; see Pap. X 6 B 171−208. Kierkegaard brought this matter up during a conversation with the bishop on May 2, 1851, which is related in detail in NB24:30 (in KJN 8, 337–339); see also the conversation of August 9, 1851 (NB24:121 in KJN 8, 402–404). During the last year, I scarcely saw him at all] Bishop Mynster died on January 30, 1854. The next-to-last time . . . and had bad eyes] Kierkegaard has not written of this conversation elsewhere. Then the last time . . . was toward the beginning of summer] Kierkegaard has not written of this conversation elsewhere. The only time I did not . . . the last time . . . I was at Koltorf’s sermon] See NB28:56 (dated March 1, 1854), where Kierkegaard writes the following concerning this relationship with Mynster up until the latter’s death: “And yet, I came very, very close to thinking that I would have to attack him. I missed hearing only one of his sermons, it was the last; it was not illness that prevented me from being there; on the contrary, I was in Kolthorf’s church. To me this meant, now it must happen. You must break with your father’s tradition: it was the last time M. preached. God be praised: wasn’t it indeed as if it were Governance[?]” (KJN 9, 264). ―  the last time: Bishop Mynster preached at 10:00 a.m. on December 26, 1853, at the Eucharist service at Christiansborg Palace Church. See J. P. Mynster, Meddelelser om mit Levnet. Af Dr. J. P. Mynster [From My Life: By Dr. J. P. Mynster], ed. F. J. Mynster (Copenhagen, 1854), which was advertised in Adresseavisen (abbreviated form of Kjøbenhavns kongelig alene privilegerede Adressecomptoirs Efterretninger [Information from Copenhagen’s Only Royally Licensed Advertising Office]),  no. 84, April 8, 1854, as having been published; the editor, F. J. Mynster, writes in an afterword that “his [J. P. Mynster’s] auditors agreed that they had almost never heard him preach with such power and enthusiasm as on last December 26. And that was his last sermon!” (p. 292). ―  at Koltorf’s sermon: i.e., at the Eucharist service (though Kierkegaard left, as was his custom, after the sermon had been delivered), on December 26, 1853,

•

P a p e r 571–572 1855 •

677

by lic. theol.  Ernst Vilhelm Kolthoff (1809–1890), Danish theologian and priest; theology graduate, 1830; licentiate in theology, 1834. After a stay in Germany, Kolthoff lectured as a privatdocent at the University of Copenhagen; served as second curate at the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, 1837–1843, then as second curate at Holmens Church in Copenhagen, 1843–1845, and thereafter as curate at Church of the Holy Ghost (Helliggeisteskirken, from 1881 known as Helligåndskirken [Church of the Holy Spirit]); from 1856 to 1880, he was parish priest at that church. In 1838, when Kierkegaard, who had been baptized in the Church of the Holy Ghost, turned twenty-five and thus attained the age of majority, it was no longer his father who chose his confessor, and Kierkegaard chose Kolthoff, who had been a guest at the Kierkegaard family home. Thereafter, Kierkegaard had heard Kolthoff preach many times, e.g., in 1849, where Regine Schlegel, Kierkegaard’s former fiancée, was also present (see NB12:29 [1849] in KJN 6, 159–160. The attacks on him lay ready.] Variant: first written “The attacks on him lay ready;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. ― The attacks: The many unpublished articles that Kierkegaard had written against Mynster in the period 1851–1853 (see, e.g., Pap. X 6 B 171–236) are among the things referred to here. How I came to learn of his death] Kierkegaard nowhere states how he came to learn that Bishop Mynster was dead. In NB28:56, dated March 1, 1854, Kierkegaard resumed writing in his journal after a two-month interval of silence with a remark on Mynster: “Now he is dead” (KJN 9, 264). Christendom’s Xnty. July 2.] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. Shortly before this, on June 28, Kierkegaard had published the third issue of The Moment, and a week later, on July 9, he published the fourth issue. ―in Xnty] Variant: added. least of all] Variant: changed from “often”. for he only wants to help you] Variant: first written, instead of “for”, “unless”.

8

9

10

12 24 24

376

678 29

377

7 10 12 17

377

26

36 37

378

9 9 25

378

27

379

2 2 18 22 23 24

379m

1

During the Publication of The Moment

the 1000 livings for the cure of souls and jobs for breadwinners] → 365,3. that, by coming into being,] Variant: added. must be turned] Variant: first written “must be turned in a somewhat different direction, if”. the 1000 oath-bound studmasters] → 365,3. folk religion] Kierkegaard here uses the Danish term Folk-Religion, i.e., “national religion” or “people’s religion.” Following the adoption of the Danish constitution of June 5, 1849, “den danske Statskirke” (“The Danish State Church”) had changed its name to the “Den danske Folkekirke” (“The Danish People’s Church”). To Die Away. July 2] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment (→ 376,10). ― To Die Away: → 369,3. to which he clings more tightly than] Variant: changed from “which is more firmly rooted than”. of the hum. body] Variant: added. hating oneself] Reference to Lk 14:26; see also Jn 12:25. of loving me] See, e.g., Mt 22:37. 1000 oath-bound Falstaffs] i.e., the priests who have sworn the priest’s oath (→ 365,3). ― Falstaffs: Reference to Shakespeare’s comic figure, the earthy, amoral Falstaff, who appears in the history plays Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV, Part II; and in the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. To Be a Christian. July 2] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment (→ 376,10). you are to die away] → 369,3. hate yourself] → 378,9. And yet he is love . . . a dying person;] → 374,2. ― but he can . . . dying person;: Variant: added. these hosts of oath-bound liars] i.e., the priests (→ 365,3). the key to the kingdom of heaven] Allusion to Mt 16:18–19 (→ 371m,1). not only do they themselves not enter] Refers to Mt 23:13. what an animal that is used for vivisection must suffer] It is not clear whether Kierkegaard is re-

•

P a p e r 572–577 1855 •

ferring to any specific article or book on vivisection (i.e., scientific experiments that involve operating on living animals). Vivisection is an important tool in experimental physiology, but even though Denmark had had some pioneers in this area, especially D. F. Eschricht and P. W. Lund  (see the latter’s dissertation, Physiologische Resultate der Vivisectionen neuerer Zeit [Physiological Results of Vivisection in Modern Times] [Copenhagen,  1825]), the great strides in this field did not take place until the second half of the nineteenth century. As early as the mid-nineteenth century there were protests in Denmark against vivisection, but a strong anti-vivisection movement arose only in the 1870s. Kierkegaard could also have been inspired by Schopenhauer, whose writings he had studied in 1854. In a note to § 66 of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung [The World as Will and Representation], 2 vols., 2nd aug. and improv. ed. (Leipzig, 1844; ASKB 773–773a), vol. 1, p. 421, Schopenhauer writes that people do have the right to eat animals because the suffering of the animals in this connection was less than the suffering of human beings in not eating meat, but he denies that there is any right to perform vivisection. A Metaphor. July 3, ’55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. Shortly before this, on June 28, Kierkegaard had published the third issue of The Moment, and on July 9, he published the fourth issue. the almighty Majesty of heaven and earth]  → 370,20.

26

379

16

380

It Hurts to Be Saved. July 5, 55] → 379,26. The demonic in the gospels . . . exempted from: being saved] Refers to Lk 8:26–39.

1

381

1

381m

If any priest wants . . . he must resign his office. July 7, 55] → 379,26. a royal official] → 365,3. occur to anyone] Variant: “to anyone” has been added. witnesses to the truth] → 360,26.

3

381

12 19 20

During the Publication of The Moment 30

382

1 9

the 1,000 or the 100, or whatever the state wants to give a person] i.e., the amount of rix-dollars (→ 402,25) in a priest’s annual salary. the oath upon the N.T.] → 365,3. right away . . . Pastor Paludan-Müller, offered his services]  While Kierkegaard’s first two newspaper articles in the controversy about “witnesses to the truth” were directed against Bishop Martensen’s portrayal of the late Bishop Mynster (→ 360,26), the third article, “A Challenge to Me by Pastor Paludan-Müller” (see M, 16–18; SKS 14, 137–138), published in Fædrelandet on January 12, 1855, was directed against the curate at Budolfi Church in Aalborg, Jens Paludan-Müller (1813– 1899) and against Paludan-Müller’s critical piece,  Dr. Søren Kierkegaards Angreb paa Biskop Mynsters Eftermæle [Dr. Søren Kierkegaard’s Attack on the Posthumous Reputation of Bishop Mynster] (Copenhagen, 1855; ASKB 2190), which had been published on January 6, 1855. Paludan-Müller, in a well-documented article, challenges Kierkegaard to produce examples supporting his allegations against Mynster: “And why, then, may not Bishop Mynster, with reference to his preaching of Christianity, be called a witness to the truth? It is stated that Bishop Mynster ‘tones down, veils, suppresses, omits some of what is most decisively Christian, what is too inconvenient for us human beings, what would make our lives strenuous, prevent us from enjoying life―that about dying to the world, about hating oneself, about suffering for the doctrine,’ etc. In Dr. Kierkegaard’s view, this is something that one does require particular discernment to see if one places the New Testament side by side with Mynster’s preaching.―If this accusation were true, Bishop Mynster would certainly not be a Christian witness to the truth, but it is definitely untrue. There is of course an entire, voluminous series of sermons, available to everyone, from which this can be decided. I am certainly not as discerning as Dr. S. Kierkegaard; I do, however, believe that I have knowledge, and rather exact knowledge of those who, as I, are also in possession of a rather certain guarantee of having understood the late bishop’s statements in accordance with his own views. I therefore challenge Dr. S. Kierkegaard to prove, with the New

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

679

Testament at his side, that his accusation, cited above, is in any way worthy of discussion; I shall take it upon myself to establish the fact that the accusation is entirely unfounded. If, in this voluminous series of sermons, someone wants to extract individual items and point to them, that sort of thing is not even worth responding to, and, even so, nothing could be pointed to in which it could be said that ‘some of what is most decisively Christian’ is denied, that there is anything that eases up in connection with the appropriation of Christianity. But with Dr. S. Kierkegaard a person is well protected against that sort of thing. But compare these sermons as a whole, from the first on John the Baptist to the last―that was not delivered, because death intervened―and no discernment is required in order to see that precisely what is so strongly emphasized as ‘some of what is most decisively Christian’ is an increasingly prominent aspect of Mynster’s sermons, that an increasingly sharp distinction is drawn between the kingdom of God and the world, and that, indeed, in the final period there at times appears a disdain for the world that is not entirely free of bitterness, but that at least ought to free the Right Reverend from the accusation of having ‘toned down, veiled, suppressed, and omitted what is required in order to embrace Christianity’ ” (pp. 6–7). ― reverend: Specific forms of address were associated with the various rank classes in the official system of rank and precedence (→ 360,9), according to which “Your Reverence” was used in connection with clerics of the lowest rank or priests who were not included in the system of rank classification at all. an anonymous person in Berlingske T[idende] Paludan-Müller’s piece was reviewed anonymously in Berlingske Tidende, no. 7, January 9, 1855; the review reads as follows: “We direct attention to this excellent essay that has been elicited by Dr. S. Kierkegaard’s attack on Bishop Mynster. It illuminates the doctor’s conduct far more completely than could be done in a newspaper article. The author shows with clarity and thoroughness that ‘both the criterion that Dr. Kierkegaard applies and the judgment he passes are equally wrong, and that his objection to

14

680

During the Publication of The Moment

calling the late bishop a witness to the truth, as has been done, is a quite direct, ungrateful sullying of the posthumous reputation of a venerable person.’ How untrue and unjust S. Kierkegaard’s accusation is against Bishop Mynster―that his preaching omits some of what is most decisively Christian―is fully illuminated by the excellent description of Mynster’s sermons provided by the author, and now it is Herr Dr.’s task to accept the challenge directed at him: ‘I therefore challenge Dr. S. Kierkegaard to prove, with the New Testament at his side, that his accusation, cited above, is in any way worthy of discussion; I shall take it upon myself to establish the fact that the accusation is entirely unfounded.’ The noble image of the deceased is presented in opposition to the attack on Bishop Mynster’s personality, and the truth shines from its every feature. ‘Indeed! How discerning Dr. Søren Kierkegaard really is! The secrets of the heart lie open to his gaze, and he has thus seen into the heart of the deceased, presumably with the assistance of experimental psychology; from him, at any rate, the deceased has not succeeded in concealing himself. We other mortals are indeed not so discerning. We assume that when a man has been true to himself from youth to old age, despite his inner being having been greatly moved, then he has character; that when, during a long life, he has not altered his being or his character, despite having been drawn out onto the stage where conflicts and the temptations are most powerful, then he has principles; that when he has been unafraid to summon forth opponents within the field of his professional life, that when, in individual instances, whether or not his views were correct, he has indeed not shrunk back from the ill will that is always aroused when one simply refuses to adopt the view of things shared by others, then one has a conviction. We assume that when a man, from his youth to venerable old age, has led a working life of uninterrupted rigor, then he is not self-indulgent; that when the only office he has sought was to become a curate, not even a parish priest with a congregation, while others, on their own initiative, have called him to higher posts in society, then it is not he who has sought to take advan-

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

tage of the world’s outward honors; that when a man has never accepted anything beyond his officially appointed salary and what others have voluntarily given him out of gratitude, then it is not he who has sought to take advantage of world’s wages; that when in his public conduct, both as a country priest and as a bishop, a man has chastised sin and wickedness more strictly than anyone else and has stood in opposition to the times’ changing vogue of popular opinion, then he has not flattered the world. All these things have been true of the late Bishop Mynster, all these are facts that are open to inspection by all and that one can find without forcing one’s way into the secret chamber of his heart. I assume that he knew better than anyone else how to bar entry to that chamber to any intruder, including Dr. Søren Kierkegaard.’ We, too, assume that Bishop Mynster barred Søren Kierkegaard from the secret chamber of his heart. Everyone who had some acquaintance with Bishop Mynster knows that he was not a man who permitted someone to experiment with him. What makes this short piece especially interesting is its fitting judgment of Dr. S. Kierkegaard’s standpoint: ‘Neither the Lord nor his apostles preaches Christianity in that way; but at some points Herr Doctor wants to be more Christian than our Lord Christ himself and his apostles, as, e.g., at several points in his Practice in Christianity. He can get children―or those who have an interest in keeping Christianity as distant as possible from the true nature of human beings―to imagine that in their preaching the Lord and his apostles had no other intent than to make difficulties, to repulse, to bring a person to a halt; he will not get his view into the head or heart of anyone (scarcely even himself) who is capable of gathering the evangelical message into a single standpoint and a single impression.’―‘If, as Dr. S. Kierkegaard wants to have it, the decisive emphasis is placed on the element of inwardness, then faith itself becomes a deed, and Christianity becomes―something that perhaps this entire standpoint amounts to―a refined Pelagianism. A person is justified not by the grace of God, which is placed in the background, but by virtue of and in relation to inward efforts to acquire

During the Publication of The Moment

15

grace, efforts that are to be the criterion for the truth of faith.’ Recently there is greater recognition of what is misleading and confusing in Dr. S. Kierkegaard’s writings. With Pastor PaludanMüller’s piece and Bishop Martensen’s article in this newspaper, we have now obtained all the essential points of a critique of those writings. What these articles have shown with certainty and clarity is that what Dr. S. Kierkegaard emphasizes as most decisively Christian is, in his writings, mixed with human teachings and human inventions, and that the self-concocted Christianity that he recommends therefore leads a person away from the Church and its means of grace and must end up in either self-righteousness or despair. Pastor Paludan-Müller has correctly indicated what is false and incompatible with Christianity in Dr. S. Kierkegaard’s standpoint when he says that Kierkegaard, ‘with his extreme hot-tempered passion for inwardness and overwrought ideality with respect to Christianity, has played into the hands of a coarse and unchristian externality.’ In his vehemence, the Herr Doctor has turned against himself the weapons with which he wanted to annihilate Bishop Mynster. His two articles in Fædrelandet have annihilated him as an edifying author.” As is well known, I refused this invitation] In his article “A Challenge to Me by Pastor PaludanMüller,” Kierkegaard rejects Paludan-Müller’s challenge: “The reason I do not intend to engage in this is that I am afraid that there could be a trap here, so that, if I entered into it, it would very shortly turn the whole issue and the position of the issue into something altogether different from what it is. The issue is “Was Bishop Mynster a ‘Witness to the Truth,’ One of ‘the Real Witnesses to the Truth’―Is This the Truth?” The issue is: from my side a strongly worded protest against representing, from the pulpit, Bishop Mynster as a witness to the truth, one of the authentic witnesses to the truth, one of the holy chain. Now perhaps this should be forgotten, the whole thing be changed into a prolix, learned, theological investigation with quotations and quotations etc. about Mynster’s preaching and the learnedness of the participants, we surely would soon be in deep

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

681

water up to our ears. No, thanks!” (M, 16–17, translation slightly modified; SKS 14, 137). a Norwegian article (which Flyve-Posten . . . by a Norwegian)] The Norwegian newspaper Christiania-Posten [The Christiania Post] (Christiania was renamed Oslo in 1925) carried running summaries of Kierkegaard’s battle with the Church (presumably written by Th. C. Bernhoft) in, e.g., no. 2325, February 27, 1855, which carried both Paludan-Müller’s piece and Kierkegaard’s reply; in no. 2335, March 9, 1855, it carried a piece concerning the anonymous attack on Kierkegaard, to which Kierkegaard himself refers here; and in other issues of the newspaper, including no. 2358, April 1, 1855, about yet another anonymous attack on Kierkegaard. A reprint of the first polemical article against Kierkegaard plus a reference to the account in the above-mentioned Christiania-Posten’s issue 2335 is found in Flyveposten [The Flying Post] no. 63, March 15, 1855, under the headline “Dr. S. Kierkegaard’s Attack on the Posthumous Reputation of Bishop Mynster”: “The dispute about this matter, which seems to have been dying down here, has been shifted to the Norwegian press. After a summary in Christianiaposten of all the contributions in this affair that have appeared thus far, a Norwegian has now raised his voice in the above-mentioned newspaper in the following fashion: Dr. S. Kierkegaard has made the question ‘Was Bishop Mynster a Witness to the Truth?’ an object of dispute in the daily newspapers, that is, not the subject of a dispute that is carried on among the learned, but one in which the great mass of common people is to participate. It must therefore also be permissible for a person who is not a theologian to address a few words to the reader about the sort of impression this dispute has made on him and about how, in his opinion, it is to be understood. When someone publicly raises and discusses a question such as this: ‘Was Bishop Mynster a witness to the truth?,’ one would think that the intent was to summon up a literary exchange of views during which this could be made the object of a thorough discussion concerning what value ought properly be attributed to Bishop Mynster as a clerical teacher and preacher. This, however,

17

682

During the Publication of The Moment

is not S. Kierkegaard’s intent. He does not want to involve himself in any discussion of Bishop Mynster’s writings; he even declares directly that he will not have anything to do with any debate worth speaking of. In his first article he challenges the reader to place the New Testament alongside Mynster’s sermons, which he believes will have the result that even the less perspicacious person will see that the two do not harmonize. But after being invited (by J. Paludan-Müller) himself to lay down the New Testament and point out where Mynster’s sermons are in conflict with scripture, he flatly refuses to comply. Indeed, not merely that, but he even warns his comrades in arms against getting involved in citing any passages―in other words, against making any attempt to support their allegation―by pointing out to them that in so doing they would change the battle into something completely different than what he has intended and would thereby ‘serve his opponent.’ It is thus firmly established that S. Kierkegaard does not wish that there be any comprehensive and thorough investigation of Bishop Mynster’s activity; that, on the contrary, he shrinks from and fears this sort of thing because he realizes that it would stand in the way of attaining the end he has set before himself. But, this being the case, it seems that neither can S. Kierkegaard require that people should believe that it is a matter of the truth for him. The person who fights for the truth cannot wish for anything other than that the matter in dispute be subjected to the sort of treatment that will enable the general public to pass independent judgment on it. But, this is what Herr Kierkegaard, on the contrary, seeks to prevent while seeking to impress the readers merely with outspoken allegations and far-fetched turns of phrase, in order thus to instill in them the belief that there might after all be something in what he writes. That this is the correct understanding of the actual purpose and character of the dispute is also clear not only from this anxiety of Kierkegaard’s about its coming to an actual debate and from this warning to his allies about avoiding any step that could lead to that because

•

P a p e r 577 1855 •

by so doing they would ‘serve his opponent.’ This is also clear from the entire manner in which Kierkegaard has conducted the dispute. When there is a question of judging a deceased person who was important as a clerical teacher and writer, one would think that his surviving writings would have to form the essential basis for the judgment. But as has already been pointed out, in the case of Mynster’s writings, Kierkegaard limits himself to the blanket assertion that they do not live up to the requirements of scripture about the renunciation of the goods of this world. On the contrary, Kierkegaard presents the life of the late bishop, from beginning to end, in a light that can give rise to the notion that he was not a Christian. It is not up to us to judge whether it is Christian to cast a shadow like this upon a deceased person, whose life is generally judged to have been dedicated to the noblest sorts of work; this much is certain and shall not be denied: that doing so is extremely at variance with what is generally regarded as decency among good and thoughtful men. This sort of thing would never have been tolerated from anyone else, but with S. Kierkegaard the situation is, after all, that owing to the peculiar manner in which he presents things, he has brought things to the point that, with him, everything is put down to the account of originality, even when he permits himself to say the crudest things that one would condemn had anyone else said them. And what information, then, does S. Kierkegaard have that can be put forward as proof that in his life, Mynster was not a true preacher of Christianity? None, absolutely none, other than that he was a bishop and outwardly led a life like that of every other bishop. This, in Kierkegaard’s view, is proof enough that he was a self-indulgent man who had not learned to forsake this world. If S. Kierkegaard is right about this, then no bishop has ever been a true Christian, for he has not informed us of anything regarding Bishop Mynster other than what can be said of everyone who has occupied the same position in society. The fact that S. Kierkegaard has made use of the deceased’s life rather than his writings on which to base his

During the Publication of The Moment complaint is, by the way, easily explained, for Bishop Mynster’s writings are available to everyone and they cannot be distorted; the life of someone who has died is not something tangible, and by presenting it in an unfavorable light a person is usually able to bring forth in many people a lingering, unfavorable impression. The circumstance that Kierkegaard, according to his own account, deliberately delayed his attack on Bishop Mynster until the bishop was dead and buried ‘with full pomp,’ is also an aspect of the matter that deserves closer attention. Kierkegaard himself, repeatedly invoking the name of God, says that this was done in order to spare the deceased. No one, of course, can contend that this is not true, but it is certain that according to ordinary standards, it would have been more honorable if he had attacked him while he was alive, and that one could easily come to call cowardly the circumstance that it was postponed until his death. And by the same token, it is certain that if Kierkegaard had―and this seems to be something one ought to be able to presuppose―been led to this step by the desire to counter what was, in his view, the harmful effect Mynster’s preaching had upon the people, then he would not have been able to remain silent, for if it was a matter of countering the dissemination of false teaching among the people, then there can be no talk of remaining silent in order to spare the teacher. Kierkegaard himself has felt or sensed that objections such as these could be raised against the step he has taken, but he thinks he can avoid them by saying that this is a ‘misunderstanding’ or a ‘ladies’ fuss.’ This, however, is merely one of his usual polemical artifices, inasmuch as he―quite shrewdly―calculates as follows: That the fewest readers will count themselves among those who misunderstand what they read, or among the ladies who make a ‘fuss’ because they cannot digest his writings. But most likely one dare assume that by making use of these and similar artifices, Kierkegaard will not be able to get very many to join his side. He would certainly stand as good as alone were it not for the fact that so many have the weakness of wanting to be among the profound.”

•

P a p e r 577–578 1855 •

683

my reply was: Many thanks, no, Pastor P. M.] See Kierkegaard’s article “A Challenge to Me by Pastor Paludan-Müller” (see M, 16–18; SKS 14, 137–138), where the answer is “No, thanks!” (→ 382,15). the late bishop] → 374,23. Syrio-Chaldean] The language Jesus spoke; Aramaic. 1000 Reverends and Right Reverends] Reference to the clergy (→ 365,3), both the lower clergy (→ 382,9), and the higher clergy (→ 375,21). from a Christian point of view] Variant: first written “since they”. by the priests] Variant: added. without a system] Presumably, an allusion to H. L. Martensen, who in the preface to Den christelige Dogmatik [Christian Dogmatics] (Copenhagen, 1849; ASKB 653), without mentioning any name, referred to Kierkegaard’s writings as “random thoughts and aphorisms, sudden discoveries and hints” (p. iii), i.e., that they were unsystematic, unscholarly. most likely also a priest] The author of this article is not known.

24

1

382m

To Love God or To Love What Is Ugly. July 10, 55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. On July 9, the day before, Kierkegaard had published the fourth issue of The Moment. The heading appears to be ambiguous because it can be understood both as: “Either Love God or Love the Devil (who is ugly),” and as “To Love God Is to Love What Is Ugly,” as Socrates said―see NB2:77 (1847) in KJN 4, 171, and Works of Love (1847); see WL, 371–372; SKS 9, 366–367. just about] Variant: first written “everyone”. the perfectibility of Xnty] This expression was used in early Lutheran dogmatics in connection with Christianity’s capacity for development and perfection. In the latter part of the 18th century, the idea was adopted by rationalist theology, which regarded the history of Christianity as a progressive development toward ever greater perfection. In the 19th century, the idea of perfectibility was refashioned in connection with

1

384

27

383

3 9

17 24 25

8 11

684

13

17

21 23 28

385

2

4

14 15

16

23

385

25

During the Publication of The Moment

notions concerning the history of philosophy and of culture, e.g., by the Hegelians. The notion was widely embraced in Kierkegaard’s day, e.g., by H. L. Martensen and N.F.S. Grundtvig. “as God’s Word slips into the student”] An idiomatic expression meaning that something goes down quickly and easily, is easily understood. flesh and blood] An idiomatic designation of human beings as mortals; occurs six times in the NT. See, e.g., Gal 1:16, 1 Cor 15:50, Mt 16:17, and Eph 6:12. it teaches that to love God is: to die, to die away] → 369,3. blessed is he who is not offended] Cited freely from Mt 11:6. as an object for . . . contemplation: a human skull] The reference is directed in particular to a custom common in the 17th century, when the human skull was much used as a symbol of the perishability of all things. Skulls can thus be seen in baroque paintings, church ornamentation, book illustrations, et al. a naked Venus] i.e., a cast statuette of the Roman goddess Venus (Greek, Aphrodite), who was the goddess of love and feminine beauty. Things of this sort could be purchased at the plaster cast shop on Strøget; see FF:171 (1838) in KJN 2, 99. a speculative priest] i.e., a priest who views Christianity only philosophically but does not himself practice it. newest development] Variant: preceding this, “highest” has been deleted. Christian family life] I. M. Hjort’s Danish translation of H.W.I. Thiersch’s book Om det christelige Familieliv [On Christian Family Life] (originally published in German, 1855) appeared on April 10, 1855. The New Testament . . . preference for the unmarried state] See, e.g., 1 Cor 7:7; see also Mt 19:1–12. having the priest take an oath upon the New Testament] → 365,3. That, from a Christian Standpoint, It Is Precisely the Mediocre . . . Satan’s Intrusion. Aug. 13th, 55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s

•

P a p e r 578–580 1855 •

battle with official Christianity in The Moment. On July 28, Kierkegaard had published the fourth issue of The Moment; the fifth issue came out on August 24. Xt himself in his relationship to Peter] A reference to Mt 16:21–23. in order, from a Christian standpoint,] Variant: changed from “in order”. in fawning upon God, in sparing itself] A reference to Mt 16:22. he is an apostle] Variant: changed from “he”. in comparison] Variant: preceding this, “nonetheless” has been deleted. Get thee behind me, Satan! . . . but what is man’s]  Cited from Mt 16:23. ― not what is God’s, but] Variant: changed from “only”. the offense] Variant: thus in EP; Pap. has “unto offense”. these thousands of gainfully employed teachers of Xnty] i.e., the priests (→ 365,3). to hate oneself] → 378,9. what Xt says to him . . . when you are converted] Reference to Lk 22:32. That What I See . . . Gave Nourishment to the Disease . . . Aug. 23, 55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. The sixth issue of The Moment, dated “August 23, 1855,” appeared the next day. ― Permitting the Illusion . . . to the Disease] Variant: deleted by Kierkegaard but restored by the editors of SKS. ― Aug. 23, 55: Variant: changed from “May 17th 55.”. Already in one of the first centuries . . . for the enemies are called Xns] → 387m,3. where the danger lies and then] Variant: “and then” has been added. A martyrdom when confronted with pagans . . . so familiar, so established] Refers to the Christians of the first centuries, who were persecuted because of their faith; many suffered martyrs’ deaths during these persecutions, some by being burned at the stake, others by being beheaded, still others by being thrown to wild animals. in the strictest sense] Variant: added.

3

386

4 14 20 28 31

37 6

387

11 6

386m

29

387

36 14 17

22

388

During the Publication of The Moment 39

387m

389

3

1

5

17

in reverse fashion.] Variant: changed from “in reverse fashion;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. The bishop in one of the first centuries . . . our enemies are called Xns] According to NB23:143 (1851) in KJN 8, 276, this is a reference to the following passage in a letter by Basil that appears in the chapter “Basilius” [Basil] in F. Böhringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographieen [The Church of Christ and Its Witnesses, or the History of the Church in Biographies], 7 vols., numbered 1.1–1.4 and 2.1–2.3 (Zurich, 1842–1855; ASKB 173–177), vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 190n.: “The afflictions are oppressive, and yet it is in no way a martyr’s death, for our persecutors bear the same name as we.” Basil of Caesarea, or Basil the Great, ca. 330–379; became a Christian and was baptized ca. 356–357; after a period as a hermit, he became presbyter in 364, and in 370 bishop of Caesarea in Cappodocia in Asia Minor, where he founded “Basilias,” his home for the poor and the sick; one of the most famous fathers of the Greek Church; laid the dogmatic groundwork for the doctrine of the Trinity. “Christendom’s” Christianity Aug. 25, 55] This entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. The sixth issue of The Moment had appeared on August 24, 1855. the Jew who told the story and left out the point]  No source has been identified. See Stages on Life’s Way (1845): “But no one laughs at erotic love. For this I am prepared―prepared to be embarrassed in the same way as the Jew who after ending his story said: Is there no one who laughs?” (SLW, 37; SKS 6, 41). the minor premise] In classical logic, a categorical syllogism is an argument consisting of two premises and a conclusion. The one premise, which is to contain the subject concept of the conclusion, is called the minor premise; the other premise, called the major premise, contains the predicate concept of the conclusion.

•

P a p e r 580–584 1855 •

685

That the Xnty of “Christendom” . . . Abyss of Twaddle. Aug. 30] This entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment; on the same day Kierkegaard published the seventh issue of The Moment, which was dated that day. ―Twaddle.: Variant: preceding this, “Nonsense.” has been deleted. making Xnty solely into a “gift”] Compare to the unpublished article “Where Does the State Get the Money with Which It Pays the Teachers of Christianity?” (1855;  Pap. XI 3 B 115), in which Kierkegaard explains further that Christianity must be understood not only as a gift (Danish, Gave) but also as a task (Danish, Opgave) and an obligation. the entire hum. race] Variant: “entire” has been added. for everyone.] Variant: first written “for everyone;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue.

23

The Church―The Public. Aug. 30, 55] → 389,23.

31

390

What Became My Misfortune . . . Far from Complaining about It! 1 Sept.] This entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. Kierkegaard had published the seventh issue of The Moment on August 30, and he dated the eighth issue September 11. Kierkegaard planned for the last major account of his work as an author, called “My Task,” to appear in the tenth issue of The Moment (see M, 340–347; SKS 13, 404–411), where it was likewise dated September 1, 1855. That I was noble enough . . . to The Corsair]  → 375,12. ― That I was . . . voluntarily: Variant: changed from “That I voluntarily exposed myself”. I magnanimously expended my life on Bishop Mynster] After J. P. Mynster died (→ 375,33), Kierkegaard often complained that he had always stood at Mynster’s side. See his deathbed remark, from October 18, 1855, to his lifelong friend Emil Boesen: “You have no idea what a poisonous plant Mynster was. You have no idea of it; it is staggering how it has spread its corruption” (Bruce H. Kirmmse, Encounters with Kierkegaard: A

14

391

1

391m

389

28

29 36

3

686

During the Publication of The Moment

Life as Seen by His Contemporaries [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996], p. 125). 391

18

392

5

392

14

19 23

393

7 9 11

17 17 32

394

9 19 20 26 35

395

7

Christianity’s First Time. Xnty’s Second Time. Sept. 13th, 55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. Kierkegaard dated the eighth issue September 11, and it appeared on September 14, 1855. police agents] i.e., plainclothes detectives. That “Christendom” Is the Human Race’s Effort . . . to Defend Itself against Xnty. . . . Sept. 22, 55] The entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. On September 25, Kierkegaard published the ninth issue of The Moment, which would be his last publication. The illness that, among other things, caused weakness in his legs, had already begun ca. September 18. Two weeks later, Kierkegaard was admitted to Frederik’s Hospital (see B&A, vol. 1, p. 21). Christ has required “imitators.”] See Mt 10:38. briefly and decisively,] Variant: changed from “briefly and decisively.”, with the period indicating the end of the sentence. do not come to understand Xnty] Variant: preceding “Xnty” the word “what” has been deleted. historical and learned] Variant: added. There are insects that know how to protect . . . by raising dust] It is not known what insects Kierkegaard had in mind. battalions] Large military units of ca. 800–1,000 soldiers; crowds, flocks. legions] Roman military units of ca. 4,500–6,000 soldiers; large crowds of indefinite size. God’s purpose,] Variant: “God’s” has been added. being abandoned by God] Refers to Jesus’ last words on the cross as related in Mt 27:46. he can in any way] Variant: first written, instead of “can”, “must”. in fear and trembling] Allusion to Phil 2:12. the N.T., the proclamation of Xt . . . an evil world] See, e.g., 1 Jn 5:19. millennia are like one day] Refers to 2 Pet 3:8. grace proclaimed to the race] Variant: “to the race” has been added.

•

P a p e r 584–587 1855 •

trips to the Deer Park] i.e., trips to Jægersborg Dyrehave, a wooded area adjacent to Klampenborg, a village north of Copenhagen, which was a favorite recreational destination for Copenhageners. This was also the location of Dyrehavsbakken (“the Hill at the Deer Park”), the site of Kirsten Piil’s Spring, which supposedly had curative properties and which in summer was surrounded by a market with various booths and tents featuring jugglers, sideshows, acrobats, and other forms of popular entertainment. one takes life from a bird by pumping away its air] Presumably, a reference to an experiment popular in the late 18th century in which the existence of a vacuum was demonstrated by placing a bird (or another small animal) in a glass container such as a bell jar, and then pumping out the air, with the result that the bird suffocated. See, e.g., Joseph Wright’s well-known painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump from 1768. It is not known whether Kierkegaard saw a print of this picture. to have to stand alone,] Variant: added. Hum. numbers] Variant: preceding this, “But” has been deleted. Xnty consists precisely in fearing God rather than hum. beings] Allusion to Mt 10:28; see also Acts 5:29. The strictest asceticism of the Middle Ages]  → 363,4. what I am writing here will be declared] Variant: first written, instead of “declared”, “admired”. the common man] Kierkegaard’s preferred term for people of the lower social classes. being oneself bound by oath to] → 365,3. Strangely] Variant: first written “Thus was”. velvet-clad] → 360,8. bespangled] → 366,20. sufferings of others, which] Variant: first written, instead of “which”, “because”.

17

Brief Remarks. Sept. 23, 55] This two-part entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment. On September 25, he published the ninth issue of The Moment, which was to be his last publication (→ 392,14). Kierkegaard had previously used the heading

3

22

26 34 37

3

396

7 16 28 30 38 38 42

397

During the Publication of The Moment

6

11

24 26 35

398

3

18

398

24

31

“Brief Remarks” in the sixth issue of The Moment (M, 221–222; SKS 13, 275–276), and he would use it again in the tenth issue (M, 348–354; SKS 13, 412–418) which he was just about to finish editing. In the New T., the formula for being a Xn is: to fear God more than hum. beings] See, e.g., Mt 10:26–39. ― the formula for: Variant: added. then eo ipso Xnty no longer exists] Kierkegaard’s point, that Christianity simply does not exist, is first properly expressed in Practice in Christianity (1850), written in 1848–1849, where, e.g., he states: “Christendom has abolished Christianity without really knowing it itself. As a result, if something is to be done, one must attempt again to introduce Christianity into Christendom,” or “Christianity has been quite literally dethroned in Christendom; but if this is so, then it has also been abolished” (PC, 36 and 227; SKS 12, 49 and 221). This assertion subsequently became a leitmotif in Kierkegaard’s attack on the Church. a sect, which indeed is what it is called in the N.T.] Refers to Acts 24:14. by Calling Humility What Is in Fact Shirking.] Variant: changed from “Humility.” humility and modesty] Perhaps an allusion specifically to F.L.B. Zeuthen, who had written a magister thesis with the title, “De notione modestiæ, inprimis philosophicæ” [On the Concept of Modesty, Regarded from the Standpoint of Philosophy in Particular], and who later wrote an essay titled “Om Ydmyghed” [On Humility] (Copenhagen, 1852; ASKB 916). Xt’s description of how difficult it is to enter into the kingdom of heaven] Refers to Mt 19:23– 24. Yes, quite true, when] Variant: first written, instead of “when”, “when someone does not know his lessons any better than you do,”. Only a Pers. of Will Can Become a Xn. Sept. 23rd, 55]  This entry was written toward the end of the attack on the Church (→ 397,3). This is what has been designated . . . the new obedience] Refers to article 6 of the Augsburg Confession: “Concerning the New Obedience. Likewise they teach that this faith is bound to

•

P a p e r 587–589 1855 •

687

yield good fruits and that it ought to do good works commanded by God on account of God’s will and not so that we may trust in these works to merit justification before God. For forgiveness of sin and justification are taken hold of by faith, as the saying of Christ [Lk 17:10] also testifies: ‘When you have done all these [things] . . . say, “We are worthless slaves.” ’ The authors of the ancient church teach the same. For Ambrose says: ‘It is established by God that whoever believes in Christ shall be saved without work, by faith alone, receiving the forgiveness of sins as a gift.’ ” From The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Weigert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), p. 41. Kierkegaard owned Den rette uforandrede Augsburgske Troesbekjendelse med sammes, af  Ph. Melanchton  forfattede, Apologie [The True, Unaltered Augsburg Confession together with the Apology for Same by Ph. Melanchthon], trans. A. G. Rudelbach (Copenhagen, 1825; ASKB 386); see pp. 49–50. the most phlegmatic] Variant: “most” has been added. place them in mortal danger] Variant: first written, instead of “them”, “him”. comparable with something about which there are ethical doubts . . . vivisection] No source for this has been identified (→ 379m,1). The asceticism of the Middle Ages] → 363,4. Yes, Indeed, Bishop Mynster Was Great! Sept. 24, 55]  This entry was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment (→ 397,3). It bears the same date as The Moment, no. 9. ― Mynster: → 374,23. into the actuality of this life.] Variant: first written “into the actuality of this life;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. Now, because the “Christian” state . . . is a Christian] When a person was confirmed, he or she received a confirmation certificate, which was of great significance. Without it a person could not get the (servant’s) conduct book that was necessary when seeking a position or when traveling out of the parish. Furthermore, one could

11

399

12 20

25 10

20

28

400

688

35

35

35

38

401

20 25 29

36 37

402

9 20

During the Publication of The Moment

not seek a civil service career or marry without a confirmation certificate. ― the “Christian” state: Variant: changed from “the state”. Tivoli] The popular amusement park Tivoli had been founded in 1843 by G.J.B. Carstensen on a portion of the ramparts outside of Vesterport (see map 3, C3). steamboat] At the time, there were about twenty steamboats (paddle wheelers) in service in Denmark. bus] Originally an omnibus (Latin, “for all”); a designation for a large, enclosed coach that provided passenger transportation along a regular route. The first, horse-drawn, buses in Copenhagen date from ca. 1842. available] Variant: first written “to spend”. require the whole of] Variant: before “the whole”, the word “ about” has been deleted. was the bank for] i.e., he was the guarantee for. a banknote . . . with the endorsement: [“]Mynster.[”]] Allusion to the inscription “Against cash, which the bank owns . . . ,” which was found on all paper currency in rix-dollar (→ 402,25) denominations printed in the period 1814– 1873. For example, on the 1834 series (which, with minor changes in 1845–1850, was still current in Kierkegaard’s day): “Against cash, which the bank owns, this rix-bank certificate issued for ONE HUNDRED RIGSBANKDALER and is exchanged upon demand for silver coin.” The bank, i.e., the National Bank, was thus always obligated to have in reserve an amount of silver or gold that was equal to the face value of the paper currency. naturally they know very well] Variant: “naturally” has been added. a number of years ago in north Zealand . . . made them very well] No source for this has been identified. drawn on eternity] Variant: “on eternity” has been added. For instance, toward the conclusion . . . a trust fund that was to bear his name] On July 2, 1851, at the diocesan conference in Roskilde, a major celebration was held to mark the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Mynster’s ordination as a priest. A detailed account of the entire event

•

P a p e r 589 1855 •

appeared in Berlingske Tidende, no. 154, July 7, 1851. An address composed by a committee was also printed in the paper: “Your Excellency! Through us, fellow citizens of all stations and of every area of the country, whose gaze has been directed to you with devotion and veneration for so many years, present themselves to you. It was not possible for them to know that an activity through which such a wealth of blessings in so many areas has sprung―to know that this activity had continued for almost half a century―without feeling the need to bear witness to how deeply and intensely they appreciate what, in you, the Lord has given the Danish Church. Aware, as we are, of Your Excellency’s wish to avoid every sort of dramatic ceremony and to spend the actual day for the celebration of the anniversary of your professional career in the quiet circle of your family, and honoring this wish, yet, feeling the need to satisfy the demands voiced by the universal feeling of gratitude, we have felt it best to satisfy these two wishes at the diocesan conference that is about to begin, at which Your Excellency finds himself surrounded by a circle of men who, from close and deeply felt professional relationships, have learned to love and revere you, to present you with what is regarded as the worthiest testimony to the universal appreciation of your work, which has been so rich in blessings, inasmuch as we have the honor to put at your disposal the funds for endowing a charitable trust, which we beg might bear the name Bishop Mynster’s Jubilee Trust, though we leave it to Your Excellency to decide the more specific details. This fund, the precise size of which we are unable to state at the moment, because not all of the contributions have yet been received, but which at a minimum will amount to 7,100 rix-dollars (→ 402,25), is the result of voluntary contributions from every part of Denmark, a list of which will subsequently be made available to Your Excellency” (col. 2). Mynster, shrewd as always, found occasion to express publicly his gratitude for the considerable sum] See Berlingske Tidende, no. 207, September 6, 1851, where Bishop Mynster of-

23

During the Publication of The Moment fers thanks for the celebration of his career: “Beforehand, I had, for a number of reasons, wished that the day on which, 50 years ago, I was appointed to my first clerical position could pass unnoticed. My colleagues and fellow citizens have wanted things differently and they have worked their will in a manner that calls forth my most profound gratitude and will always be among the most cherished memories life has bequeathed me. Not only was the day that was chosen very beautiful and joyous for me, but the memory of it will be preserved in the charitable trust that was founded and which I have now received from the honored men who amassed it with such friendly solicitude―the significant sum of 8,173 rix-dollars [→ 402,25]. Because I cannot express my thanks to the widely spread donors, the many benefactors, precious friends, highly respected colleagues, and so many whom I do not know personally, who have been so kind as to contribute, I permit myself to choose this way of expressing to them all my deeply felt gratitude and the assurance that, in a time that has seen many charitable appeals, I appreciate doubly the many generous contributions that have been given, I appreciate just as fully the generosity of those who do not possess rich gifts that they could bring, but who have nonetheless wanted to demonstrate their loving participation. Owing to the generosity of the donors, the decision concerning the future uses of the trust has been left to me, and I will endeavor to do this in keeping with the intention and, despite the fact that people wanted to have my name attached to it, the blessed wishes of thanks from those whose needs have been alleviated by this will be the property of the noble donors. Everyone, after he has traveled most of his path here below, must wish for the consolation of not having lived in vain. In appreciating, with the most heartfelt gratitude, that my fellow citizens have wanted to give me this consolation, I dare assume, in addition, that this occasion also attests to how deeply rooted in our people are the love of the teachings that I have, with the voice granted me, tried to proclaim for many years, and of the Church, to which I have

•

P a p e r 589 1855 •

689

devoted my best efforts. Copenhagen, September 5, 1851. Mynster” (cols.1–2). about 7000 rix-dollars] At the meeting in Roskilde it was announced that the sum collected was 7,100 rix-dollars (→ 402,25), whereas at the point the money was given to Mynster, a total of 8,173 rix-dollars had been collected (→ 402,23). ― rix-dollars: According to a law of July 31, 1818, passed in the wake of the Danish state bankruptcy of 1813, the rix-dollar was the basic unit of currency. The rix-dollar was divided into six marks, each of which was further divided into sixteen shillings; thus there were ninety-six shillings in a rix-dollar. A pair of shoes cost about three rix-dollars, and a one-pound loaf of rye bread (the staple of the day) cost between two and four shillings. A judge earned 1,200–1,800 rix-dollars a year; a mid-level civil servant earned 400–500 rix-dollars a year; a qualified artisan would receive 200 rix-dollars a year, plus free food and lodging from his master; a maidservant received at most 30 rix-dollars in addition to room and board. the New T. is of the opinion that it is . . . more or less impossible] Refers to Mt 19: 23–24. shillings] → 402,25. the monument] Shortly after Bishop Mynster’s death on January 30, 1854, a collection was taken to pay for a cenotaph to commemorate him; the collection was advertised regularly in the newspapers. A notice that appeared in Berlingske Tidende, no. 33, February 8, 1854, reads as follows: “With his personality, with his clerical activities, and with his writings in various fields, Bishop Mynster has for more than half a century exercised an influence upon his times that places him in the class of the fatherland’s most remarkable men. He belonged to that period whose standard-bearers we see depart, one after the other, and for whom we needs must place a memorial that can, for coming generations, be a testimony to the recognition of their worth that they were granted during their lifetimes. In the conviction that Danish men and women share this feeling and would like to show their deep respect for our departed bishop, the priests of Copenhagen

25

29 40 41

690

42

During the Publication of The Moment

hereby invite contributions for erecting an appropriate monument at the Church of Our Lady. A committee of the above-mentioned group will be appointed to work out the details of implementing this. It seems to us that any contributions that may possibly be received in excess of what is needed would find appropriate use by being added to Bishop Mynster’s Jubilee Trust. At this point, we do not believe that we need say more on this matter. Signed plans and contributions (Note: without wanting to stipulate anything specific about the amount of contributions, it has been found appropriate―in the same spirit as seen recently in the solicitation for contributions for a memorial for Holberg―to suggest that it be 1 rix-dollar [→ 402,25]), to be accepted by all the priests of the capital or at Gyldendal’s or Reitzel’s book shops. Copenhagen, February 7, 1854.” The progress of the collection could be followed in Berlingske Tidende, as the names of the contributors and the amounts of their donations were publicized there. The result was a monument created in 1855 by Hans Christian Tybjerg, to which a portrait in relief by Jens Adolf Jerichau was added ca. 1856, though the composite monument, which is still placed in a side aisle of the Church of Our Lady, was not officially unveiled until 1858. a rhetorician, or (to call to mind Berlingske Tidende’s naive but truthful obituary] Refers to Berlingske Tidende, no. 25, January 30, 1854, where the following appeared on the day of Bishop Mynster’s death: “In every part of the land this message will be heard with sadness: that Jacob Peter Mynster, the bishop of Zealand, the ornament of the Danish Church, the great witness to the Christian faith, has come to the end of his life’s path. He fell ill on Saturday and expired early this morning. He delivered his last sermon on December 26, retaining the same power with which he always preached the Word. What he has been and what he has done have often been acknowledged, but now it will appear all the more clearly when, at the conclusion of his life, we look back upon the almost 80 years he lived here. A personality with, we could say, such plasticity as his is only rarely born among us. He stood out

•

P a p e r 589–591 1855 •

in his times with his highly gifted intellect, which revealed itself in service not only to the Church, but also to the state and to the learned world. People have listened to his clear, mature voice of conviction wherever it could be heard, and in the future people will often return with veneration to the edifying and instructive words that are preserved in a hitherto unequaled eloquence, while his name is inscribed at our history’s loftiest level, alongside Oehlenschläger’s and Ørsted’s” (col. 1). ―  a rhetorician, or: Variant: preceding “or” the word “stylist” has been deleted. ― naive but truthful: Variant: added. about a teacher,] Variant: following “teacher”, “of 2 Christianity” has been deleted. 6 the reckoning of eternity] → 367,10. as a stylist had distinguished himself with] 7 Variant: changed from “as a stylist had distinguished himself with”, which had been changed from “in the capacity of having attained”. a hitherto unequaled eloquence] Cited from  7 Berlingske Tidende (→ 402,42). his plasticity of form]  Cited, with modifications 9 from Berlingske Tidende (→ 402,42). 9 “also out of piety for my late father”] → 374,27.

403

400m

Brief Remarks. Sept. 24, 55] This entry with the two “Brief Remarks” (→ 397,3) was written during Kierkegaard’s battle with official Christianity in The Moment (→ 400,10). an almost appalling influence] Variant: “almost” has been added. if a storm] Variant: first written, instead of “if”, “in the”. 1000 priests] → 365,3. in fear and trembling] → 394,20. the reckoning of eternity] → 367,10. such great respect . . . make a living.] Variant: written vertically along the edge of the paper.

10

1

405m

This Life’s Destiny, Understood from a Christian Point of View. Sept. 25, 55] This, Kierkegaard’s last dated entry, was written the same day that the ninth issue of The Moment was published (→ 397,3); a week later, October 2, Kierkegaard was admitted to Frederik’s Hospital, where he died on November 11, 1855.

6

405

403

16 18 5

404

11 12

During the Publication of The Moment 17 23 26

406

5 10

11 12 12 17 27 35

406m

11

The guilt] Variant: changed from “The sin”, which had been changed from “The guilt”. the Creator’s] Variant: changed from “God in”. by my grace] Variant: changed from “by God’s”, which had been changed from “under God’s”. God is love] → 374,2. of angels.] Variant: changed from “of angels;”, with the semicolon apparently indicating that the sentence was to continue. the sort of beings] Variant: first written, instead of “beings”, “hum. beings”. legions] → 393,17. 10 rix-dollars] → 402,25. the last lap] Presumably, an allusion to 2 Tim 4:7. a singer] Variant: first written “about a”. to the extent that] Variant: first written “to”. does it; . . . does believe in God.] Variant: marginal note concluded in the main column.

•

P a p e r 591 1855 •

691

MAPS Map 1, Copenhagen Locator Map 694

Map 2, Copenhagen with outer Suburbs 696

A

|

B

|

|

1

|

2

|

3

4

Map 1

C

|

D

E

|

F

|

G

|

H

1

| 2

| 3

| 4

A

|

B

|

|

1

|

2

|

3

4

Map 2

C

|

D

CALENDAR For January 1, 1843, through December 31, 1843 698 For January 1, 1844, through December 31, 1844 700 For January 1, 1845, through December 31, 1845 702 For January 1, 1846, through December 31, 1846 704 For January 1, 1847, through December 31, 1847 706 For January 1, 1848, through December 31, 1848 708 For January 1, 1849, through December 31, 1849 710 For January 1, 1850, through December 31, 1850 712 For January 1, 1851, through December 31, 1851 714 For January 1, 1852, through December 31, 1852 716 For January 1, 1853, through December 31, 1853 718 For January 1, 1854, through December 31, 1854 720 For January 1, 1855, through December 31, 1855 722

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Shrove Tuesday

Quinquagesima

St. Peter’s Chair

Sexagesima

Septuageisma

5th S. a. Epiphany

Candlemas

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 The Annuciation 4th S. in Lent

3rd S. in Lent

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day 40 Martyrs

1st S. in Lent

Ash Wednesday

March Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Palm Sunday Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Moving Day Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W 5th S. in Lent

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 6th S. a. Easter

Ascension Day

5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

May Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt. 2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

Pentecost Pentecost Monday

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

698 N OTEBOOKS

1843

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Tu W 3rd S. a. Trinity/ The Visitation Th F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. a. Trinity Th F Sa Su M Tu 6th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M Tu 7th S. a. Trinity W Th

July 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Su M 12th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 13th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 14th S. a. Trinity W Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu 15th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa St. Michael and all Su Angels M Tu Sa 30 F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 20th S. a. Trinity

19th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

18th S. a. Trinity

17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

October W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 24th S. a. Trinity

23rd S. a. Trinity

St. Martin 22nd S. a. Trinity

21st S. a. Trinity

All Saints’ Day

November F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

4th S. in Advent Christmas Day St. Stephen

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1843 699

1843

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday St. Peter’s Chair

Quinquagesima

Sexagesima

Septuagesima

Candlemas

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 S. in Lent

Palm Sunday

5th S. in Lent / The Annuciation

4th S. in Lent

40 Martyrs 3rd S. in Lent

2 nd

March M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Su Good Friday M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Moving Day Th F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 3rd S. a. Easter Tu W Th Fr

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Sa Su Great Prayer Day M Tu 4th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu 5th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su Ascension Day M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa Su

May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

4th S. a. Trinity

7 Sleepers

3rd S. a. Trinity / Birth of John Bapt.

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany 1st S. a. Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

700 N OTEBOOKS

1844

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

8th S. a. Trinity

th

7 S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

St. Michael / 17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

15th S. a. Trinity

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

September Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21th S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trinity

October F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 25th S. a. Trinity

24th S. a. Trinity

23th S. a. Trinity St. Martin

22th S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1844 701

1844

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

New Year’s Day

Sa Su M Tu 2nd S. a. Christmas W Th Epiphany F Sa Su M Tu 1st S. a. Epiphany W Th F Sa Su M Tu Septuageisma W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Sexagesima Th F

January 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Sa Quinquagesima / Su Candlemas M Tu Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday W Th F Sa Su 1st S. in Lent M Tu Ember Day W Th F Sa Su 2nd S. in Lent M Tu W Th F St. Peter’s Chair Sa 3rd S. in Lent Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

February 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. in Lent / 40 Martyrs Th F Sa Su M Tu Palm Sunday W Th F Sa Maundy Thursday Su Good Friday M Tu Easter Day W Easter Monday Th The Annuciation F Sa Su M Tu W 1st S. a. Easter 4th S. in Lent

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 5th S. a. Easter

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu Trinity Sunday W Th F Sa Corpus Christi Su M Tu st 1 S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M

Ascension Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

6th S. a. Trinity

7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

5th S. a. Trinity

4th S. a. Trinity

3rd S. a. Trinity

2nd S. a. Trinity

June

AND

4th S. a. Easter

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

May

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

Great Prayer Day

Moving Day

3rd S. a. Easter

2nd S. a. Easter

April

702 N OTEBOOKS

1845

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 15th S. a. Trinity

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

12th S. a. Trinity

11 S. a. Trinity th

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

W Th F Sa Su M 16th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 17th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th Ember Day F Sa Su M 18th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 19th S. a. Trinity St. Michael and all W Angels Th F Tu 30 M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 23th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

22th S. a. Trinity

21th S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

October Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

27th S. a. Trinity

26th S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

25th S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day 24th S. a. Trinity

November M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1845 703

1845

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 M Tu W Th F Sa Su Septuagesima M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Sexagesima Tu W Th F Sa Su Quinquagesima / M St. Peter’s Chair Tu Shrove Tuesday W Ash Wednesday Th F Sa Su M 1st S. in Lent Tu W

4th S. a. Epiphany Candlemas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 5th S. in Lent

The Annuciation

4th S. in Lent

3rd S. in Lent

40 Martyrs

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day

March Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Sa Su M Palm Sunday Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M st 1 S. a. Easter Tu W Moving Day Th F Sa Su M Tu 2nd S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pentecost Pentecost Monday

6th S. a. Easter

Ascension Day

5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

May Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

3rd S. a. Trinity / 7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

June

AND

3rd S. a. Epiphany

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

S. after New Year

New Year’s Day

January

704 N OTEBOOKS

1846

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

4th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Th 30

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W St. Michael and all Angels

16th S. a. Trinity

15th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

September F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21st S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trinity

17 S. a. Trinity th

October M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

24th S. a. Trinity

23rd S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

22nd S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1846 705

1846

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day

1st S. in Lent St. Peter’s Chair

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday

Quinquagesima

Sexagesima

Candlemas

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Palm Sunday

The Annuciation

5th S. in Lent

4th S. in Lent

40 Martyrs

3rd S. in Lent

March Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Maundy Thursday Sa Su Good Friday M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W Moving Day Th F Sa Su M 3rd S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Great Prayer Day Su M

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Trinity Sunday

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 M 28 Tu 29 W 30

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 5th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Ascension Day Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa Su 4th S. a. Easter

May

4th S. a. Trinity / 7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

3rd S. a. Trinity

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

June

AND

Septuagesima

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

S. after New Year

New Year’s Day

January

706 N OTEBOOKS

1847

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 13th S. a. Trinity

12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Th 30

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W St. Michael and all Angels

17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

15th S. a. Trinity

14th S. a. Trinity

September F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 S. a. Trinity

22nd S. a. Trinity

21st S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

20th S. a. Trinity

19th S. a. Trinity

18 th

October M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

25th S. a. Trinity

24th S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

23rd S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1847 707

1847

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Sexagesima

St. Peter’s Chair

Septuagesima

6th S. a. Epiphany

5th S. a. Epiphany

Candlemas

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 The Annuciation 3rd S. in Lent

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday 40 Martyrs

Quinquagesima

March Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M Tu W Th F Sa Su M 5th S. in Lent Tu W Th F Sa Su M Palm Sunday Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Moving Day Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W 4th S. in Lent

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

2nd S. a. Easter

May Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt. 1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

Pentecost Pentecost Monday

6th S. a. Easter

Ascension Day

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

New Year’s Day 2nd S. a. Christm.

January

708 N OTEBOOKS

1848

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

4th S. a. Trinity

3rd S. a. Trinity

2nd S. a. Trinity / The Visitation

July Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Th 30

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F St. Michael and all Angels

14th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

13th S. a. Trinity

12th S. a. Trinity

11 S. a. Trinity th

September Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

15th S. a. Trinity

October W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 23th S. a. Trinity

22th S. a. Trinity

St. Martin 21th S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

4th S. in Advent Christmas Day St. Stephen

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1848 709

1848

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday St. Peter’s Chair

Quinquagesima

Sexagesima

Septuagesima

Candlemas

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Su M Tu 2nd S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su 40 Martyrs M Tu 3rd S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. in Lent / The Annuciation Th F Sa Su M

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th Moving Day F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 3rd S. a. Easter Tu W Th

Palm Sunday

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 F Sa Su Great Prayer Day M Tu 4th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu 5th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Ascension Day Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa

May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7 Sleepers

3rd S. a. Trinity Birth of John Bapt.

2nd S. a. Trinity /

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany 1st S. a. Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

710 N OTEBOOKS

1849

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

4th S. a. Trinity

July W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

August Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 17th S. a. Trinity

St. Michael

16th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

15th S. a. Trinity

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

September M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21th S. a. Trinity

20 S. a. Trinity th

Moving Day

19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trinity

October Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 25th S. a. Trinity

24th S. a. Trinity

23th S. a. Trinity / St. Martin

22th S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1849 711

1849

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2nd S. in Lent

St. Peter’s Chair

Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday

Quinquagesima

Candlemas Sexagesima

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 M Tu 3rd S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M 40 Martyrs Tu 4th S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. in Lent Th F Sa Su M Tu Palm Sunday W The Annuciation Th F Sa Maundy Thursday Su Good Friday M Tu Easter Day

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

Moving Day

2nd S. a. Easter

1st S. a. Easter

Easter Monday

April W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Sa Su M Tu 5th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Ascension Day Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu Trinity Sunday W Th F Sa Corpus Christi Su

May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

5th S. a. Trinity

7 Sleepers

4th S. a. Trinity Birth of John Bapt.

3rd S. a. Trinity

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

June

AND

Septuagesima

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

712 N OTEBOOKS

1850

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 13th S. a. Trinity

12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

August

M

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

14th S. a. Trinity

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 15th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M Tu 16th S. a. Trinity W Th Ember Day F Sa Su M Tu 17th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M 18th S. a. Trin. / St. Tu Michael and all W 30 Th Angels

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 22nd S. a. Trinity

21st S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

20th S. a. Trinity

19th S. a. Trinity

October F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 26th S. a. Trinity

25th S. a. Trinity

24th S. a. Trinity St. Martin

23rd S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1850 713

1850

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Sa 3rd S. a. Epiphany / Su Candlemas M Tu W Th F Sa 5th S. a. Epiphany Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su Septuageisma M Tu W Th F St. Peter’s Chair Sa Su Sexagesima M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Tu W Th F Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday Sa Su M Tu W 1st S. in Lent / 40 Martyrs Th F Sa Ember Day Su M Tu W 2nd S. in Lent Th F Sa Su M Tu W 3rd S. in Lent Th The Annuciation F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. in Lent W Quinquagesima

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Th F Sa Su M Tu 5th S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu Palm Sunday W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Moving Day Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Ascension Day

5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

2nd S. a. Easter

May Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

2nd S. a. Trinity

7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

Pentecost Pentecost Monday

6th S. a. Easter

June

AND

3rd S. a. Epiphany

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Christmas Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

714 N OTEBOOKS

1851

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

4th S. a. Trinity

3rd S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

7 S. a. Trinity th

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

W Th F Sa Su M 12th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 13th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th Ember Day F Sa Su M 14th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 15th S. a. Trinity St. Michael and all W Angels Th F Tu 30 M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 19th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

18th S. a. Trinity

17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

October Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

23rd S. a. Trinity

22nd S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

21st S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day 20th S. a. Trinity

November M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1851 715

1851

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 M Tu W Th F Sa Su Septuagesima M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Sexagesima Tu W Th F Sa Su Quinquagesima / M St. Peter’s Chair Tu Shrove Tuesday W Ash Wednesday Th F Sa Su M 1st S. in Lent Tu W

4th S. a. Epiphany Candlemas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 5th S. in Lent

The Annuciation

4th S. in Lent

3rd S. in Lent

40 Martyrs

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day

March Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Sa Su M Palm Sunday Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M st 1 S. a. Easter Tu W Moving Day Th F Sa Su M Tu 2nd S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pentecost Pentecost Monday

6th S. a. Easter

Ascension Day

5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

May Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

3rd S. a. Trinity / 7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

June

AND

3rd S. a. Epiphany

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

S. after New Year

New Year’s Day

January

716 N OTEBOOKS

1852

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

4th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

July Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Th 30

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W St. Michael and all Angels

16th S. a. Trinity

15th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

September F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21st S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trin.

17 S. a. Trinity th

October M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

24th S. a. Trinity

23rd S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

22nd S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1852 717

1852

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3rd S. in Lent

St. Peter’s Chair

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday

Quinquagesima

Candlemas

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. in Lent W Th F 40 Martyrs Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. in Lent Th F Sa Su M Tu Palm Sunday W Th F Sa Maundy Thursday Su Good Friday/ M The Annuciation Tu Easter Day W Th Easter Monday F Sa

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

Moving Day

3rd S. a. Easter

2nd S. a. Easter

1 S. a. Easter st

April Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 W Th F Sa Ascension Day Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu Trinity Sunday W Th F Sa Corpus Christi Su M Tu 1st S. a. Trinity W Th

5th S. a. Easter

May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

5th S. a. Trinity 7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt.

4th S. a. Trinity

3rd S. a. Trinity

2nd S. a. Trinity

June

AND

Sexagesima

Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su M

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

Septuagesima

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

New Year’s Day S. after New Year

January

718 N OTEBOOKS

1853

F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th Fr Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation 6th S. a. Trinity

July M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

August Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Sa Su M 15th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 16th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 17th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu 18th S. a. Trinity W Th F St. Michael and all Sa Su Angels M

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 23rd S. a. Trinity

22nd S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

21st S. a. Trinity

20th S. a. Trinity

19th S. a. Trinity

October Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1st S. in Advent

26th S. a. Trinity

25th S. a. Trinity

St. Martin

24th S. a. Trinity

All Saints’ Day

November Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1853 719

1853

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Shrove Tuesday

Quinquagesima

St. Peter’s Chair

Sexagesima

Septuageisma

5th S. a. Epiphany

Candlemas

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 The Annuciation 4th S. in Lent

3rd S. in Lent

2nd S. in Lent

Ember Day 40 Martyrs

1st S. in Lent

Ash Wednesday

March Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Palm Sunday Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Moving Day Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W 5th S. in Lent

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 6th S. a. Easter

Ascension Day

5th S. a. Easter

4th S. a. Easter

Great Prayer Day

3rd S. a. Easter

May Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7 Sleepers

Birth of John Bapt. 2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

Ember Day

Pentecost Pentecost Monday

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

1st S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

720 N OTEBOOKS

1854

Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Tu W 3rd S. a. Trinity/ The Visitation Th F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. a. Trinity Th F Sa Su M Tu 6th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa Su M Tu 7th S. a. Trinity W Th

July 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

8th S. a. Trinity

August F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Su M 12th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M 13th S. a. Trinity Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu 14th S. a. Trinity W Th F Ember Day Sa Su M Tu 15th S. a. Trinity W Th F Sa St. Michael and all Su Angels M Tu

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 20th S. a. Trinity

19th S. a. Trinity

Moving Day

18th S. a. Trinity

17th S. a. Trinity

16th S. a. Trinity

October W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 24th S. a. Trinity

23rd S. a. Trinity

St. Martin 22nd S. a. Trinity

21st S. a. Trinity

All Saints’ Day

November F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

4th S. in Advent Christmas Day St. Stephen

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1854 721

1854

M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Ember Day

1st S. in Lent

Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday St. Peter’s Chair

Quinquagesima

Sexagesima

Septuagesima

Candlemas

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Su M Tu 2nd S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su 40 Martyrs M Tu 3rd S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu 4th S. in Lent W Th F Sa Su M Tu W 5th S. in Lent / The Annuciation Th F Sa Su M

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Tu W Th F Maundy Thursday Sa Good Friday Su M Easter Day Tu Easter Monday W Th F Sa Su M 1st S. a. Easter Tu W Th Moving Day F Sa Su M 2nd S. a. Easter Tu W Th F Sa Su M 3rd S. a. Easter Tu W Th

Palm Sunday

April 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 F Sa Su Great Prayer Day M Tu 4th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu 5th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Ascension Day Su M Tu 6th S. a. Easter W Th F Sa Su M Tu Pentecost W Pentecost Monday Th F Ember Day Sa

May 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

7 Sleepers

3rd S. a. Trinity / Birth of John Bapt.

2nd S. a. Trinity

1st S. a. Trinity

Corpus Christi

Trinity Sunday

June

AND

4th S. a. Epiphany

Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

February

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS

3rd S. a. Epiphany

2nd S. a. Epiphany

Epiphany 1st S. a. Epiphany

New Year’s Day

January

722 N OTEBOOKS

1855

Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

8th S. a. Trinity

7th S. a. Trinity

6th S. a. Trinity

5th S. a. Trinity

The Visitation

4th S. a. Trinity

July W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 12th S. a. Trinity

11th S. a. Trinity

10th S. a. Trinity

9th S. a. Trinity

August Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 17th S. a. Trinity

St. Michael

16th S. a. Trinity

Ember Day

15th S. a. Trinity

14th S. a. Trinity

13th S. a. Trinity

September M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21th S. a. Trinity

20 S. a. Trinity th

Moving Day

19th S. a. Trinity

18th S. a. Trinity

October Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 25th S. a. Trinity

24th S. a. Trinity

23th S. a. Trinity / St. Martin

22th S. a. Trinity

All Saint’s Day

November Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M Tu W Th F Sa Su M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1st S. a. Christmas

Christmas Day St. Stephen

4th S. in Advent

Ember Day

3rd S. in Advent

2nd S. in Advent

1st S. in Advent

December

C A L E N D A R 1855 723

1855

CONCORDANCE From Søren Kierkegaards Papirer to Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks 727

727

Concordance Pap. KJN Paper

Pap. KJN Paper

Pap. KJN Paper

Pap. KJN Paper

II A 802 II A 803 II A 804 II A 805 II A 806 II A 807 IV C 1 V A 109 V A 110 V A 111 V A 112 VI A 142 VI A 143 VI A 144 VI A 145 VI A 146 VI A 147 VI A 148 VI A 149 VI A 150 VI A 151 VI A 152 VI A 153 VI A 154 VI A 155 VI A 156 VI C 2 VI C 3 VI C 4 VI C 5 VII 1 A 129 VII 1 A 130

VII 1 A 131 VII 1 A 132 VII 1 A 133 VII 1 A 134 VII 1 A 135 VII 1 A 136 VII 1 A 137 VII 1 A 138 VII 1 A 139 VII 1 A 140 VII 1 A 141 VII 1 A 142 VII 1 A 143 VII 1 A 144 VII 1 A 145 VII 1 A 146 VII 1 B 221 VII 1 B 222 VII 1 B 223 VII 1 B 224 VII 1 B 225 VII 1 B 226 VII 1 B 227 VII 1 B 228 VII 1 B 229 VII 1 B 230 VII 1 B 231 VII 1 B 232 VII 1 B 233 VII 1 B 234 VII 2 B 262 VIII 1 A 657

VIII 1 A 658 384 VIII 1 A 661 401:1 VIII 1 A 662 401:2 VIII 1 A 663 402 VIII 1 A 664 403 VIII 1 A 665 404:1 VIII 1 A 666 404:2 VIII 1 A 667 405 VIII 1 A 668 406:1 VIII 1 A 669 406:2 VIII 1 A 670 406:3 VIII 1 A 671 407 VIII 1 A 672 408 VIII 1 A 673 409:1 VIII 1 A 674 409:2 VIII 1 A 675 410 VIII 1 A 676 411 VIII 1 A 677 412 VIII 1 A 678 413 VIII 1 A 679 414 VIII 1 A 680 415 VIII 1 A 681 417 VIII 2 B 79 364 VIII 2 B 80 365:1 VIII 2 B 81 365:2 365:3 365:4 365:4.a 365:5 365:5.a 365:5.b 365:6 365:7 365:7.a 365:8 365:9 365:9.a 365:10 365:10.a 365:11 365:12

365:12.a 365:12.b 365:13 365:14 365:15 365:15.a 365:16 365:17 365:18 365:19 365:19.a 365:20 365:21 365:22 365:23 365:23.a 365:24 VIII 2 B 82 366:1.a 366:1.b 366:1.c 366:1.d 366:1.e 366:1.f 366:1.g 366:2 366:2.a 366:3 366:4 366:5 VIII 2 B 83 VIII 2 B 84 VIII 2 B 85

305:1 305:2 305:3 305:3 305:4 305:5 306 306.a 306.b 306.c 306.d 306.e 306.f 306.g 307 308 318 440 316:1 316:2 316:2 315:1 315:2 315:3 317 324 325 323:1 323:2 323:3 323:4 319 320 321 322 326:1 326:2 326:3 326:3 339 340:1

340:2 340:3 340:3.1 340:4 340:5 340:6 340:7 340:8 340:9 340:10 340:11 340:12 340:13 340:13.1 340:14 340:14.1 340:15 340:15.a 340:15.b 340:15.c 340:15.d 340:16 340:17 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 357.a 358 359 360 361 362 363 372:3 383 383.1

366:1

367 367 368:1 368:1.a 368:2 368:2.a 368:2.b 368:2.c 368:3 368:3.a 368:3.b

728 368:4 368:4.a 368:4.b 368:4.c 368:5 368:5.a 368:5.b 368:6 368:6.a 368:7 368:7.a 368:7.b 368:8 368:8.a 368:9 368:9.a 368:10 368:10.a 368:10.a.a 368:11 368:12 368:13 368:13.a 368:13.b 368:14 368:14.a VIII 2 B 86 369 369.a 369.b 369.c VIII 2 B 87 370 370.a VIII 2 B 88 371:1 371:1.a 371:1.b 371:1.c 371:1.d 371:1.e 371:1.f 371:1.g 371:1.h 371:1.i 371:1.j VIII 2 B 89 371:2 371:2.a 371:2.b 371:2.c 371:2.d 371:2.e 371:2.f

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS IX A 492 IX A 493 IX A 494 IX A 495 IX A 496 IX A 497 IX A 498 IX A 499 IX A 500 X 5 A 151 X 5 A 152 X 5 A 153 X 5 A 157 X 5 A 158 X 5 A 159 X 5 A 160 X 5 A 161 X 5 A 162 X 5 A 163 X 5 A 164 X 5 A 167 X 5 B 30 X 6 B 64 X 6 B 65 X 6 B 66 X 6 B 67

371:2.g 371:2.h 371:2.i 371:2.j 296 416 416.a 416.b 416.c 418 419 420:1 420:2 421 422 423 311 311.a 312 444 445.a 389 389.1 390 445 445.b 445.c 445.d 445.e 445.f 445.g 385 386 387 391 391.a 391.1 465 465.a 399 349:1 349:1.a 349:2 349:2.a 349:2.b 349:3 349:3.a 349:3.b 349:4 349:5

AND

X 6 B 237 X 6 B 238 X 6 B 239 X 6 B 240 X 6 B 241 X 6 B 242 X 6 B 243 X 6 B 244 X 6 B 245 X 6 B 246 X 6 B 247 X 6 B 248 X 6 B 249 X 6 B 250 X 6 B 251 X 6 B 252 X 6 B 253 X 6 B 254 X 6 B 255

N OTEBOOKS 424 426 427 428 428.1 428.a 428.b 428.c 428.d 428.e 430 429 429 425 446 393 394.a 395 395.1 395.a 395.b 395.c 395.d 395.e 395.g 395.f 394 394.1 394.b 394.c 394.d 394.e 394.f 394.g 394.h 394.i 392 388 396 397 398 431 431.a 431.b 431.c 431.d 431.e 431.f 431.g 431.h

X 6 B 256 X 6 B 257 X 6 B 258 X 6 B 259 X 6 B 260 X 6 B 261 X 6 B 262 X 6 B 263 XI 2 A 280 XI 2 A 281 XI 2 A 282 XI 2 A 283 XI 2 A 284 XI 2 A 285 XI 2 A 286 XI 2 A 287 XI 2 A 288 XI 2 A 289 XI 2 A 290 XI 2 A 291 XI 2 A 292 XI 2 A 293 XI 2 A 294 XI 2 A 295

431.i 431.j 431.k 431.l 431.m 432:1 432:2 433 434 434.a 434.b 434.c 439 435 436 437 438 438.a 452 452.a 452.b 451 451.a 451.b 450 449 449.a 449.b 448:1 448:2 448:3 447 477 477.a 476 476.a 476.b 476.c 476.d 475 475.a 468 467:1 467:2 466 466.a 466.b 466.c 466.d 464

C ONCORDANCE XI 2 A 296 XI 2 A 297 XI 2 A 298 XI 2 A 299 XI 2 A 300 XI 2 A 301 XI 2 A 302 XI 2 A 303 XI 2 A 304 XI 2 A 305 XI 2 A 306 XI 2 A 307

464.a 464.b 463 463.a 463.b 462 461 461.a 461.b 461.c 461.d 460 460.a 460.b 460.c 460.d 460.e 460.f 460.g 460.h 460.i 460.j 460.k 460.l 460.m 460.n 460.o 460.p 459 459.a 459.b 458 458.a 458.b 458.c 457 457.a 456 456.b 456.c 456.a 455 455.a 455.b 454 454.a 454.b 469 469.a

XI 2 A 308 XI 2 A 309 XI 2 A 310 XI 2 A 311 XI 2 A 312 XI 2 A 313 XI 2 A 314 XI 2 A 315 XI 2 A 316 XI 2 A 317 XI 2 A 318 XI 2 A 319 XI 2 A 320 XI 2 A 321 XI 2 A 322 XI 2 A 323 XI 2 A 324 XI 2 A 325 XI 2 A 326 XI 2 A 327 XI 2 A 328 XI 2 A 329 XI 2 A 330 XI 2 A 331 XI 2 A 332 XI 2 A 333 XI 2 A 334 XI 2 A 335 XI 2 A 336 XI 2 A 337 XI 2 A 338 XI 2 A 339 XI 2 A 340 XI 2 A 341 XI 2 A 342 XI 2 A 343 XI 2 A 344

470 471 472 473 478 478.a 478.b 478.c 550 549 544 545 546 547 548 548.a 543 543.a 542 541 541.a 541.b 541.c 541.d 540 540.a 539 538 538.a 537 536 535 534 533 532 532.a 531 530 529 528 527 526 523 522 521 520 511 504 524:1

XI 2 A 345 524:2 XI 2 A 346 525 525.a XI 2 A 347 519 519.a XI 2 A 348 518 XI 2 A 349 517 XI 2 A 350 516 516.a 516.b XI 2 A 351 515 515.a 515.b 515.c XI 2 A 352 513 XI 2 A 353 512 XI 2 A 354 510 XI 2 A 355 509 XI 2 A 356 514 XI 2 A 357 508 XI 2 A 358 507 XI 2 A 359 506 XI 2 A 360 505:1 XI 2 A 361 505:2 XI 2 A 362 503 XI 2 A 363 502 502.a 502.b XI 2 A 364 501 501.a XI 2 A 365 500 XI 2 A 366 499 XI 2 A 367 498 XI 2 A 368 497 497.a 497.b XI 2 A 369 496:1 XI 2 A 370 496:2 XI 2 A 371 495 XI 2 A 372 494 XI 2 A 373 493 XI 2 A 374 492 XI 2 A 375 491 XI 2 A 376 490 490.a 490.b XI 2 A 377 489 XI 2 A 378 487 XI 2 A 379 488 488.a

729 XI 2 A 380 XI 2 A 381 XI 2 A 382 XI 2 A 383 XI 2 A 384 XI 2 A 385 XI 2 A 386 XI 2 A 393 XI 2 A 394 XI 2 A 395 XI 2 A 396 XI 2 A 397 XI 2 A 398 XI 2 A 399 XI 2 A 400 XI 2 A 401 XI 2 A 402 XI 2 A 403 XI 2 A 404 XI 2 A 405 XI 2 A 406 XI 2 A 407 XI 2 A 408 XI 2 A 409 XI 2 A 410 XI 2 A 414 XI 2 A 415 XI 2 A 416 XI 2 A 417 XI 2 A 418 XI 2 A 419 XI 2 A 420 XI 2 A 421 XI 2 A 422 XI 2 A 423 XI 2 A 424

486 485 484 482 481 481.a 480 480.a 479 551 551.a 552 553 554 555 565 556 556.a 556.b 556.c 557 558 559 560 561:1 561:2 561:3 561:4 562 563 564 564.a 566 566.a 567 567.a 568 569 569.a 570 571 572 573 573.a 574 574.a 575 576 576.a

730 XI 2 A 425 XI 2 A 426 XI 2 A 427 XI 2 A 428 XI 2 A 429 XI 2 A 430 XI 2 A 431 XI 2 A 432 XI 2 A 433 XI 2 A 434 XI 2 A 435 XI 2 A 436 XI 2 A 437 XI 2 A 438 XI 2 A 439 XI 3 B 105 XI 3 B 106

K IERKEGAARD’S J OURNALS 577 577.a 578 578.a 579 579.a 580 580.a 581 582 583 584 584.a 585 586 586.a 586.b 587 587.a 588 588.a 589 589.a 589.b 590 590.a 590.b 591 591.a 453 453.a 453.b 453.c 453.d 483 483.a 483.b 483.c 483.d

AND

N OTEBOOKS