01/07/2022 – “It is better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. The results may be the same but you won’t be.” Soren Kierkegaard. 1813 – 1855 – Copenhagen, Denmark // bio: attached
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Soren-Kierkegaard/Three-dimensions-of-the-religious-life
This bio was edifying. Given that Keirkegaard is often described as a founder of “existentialism”, here is a concise starter definition:
“This use of existence as a technical term for the finite, human self that is always in the process of becoming can be seen as the birth of existentialism.”
And an intriguing excerpt: “In this way the task of relating absolutely to the absolute becomes even more strenuous, for human reason is overwhelmed, even offended, by the claim that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. In the Concluding Unscientific Postscript there is an echo of Kant’s admission, “I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith”—though Kantian faith has a very different “what.”
And one more, admittedly, I am teasing to try to get y’all to read the article:
“These works present the second, specifically Christian, ethics that had been promised as far back as The Concept of Anxiety. They go beyond Hegelian ethics, which only asks one to conform to the laws and customs of one’s society. They also go beyond the religion of hidden inwardness, whether A or B, in which the relation between God and the soul takes place out of public view. They are Kierkegaard’s answer to the charge that religion according to his view is so personal and so private as to be socially irresponsible. Faith, the inward God-relation, must show itself outwardly in works of love.”
And another:
“We to be one’s neighbour, whom one is to love. Even one’s enemy can be one’s neighbour, which is a reason why society never dares to require that people love their neighbours as they do themselves. For the Christian, this command comes from Christ, who is himself its embodiment to be imitated.”
Within the concluding paragraph:
“The 20th-century theologies that were influenced by Kierkegaard go beyond the tasks of metaphysical affirmation and ethical instruction to a critique of complacent piety.”
Jimmy note: I submit it would be a step in the right direction in today’s world just to get any kind of “piety” back, any kind of reference to God Almighty. Then push on from there!
Soli Deo Gloria!