He had the first name "Soren," which, in two syllables, manages to express strength, wisdom, humor, and individuality, and possesses connotations of Nordic mythology and adventure. What a name!
He also wrote this:
"There was one who was great in his strength, and one who was great in his wisdom, and one who was great in in love; but greater than all was Abraham, great with that power whose strength is powerlessness, great in that wisdom whose secret is folly, great in that hope whose outward form is insanity, great in that love which is hatred of self."
~ Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
4 comments:
Karen, you're a nut. I like that. End of story.
Which book of his is this from? *wants to read it*
His last name was pretty cool too.... :)
The introduction to Fear and Trembling honestly makes me scratch my head. I just cannot understand it. I want to graph it all out and draw direct, literal correllations and analyze the "point" of each of those examples, but I'm not sure that there is one. Very frustrating. I seldom feel like I just can't possibly understand something, but that did it for me.
The rest of the book is pretty good too, even if he is a dirty rotten existentialist.
Neo-Platonically forever,
Caleb
Kierkegaard would not have considered himself an existentialist. He would however, acknowledge that he was, in many ways, a minister.
Any minister can tell you that the hardest people to share their faith with are people who believe that they are sufficient without God or hold a set of beliefs that they deem to be true that aren't.
I think you will find that one of Kierkegaard's greatest contributions to philosophy was the notion that reason does not lead to theological understanding. Only the faith of the John 3:16 and Hebrews 11:1 sort lead to a Revelatory knowledge of spiritual Truth.
Philosophy has little to contribute to theology, but if theology has anything to contribute to philosophy it lies in some of Solomon's last words in the most existential book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes:
"But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."
--Ecc 12:12-14
Live out your ethos! If you cannot, do not advertise it as truth.
What part of such a precept, is unbiblical?
Postmodernism is not to be praised, but existentialism is not in and of it self, good or bad.
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