By: Joshua Flowers (Section 8)
Søren Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard was a philosopher who is often regarded as the Father of Existentialism. Born in 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Kierkegaard was able to devote his entire life to exploring his philosophical interests because he was born into a very wealthy family. He was the youngest child of seven and by the time he was twenty-two years old, all of his siblings died except for one his brothers. This is a bit of tragic irony because his last name means graveyard in Danish. Death was constantly around him, and the darkness of life was as well. Kierkegaard was a prolific writer and wrote a total of 22 books before he died at the age of 42 in 1855 due to spinal disease. Kierkegaard’s writing was about different topics such faith, anxiety, and death. He was one of the first writers during this time to really write about anxiety.
This concept of anxiety gripped Kierkegaard and he saw the vast number of choices that one can make. It’s this endless of number of choices, possible outcomes, etc… that causes anxiety. For example, he fell in love with a woman named Regine Olsen, but thought about the number of possibilities. He didn’t believe that infatuation and romance could exist within in a marriage. He believed that the romance gets lost once children, careers, and family get involved. He also believed he was too religious and too much of a “gloomy” person. There were too many choices and too many possible regrets, and he decided not to marry this woman. These are all reasons why he is often considered the Father of Existentialism. He was constantly examining the world around him, the choices one can make, the structure of life, why we do the things we do, and he wanted to know what the meaning was. What is the real purpose behind all of this? He found this answer in Jesus Christ.
Kierkegaard became devoted to Jesus Christ in his more mature years of his life. He was a Christian but despised the Christian Church in Denmark for their falsely religious practices. They preached Christianity but did not live it. This angered Kierkegaard and, in my opinion,, this is still a trend that can be seen Christianity today, especially in America. To Kierkegaard the teachings and example of Jesus made this life much simpler. It took away the guess work, it took away the angst. It was faith in Jesus that became the most important thing in his life and led him to examine what faith even was. According to Kierkegaard, having faith in "something" requires that "something" to be beyond reason, logic, and explanation. Belief, on the other hand, is something that is logical and can be proven. In his book, The Sickness unto Death 1849, Kierkegaard wrote, “To have faith is to lose your mind and to win God.” In his book Fear and Trembling (1843) which he published under the pseudonym Johannes de Silencio in order to protect himself from the Danish church. In this book, Kierkegaard discusses many things including the story of Abraham in Genesis 22. In this story, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac whom he loved dearly. Abraham was ready to commit the act in killing his son as a sacrifice, but before he could do it God stopped him because he was testing his faith. God then provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice. God wanted to see if Abraham had complete faith in God and was ready to obey His command no matter what. To Kierkegaard this story was about faith yes, but it was also about much more than that. The examination of faith in this book leads Kierkegaard to being known for the expression “leap of faith."
Kierkegaard explored the anxiety and turbulent emotions Abraham must have felt, and he examined this question, was Abraham immoral for be willing to kill his son? To Kierkegaard the conclusion comes back to servitude to God. He believes that our servitude and commitment to God comes before any logic, reason, or morality. Kierkegaard described Abraham’s decision this way:
“He believed by virtue of the absurd; for there could be no question of human calculation, and it was indeed the absurd that God who required it of him should the next instant recall the requirement. He climbed the mountain, even at the instant when the knife glittered he believed . . that God would not require Isaac.
Abraham was not immoral or unethical, but rather he was simply obeying the voice of God. The voice that had commanded him to do this. Kierkegaard also address the push back that is found in this opinion. The question of how does one know that Abraham heard God’s voice and wasn’t simply delusional? This is where it is important to understand this definition of faith Kierkegaard lays out. You can reason, rationalize, or attempt to make sense of this situation but one can't because it is of God. It is beyond us. God’s reason for doing something cannot fully be understood by us, and this is where faith comes in. Every part of this situation worked out, and Abraham ended up being more appreciative of his son’s life. One misstep or miscalculation would’ve ended with a dead son, but that didn’t happen. This is why the example of Abraham is so extraordinary because he took that “leap of faith.” I think the best way to get an understanding of faith and this leap of faith is by reading these words of Kierkegaard:
“Generally people are of the opinion that what faith produces is not a work of art, that it is coarse and common work, only for the more clumsy natures; but in fact this is far from the truth. The dialectic of faith is the finest and most remarkable of all; it possesses an elevation, of which indeed I can form a conception, but nothing more. I am able to make from the springboard the great leap whereby I pass into infinity, my back is like that of a tight-rope dancer, having been twisted in my childhood, hence I find this easy; with a one-two-three! I can walk about existence on my head; but the next thing I cannot do, for I cannot perform the miraculous, but can only be astonished by it.”
There is a lot that could be said about faith and Kierkegaard’s opinion of it, but that’s the beautiful thing about how he writes. He writes in a way that still encourages readers to engage with the content on a more personal level, this form of writing correlates with Kierkegaard’s view of the Christian life. He views it as a personal and intimate walk someone has with Jesus. It’s not about practices and showing others the depth of biblical knowledge, but it is about personally making the decision to have faith in Jesus.
Lastly, Kierkegaard believed in three stages of life: the Aesthetic stage, Ethical stage, and Religious stage. The Aesthetic stage is all about fulfilling personal pleasures and desires without little concern for anyone else. This is the most immature stage. The Ethical stage is about allowing ethics to determine actions, and one considers how actions effects others. However, he didn’t believe this nurtured the spiritual aspect of a person. The last stage and most mature stage was the Religious stage. He believed this should be the goal. This stage is self-explorative, and one filled with a journey of faith in God. To Kierkegaard it is in the religious stage where answers would be found. Everyone believes or has faith in something, for Kierkegaard it was faith Jesus. For me it is also faith in Jesus and I try to live my life according to His Word. We all decide in some way or another whether we are going to take a leap of faith or not.
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you have faith in anything or do you rely on belief?
2. What are your opinions on Kierkegaard's stages of life?
3. What do you think causes anxiety today?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9JCwkx558o
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/feartrembling/summary/
https://edsitement.neh.gov/student-activities/fear-and-trembling-soren-kierkegaard
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/13953/1/fulltext.pdf
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/kierkegaard/themes/
https://iep.utm.edu/existent/#SH2a
"A Little History of Philosophy" Nigel Warburton
"Fear and Trembling" Søren Kierkegaard
"The Sickness Unto Death" Søren Kierkegaard
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