"Selections From the Writings of Kierkegaard" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kierkegaard Soren)

authorship in the interest of his "indirect communication," it could
not long remain a secret. The book was much, and perplexedly,
discussed, though no one was able to fathom the author's real aim,
most readers being attracted by piquant subjects such as the "Diary
of the Seducer," and regarding the latter half as a feeble
afterthought. As he said himself: "With my left hand I held out to
the world 'Either-Or,' with my right, 'Two Edifying Discourses'; but
they all or practically all seized with their right hands what I held
in my left."

These "Two Edifying Discourses," for thus he preferred to call
them, rather than sermons, because he claimed no authority to
preach as well as all the many later ones, were published over his
own name, addressed to Den Enkelte "The Single Individual"
"whom with joy and gratitude he calls his reader," and were
dedicated to the memory of his father. They belong among the
noblest books of edification, of which the North has not a few.
During the following three years (1843-5) Kierkegaard, once
roused to productivity, though undoubtedly kept at his task by the
exertion of marvellous will-power, wrote in quick succession some
of his most notable works so original in form, in thought, in
content that it is a well-nigh hopeless task to analyze them to any
satisfaction. All we can do here is to note the development in them
of the one grand theme which is fundamental to all his literary
activity: how to become a Christian.

If the second part of "Either-Or" was devoted to an explanation of
the nature of the ethical, as against the Сsthetic, conduct of life,
inevitably the next task was, first, to define the nature of the
religious life, as against the merely ethical life; then, to show how
the religious sphere may be attained. This is done in the brilliant
twin books Frygt og Baeven "Fear and Trembling" and
Gjentagelsen "Repetition." Both were published over pseudonyms.
"Fear and Trembling" bears as its subtitle "Dialectic Lyrics."
Indeed, nowhere perhaps, is Kierkegaard's strange union of
dialectic subtlety and intense lyrical power and passion so
strikingly in evidence as in this panegyric on Abraham, the father
of faith. To Kierkegaard he is the shining exemplar of the religious
life; and his greatest act of faith, his obedience to God's command
to slay Isaac. Nothing can surpass the eloquence with which he
depicts the agony of the father, his struggle between the ethical, or
general, law which saith "thou shalt no kill"! and God's specific
command. In the end, Abraham by a grand resolve transgresses the
law; and lo! because he has faith, against certainty, that he will
keep Isaac, and does not merely resign him, as many a tragic hero
would have done, he receives all again, in a new and higher
sphere. In other words, Abraham chooses to be "the exception" and
set aside the general law, as well as does the Сsthetic individual;
but, note well: "in fear and trembling," and at the express
command of God! He is a "knight of faith." But because this direct