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

conception of life.

Romantic irony, on the other hand, laying main stress on
subjective liberty, represents the Сsthetic conduct of life. It was,
we remember, the great demand of the Romantic period that one
live poetically. That is, after having reduced all reality to
possibilities, all existence to fragments, we are to choose ad
libitum one such possible existence, to consider that one's proper
sphere, and for the rest to look ironically on all other reality as
philistine. Undeniably, this license, through the infinitude of
possibilities open to him, gives the ironist an enthusiastic sense of
irresponsible freedom in which he "disports himself as does
Leviathan in the deep." Again, the "Сsthetical individual is ill at
ease in the world into which he is born. His typical ailment is a
Byronesque Weltschmerz. He would fain mould the elements of
existence to suit himself; that is, "compose" not only himself but
also his surroundings. But without fixed task and purpose, life will
soon lose all continuity ("except that of boredom") and fall apart
into disconnected moods and impulses. Hence, while supposing
himself a superman, free, and his own master, the Сsthetic
individual is, in reality, a slave to the merest accidents. He is not
self-directed, self-propelled; but drifts.

Over against this attitude Kierkegaard now sets the ethical,
Christian life, one with a definite purpose and goal beyond itself.
"It is one thing to compose one's own life , another, to let one's life
be composed. The Christian lets his life be composed; and insofar
a simple Christian lives far more poetically than many a genius." It
would hardly be possible to characterize the contents of
Kierkegaard's first great book, Enten-Eller "Either-Or," more
inclusively and tersely.

Very well, then, the Christian life, with its clear directive, is
superior to the aesthetic existence. But how is this: are we not all
Christians in Christendom, children of Christians, baptized and
confirmed according to the regulations of the Church? And are we
not all to be saved according to the promise of Our Lord who died
for us? At a very early time Kierkegaard, himself desperately
struggling to maintain his Christian faith against doubts, had his
eyes opened to, this enormous delusion of modern times and was
preparing to battle against it. The great idea and task for which he
was to live and to die here it was: humanity is in apparent
possession of the divine truth, but utterly perverts it and, to cap
injury with insult, protects and intrenches the deception behind
state sanction and institutions. More appalling evil confronted not
even the early protagonists of Christianity against heathendom.
How was he, single-handed, magnificently gifted though he was, to
cleanse the temple and restore its pristine simplicity?

Clearly, the old mistake must not be repeated, to try to influence