Fifth Period: Direct Communication (1848-51)
In 1848 Kierkegaard underwent a spiritual re-awakening, calling 1848 "the richest and most fruitful year I have experienced as an author". During this entire period Kierkegaard wrote either under his own name, or, when using a pseudonym, listed himself as editor. His use of pseudonyms was no longer designed to mask his authorship or to situate the works under a philosophical rubric, but rather to show his own personal inadequacy to attain the perfection of the Christian ideal. This period is sometimes called Kierkegaard's "second authorship".
Christian Discourses
- Christian Discourses
- Christelige Taler
- 1848
- KW17, SKS10, SV10
"A person can relate to God in the truest way only as an individual, for one always best acquires the conception of one's own worthlessness alone; it is well nigh impossible to convey this to another with proper clarity, and it would in any case easily become affectation" (Journals, IX A 318).
Like the upbuilding discourses, these discourses are largely theological and devotional in nature, though not devoid of philosophical themes. Although Kierkegaard is most noted as an existentialist philosopher, these works abound with a poetic heart. His phrases are beautiful and full of wonderful similes. This work is the fruit of the inspired year of 1848, and shows Kierkegaard at his liquid best. Walter Lowrie said, "The third section is the first example of the polemic against self-satisfied Christianity which was to dominate Kierkegaard's late writings".
All things work together for good—when we love God.
(More notes forthcoming).