Sárospataki Füzetek 15. (2011)

2011 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Kónya Péter: Szlovák reformátusok a 17-18. században

Kierkegaard - a flag in the winds of change

3. Kierkegaardian dictionary of concepts

ABSURD — For S. Kierkegaard all existential decisions are ‘absurd’, because they are based on (a leap of) ‘faith’ and ‘freedom’ and cannot be the result of mere deductive reasoning. (Fear and Trembling)

AESTHETIC — When people live on the (lower) plane of the aesthetic, they are guided by pleasure and self-interest, with the result that they fall into boredom and despair. The paradox of this kind of life is that we think we are free, but we are enslaved. {EitherI Or) Aesthetic does not refer to art, but to pleasure/enjoyment.

AMBIGUITY — more often called absurdity, but entered Tillich’s systematic theology in a significant way. Life and its choices are ambiguous and therefore a matter of a risk. Kierkegaard of trust/faith. Our reasoning cannot clarify life’s ambiguities because we are finite and not all-knowing. Even in more limited and relatively clear choices, there are not only unknown past and present facts, but especially unknown future results. (If I accept this job....if I marry this person....)

BAD FAITH — actually coined by Sartre, but found in S. Kierkegaard’s ideas on escaping from our own freedom and being paralyzed by the anguish of not knowing what to choose. (Sickness Unto Death)

BIBLE — S. Kierkegaard wrote meditations on some Bible texts (Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing; Training in Christianity) and throughout his writings quotes from or refers to biblical passages. Some of his basic thoughts are echoed in such texts as: God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah); Those who lose their life shall find it (Jesus).

S. Kierkegaard said at one point that his Either / Or was his best book, and this deals with Abraham from the point of view of absurdity and faith. S. Kierkegaard remarked that what we need is someone with “the courage to forbid people to read the Bible”18, because the Bible is mainly used for arguing about doctrine or legalistic interpretations, whereas it should be a book that creates new life.

CHURCH & CHRISTENDOM — a comfortable and complacent falsification of true Christian discipleship. (Attack Upon Christendom) “Every Sunday they [the geese] came together, and one of the ganders preached. The essential content of the sermon was: what a lofty destiny the geese had, what a high goal the Creator (and every time this word was mentioned the geese curtsied and the ganders bowed the head) had set before the geese; by the aid of wings they could fly away to distant regions, blessed climes, where properly they were at home, for here they were only strangers. So it was every Sunday. And as soon as the assembly broke up each waddled home to his own affairs.”19 They never made serious use of their spiritual wings.

18 Diary, 110.

19 S. Kierkegaard, The Journals, reproduced in Anthology, 433.

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