Sárospataki Füzetek 15. (2011)
2011 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Kónya Péter: Szlovák reformátusok a 17-18. században
Kierkegaard - a flag in the winds of change at the Christ: either we reject him or we follow him. Christianity means voluntary suffering (but paradoxically, this is the ‘radical cure’).24 DOUBT — for René Descartes (1596-1650) doubt was a philosophical exercise to find a basic foundational starting point. Everything is to be doubted {de omnibus dubitandum esi) until we arrive at the indubitable, which Descartes clarifies as cogito ergo sum\ since I am thinking, I know I am. S. Kierkegaard mocks this, since ‘I am’ does not mean I ‘exist’ (have made earnest choices). For Descartes, consciousness is a form of certainty; for S. Kierkegaard, consciousness is a form of uncertainty. This is because we become aware of contradictions and dialectical estrangement from ourselves (how we see things and what we hope for but do not find). Doubt in S. Kierkegaard can be positive or negative. It is a positive search for a starting point (but a different one than for Descartes). S. Kierkegaard starts with the dialectic of estrangement. Once this is recognized through crises, we may see the need for a leap. Doubt is also negative, when it becomes a refusal to take the leap of finding a new self — ultimately a leap of faith — or a leap of ultimate commitment or ‘ultimate concern’ (Tillich). S. Kierkegaard also emphasizes that the opposite of faith is not mere (logical) doubt, but to be offended at Jesus as the divine revelation of the infinite.25 DREAD & DESPAIR — anxiety, fear of our own freedom, a fear of what is unknown (‘nothing’) but can be chosen in freedom. Dread is a “sympathetic antipathy and an antipathetic sympathy”. Or: a desire for what one fears and a fear of what one desires. Freedom will always be abused: what can be done will be done. Even in normal choices, whatever one chooses one will regret the choice or regret not knowing how life would be with a different choice. This may lead to the ‘sickness unto death’, not knowing what to choose and settling down by imitating the crowd, thereby ‘losing one’s soul’. All that’s left then is a masquerade. But by facing this pathos we may actually arrive at a ‘true self. Despair is dialectically both a defect and a merit. It shows our ‘loftiness of spirit’, and can lead to a positive leap. Despair is not just a wrong emotion, but a wrong concept of oneself. (The Sickness Unto Death) EITHER/OR — especially between the lower choice of aesthetic living and the higher choice of commitment and freedom of (the leap of) faith. S. Kierkegaard was not opposed to enjoyment of pleasures; but he was opposed to the exclusive dominance of pleasure in one’s life. ETHICAL — is better than living only according to ‘aesthetic’ enjoyment. However, the weakness of a focus on the ethical is that we become proud of our morality, or we despair of living up to our own standards. We need to go beyond the ethical in a step (leap) towards religious grace. If we really live ethically we will be 24 See David E. Roberts, Existentialism and Religious belief (Oxford University Press, 1959), ch. Ill, 103- 143. 25 S. Kierkegaard deals with ‘faith or offense’, in Practice in Christianity, trans. H.&.E. Hong (Princeton University Press, 1991), 80. 2011/4 Sárospataki FüzetekóI
