Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14
For over a century, the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) has been at the center of a number of important discussions, concerning not only philosophy and theology, but also, more recently, fields such as social thought, psychology, and contemporary aesthetics, especially literary theory.


Despite his relatively short life, Kierkegaard was an extraordinarily prolific writer, as attested to by the 26-volume Princeton University Press edition of all of his published writings. But Kierkegaard left behind nearly as much unpublished writing, most of which consists of what are called his "journals and notebooks." Kierkegaard has long been recognized as one of history's great journal keepers, but only rather small portions of his journals and notebooks are what we usually understand by the term "diaries." By far the greater part of Kierkegaard's journals and notebooks consists of reflections on a myriad of subjects—philosophical, religious, political, personal. Studying his journals and notebooks takes us into his workshop, where we can see his entire universe of thought. We can witness the genesis of his published works, to be sure—but we can also see whole galaxies of concepts, new insights, and fragments, large and small, of partially (or almost entirely) completed but unpublished works. Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks enables us to see the thinker in dialogue with his times and with himself.


Volume 6 of this 11-volume series includes four of Kierkegaard's important "NB" journals (Journals NB11 through NB14), covering the months from early May 1849 to the beginning of 1850. At this time Denmark was coming to terms with the 1848 revolution that had replaced absolutism with popular sovereignty, while the war with the German states continued, and the country pondered exactly what replacing the old State Church with the Danish People's Church would mean. In these journals Kierkegaard reflects at length on political and, especially, on ecclesiastical developments. His brooding over the ongoing effects of his fight with the satirical journal Corsair continues, and he also examines and re-examines the broader personal and religious significance of his broken engagement with Regine Olsen. These journals also contain reflections by Kierkegaard on a number of his most important works, including the two works written under his "new" pseudonym Anti-Climacus (The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity) and his various attempts at autobiographical explanations of his work. And, all the while, the drumbeat of his radical critique of "Christendom" continues and escalates.


Kierkegaard wrote his journals in a two-column format, one for his initial entries and the second for the extensive marginal comments that he added later. This edition of the journals reproduces this format, includes several photographs of original manuscript pages, and contains extensive scholarly commentary on the various entries and on the history of the manuscripts being reproduced.

1113323760
Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14
For over a century, the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) has been at the center of a number of important discussions, concerning not only philosophy and theology, but also, more recently, fields such as social thought, psychology, and contemporary aesthetics, especially literary theory.


Despite his relatively short life, Kierkegaard was an extraordinarily prolific writer, as attested to by the 26-volume Princeton University Press edition of all of his published writings. But Kierkegaard left behind nearly as much unpublished writing, most of which consists of what are called his "journals and notebooks." Kierkegaard has long been recognized as one of history's great journal keepers, but only rather small portions of his journals and notebooks are what we usually understand by the term "diaries." By far the greater part of Kierkegaard's journals and notebooks consists of reflections on a myriad of subjects—philosophical, religious, political, personal. Studying his journals and notebooks takes us into his workshop, where we can see his entire universe of thought. We can witness the genesis of his published works, to be sure—but we can also see whole galaxies of concepts, new insights, and fragments, large and small, of partially (or almost entirely) completed but unpublished works. Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks enables us to see the thinker in dialogue with his times and with himself.


Volume 6 of this 11-volume series includes four of Kierkegaard's important "NB" journals (Journals NB11 through NB14), covering the months from early May 1849 to the beginning of 1850. At this time Denmark was coming to terms with the 1848 revolution that had replaced absolutism with popular sovereignty, while the war with the German states continued, and the country pondered exactly what replacing the old State Church with the Danish People's Church would mean. In these journals Kierkegaard reflects at length on political and, especially, on ecclesiastical developments. His brooding over the ongoing effects of his fight with the satirical journal Corsair continues, and he also examines and re-examines the broader personal and religious significance of his broken engagement with Regine Olsen. These journals also contain reflections by Kierkegaard on a number of his most important works, including the two works written under his "new" pseudonym Anti-Climacus (The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity) and his various attempts at autobiographical explanations of his work. And, all the while, the drumbeat of his radical critique of "Christendom" continues and escalates.


Kierkegaard wrote his journals in a two-column format, one for his initial entries and the second for the extensive marginal comments that he added later. This edition of the journals reproduces this format, includes several photographs of original manuscript pages, and contains extensive scholarly commentary on the various entries and on the history of the manuscripts being reproduced.

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Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 6: Journals NB11 - NB14

Overview

For over a century, the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) has been at the center of a number of important discussions, concerning not only philosophy and theology, but also, more recently, fields such as social thought, psychology, and contemporary aesthetics, especially literary theory.


Despite his relatively short life, Kierkegaard was an extraordinarily prolific writer, as attested to by the 26-volume Princeton University Press edition of all of his published writings. But Kierkegaard left behind nearly as much unpublished writing, most of which consists of what are called his "journals and notebooks." Kierkegaard has long been recognized as one of history's great journal keepers, but only rather small portions of his journals and notebooks are what we usually understand by the term "diaries." By far the greater part of Kierkegaard's journals and notebooks consists of reflections on a myriad of subjects—philosophical, religious, political, personal. Studying his journals and notebooks takes us into his workshop, where we can see his entire universe of thought. We can witness the genesis of his published works, to be sure—but we can also see whole galaxies of concepts, new insights, and fragments, large and small, of partially (or almost entirely) completed but unpublished works. Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks enables us to see the thinker in dialogue with his times and with himself.


Volume 6 of this 11-volume series includes four of Kierkegaard's important "NB" journals (Journals NB11 through NB14), covering the months from early May 1849 to the beginning of 1850. At this time Denmark was coming to terms with the 1848 revolution that had replaced absolutism with popular sovereignty, while the war with the German states continued, and the country pondered exactly what replacing the old State Church with the Danish People's Church would mean. In these journals Kierkegaard reflects at length on political and, especially, on ecclesiastical developments. His brooding over the ongoing effects of his fight with the satirical journal Corsair continues, and he also examines and re-examines the broader personal and religious significance of his broken engagement with Regine Olsen. These journals also contain reflections by Kierkegaard on a number of his most important works, including the two works written under his "new" pseudonym Anti-Climacus (The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity) and his various attempts at autobiographical explanations of his work. And, all the while, the drumbeat of his radical critique of "Christendom" continues and escalates.


Kierkegaard wrote his journals in a two-column format, one for his initial entries and the second for the extensive marginal comments that he added later. This edition of the journals reproduces this format, includes several photographs of original manuscript pages, and contains extensive scholarly commentary on the various entries and on the history of the manuscripts being reproduced.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691155531
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 01/15/2013
Series: Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks , #7
Pages: 728
Product dimensions: 7.80(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Bruce H. Kirmmse of Connecticut College (emeritus) and the University of Copenhagen and K. Brian Söderquist of the University of Copenhagen are the General Editors of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, heading up a distinguished Editorial Board that includes Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Director Emeritus of the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre; Alastair Hannay of the University of Oslo (emeritus); David Kangas of Santa Clara University; George Pattison and Joel D. S. Rasmussen of Oxford University; and Vanessa Rumble of Boston College.

Read an Excerpt

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks

Volume 6 Journals NB11â"14

By Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, Vanessa Rumble, K. Brian Söderquist

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2005 Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Foundation, Copenhagen
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-15553-1

CHAPTER 1

JOURNAL NB11

Translated by George Pa??ison and K. Brian Söderquist

Edited by K. Brian Söderquist


Text source Journal NB11 in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter

Text established by Finn Gredal Jensen and Kim Ravn

NB11

May 2, 1849

The decisive place in this journal is p. 126.
No pp. 217 and ff.
No p. 235.
No p. 236.
the decisive pp. 240 and ff.
continued pp.251 and ff.

Luther's sermon on the gospel for Epiphany is worth reading again and again, especially the first part.


* * *

"Wer ist, der sich wider den Herrn gesetzt hat, und der Ruhe hat haben können?"

Job 9:4, quoted in Fenelon 2nd vol. p. 66.


* * *

And while things are so ridiculously petty that I—who have yet to be seriously reviewed in Danish literature—become prey to the mob, authors a[nd] o[thers] plagiarize me, all the same. They're a hit that way, but they don't name me; no, they even delight a bit in my persecution by the mob. In truth, it's the greatest punishment God could devise for anyone: to make him an extraordinary figure—in a market town.

The matter satisfies me religiously; I can never thank God enough for the unbelievable good he has bestowed upon me, so much more than I could have expected.


* * *

If anything is to be said about my activity as an author, it could be done in such a way 6 that a third person is created, the author, who would be a synthesis of myself and the pseudonym, and he could speak directly about it. In that case, only an introduction would be needed in which this author were introduced, and then he could say everything in ??rst person. The introduction would point out that the whole authorship is a unit; but I wouldn't be the pseudonym, nor the pseudonym me; this "author" would thus be a synthesis of the pseudonym and me.


* * *

All hum. religiosity, including Jewish religiosity, culminates in the words of Solomon (or David): I have been young, and have become old, but never have I seen the righteous abandoned by God.

Merciful God. And then there's Xt, who says: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; and it's Christianity that makes this entire earthly existence into suffering, crucifixion.

How can one then find a mild ethic in Christianity!


* * *

May 4. 8

NB.

There has indeed been a terrible degree of melancholia in all the thoughts with which I've plagued myself recently concerning my activities as an author.

But the thing is, I wanted to be so terribly clever—rather than relying on faith and prayer. I wanted to secure a comfortable future and sit somewhere remote—and write. O, alas! No, God takes care. And another "poet" is certainly not what the age needs. And if I became a poet, I'd be forgetting to seek God's kingdom first. First, a living, a post (which I might not even be good at)—and then writing.

That's why I've suffered so terribly. It's my punishment. I've also suffered because I wouldn't commit, because I wanted to remain free, because I wanted to shy away from the crucial decision.

All the hypochondriac nonsense about whether I might have positioned myself too highly, which is foreign to my soul, stems from this.

And where should I go? My life is indeed characterized by the fact that it is fruitless to attempt to be forgotten. And if I were to go abroad, I would be plagued by the thought that travel was an escape, cowardice.

The moment has arrived—I can let it pass, but then I'll have an eternity to feel remorse over the fact that I let it pass; and then I'd be weakened so much that I wouldn't be a human being any longer.

Now the two essays are being published: ["D]oes a Human Being Have the Right to Let Himself Be Put to Death for the Truth?["] and ["]The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle["]—though they will be published anonymously. Today, May 5th, they were sent to Gjødvad.

It was easier for me earlier, but this time prudence has played some nasty tricks on me. That's understandable; my life is getting harder and harder—my economic situation is especially distressful.

If I let this "moment" pass, the entire point and posture of the production will be lost; the second edition of Either/Or will overwhelm everything.

But I wanted to play lord, decide for myself, justify myself before God with hypochondriacal evasion and thus take everything that has been given to me as little more than a simple pleasure.


* * *

Deuteronomy 33:9—"who said of his father and mother, 'I regard them not'; he ignored his kin, and did not acknowledge his children." Here, indeed, we find a religiosity that corresponds to Christianity: to hate one's father and mother for Xt's sake.

I was made aware of this passage in Luther's sermon on the gospel about the marriage in Cana.


* * *

"Faith made us masters; love made us servants," says Luther in the sermon on the gospel for the third Sunday after Epiphany. In the same gospel (about the leper), we read that Xt says to the leper: Go, show yourself to the priests as a witness to them. In the last phrase there is a real ambiguity, which Luther also emphasizes. "As a witness to them," i.e., that they may witness it, but also, that it may be a witness against them given that they themselves ought to believe in Xt.


* * *

The collision presented in the essay ("Does a Hum. Being Have the Right to Let Himself Be Put to Death for the Truth?") is an intellectual/ethical collision. Another matter is whether, e.g., a person can force another to commit a crime, to do something illegal, etc. The collision is that of a thinker against the world and against hum. beings; and in order to show the intellectual aspect most clearly, it is presupposed that a pers. has the right to let himself be put to death for the truth if the conflict is heathen vs. Xn. But if it is Xn vs. Xn, where both parties have the fundamental truth in common, where the difference in intellect is set more strongly in relief: then the essay indicates that he does have the right to do so.

If the essay ("Does a Hum. Being Have the Right to Let Himself Be Put to Death for the Truth?") were to end in a totally and unconditionally humoristic way, then this remark would be added to H.H.'s last words:

And concerning the question that causes or caused that pers. so much trouble, my answer is: ["]Well, hell no, a hum being doesn't have the right!["]


* * *

It's for the sake of seriousness that the little humoristic flourish by H.H. at the end of the essay ("Does a Hum. Being Have the Right to Let Himself Be Put to Death for the Truth?") ought to remain. Literary pieces imagine that they're serious and seek to give that impression to the reader—that's just what makes them less serious. The humoristic conclusion shows that the piece is conscious of the fact that a work of literature is never serious—only reality is. It's more or less a joke to write about seriousness; it is seriousness is to be serious.


* * *

O, alas, alas. Because of the fear of danger, my hypochondria, and a lack of trust in God, I've wanted to regard my own person as inferior to the gifts that I've been given, as if taking ownership of those gifts would defraud the truth, and as if viewing myself as inferior weren't in fact an act of defrauding God and the truth. And yet it seemed to me so humble. O, hypochondria, hypochondria!

Hmnly speaking, there's certainly nothing fun or pleasant about being the extraord. one in these petty circumstances we have in Denmark; it's becoming painful. But God has overwhelmed me with kindness, granted me so indescribably much more than I expected; and he (both by means of the abundance he has granted me during the past year—and its sufferings) has led me to understand my destiny (true enough, it's different from what I had originally imagined, but the path had already begun to change early on: the entire religious production, indeed, the entire production that followed Either/Or, is not what I had originally imagined and I certainly couldn't have understood everything all at once); If I were fail now, it would be because I prudently retracted it all out of fear about my income; in that case, I'd become a poet, i.e., religiously understood, a deceiver. No, no, nor had I originally imagined that I would have had to choose between becoming an auth., in character, or becoming a priest out in the countryside, never again uttering a word as poet or auth.

It looks dark out, and yet I'm very much at peace. This day, my birthday, will be an unforgettable day for me!


* * *

What stupidity! In a little article about the propensity of hum. beings to heed warnings, which I found while thumbing through Jens Møller's periodical (it's found in the 6th volume, pp. 118ff.), I see that he says that the drawing of lots has been sanctioned in a protestant congregation, namely the Moravian Brethren.

Aber. The Moravians do this, among other reasons, just to cool off the flesh and blood. Marriage is thus decided by lot. With regard to eros, it's impossible to imagine a crueler or more shocking method, or a method better calculated to destroy romantic dreaming. However, I think that in a certain sense the Moravians have chosen the Christian way. It is precisely Christian to reduce eros to a matter of indifference and to make marriage a duty. Thus, it doesn't matter at all what girl you end up with. It is your duty to get married.


* * *

This, too, was doubly cowardly of Goldschmidt: If there had been even the hint of an idea in his newspaper, he would have first and foremost have taken aim at me. But he didn't. No, he was far too cowardly for that: he flattered me—and he knew how vacuous his paper was. And when he got a chance to attack me, he did it. It's a new case of cowardice that that kind of paper would defend itself by saying: He asked for it himself.

In truth, for G. to look like a respectable pers. again, a public apology would have to be demanded, and it would have to be of such a kind that it could be republished in the newspaper every eighth day for an entire year. And one could also rightfully demand that he make an attempt to repay the blood money he's earned and donate it to charity—even Judas was that honest: he gave the money back.


* * *

Hum. beings, we hum. beings, are like that: it's so satisfying to find a new and ingenious expression for hum. depravity, selfishness, etc. But to be unselfish, well, we're happy to postpone that.


* * *

Hmnly speaking, it's possible to say that if there were no God, it would be easy; for in that case, you could rely on your own intelligence. But God forces you to do just the opposite.

How often I've said to myself that it would be smartest to simply put down my pen, travel, and enjoy myself in order to show everyone that I don't give a damn about them. Then I'd be appreciated. The crazy thing is to continue as an auth.; hum. beings are children and they get bored with you if you don't treat them like children. That's rlly what Heiberg does; but it doesn't quite work when I'm standing at his side saying just the opposite.

I've discovered that this is the right method. There were a couple of peop. I really liked, but I was worried that they'd misunderstood me. I thought they treated me coldly and badly. I visited them more often, took care of them. [It] didn't help. Then I changed my method: I became more distant, visited them less, conversed with them in a distinguished way—that helped. They became the model of attentiveness. O hmnity!


* * *

There are excellent things in Luther's sermon on the gospel reading in which Xt boards the boat; among other things, his ref[erence] to the delusion of a piteous attitude completely occupied with "peace," a piety that seeks proof of the fear of God therein.

Bishop Mynster's leadership is, in general, neither more nor less than worldly prudence; and as far as that goes, he's done great harm.


* * *

All those thoughts about running the risk of being put to death, etc., were just hypochon- 20 dria, and yet something that hypochondria came up with because I was getting tired and wanted to act prudently.

But it's true that my lot is a sad one: To be the object of the envy of a few distinguished people (who nonetheless express themselves rather crudely at times) and then the daily insults from the mob on top of it. And then the fact that if someone earnestly lives for that sake of an idea in this world, he appears to be something like a wrecked subject. Humanly speaking, there is something pleasant about having secure employment, comfort; there is something agreeable about working for a living.—And then there are only two classes of people who come together in the opposite kind of life. Wrecked subjects, fallen persons—and those who seriously and truly live for an idea. Ah, and in the eyes of the world, it's far too easy to confuse the two.

I'm again about to publish, and it's true that this time I bear a greater burden than ever before. I'm also more solemn and ceremonious, but perhaps also more essentially resolute than before. It's true, the burden, the weight is greater; but the production is also richer than ever.

That's how Governance coaxes me forward bit by bit. When I shouldered the weight of vulgar insults, the production was also much richer. Now that an even heavier weight—worry about my income—has been added to the previous one, the production has never been as rich. In the material about to be published, there are things so decisive for Christianity, that it is nothing less than a discovery.

But I had to get that close to the thought of stopping before I picked up momentum again.

I had wanted so much a quiet life in which I could thank God for all the good he has done for me; but perhaps I'll only find this quiet situation in eternity. Now—this life is also a time of work. I hope to God that I can thank him in this life through the obedience with which I endure my work.


* * *

Above all, I must watch out for a distressed spirit. It looks—or looked—so sensible[:] I could just as well take a post out in the countryside, in tranquil security, and at the same time, as poet, work qua an auth. But the question is whether or not it would have ended in a complete paralysis if I'd done it, as punishment that I'd withdrawn in prudence and cowardice, and had reduced the price. Neither in this case will God be mocked.

And, humanly speaking, the position I'm taking with this step, as auth., is not absolutely definitive, and it's also possible that, humanly speaking, fortune will smile upon me right now, qua auth.

I stick closely to the notion of being a poet and dialectician; I claim neither to be an extraord. Christian, nor even less an apostle or something of that sort, not even remotely (I, who fight to give "the apostle" his due). But I don't avoid the danger of reality. I point out that I am ["]more["] than a poet, but that ["]more["] belongs to my essence. If I am to become a civil servant, I must essentially cease to be an auth.


* * *

I had once considered letting the essay "Come unto Me, All You Who Labor and Are Heavy Laden" accompany the second edition of Either/Or. In that case, the "Preface" that is now in "Three Godly Discourses" would have been used. Only a few lines would have been added[:] "— — it will remind him of it, but it will also let him sense and understand that this time is a second time of edification."


* * *

A preface to A Cycle of Ethical-Religious Essays, a book that never existed because it was divided into smaller parts[:]

This book was written before 48. This, by the way, is insignificant compared with the degree to which it contains a truth that is equally significant for all time. For either it contains some truth, in which case it is insignificant that is was written before 48; or it contains no truth, in which case it is equally insignificant that it was written before 48—unless the year 48 inverted everything so inhumanly and to such a degree that what was previously considered wisdom is now folly, and even the greatest folly is now wisdom, whether it was said before or after that remarkable year, 48, which, in its "great commotion," brought about a rambling discussion among an entire militia disguised as "thinkers," and gave the "thinkers" a chance to go on vacation.


* * *

Christianly speaking, it is a plain duty to seek suffering, in the same sense that, strictly hmnly speaking, it is a duty to seek pleasure.


(Continues...)
Excerpted from Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks by Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, George Pattison, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, Vanessa Rumble, K. Brian Söderquist. Copyright © 2005 Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre Foundation, Copenhagen. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Journal NB11 1

Journal NB12 141

Journal NB13 271

Journal NB14 343

Notes for Journal NB11 443

Notes for Journal NB12 495

Notes for Journal NB13 579

Notes for Journal NB14 619

Maps 687

Calendar 693

Concordance 699

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