Philosopher of the Heart

 

I came to understand myself by writing.

- Søren Kierkegaard

I enjoyed reading this biography so much, and the way it was written added a layer of enjoyment. It was not written in the style or format of a traditional biography, which to me can sometimes become trite as the author sometimes feels they need to document every tiny thing. This book was written in a beautiful fluidity which brought us into the mind of Kierkegaard and his thoughts and struggles, using some journal entries and documentation of his behavior as he lived in Copenhagen. We walked with him as he enjoyed his regular long walks around his city. We sat with him at his desk where he hashed out his thoughts, sometimes coming into his house from a walk directly to his desk still in coat and hat to write thoughts down immediately lest they be lost. We rode the train with him as he traveled back from Germany after studying. We gain an outside perspective of him as well as his reaction to various outside perceptions. 

The author Clare Carlisle wrote that "confusion is a fertile soil in which wisdom might grow." This very accurately describes Kierkegaard's approach to his deep thinking. He observed what was going on in his time in his city and country, and he responded to the worldly confusion on how to be a true Christian in the only way he knew how - by writing out pages and pages in his journal, exploring themes he had studied in the known philosophers (like Socrates or Hegel) and then spent much of his time publishing books of discourses addressing what he sees happening in society. 

He was interested in thinking about how to be a true Christian in a society that was "Christian", mixing church and state in which everyone was deemed a Christian as they were a citizen. He was distressed by the complacent, comforting messages that he heard from the Bishop's pulpit. This concerned him, as he believed you cannot be a true Christian without going through the suffering of life, not just coating it with sugar saying that it will be better in days ahead. That doesn't help you grow in wisdom, but causes you to embrace worldly ways. Kierkegaard believed that modern Christianity was leaning too close to worldliness, so he tried to counter this by leaning further in the opposite direction.

Along those lines, Kierkegaard was seeking to be at peace within himself, rather than in those worldly things. He wrote in his journal "..how sad it would be if human beings could only find peace in what lay outside themselves." His words and thoughts sometimes feel trenchant as they cut into the heart of our comforts, and they are still so applicable to our society today. Do we ask the tough questions today or do we just want to zone out with the pleasures of worldly indulgences? Kierkegaard challenges us to seek true divine wisdom as we look more deeply within ourselves to see what path we are going to choose everyday. 

The author writes "In drawing this contrast between divine wisdom and the false wisdom of the world, Paul argues that serving God and pursuing worldly things - including esteem, success, status - are two diverging paths through life: an either/or." This is exactly what Kierkegaard explores.