For self-examination ; Judge for yourself!

317 Pages·1990·23.24 MB·English

by  Kierkegaard

FOR SELF-EXAMINATION
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF!
KIERKEGAARD'S WRITINGS, XXI

FOR SELF-EXAMINATION
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF!
by Seren Kierkegaard
Edited and Translated
with Introduction and Notes by
Howard V. Hong and
Edna H. Hong
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © /990 by Howard V. Hong
Published by Princeton University Pms,
41 William Street, Princeton, New jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton Uniwrsity Press, Chichesta, West Sussex
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ki<rkegaard, s,rm, 18/3-1855.
[Til selpr•velse. English]
For self-examination :judge for yourself I by S,ren Kierkegaard. edited
and translllted with introduction and nous by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong.
p. em.
Translation of Til sdvpr¢velse: ~mmer sdv.
Bibliography: p.
ISBN 0-691-07368-6 0-691-02066-3 (pbk.J
1. Christian life-Luth<ran authors. 2. Danskefolkekirk-Controvmial
literature. 3. Lutheran Churcii-Dromark-Controversial literature. I.
Hong, Howard Vinc<nt, /912- .II. Hong, Edna Hati<Stad, 19/3- .
Ill. Kierkegaard, s-ren, 1813-1855. D¢mmer selv. English. 1990. IV. Tit/<:
For self-examination. V. Title: judge for yoursdf.
BV 4505.K4813 1990 89-36/02
230-dc20 CIP
ISBN 0-691-07368-6 (cloth)
ISBN 0-691-02066-3 (pbk.J
Second printing, with co"utions,
and first paperback edition printing, 1991
Preparation oft his volume has been matk possible in part by a grant from
the Division of Research Programs of the National Entlowml'nt
for the Humanities, an independent f<tkral agenry
Princeton University Puss books are printed
on acid-fru paper and meet th~ guiddincs for
p~rman~nce and durability of the Commitue on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of th~ Council on Library Resouras
Designed by Frank Mahood
Prinud in the United States ofA merica
13 15 17 19 20 18 16 14
ISBN-13: 978-0-691-02066-2
ISBN-10: 0-691-02066-3
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION vii
For Self-Examination
1
PREFACE
3
I. What Is Required in Order to Look at Oneself
with True Blessing in the Mirror of the Word?
(Fifth Sunday after Easter)
7
II. Christ Is the Way
(Ascension Day)
53
III. It Is the Spirit Who Gives Life
(Pentecost)
71
Judge for Yourself!
89
PREFACE
91
I. Becoming Sober
93
II. Christ as the Prototype,
or No One Can Serve Two Masters
145
VI Contents
SuPPLEMENT 217
Key to References 218
Original Title Page of For Self-Examination 220
Selected Entries from Kierkegaard's Journals
and Papers Pertaining to For Self-Examination 223
Original Title Page ofJ udge for Yourself! 242
Selected Entries from Kierkegaard's Journals
and Papers Pertaining to Judge for Yourself! 245
EDITORIAL APPENDIX 263
Acknowledgments 265
Collation of For Self-Examination in the Danish
Editions ofKierkegaard's Collected Works 267
Collation ofJ udge for Yourself! in the Danish
Editions ofKierkegaard's Collected Works 268
NOTES 271
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 283
INDEX 285
HISTORICAL INTRODUCI'ION
Four times during his brief but intensive life as a writer, Kier
kegaard intended to terminate his writing. Concluding Unscien
tific Postscript (1846) points to this intention and to his plan to
seek a rural pastorate. Realizing, however, that his bent for
writing could not be so peremptorily suppressed, he thought
that he could write reviews and thus write without being an
author.1 The immediate result was Two Ages (1846), 2 a long
review of the Thomasine Gyllembourg(-Ehrensvaard) novel
with that title, and The Book on Adlerl (written 1846-1847 but
not published), which he refers to as a "literary review."4
Thereafter, however, came what might be called Kierke
gaard's second authorship, a whole series of signed works,
plus the two Anti-Climacus works, 5 culminating in the pub
lication of For Self-Examination and, much later, ofJ udge for
Yourself! with the subtitle For Self-Examination . .. Second Se
ries. Three times during the second authorship Kierkegaard
again intended to stop writing: in 1848 with Christian Dis
courses and The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress, 6 in
1849 with On My Work as an Author and Two Discourses at the
Communion on Fridays, and in 1851 with For Self-Examination
and judge for Yourself! With the last two writings, Kierkegaard
became silent for four years.
Just before the publication of For Self-Examination (Septem
ber 10, 1851), two other Kierkegaard volumes appeared on the
same day: On My Work as an Author and Two Discourses at the
Communion on Fridays (published on August 7, 1851, but writ-
' See]PV 5873 (Pap. VII' A 4).
z Two Ages, KWXIV (SVVIII4-105).
3 The 8ooft on Ailer, KWXXIV (Pap. VIP B 235-70; VIIP B 1-27).
• See]P V 5956 (Pap. VII' B 218).
sTilt Siclrntss.unto Death, KWXIX (SVXI114-241) and Practice in Chris
tianity, KWXX (SVXII xi-239).
6 See, for example, ]P Vl6356 (Pap. X' A 138); Pap. IX A 228.
Vlll Historical Introduction
ten in 1848-1849 and in 1849 respectively). 7 In each there is a
farewell to writing. In the first, Kierkegaard states that he
wanted "very briefly to fold together in simplicity what has
been unfolded in all those books or what unfolded constitutes
all those books; and this brief message is more immediately
prompted by the fact that the first book in the authorship now
comes out a second time, the new edition of Either/Or, which
I earlier was unwilling to have published."8
In the second, Two Discourses, the preface begins with a
paragraph including verbatim some of the last lines in "A First
and Last Explanation" appended to Postscript:9
An at,tthorship that began with Either/Or and advanced
step by step seeks here its decisive place of rest, at the foot
of the altar, where the author, personally most aware ofhis
own imperfection and guilt, certainly does not call himself
a witness to the truth but only a singular kind of poet and
thinker who, "without authority," has had nothing new to
bring but has wanted "once again to read through solo, if
possible in a more inward way, the original text of individ
ual human existence-relationships, the old, familiar texts
handed down from the fathers" (see my postscript to Con
cluding Postscript).1o
After the first farewell to wntmg (Concluding Unscientific
Postscript), the Corsair affair was a crucial factor in the begin
ning of the second authorship.11 After the second (Christian
7 See, for example, Pap. X5 B 141:4, 132.
8 On My Work as an Author, in The Point of View, KWXXIl (SVXIIISOO).
The second edition of Either/Or (May 14, 1849) was for Kierkegaard another
token of the concluding of the authorship. He did not regard the literary re
view of Hans Christian Andersen's Only a Fiddler in From the Papers of One
Still Living (1836) and his dissertation, The Concept of Irony, with Continual
Reference to Socrates (1841), as parts of the authorship proper.
9 Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, KW XII (S V
VII [5 48-49)}.
10 Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays, in Without Authority, KW
XVIII (SVXII 267).
11 See Historical Introduction, The Corsair Affair, pp. xxxi-xxxiii, KW
XIII.
Historical Introduction IX
Discourses and Crisis) and third stops (Two Discourses and On
My Work), the occasions for the renewal of the second author
ship were not external and specific like the Corsair's relentless
malicious attacks. Just before Christian Discourses was formally
announced, Kierkegaard wrote: "My intellectual work satis
fies me completely and makes me submit to everything
gladly, if only I may give myself to it. I can understand my
life in this way: that I declare consolation and joy to others
while I am myself bound in a pain for which I can see no al
leviation, except this, that I am able to work with my mind in
this way. ... Now I hope that God in some way or other will
come to the aid of my work as a writer or will in other ways
help me make a living and thus permit me to continue as a
writer."12 After the third stop, Kierkegaard in an unused pref
ace to For Self-Examination wrote about the entire authorship
and added a word about beginning to write again:
What I have understood as the task of the authorship has
been done.
It is one idea, this continuity from Either/Or to Anti-Cli
macus, the idea of religiousness in reflection. 13
The task has occupied me totally, for it has occupied me
religiously; I have understood the completion of this au
thorship as my duty, as a responsibility resting upon me.
Whether anyone has wanted to buy or to read has concerned
me very little.
At times I have considered laying down my pen and, if
anything should be done, to use my voice.
Meanwhile I came by way of further reflection to the re
alization that it perhaps is more appropriate for me to make
at least an attempt once again to use my pen but in a differ
ent way, as I would use my voice, consequently in direct
address to my contemporaries, winning men, if possible.14
12 JP V 6133 (Pap. VIII' A 645). See also]P V 6134 (Pap. VIII' A 648).
13 See, for example, On My Work, in Point of View, KW XXII (SV XIII
495); The Point of View for My Work as an Author, in Point of View, KW XXII
(SV XIII 540, 543, 578);JP VI 6237, 6511 (Pap. IX A 226; X2 A 106).
14 JP VI 6770 (Pap. X6 B 4:3). See Supplement, p. 224; Epig<aph, p. 2.