The Works of Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard — the collected works

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

Dark-bound, and standing a little apart from the shelf.

Catch rate: Not found in the wild
Base research: 330
Stat total: 372

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina94

Contend100

Defend88

Popularity90

Total372

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 94

STAMINA — High. It is a whole shelf and it keeps asking.

Contend 100

CONTEND — Very high. Few books in the game press the individual reader so hard.

Defend 88

DEFEND — Solid. He wrote against the comfortable, and the comfortable find it hard to answer him.

Popularity 90

POPULARITY — High. Existentialists, Barthians and revivalists all claim him.

Cited for this book

Kierkegaard died in Copenhagen in 1855, aged 42, in the middle of an attack on the Danish state church. He wrote under a dozen pseudonyms and most of the books argue with each other. What they share is one demand: that the reader stop admiring Christianity and believe it, or say plainly that he does not. Both sides of the twentieth century claimed him: the existentialists for the leap, and Barth and the revivalists for the demand.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

Training in Christianity→
Lv 66The Works of Kierkegaard

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
1	By Virtue of the Absurd	Faith	Argument	92	100%	10
20	Christendom Has Done Away With Christianity	Ecclesiology	Argument	88	100%	10
30	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
46	The Inviter Claims To Be God	Christology	Argument	90	100%	10
58	The Intention Was To Change Everything	Christology	Argument	94	100%	10

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“Hence the only thing which can save him is recourse to the absurd, and this recourse he has through his faith. That is, he clearly recognizes the impossibility, and in the same moment he believes the absurd; for if he imagined he had faith, without at the same time recognizing, with all the passion his soul is capable of, that his love is impossible, he would be merely deceiving himself”
Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (1843), trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

By Virtue of the Absurd

FaithArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard’s best-known phrase. The knight of faith sees the impossibility with open eyes and does not pretend it away. Then he believes anyway, because to God nothing is impossible.

Strong against

×2.5The Absurdan argument · why?

Camus says leaping into faith is philosophical suicide, killing reason to be rid of the problem. Kierkegaard was the man he had in mind. But the knight of faith in Fear and Trembling sees the impossibility with open eyes, with all the passion his soul is capable of, and then believes, because to God nothing is impossible.

“Christendom has done away with Christianity, without being aware of it. Therefore, if anything is to be done about it, the attempt must be made to re-introduce Christianity.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), printed in Hollander’s selection as “Preparation for a Christian Life”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

Christendom Has Done Away With Christianity

EcclesiologyArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard’s charge against his own country, where everyone was baptised and counted a Christian. A whole nation had become Christian by habit, and the habit had replaced the thing. His answer is not to give up on the church. It is to bring Christianity back in.

Strong against

×2.5The Man of the Worldan argument · why?

The man at ease in the world who is untroubled by these questions has a Christian cousin, who is untroubled because he was baptised. Kierkegaard went after that second man harder than any unbeliever did: a country had become Christian by habit and the habit had replaced the thing. He cannot be answered by being counted among the saved.

“Let us forget for a little while what, in the strictest sense, constitutes the ‘offense’; which is, that the inviter claims to be God. Let us assume that he did not claim to be more than a man, and let us then consider the inviter and his invitation.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), printed in Hollander’s selection as “Preparation for a Christian Life”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

The Inviter Claims To Be God

ChristologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard is looking at the invitation of Matthew 11:28, to everyone who labours and is heavy laden. Set aside the offence for a moment, he says: the offence is that the one inviting claims to be God. He will not let the invitation be admired without that claim.

Strong against

×2.5The Many Faiths, One Realan argument · why?

Hick wants Jesus as one valid response among others. Kierkegaard says: set aside for a moment the offence, which is that the one who invites claims to be God, and look at the invitation. There is nothing left to look at. The claim is what the invitation stands on, and a view that gives it up has given up the invitation too.

“The intention of Christianity was: to change everything. The result, the Christianity of ‘Christendom’ is: everything, literally everything, remained as it had been, with just the difference that to everything was affixed the attribute ‘Christian’”
Søren Kierkegaard, The Moment (1855), printed in Hollander’s selection as “The Present Moment”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

The Intention Was To Change Everything

ChristologyArgument · power 94 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard in 1855, his last year, writing against the state church of Denmark. Christianity was meant to change everything. What came of it, he says, was the same life with a new label on it.