Kierkegaard’s fascinating style is all but convoluted by his present age and his remarkable mind. He found that meaning, specifically truth, does not exclusively have to be conveyed through rhetoric (as Aristotle established) or dialogue (as Socrates defended), but it can be shown just as strong (if used appropriately) through poetic and emotional declarations.Working often through humor and parables, his works such as ‘Either/Or’, ‘The Diary of a Seducer’, or ‘Stages on Life’s Way’, are examples of his literary approach, all of which he hoped would condition his readers into raising questions

Kierkegaard’s Approach

Though a devout christian, he was interested in addressing certain concerns of the then current christian authoritative structure, which he worried would confuse and contradict amongst readers of his previous philosophical works.So most often he used many fake names as covers for different works and approaches he had to his most concerning philosophical issues. His famous ‘Johanes Climatus’ presented a view from a day-to-day skeptical christian. Though this poetic work was developed under an ‘Anti-Climatus’, who’s purpose was to provide a ‘step-up’ (Ante) and more christianly view to Johanes.

The Pseudonymous ‘Anti-Climatus’

Kierkegaard’s distinct humor and irony (no that from his appreciation of Socrates) is shown in the preface for ‘The Sickness Unto Death’. It has an interesting quality of coming about as an almost ‘Self-Help’ book, which was contrary to popular scholastics at the time.The center of Kierkegaard’s book and the prevailing theme of many of his stories is ‘the Self’, the individual within, participating towards, and participated by ‘the whole’. With ‘Anti-Climatus’, he wishes to focus on faith and its power to address and answer deeply troubling and philosophical issues, specifically losing oneself

Anti-Climatus’ Preface

Kierkegaard’s introductions do a fascinating job at it’s namesake, with many of his introductions working towards getting people acquainted with a problem that he wished to speak on, as well as ‘justifying’ the title and why it must be so.‘The Sickness Unto Death’ is the idea that one fears or anticipates death with some terrible sorrow. They ‘despair’ of over it.Do we find this to not be true? Kierkegaard says, specifically in regards to death, that this isn’t the case for Christians. He writes it is their blessed advantage over the natural man. Like an adult to a child. Why?

Introduction to ‘The Sickness Unto Death’

”This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified by means of it”

”Our Friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go so he may awaken out of his sleep”

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he’ll die, shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die”

Kierkegaard interestingly uses the story of Lazarus being risen from the bible to communicate this idea.He writes how Christ had in mind the miracle, and that ‘the sickness’ was not unto death because nothing was lost with Lazarus.Even if Christ had not gone out of his way to resurrect Lazarus, the sickness would not be unto death. Simply in that Christ exists, this is so for Christians, death is not the last of allBut Kierkegaard writes that Christians have learnt of this afflicting ‘miserable condition’, the despair of something else, what is apparent ‘The Sickness Unto Death’, the despair.

Lazarus and The Despair

For Kierkegaard, people are spirit, this perfect blend of ‘Human Being’ and ‘Self’.A human being in as much as we are a synthesis (the infinite relation of the two) of infinitude (limited limitlessness).And a Self, the relating relation. A self thats constantly relating itself to itself. This is how Kierkegaard describes a developing and growing self.A major idea to come from this is the established self. If a self is relating to itself constantly, it is constantly resting in the power that established itself. For in a relating way, the power is the self. For Kierkegaard, this power is God.

The Distinct Self

So then what is despair? If not precisely death, or of death? Despair must be of something, for when the natural man despairs of death, his despair is this ‘miserable condition’ pertaining to death.So when Kierkegaard says one is in despair, that something must be the self. Specifically, there exists a mis-relation of the self with itself. It is not at ease, not at oneself.To be in despair of oneself, means to wish to be someone else, to not rest transparently in the establishing power, to not rest in God, which for the Christian, Anti-Climatus, is the worst state to be in.

The Lost Of The Self

“In despairing over something, he really despaired over himself, and now he wants to be rid of himself. For example, when the ambitious man whose slogan is “Either Caesar or Nothing” does not get to be Caesar, he despairs over it… it is not his failure to become Caesar is intolerable, but it is this self that did not become Caesar that is intolerable; or, to put it even more accurately, what is intolerable to him is that he cannot get rid of himself.”

Everyone has been sick at least a little bit in their lives, and for Kierkegaard, this extends into despair. That everyone must have had despair for one reason or another.This notion places everyone under the same umbrella, people seeking to be spirit. They are in despair because they are not, or more accurately, they are in despair because they know not how.Kierkegaard writes that much of this universality in his ‘Concept of Anxiety’ (which we have a post on). The idea that everyone is anxious of not knowing, not doing, not being, is precisely the sickness unto death, precisely despair.

The Universality Of The Sickness

Kierkegaard writes in detail, that the dialectal self, when in mis-relation with itself, will despair over its synthetic relations. Infinite and finite. Possibility and Necessity.This is the Despair the Kierkegaard writes is the most common. He describes that due to the christian relationship with God, Christians have the keen gift of being able to recognize ‘the sickness unto death’. What if one is unable to recognize the despair in the first place? Well for Kierkegaard, that means losing the parts of you that make you human in the first place. One’s freedom, one’s limited limitlessness.

The Unconscious Of Despair / In Regards To The Synthesis

Kierkegaard first recognizes the dialectical nature of the self in its Infinite-Finite synthesis. It’s ‘limited-limitlessness’Infinitude’s Despair is to lack FinitudeTo wish to be infinite, is despair. To be lost in the imagination, the self abstracts till it can’t be said to belong to the human being. Humanity in abstracto. One has lost their reality tether, their self.Finitude’s Despair is to lack Infinitude“To lack infinity is despairing reductionism, narrowness”. It means to emasculate the spiritual self, to let one be defined, to be a self given to you by the world. To go unnoticed.

Infinite/Finite Despair

Just the same, we have dialectic Despairs in Possibility and NecessityPossibility’s Despair is to lack NecessityIn this form, one is lost in possibility. Only ever thinking to oneself what may be the case, or may not occur. They get lost either by some desire or craving of the actualized possibility. Or some melancholic imagination, a hope, fear, or anxiety.Necessity’s Despair is to lack PossibilityHere, one is incapable. They lack the belief of a possibility, of a God. Either everything is necessary but never able, or everything becomes trivial to one because it “will never not be so”.

Possibility/Necessity Despair

“To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self.... And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self.” (The Concept of Anxiety)

Kierkegaard calls this the feminine despair, for the sake of an interesting analogy.He writes of the beauty and strength of the woman, and how in their love, in their self, they devote themselves whole to that to which they love. A self-sacrificing devotion that only women have. He explains how when a woman then wishes not to devote herself, to not be a self, she is turning away and is ‘in despair not to will to be oneself’.For this, one either despairs over the earthly, the immediate. Or they despair over the eternal, despair over the weakness, despair over the fact that they can despair.

Despair In Weakness - ‘Not To Will To Be Oneself’

This is what Kierkegaard calls the ‘demonic’ despair. Here, one misuses the eternal, in some vain effort to find oneself. They want the satisfaction to find their self, so they delve into the void:“This self is not myself! I must find, or change, and become this self!”In defiance, one undergoes a ‘demonic rage’, where the torment of the despair feeds further delving into the despair. Yet they ask for you to not remove their torment, for then they will cease being in despair and not find the self they looked for. They grow so defiant, that they lose their old self, and severe away God.

Despair As A Defiance - ‘To Will To Be Oneself

“…it is as if an error slipped into an author’s writing and the error became conscious of itself as an error—perhaps it actually was not a mistake but in a much higher sense an essential part of the whole production—and now this error wants to mutiny against the author, out of hatred toward him, forbidding him to correct it and in maniacal defiance saying to him: No, I refuse to be erased; I will stand as a witness against you, a witness that you are a second-rate author.”

This is an introductory on the Historical Background, Dialectical Argument, and Christian Discourse provided in Søren Kierkegaard’s ‘The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening’ first part.

One of the most remarkable philosophical works of the nineteenth century, famed for the depth and acuity of its modern psychological insights Writing under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus, Kierkegaard explores the concept of "despair," alerting readers to the diversity of ways in which they may be described as living in this state of bleak abandonment—including some that may seem just the opposite—and offering a much-discussed formula for the eradication of despair. With its penetrating account of the self, this late work by Kierkegaard was hugely influential upon twentieth-century philosophers including Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. The Sickness unto Death can be regarded as one of the key works of theistic existentialist thought—a brilliant and revelatory answer to one man's struggle to fill the spiritual void. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Søren Kierkegaard

Sickness Unto Death

Following the brief period in philosophy known as “The Enlightenment”, skepticism brought down the credibility of the Metaphysics. Whilst praised and encouraged by Great Minds such as Plato and Aristotle, and brought forth in a theological context by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, the resulting Thomist schools were left to fend for themselves. Every philosopher had his own understanding of Metaphysical laws and principals. Little to no one could agree on anything, and the philosophical halt led many falling under such suspicion of the metaphysic’s credibility, as to reject them completely.

Post-Enlightenment

Nietzsche’s philosophy of the will and his implementation into philosophic culture at the turn of the 20th century is one of the most hard hitting, and sharp breaks in philosophic development. His Anti-Metaphysics and counter to socratic ideals set up for many to fall under his umbrella. He promoted ideas that while not sourcing, are often used in the Atheistic argument. He worked to discredit Socrates, and the Greek philosophers as being the biggest mistake in all of philosophy. Nietzsche’s philosophy of the will asked us to pursue happiness, and we will eventually know our virtues.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Anti-Metaphysical Followup.

“The church always arrives on the scene a little breathless and a little late.”

Heavily inspired off of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Circle of Understanding, Lonergan proposed to reverse the philosophical approach to questions, as to bring to light the importance and power of a well formed Theology.The Ancient Greeks wanted to promote the Metaphysics by Ordering their Philosophy as:<ol><li>Metaphysics</li><li>Epistemology</li><li>Ethics</li></ol>Lonergan found that one could not rely on the ever changing (yet helpful) metaphysical laws as grounding or as a basis, and how we must instead focus on the operations of the mind. He proposes a new order:<ol><li>Cognitional Theory</li><li>Epistemology</li><li>Metaphysics</li><li>Ethics</li></ol>

Lonergan And The Hermeneutical Approach To The Metaphysics

DIAGRAM OF THE HERMENEUTIC CIRCLE

Lonergan’s Theory is meant to represent the operative faculties that occur in the human mind, and explain how we come to know and understand things. As we progress, we can address specific issues in a given level.<ol><li>Experience: The Data we work with, either by the senses or the imagination</li><li>Understanding: How we, ourselves, understand the data. We ask questions, and we update our understanding</li><li>Judgements: Our affirmation, whether our understanding of something is enough to us to say that it is true.</li><li>Decision: We must make a choice, how do we act based on our understanding and judgements?</li></ol>

Lonergan’s Cognitional Theory

Insights are immediate acts of understand that occur when we actively work through something and try to understand it.”Eureka!!”, shouted Archimedes upon his discoveryThat’s an insight. It’s a sudden clarity that organizes information, and prompts deeper thinking. It allows us to go forward to judgement, providing us answers to the intended questions we ask. Sometimes insights are so strong and particular, that they have no further relavent questions result from them. We call these invulnerable insights. Lonergan went into excruciating detail on the idea in his predating Magnum Opus ‘Insight’.

The Nature of Insights

Judgment is both a level and a distinct act. It allows us to act on certain notions, and reflect. Different judgements result from different objects and questions.Types of Judgments: <ul><li>Judgments of Fact: An assertion of existence (e.g., "It is raining").</li><li>Judgments of Value: An assessment of personal significance (e.g., "This artwork is beautiful").</li><li>Judgments of Preference: Expressing Inclinations (e.g., "I prefer tea over coffee").</li></ul>Lonergan wants us to judge objects and notions beyond ourselves (transient), and pursue such notions as to avoid bias and pursue something that we find good.

The Notion of Judgements

Lonergan wants us to be better. To put it bluntly. Just as being Selfless, is the most redeeming quality one could have, considering and judging based off of ideas and objects beyond our selves and our biases (referred to as Transcendental Notions), can help us determine what is important and good for us.Lonergan calls these particular goods. And as a part of our gregarious nature, lonergan finds that as we pursue out particular goods, we take on roles, that let us incidentally and purposefully contribute to our communities and what he calls the Good of Order .

Lonergan’s Good & Transcendental Notions

As we pursue these particular goods, and work to understand more notions, and judge more values, and act, and authentically question and improve ourselves, we work towards Lonergan’s True Idea of Good, Self-Transcendence.We transcend, go beyond our previous selves. We get better, understand faster, it is a never ending, cumulative and progressive cycle. As we change (convert), we improve ourselves, reform ourselves. As we accept new values, we undergo Moral Conversion, from Satisfactions to Well-Judged and good values.In our endless pursuit, our capacity for truth, and ourselves, expand.

Self Transcendence & Coversion

“Faith ... is a conscious apprehension of something inevident, something which unlike this desk and this chair is not seen to be there, even if it enters into the fabric of our personal relations to reality with at least as much force, relevance, and moment as things which are seen to be there.”

In this idea of Self-Transcendence, and the beauty of the pursuit, and love we have, does religion come into play. Religion not only asks, but it requires the user to Self-Transcend. To consider ideas, a love, a God, one has to move beyond themselves. The rest of his ‘Method in Theology’, pursues the cognitional theory in the context of theological inquiry, and the understandings that must be undertaken if we wish to convey and interpret scripture and doctrines appropriatelyI invite you to take a read, go past these fundamental beliefs, and explore Lonergan’s brilliant mind and love for God.

Theology & The Method

This is a ‘brief’ introduction to  Bernard Lonergan’s ‘Method in Theology’; where we touch on the importance of a Cognitional theory prior to a Metaphysics, Lonergan’s approach towards the post-enlightenment philosophy, and the importance/necessity of a theology and religion.

Method in Theology stands with Insight as Bernard Lonergan's most important work. It is Lonergan's answer to those who would argue that in this time of cultural change and dissolution, the believer is afloat on a sea of multiplying theologies, without rudder or compass. Lonergan was resolute in his refusal to be defeatist on this point. While agreeing that theology must continually change to mediate between religion and culture, he worked out an integral method to guide and control this ongoing process. Method in Theology is the fruit of this labour. This critical edition has benefited from extensive research into Lonergan's typescripts and from consulting the recordings from several institutes where he lectured over the course of the work's development. Lonergan's intention was to provide a set of methods that would guide a collaborative community in the ongoing construction of a theology that would move from recovery of the data through resolution of conflicts to contemporary formulations and applications. With this work, the cognitional theory of Insight: A Study of Human Understanding underwent a surprising set of developments in the form of what he calls functional specialization.

Sickness Unto Death

Method in Theology

Antonio Garcia Martinez