The Present Age by Søren Kierkegaard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars A brilliant and piercing analysis of the cultural moment, especially in light of recent events. Though published over 100 years ago, Kierkegaard finds himself living in a culture not unlike our own, concerned with the opinions of others, careful before acting, and above all safe. Here is the central characteristic of our age: However well-meaning and strong the individual man may be (if he could only use his strength), he still has not the passion to be able to tear himself from the coils and seductive uncertainty of reflection. Nor do his surroundings supply the events of produce the general enthusiasm necessary in order to free him. Instead of coming to his help, his milieu forms around him a negative intellectual opposition, which juggles for a moment with a deceptive prospect, only to deceive him in the end by pointing to a brilliant way out of the difficulty--by showing him that the shrewdest thing of all is to do nothing. (p. 34) In typical Kierkegaard fashion, he tells a story to illustrate this: If the jewel which every one desired to possess lay far out on a frozen lake where the ice was very thin, watched over by the danger of death, while, closer in, the ice was perfectly safe, then in a passionate age the crowds would applaud the courage of the man who ventured out, they would tremble for him and with him in the danger of his decisive action, they would grieve over him if he were drowned, they would make a god of him if he secured the prize. But in an age without passion, in a reflective age, it would be otherwise. People would think each other clever in agreeing that is was unreasonable and not even worth while to venture so far out. And in this way they would transform daring and enthusiasm into a feat of skill, so as to do something, for after all 'something must be done.' The crowds would go out to watch from a safe place, and with the eyes of connoisseurs appraise the accomplished skater who could skate almost to the very edge (i.e. as far as the ice was still safe and the danger had not yet begun) and then turn back. The most accomplished skater would go out to the furthermost point and then perform a still more dangerous-looking run, so as to make the spectators hold their breath...Briefly, instead of being strengthened in their discernment and encouraged to do good, the [spectators] would more probably go home with an even stronger predisposition to the most dangerous, if also the most respectable, of all diseases: to admire in public what is considered unimportant in private, since everything is made into a joke. (37-38). The second essay in this volume, "Of the difference between a Genius and an Apostle," is an examination of the question of Authority. Paul is authoritative because he is an Apostle, receiving a direct revelation from God. He is no genius and therefore cannot be judged in as such. Saying Paul's arguments are "brilliant" or "poorly proven" is a categorical mistake. They are either true or false. View all my reviews
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August 2022
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