Excerpts from the journals of Kierkegaard
edited and with an introduction by Alexander Dru
Harper Torchbooks, revised January, 1970
Library of Congress catalog card number: 59-6650
All quotes are by Soren Kierkegaard
1848: “The tyrant was egoistically the individual who inhumanly made the others into ‘the masses,’ and ruled over the masses; the martyr is the suffering individual who educates others through his Christian love of mankind, translating the masses into individuals—and there is joy in heaven over every individual whom he thus saves out of the masses.” (page 151)
“The difficulty with our age, June 4, 1852: The fact that enthusiasm lies beyond ‘reason,’ that is the goal of the struggle.
“But oh, for the man who has to awaken that enthusiasm there can be no question of being understood in his own age. Everywhere nothing but these half-experienced, blasé, individualities, who when quite young had a dash of enthusiasm, but who when still almost as young became reasonable. They are so far from allowing themselves to be carried away that on the contrary they immediately supply an envious opposition, and instead of taking part—think they ought simply to ‘observe’ the enthusiastic person, hoping that it will culminate in his either becoming reasonable or ending badly.
“Have you seen a boat aground in the mud, it is almost impossible to float it again because it is impossible to punt, no punt-pole can touch bottom so that one can push against it. And so the whole generation is stuck in the mud banks of reason; and no one grieves over it, there is only self-satisfaction and conceit, which always follows on reason and the sins of reason. Oh, the sins of passion and of the heart, how much nearer to salvation than the sins of reason.” (pages 214 – 215)
“The ‘in-and-for-itself’—and my task, 1852: With the New Testament before me I ask myself the following question: how do we men, nowadays, stand in relation to the whole view of life expressed in the N.T.; has there not, by comparison with it, been a whole qualitative change in the race, and what it means to be a man?
“Yes there has, and nothing is easier to see.
“Where does the change lie? It is that the ‘in-and-for-itself,’ the absolute, has gone out of life, and reason has been put in its place so that the ‘in-and-for-itself,’ the absolute, has not only gone out of life, but has become something ridiculous in the eyes of men, a comic exaggeration, something quixotic which one would laugh at were one to come across it, though one never does see it because it has gone out of life.
“The ‘in-and-for-itself’ and reason are related to one another inversely; where the one is, the other is not. When reason has completely penetrated all relationships and everything, the ‘in-and-for-itself’ will have disappeared entirely from life.
“That is more or less where we stand now. Reason is everywhere: instead of love—a marriage of convenience; instead of unconditional obedience—obedience as a result of reasoning; instead of faith—reasonable knowledge; instead of confidence—guarantees; instead of daring—probability, clever calculation; instead of action—events; instead of ‘the individual’—several people; instead of personality—impersonal objectivity, etc.
“But the N.T. presents the ‘in-and-for-itself,’ simply and solely, and nothing else; and so I ask: what does it mean when we continue to behave as though all were as it should be, calling ourselves Christians according to the N.T., when the nerve of the N.T. the ‘in-and-for-itself’ had gone out of life?
“The tremendous disproportion which this state of affairs represents has, moreover, been perceived by many. They like to give it this turn: the race has outgrown Christianity.
“I think the very reverse: the race has gone backwards (or is a marriage of convenience even though there were 170,000 of the choicest reasons for it; not a step back as compared to a love match) the kind of men Christianity has in mind no longer exist; on the average the human race has progressed, but there are no more individuals who could bear Christianity. That in my opinion is where we stand. And again it is my belief that the race must go through reason to the absolute.” (pages 218 – 220)
“A personal God, 1854: … God is certainly personal, but whether he wishes to be so in relation to the individual depends upon whether it so pleases God. It is the grace of God that he wishes to be personal in relation to you; if you throw away his grace he punishes you by behaving objectively towards you. And in that sense one may say that the world has not got a personal God…” (page 250)