On the Occasion of a Confession - Part 1 (From 'Three Discourses')

Kierkegaard starts the first discourse by calling upon "that single individual" (his reader) to "bring the occasion" with him... and by 'occasion' we mean an event, such as a social event, preferably an event intended for a person who would usually be present. When that person is not physically or actually present, the event becomes an 'imagined' occasion. In his journals, Kierkegaard wrote, "In actual occasional disourses some things cannot very well be said because of the presence [or absence] of the specific persons before one. Therefore the reverse is done here: the stated individualities are created by the discourse." The first (of three) 'occasions' is that of a confessor... where only 'that single individual' seeks out the multitudinous facets of God.

Kierkegaard wrote many types of works, some of which he called edifying discourses, deliberations, and reviews, to name a few. A deliberation's intent is to provocate and poke the reader's interest... to get the philosophical ball rolling - sometimes with comments that might be intended to clash with the reader's normal mode of thinking and viewing of the world. An edifying discourse - on the other hand, assumes the reader is already 'in faith' with the subject, and it is an exposition of thought intended to 'edify' or enlighten upon a particular subject, primarily religious in nature.

Kierkegaard begins "On the Occasion of a Confession" with a prayer, "Father in heaven, how well we know that seeking always has its promise; how much the more, then, seeking you, the giver of all the promises and of all good gifts! How well we know that the seeker does not always need to wander out into the world, because the more holy that is which he seeks, the closer it is to him, and if he seeks you, O God, you are closest of all to him... But we also know seeking always has its toil and its spritual trial." Then, to elucidate the premise of his work, he makes his point clear, "-how, then, does the sinner dare to seek you, you righteous God!"

STILLNESS: Kierkegaard doesn't directly elaborate on the term, but instead dances around the subject in a particulary Platonic/Socratic fashion painting a picture of stillness for the reader via an poignant outline of conceptualizations on this topic. It is in the 'closed room' (be it the heart, the soul, what have you) of stillness that the confessive sinner seeks God. Every person takes his or her self there alone, evey person reaches this individual place of responsibility in solitary fashion... Like the dying person, the person who seeks this stillness/one-ness with God is/becomes alone with God for that special time. Finding this stillness is "difficult" and the "noise" of the world, or the "noise" of one's own self can disturb the stillness. "Nothing, nothing in the whole world, even if an earthquake shook the pillars of the church, not the most erroneous words of the most foolish of people, not the foulness of the basest hypocrite, can take the stillness away from you, but something very minor can certainly give someone the occasion to seek a false pretext. No, nothing except you yourself can take it away from you."

Kierkegaard warns that, "whoever says the stillness does not exist is merely making noise... Whoever says that he sought stillness but did not find it is an envious deceiver who wants to frustrate others, because otherwise he would be silent and sad or he would say, "I did not seek it properly; therefore I did not find it."

He continues with, "the confessor seeks God in the confession of sins, and the confession is the road and is a biding place on the road of salvation, where one pauses and collects one's thoughts and makes an accounting." Further, in confessing and requesting forgiveness for one's own transgressions, one must be aware of the need of one's self to forgive others. The concept of accounting forgiveness is talked about for several paragraphs. On forgiveness, he states that no one, "has anything as great to give away or anything as needful to give away as the person whose forgiveness someone else needs. Needs -- indeed, needs it as the primary necessity." He quotes an poet from an older time by adding, "forgiveness [is] surely a very small thing to ask, but if it is not obtained, then the wrong is infinite and the power of forgiveness an infinite superiority over me." And while he doesn't just come out and say it thus far in the book, it seems Kierkegaard is trying to point out that truly, the greatest crime might be he who has not forgiven his neighbor -- Though one might think of themselves as the innocent injured party, and rightfully so, that not granting forgiveness becomes a form of self-deceptive rightousness... if the injured do not in the end grant forgiveness (which is not defrauding yourself or God) to the injuror. The unforgiving injured, in God's judgement, seem not able to edify themselves above said injuring party... etc.

And that's just the first ten pages (of the first of three chapters) in a nutshell...   If you're thinking what I'm thinking, this is a pretty heavy brick of thoughts to lay on a person at the beginning of a book.  I found a picture I thought would best describe my reaction, and perhaps yours sentiments as well.... (click on it to see the larger version)  "I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that... [that Kierkegaard has decided to break it all down] for all us sinners...and it was a pretty good [introduction], don't you think?" (to quote 'the stranger' in [and take photos from] The Big Lebowski).  More to come soon...

Comments

[Donnie]

His name is Kierkegaard, that's the name of your website The Dave!

[Walter]

Were you reading The Dave's posting Donnie?

[The Dave]

Walter, what's the point, man?

[Donnie]

Yeah Walter, what's your point?

[Walter]

We're talking about 'will to power' here... Donnie, you're out of your element! - I'm talking about drawing a timeline in the sand... Kierkegaard had the 'will to power' concept down waaay before Nietzsche.

[Walter]

Kierkegaard's got the wealth of knowledge, obviously, and the erudition, AND the resources... so that there's no freaking reason... NO FREAKING REASON... why Nietzsche should go about writing... all over the existential realm... and then he goes... and he steals the 'will to power' idea from Kierkegaard, am I wrong?

[The Dave]

No... but, yeah... ummm.

[Walter]

AM I WRONG?

[The Dave]

No, you're not wrong, you're just an Asshole!

[Quintana ["Nietzsche" in Espanol]]

Let me tell you something, bendeco. You pull any your crazy shit with us, you flash a Kierkegaardian 'Will to Power' piece out on the Internet, I'll take it away from you and stick it up your ass and take the fucking idea til everyone lends credence to "Nietzsche."

[The Dave]

Yeah, well, you know thats just like, uh... your opinion man.

[Walter]

8 Year Olds, Dude...

[The Dave]

Jesus...

[A Girl Called Maude...]

Once he would gladly have given everything to be rid of this agony, but he was kept in waiting; now it is too late, now he would rather rage against everything and be the wronged victim of the whole world and of all life, and it is of particular significance to him to make sure that he has his torment on hand and that no one takes it away from him... What demonic madness -- the thought that most infuriates him is that eternity could get the notion to deprive him of his misery... In hatred toward existence it [this demonic self] wills to be itself, wills to be itself in accordance with its misery. Not even in defiance or defiantly does it will to be itself, but for spite; not even in defiance does it want to tear itself loose from the power that established it, but for spite wants to force itself upon it... Rebelling against all existence, it feels that it has obtained evidence against it, against its goodness. The person in despair believes that he himself is the evidence, and that is what he wants to be, and therefore he wants to be himself, himself in his torment, in order to protest against all existence with this torment. Just as the weak, despairing person is unwilling to hear anything about any consolation eternity has for him, so a person in such despair does not want to hear anything about it, either, but for a different reason: this very consolation would be his undoing -- as a denunciation of all existence. - Part One, C, p. 72-73
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Now that I have got that off my chest, you boys may resume your ever so enlightened discourse.

I shall simply let this speak for me:

From a timid, shy girl I [have] become a woman of resolute character, who [can] no longer be frightened by the struggle with troubles. - Anna Dostoevsky

[Walter]

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/satire/k-vs-n.htm

Kierkegaard's - The Sickness unto death (is what she's talking about)... you're sitting on a million freakin dollars there Maude... Quintana is just a towel-head sittin in a Nietzschean tank trying to find reverse in the middle of the nihilist desert. Am I wrong.

[The Dave]

Ok guys, this is an attempt at a serious blog... no funny stuff!

[Walter]

There's no blog if you don't have freaking content! That's what a blog is. Those are the freaking rules.

[A Girl Called Maude...]

Walter --

Why don't you ask the proponent of the Nietzschean tank, since Nietzche was the one who said, "All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting."

[Quintana ["Nietzsche" in Espanol]]

You said it, man. Nobody fucks with the Nietzsche.

[A Girl Called Maude...]

8 year olds, dude...

[The Dave]

Ok, what Walter put on the discussion table is a complicated case, for sure... a lot of in-s, a lot of out-s, strikes and gutterballs and what not... but I've got to get one thing clarified before we continue... Quintana, which Nietzsche are you representing... the naive yet provocative Nietzsche of youth, or the raging siphilitic madman of later years who wrote what was ultimately compiled as the book "The Will to Power?"

[Quintana ["Nietzsche" in Espanol]]

The MADMAN!

[Professor Xavier]

WTF?