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...
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