The Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses (Danish: Opbyggelige Taler), sometimes called the Eighteen Edifying Discourses, is a collection of discourses produced by Søren Kierkegaard in 1843 and 1844.[1] Although he published some of his works using pseudonyms, these discourses were signed. His discourses stress love, joy, faith, gratitude, thanksgiving, peace, adversity, impartiality, and equality before God and recommend them to the single individual.
Kierkegaard was not a preacher or a teacher at the beginning of his discourses, but by the end he removed the word, teacher.[2] Later in Practice in Christianity he stated the problem he had with the modern sermon. "The Christian sermon today has become mainly observations. 'To observe' can mean in one sense to come very close to something, namely, to what one wishes to observe; in another sense, it signifies keeping very distant, infinitely distant, that is, personally." Practice in Christianity.[3]
- ^ The Danish text is available online Atten opbyggelige Taler (1862) reprinting
- ^ These Christian discourses (which in more than one respect are not, and thus for more than one reason are not called, sermons) are not intended “to fill an idle moment for inquisitiveness.” If, however, just one single sufferer, who perhaps is also going astray in many thoughts, should by means of them find a heavy moment lighter, should find in them a trail leading through the many thoughts, then the author will not regret his intention with them. It is “The Gospel of Sufferings,” not as though the subject were exhausted by these discourses but because each discourse is a draught of this, praise God, inexhaustible supply, not as though the particular discourse were exhaustive but because each discourse still drinks deeply enough to find the joy. Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, S.K. p. 215
- ^ Hong p. 233