''Four Upbuilding Discourses'' (1844) is the last of the '' Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses'' published during 1843–1844 by

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

Overview

Similar to Kierkegaard's other books, the ''Four Upbuilding Discourses'' discusses decision making. In the book, he has to decide if he wants to get married after having already made the "sacred pledge". He also has to decide if he would carry out the wishes of his father Michael and become a Lutheran preacher.

Criticism

Critics were against putting stress on the inner life of the spiritual self at the expense of the outer life of the physical self. Kierkegaard would agree that a balance is necessary for one to be happy. George Brandes said in his memoirs, "That God had died for me as my Saviour,—I could not understand what it meant."''Reminiscences of My Childhood and Youth'', By George Brandes September 1906 p. 108

References

Sources

Primary sources

''Man's Need of God Constitutes His Highest Perfection''
Søren Kierkegaard, ''Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844'' first discourse of the series. Translated by David F. Swenson 1944–45, 1958 * ''Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844'' Wikiquote
''Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Hong'' 1990

Secondary sources

*''The Western Literary Messenger'', Sept 1849 Living Philosophers in Denmark
''Sixteen Months in the Danish Isles'', by Andrew Hamilton (antiquary) 1852
*''Evangelical Christendom, ed. (1856)''. "The Doctrines of Dr Kierkegaard," * Hans Lassen Martensen (1871). "Christian ethics : (General part) *''Nietzsche, Frederich, and His Influence'', The Book-Lover. Published 1900 p. 144ff *George Brandes, ''Reminiscences of My Childhood and Youth'', 1906
''Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics'' Vol 7 (1908)
p. 696ff
Soren Kierkegaard
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Volume VII, James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie, Louis Herbert Gray, published by T. & T. Clark, 1915 p. 696-700 *

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (; ; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twenti ...

, ''The Courage to Be'', 1952 This book also discusses Kierkegaard in relation to becoming. *

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, Christian mysticism, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. He was a monk in the Trapp ...

''No Man Is an Island''
1955 * Rollo May, ''The Courage to Create'', 1974, 1994
Google Books
*Ib Ostenfeld, Alastair McKinnon, ''Søren Kierkegaard's Psychology'' 1978
Google Books
*Lorraine Clark ''Blake, Kierkegaard, and the Spectre of the Dialectic'', Trent University 1991, Cambridge University Press

External links

*
''The Life of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel''
by J. Loewenberg from ''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' by Kuno Francke, 1913–1914

by

Lev Shestov Lev Isaakovich Shestov (; 31 January .S. 13 Februaryref name="ReferenceA">Martin, Bernard, Introduction to "Athens and Jerusalem" 1866 – 19 November 1938), born Yeguda Lev Shvartsman (), was a Russian existentialist and religious philosopher ...

{{Authority control 1844 books 19th-century Christian texts Books by Søren Kierkegaard Christian literature Ethics essays Psychology books