You may have notice that this blog is stylized in the mode of a novice Kierkegaard scholar. This is because I am a novice Kierkegaard scholar. Well, that and because Kierkegaard ruined my life.
Now, the only way I can explain myself in any way that seems honest enough, earnest enough, is to speak with Kierkegaard's vocabulary. I would add that to do so is in many ways to speak in a tongue which has a long heritage, from Kierkegaard to Luther to Augustine to Paul to Jesus to the Prophets to Moses to Abraham. Thus, I have chosen my main themes from "Fear and Trembling", because here we have Kierkegaard speaking through Abraham. Also, did I mention that this book ruined my life?
What follows will be the expression of a Kierkegaard novice trying to understand Kierkegaard in order to understand himself. I ought not neglect to add that one only knows himself before the face of God, but we all have our teachers who enforce this reality upon us. I wish that I could have chosen another muse. Why not Karl Barth or Aquinas or Schleiermacher...any of these would have given me more to stand on, would have explained themselves more plainly. But, sadly, nobody speaks from the page to me as does Kierkegaard, save maybe Luther. See what company I keep! Sometimes the best cure for a fever is the sauna, so here I'll labor and contend with Kierkegaard and see if I can't get free of him.
I plan to post entries under three general categories: Journal, Marginalia, and Review. In Journal I will publish my notes on Kierkegaard's works. I don't know how far I'll get or if I even intend to journal his whole corpus. I suppose that I won't know until I've done a bit. I'll certainly start with "Fear and Trembling", "Works of Love", "Philosophical Investigations", and "Concluding Unscientific Postscript". This is enough work to promise for now, and it is, I think, the core of his writing. In Marginalia I will be writing shorter informal critical essays mainly of Christian culture. These will be more typical blog posts. Finally, in Review I will review Sunday's sermon and books by authors other than Kierkegaard. I won't be as meticulous here, as I merely intend to keep a record of what I'm imbibing along the way. They say variety is the spice of life. I say nothing drives you back to Kierkegaard like reading the fluff that passes today for Christian literature!
