Our Duty To Be in the Debt of Love to Each Other
Love is a passion, a want, a longing. "It takes everything and it gives everything."
Love is best described as an infinite debt. And it is the lover that is in debt, it does not place the loved one in debt. To the loved one the most trifling expression is infinitely great than all sacrifices and all sacrifices are infinitely less than the smallest trifle in making partial payment on the debt.
As soon as love concentrates on itself it is out of its element - it is lost when it becomes an object for itself. It becomes a fixed point, a boundary or a stopping place instead of an immeasurable infinitude.
For love to be truly earnest, we must recognize a higher power over it. Otherwise it is simply human passion, intention, or fanaticism. Only the God-relationship is earnestness. Since Christianity does not simply ponder or dwell on the condition, but hastens to the task, there are two aspects to love; namely conscience and act.
The second aspect of acting out one's love in the world creates a double danger. The first is the self-renunciation side of love which by definition puts one's own will beneath everyone else's. The second is the resulting mockery of the world which considers this foolish behaviour. The mockery grows stronger the more earnest a Christian one becomes. The example Kierkegaard uses is that of two sets of children playing together. One set of children brought up very strictly join a group of children who were not brought up so strictly. When the strictly brought up children refuse to join in with some of the behaviour of the less strictly brought up children, they will be seen as foolish and mocked because they do not understand the strictly brought up children's behaviour.
When one recommends Christianity, one should not be silent on this danger.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kierkegaard - Works of Love Chapter 4
Our duty to love those we see.
The need for love and the need to love are deeply embedded in the human nature. This is visible in the need for community that we all share to some extent. Most "religious" folks would also add there is a human need to love God. A Christian has the added qualification that "anyone who says he loves God, but hates his brother ( fellow human ) is a liar."
Our duty is to love all those we see, not to seek out those with lovable qualities and love them. In other words our task is not to find the lovable object, but to find the object lovable.
Special Considerations:
If you want to show that your life is intended for service to God, then let it serve men. For God has indicated, if you love me, love the ones you see.
Those who call it misfortune that they have not found a lover ( ie someone to love ) further prevent themselves from finding him or her since the do not understand the initial step.
If the duty is to be fulfilled, there is to be no double-mindedness about the lovers faults, weaknesses or imperfections. The love is limitless and unchanged regardless whether the object changes. See for example Jesus love of Peter. "when he no longer loves you, when he perhaps turns indifferent away to love someone else, love him as you see him when he betrays and denies you."
The need for love and the need to love are deeply embedded in the human nature. This is visible in the need for community that we all share to some extent. Most "religious" folks would also add there is a human need to love God. A Christian has the added qualification that "anyone who says he loves God, but hates his brother ( fellow human ) is a liar."
Our duty is to love all those we see, not to seek out those with lovable qualities and love them. In other words our task is not to find the lovable object, but to find the object lovable.
Special Considerations:
If you want to show that your life is intended for service to God, then let it serve men. For God has indicated, if you love me, love the ones you see.
Those who call it misfortune that they have not found a lover ( ie someone to love ) further prevent themselves from finding him or her since the do not understand the initial step.
If the duty is to be fulfilled, there is to be no double-mindedness about the lovers faults, weaknesses or imperfections. The love is limitless and unchanged regardless whether the object changes. See for example Jesus love of Peter. "when he no longer loves you, when he perhaps turns indifferent away to love someone else, love him as you see him when he betrays and denies you."
Kierkegaard - Works of Love Chapter 3b
Love is a matter of conscience
For love to be the sum of the commandments it must be from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith, but in this chapter S.K. deals mainly with conscience stating that "love is a matter of conscience in which the other two are essentially contained and to which they essentially lead."
He does this be walking through the process of showing that in Christianity, everything is a matter of conscience and that the primary task, as defined earlier is to love. Therefore, all love must first be a matter of conscience. To love falsely is to hate.
Since, love ( and faith ) are a matter of inwardness ( and conscience ) they do not require visible evidence and proof from the object loved, but have confidence due to the confidential relationship that comes from confiding in one another.
Confide -> Confidential -> Confidence
For love to be the sum of the commandments it must be from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith, but in this chapter S.K. deals mainly with conscience stating that "love is a matter of conscience in which the other two are essentially contained and to which they essentially lead."
He does this be walking through the process of showing that in Christianity, everything is a matter of conscience and that the primary task, as defined earlier is to love. Therefore, all love must first be a matter of conscience. To love falsely is to hate.
Since, love ( and faith ) are a matter of inwardness ( and conscience ) they do not require visible evidence and proof from the object loved, but have confidence due to the confidential relationship that comes from confiding in one another.
Confide -> Confidential -> Confidence
Friday, February 12, 2010
Kant -Fundamental Principles
Much better than Nietzsche. It really is the motive and the intention that determines morality - not the net effect.
Imagine 2 cars run a red light and each kills an innocent pedestrian. Now consider that one driver was an ambulance driver with a pregnant mother in labour. If he waits for the light, the life of the mother and her triplet babies lives will all be lost. The second driver was coming from a domestic fight with his wife and was so enraged that he actually intended to hit the pedestrian.
Nietzche would at best consider the acts morally equal, and at worst would raise up the enraged man as a superman willing and able to take his actions into his own hands and thus rising above the slave morality mentality.
Imagine 2 cars run a red light and each kills an innocent pedestrian. Now consider that one driver was an ambulance driver with a pregnant mother in labour. If he waits for the light, the life of the mother and her triplet babies lives will all be lost. The second driver was coming from a domestic fight with his wife and was so enraged that he actually intended to hit the pedestrian.
Nietzche would at best consider the acts morally equal, and at worst would raise up the enraged man as a superman willing and able to take his actions into his own hands and thus rising above the slave morality mentality.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Kierkegaard - Works of Love Chapter 3a
Love is the fulfillling of the Law
Regarding the illustration of Matthew 21:28-31 "No" does not hide anything, but a "yes" very easily becomes a deception. The first son that answered "no", is closer to doing his father's will than the second son who answered "yes" and changed his mind.
Asking "who is my neighbour" creates a trap for yourself. For Jesus, love is pure action in that he acts and does not simply feel. "Love is no shirker of tasks."
Love is the fulfilling of the Law. It is not contradictory or conflicting. Love is the sum of the commandments. Think of the law as the artist's sketch. love is the painting that results from the sketch. There is no quarrel between them any more than between hunger and the blessing which satisfies it.
To love God is to love oneself in truth and to help another person to love God is to love another.
What the law demands is not up for debate or interpretation. It is not an accidental morality such as determined by the majority. If the majority do wrong - it is still wrong.
The world says "look out for number one" but the law says ignore escapes and excuses. Love begins with a relationship with God and is characterized by inwardness and perseverance. Yet time does not alter the eternal requirement that love is the fulfillment of the law.
We are the first son, and we daily face the opportunity to move from our initial "no" to a loving, repentant "yes".
Regarding the illustration of Matthew 21:28-31 "No" does not hide anything, but a "yes" very easily becomes a deception. The first son that answered "no", is closer to doing his father's will than the second son who answered "yes" and changed his mind.
Asking "who is my neighbour" creates a trap for yourself. For Jesus, love is pure action in that he acts and does not simply feel. "Love is no shirker of tasks."
Love is the fulfilling of the Law. It is not contradictory or conflicting. Love is the sum of the commandments. Think of the law as the artist's sketch. love is the painting that results from the sketch. There is no quarrel between them any more than between hunger and the blessing which satisfies it.
To love God is to love oneself in truth and to help another person to love God is to love another.
What the law demands is not up for debate or interpretation. It is not an accidental morality such as determined by the majority. If the majority do wrong - it is still wrong.
The world says "look out for number one" but the law says ignore escapes and excuses. Love begins with a relationship with God and is characterized by inwardness and perseverance. Yet time does not alter the eternal requirement that love is the fulfillment of the law.
We are the first son, and we daily face the opportunity to move from our initial "no" to a loving, repentant "yes".
