Christian Discourses

Christian Discourses (Danish: Christelige Taler) is one of the first books in Søren Kierkegaard's second period of authorship and was published on April 26, 1848.

Structure

The work consists of four parts:

  • Part One - The Cares of the Pagans
    • (1) The Care of Poverty.
    • (2) The Care of Abundance.
    • (3) The Care of Lowliness.
    • (4) The Care of Loftiness.
    • (5) The Care of Presumptiousness.
    • (6) The Care of Self-Torment.
    • (7) The Care of Indecesiveness, Vacillation, and Disconsolateness.
  • Part Two - States of Mind in the Strife of Suffering
    • (1) The Joy of it: That One Suffers Only Once But Is Victorious Eternally.
    • (2) The Joy of it: That Hardship Does Not Take Away But Procures Hope.
    • (3) The Joy of it: That the Poorer You Become the Richer You Are Able to Make Others.
    • (4) The Joy of it: That the Weaker You Become the Stronger God Becomes in You.
    • (5) The Joy of it: That What You Lose Temporally You Gain Eternally.
    • (6) The Joy of it: That When I "Gain Everything" I Lose Nothing at All.
    • (7) The Joy of it: That Adversity is Prosperity.
  • Part Three - Thoughts that Wound from Behind
    • (1) Watch Your Step When You Go to the House of the Lord.
    • (2) "See, We Have Left Everything and Followed You; What Shall We Have?"
    • (3) All Things Must Serve Us for Good - When We Love God.
    • (4) There Will Be the Resurrection of the Dead, of the Righteous-and of the Unrighteous..
    • (5) We are Closer to Salvation Now-Than When We Became Believers..
    • (6) But It Is Blessed-to Suffer Mockery for a Good Cause.
    • (7) He Was Believed in the World.
  • Part Four - Discourses at the Communion on Fridays
    • (1) Luke 22:15
    • (2) Matthew 11:28
    • (3) John 10:27
    • (4) I Corinthians 11:23
    • (5) II Timothy 2:12f
    • (6) I John 3:20
    • (7) Luke 24:51

Parts two and four were written first and discusses the Christian life in a world of adversity and strife. Parts one and three were written last and are polemics. Part three was originally planned for another volume and included in Christian Discourses at the last minute.

God's greatness is in forgiving, in showing mercy, and in this, his greatness, he is greater than the heart that condemns itself.

— Søren Kierkegaard, Christian Discourses in Essential Kierkegaard, p.328

In English
  • Christian Discourses; The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress, edited and translated with introduction and notes by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton University Press (1997) ISBN 0-691-01649-6


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