His exploration into the story of Isaac and Abraham was a revelation to me. I suffer, but Kierkegaard has named my suffering.

Always fun to ruminate on faith, despair, anxiety, religion, and sin during workdays

Fear and Trembling was really good, but TSUD was boring

As a student of philosophy I believe that Kierkegaard is truly in a class of his own. He has been a great inspiration to me. Through his writings I have seen the dark places that he traveled and can feel a connection to his despair. Only someone who has been there can really know what Soren is writing about. For the rest it might appear as theoretical philosophy, but I assure you that it is not.
This book is not a quick one-time read. It is a study of both Kierkegaard and the self. One must spend a great deal of time studying this book line by line in order to begin to understand it. I would recommend that you perhaps begin with one of his easier works before tackling this one. My suggestion is "The Present Age." Another book that was very helpful for me was "Kierkegaard's Philosophy" by John Douglas Mullen. He will give you an overview of his works and some insight into this great man, Kierkegaard.
I have prepared my own lectures on Youtube for anyone who might be interested. Some of the earlier videos were a little dark, but I purchased better equipment that improved the picture. You can find them on the following sites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fMrY...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naGom...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pRPt...

Both works were superb. Kierkegaard writes urgently, and his philosophy often has devotional significance. A brilliant thinker and two books that have made a deep impression on me.

The "Attunement" alone is worthy of much contemplation. This entire work revolves around the story of Abraham as fodder for revealing Kierkegaard's philosophy of ethics and aesthetics. Faith is proven to be reliance on the absurd after having completely resigned from any possible salvation. He uses the story of Abraham as the supreme example of this, telling the story 4 different ways in order to show the alternatives that would invalidate the significance of the tale. He also uses the story of Iphegenia as a secondary example, nicely drawing parallels between Hebrew and Greek law. A third powerful metaphor is that of a knight and maiden seeking a true love. Through these means, Kiekegaard demonstrates the meaning of faith, doubt, and resignation in such a way that simple discussion could never achieve. And this in turn is backed by the explanation of what is true poetic force, the collision of two powerful emotions -- the maiden torn between holiness and a man rather than the hero lamenting his own situation. Finally, at a fundamental level, the truly faithful put the invidual ahead of the universal. It is the absurdity of such a paradox that establishes the meaning of faith. After the "Attunement," a general discussion culminates with the powerful observation that after 130 years, even Abraham got no further than faith. The remainder is divided into three problemata: (i) Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical? (ii) Is there an absolute duty to God? (iii) What is it ethically defensible of Abraham to conceal his purpose from Sarah? from Eleazar? from Isaac? In the role of doubt, Soren notes that Descartes began by doubting everything and then to solve it rationally, whereas the Greeks tried to preserve doubt no matter how much they discovered. The knight becomes heroic when taking on infinite resignation about a tragic situation. At this level, he accepts his position and has nothing to lose. Still, the next level beyond that involves having faith that victory will indeed happen and thus whatever prize is restored. "Infinite resignation is the last stage before faith, so that anyone who has not made this movement does not have faith; for only in infinite resignation doe my eternal validity become transparent to me, and only then can there be talk of grasping on the strength of faith."

The Sickness Unto Death: The deep dive into the meaning of despair. One of my early covid quarantine reads. Dug out my heavily marked up Walter Lowrie translation from when I studied philosophy in college. Actually fun to see what I marked as important back then. Now? Two quotes stood out for this time:

"The loss of possibility signifies: either that everything has become necessary to a man/or that everything has become trivial." [173]

"In the constant sociability of our age people shudder at solitude to such a degree that they know no other use to put it but (oh, admirable epigram!) as a punishment for criminals." [198]

Two books in one, but neither was my cup of tea. I like his phrasing and eloquence in writing, but my love fest ends there.

Makashima summarized Kierkegaard's work as despair being the result of man's finitude facing the infinity of God. Francis Schaeffer states that Kierkegaard was a Christian existentialist and that this should be avoided. R. C. Sproul states that Kierkegaard read the Bible existentially and that this should be encouraged, to read the Bible and imagine that one is living through what the individuals in it are living through, to project oneself into Scripture. Schaeffer says that Kierkegaard advocated a leap into non-reason style a "leap of faith." The reality seems to be more complicated: Kierkegaard's reading of Hegel allowed him an enhanced view of both sides or definitions of words and events. For example, Abraham had faith and was not a murderer, but if anyone did what he did, that man would be a murderer. Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter or Jephthah sacrificing his were not accounted to them as righteousness, or at least not in a way we can easily understand. Kierkegaard's main thrust seems to be that the psychology of individuals in the Bible is actually more complicated than we often accept, and that oversimplification will harm our sanctification if we do not wrestle with their strangeness.

Książka opisująca filozoficzne zmagania z Bogiem człowieka głęboko religijnego.

From the father of existentialist thought. Well thought out and presented.

Read for: Theological Questions: What is the Value of Faith?

Kierkegaard is a requirement for anyone interested in modern theology/philosophy. Fear and Trembling & Sickness Unto Death are his most beautifully written works and both are written under pseudonyms (he was hated in Denmark). Kierkegaard, along with other authors, like Fichte, mark the transition from more "traditional" theologians (i.e. Augustine, Aquinas, Luther) to the more radical (but now rather accepted) philosophers (i.e. Kant, Nietzsche, Freud, Ricouer). A good way to understand the transition: Augustine is to Newtonian Physics as Kant is to quantum mechanics. Just a transition into a new system of thinking.