There is so much to process in your comments. I would have no idea where to begin. One thing, however. At age 78, the sand in my hourglass is beginning to dip. That means that the hour is almost up. We’re all in a race against time, and time always wins. The world offers so many options to help deaden that reality, but they soon run their course and we’re left with, “what now”? It’s only in Christ that we can answer that “what now” question. So, I take Moses’ suggestion in Psalm 91. I square up to my finitude and number my days. My prayer book tells me that “Only in thee can I find safety.” Only in thee, Lord.
I think Kierkegaard would agree with your turn to Christ. The “Eulogy on Autumn” (among other writings) is an attempt to clarify, however indirectly, why such a “turn” is needed. After all, it’s easy to take change for granted. Thanks for the comment!
Yes, Tommy Norton, "teach us to number our days," Psalm 91/90, and as you paraphrase so well, "square up to my finitude," ... "You O Lord, are our true home," in think, is at the opening of that same Psalm. All that is a truly fitting accompaniment to the autumnal wisdom of Kierkegaard and Ecclesiastes that Chris interpreted movingly for us the readers.
A theologian once wrote, “Death confronts humanity with an incomprehensible, inexplicable, and unassailable reality.” Some will search for any narcotic that might knock the edge off of this reality. This may work, but only for a while. There’s only one solution.
Chris! Thank for this autumnal cornocupia of plenty-to-think-on! I have a question for you from this quotation from your blog. My question for you is: the kind of wisdom that Quohelet offers (and Eulogy on Autumn also offers) for its readers, would you classify it as part of the "ethical" stage or part of the "religious" stage or possibly both or on a borderlands of both? You write: "On the contrary, Kohelet is describing the world’s ceaseless becoming (“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” [Eccles. 3:1]) and identifying “wisdom” (חָכְמָ֔ה) as the unflinching acceptance of this reality. Such, indeed, is Kierkegaard’s overarching purpose in “Eulogy on Autumn,” not to mention other writings. Moreover, in a passage that Kierkegaard himself would exegete,2 Kohelet ends by encouraging the listener to summon the powers of recollection in order to weather the days when "the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail" (Eccles. 12:5)."
It's an interesting question, and I'd have to ponder it some more. However, at first glance, I'd situate it at the border between the ethical and the religious--a "confinium" that Kierkegaard refers to as "humor."
Thank you! It's one that I ponder too. As I've mentioned to you, the SK writing I've worked the hardest on is the one that's published under the name "Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing," which I understand is the 2nd part of a 3rd part series of writings which include the one on the Birds and Lillies as well as "The Gospel of Sufferings." So, related to my question on your post and Eulogy on Autum is the fact that I can't quite understand where "Purity of Heart" is supposed to fall, I do think as "ethical" but yet it's on a borderline with the religious phase, no? And it starts and begins with Ecclesiastes even its James most of all in the middle as the Scriptural text.
Here's on more cross-reference, from Ricoeur's section on Job and Ecclesiastes in "Toward a Hermeneutic of Revelation" : “Wisdom, as we have seen, recognizes a hidden God who takes as his mask the anonymous and non-human course of events] Wisdom does not teach us how to avoid suffering, how to magically deny it, how to dissimulate it under an illusion. It teaches us how to endure, how to suffer suffering. It places suffering into a meaningful context by producing the active quality of suffering. Revelation as wisdom, the intending of that horizon of meaning where a conception of the world and a conception of action merge into a new and active quality of suffering." So - back to SK and Eulogy, is the wisdom that "places suffering into a meaningful context by producing the active quality of suffering" both ethical and religious, or fully religious, since it's also incorporating the aesthetic too.....? Sorry for long musings here, to me the "how to suffer suffering" is such a valuable theme and seems very Kierkegaardian (The Gospel of Sufferings) as well as of immediate practical relevance...
There is so much to process in your comments. I would have no idea where to begin. One thing, however. At age 78, the sand in my hourglass is beginning to dip. That means that the hour is almost up. We’re all in a race against time, and time always wins. The world offers so many options to help deaden that reality, but they soon run their course and we’re left with, “what now”? It’s only in Christ that we can answer that “what now” question. So, I take Moses’ suggestion in Psalm 91. I square up to my finitude and number my days. My prayer book tells me that “Only in thee can I find safety.” Only in thee, Lord.
I think Kierkegaard would agree with your turn to Christ. The “Eulogy on Autumn” (among other writings) is an attempt to clarify, however indirectly, why such a “turn” is needed. After all, it’s easy to take change for granted. Thanks for the comment!
Like St. Peter, where else can you go? At my age, I rarely take change for granted. Life is one letting go after another.
Yes, Tommy Norton, "teach us to number our days," Psalm 91/90, and as you paraphrase so well, "square up to my finitude," ... "You O Lord, are our true home," in think, is at the opening of that same Psalm. All that is a truly fitting accompaniment to the autumnal wisdom of Kierkegaard and Ecclesiastes that Chris interpreted movingly for us the readers.
Thanks Ole!
A theologian once wrote, “Death confronts humanity with an incomprehensible, inexplicable, and unassailable reality.” Some will search for any narcotic that might knock the edge off of this reality. This may work, but only for a while. There’s only one solution.
Loved your summer to autumn post. Get yourself back into the car with your family. That is the ontological sense of being human.
Chris! Thank for this autumnal cornocupia of plenty-to-think-on! I have a question for you from this quotation from your blog. My question for you is: the kind of wisdom that Quohelet offers (and Eulogy on Autumn also offers) for its readers, would you classify it as part of the "ethical" stage or part of the "religious" stage or possibly both or on a borderlands of both? You write: "On the contrary, Kohelet is describing the world’s ceaseless becoming (“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” [Eccles. 3:1]) and identifying “wisdom” (חָכְמָ֔ה) as the unflinching acceptance of this reality. Such, indeed, is Kierkegaard’s overarching purpose in “Eulogy on Autumn,” not to mention other writings. Moreover, in a passage that Kierkegaard himself would exegete,2 Kohelet ends by encouraging the listener to summon the powers of recollection in order to weather the days when "the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail" (Eccles. 12:5)."
It's an interesting question, and I'd have to ponder it some more. However, at first glance, I'd situate it at the border between the ethical and the religious--a "confinium" that Kierkegaard refers to as "humor."
Thank you! It's one that I ponder too. As I've mentioned to you, the SK writing I've worked the hardest on is the one that's published under the name "Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing," which I understand is the 2nd part of a 3rd part series of writings which include the one on the Birds and Lillies as well as "The Gospel of Sufferings." So, related to my question on your post and Eulogy on Autum is the fact that I can't quite understand where "Purity of Heart" is supposed to fall, I do think as "ethical" but yet it's on a borderline with the religious phase, no? And it starts and begins with Ecclesiastes even its James most of all in the middle as the Scriptural text.
Here's on more cross-reference, from Ricoeur's section on Job and Ecclesiastes in "Toward a Hermeneutic of Revelation" : “Wisdom, as we have seen, recognizes a hidden God who takes as his mask the anonymous and non-human course of events] Wisdom does not teach us how to avoid suffering, how to magically deny it, how to dissimulate it under an illusion. It teaches us how to endure, how to suffer suffering. It places suffering into a meaningful context by producing the active quality of suffering. Revelation as wisdom, the intending of that horizon of meaning where a conception of the world and a conception of action merge into a new and active quality of suffering." So - back to SK and Eulogy, is the wisdom that "places suffering into a meaningful context by producing the active quality of suffering" both ethical and religious, or fully religious, since it's also incorporating the aesthetic too.....? Sorry for long musings here, to me the "how to suffer suffering" is such a valuable theme and seems very Kierkegaardian (The Gospel of Sufferings) as well as of immediate practical relevance...