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The Point of View : Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 22

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The greatest challenge for any newcomer to Kierkegaard is finding the best place to gain an overview. In my opinion, this is the finest place to start. In the main work in this collection, THE POINT OF VIEW (the book also contains some smaller pieces on his Authorship), Kierkegaard sets out to explain his purposes and strategy in writing the books constituting what he calls his Authorship. Students of Kierkegaard generally refer to these books as his Pseudonymous Authorship, because in all of these he writes none of them under his own name, but employs a variety of fictionalized authors, who represent a particular point of view that is not that of Kierkegaard himself. The Pseudonymous works are contrasted with what has become to be known as Kierkegaard's Second Literature (a descriptions attributed to Kierkegaard scholar Robert L. Perkins), which comprises his edifying works and his later religious works, most of which were published under Kierkegaard's own name, though with a couple of his greatest later works published under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus.

Some of these works, such as EITHER/OR I, contain writings on a variety of aesthetic topics. Many of the books deal with either ethical or religious topics, though the latter never from within a religious perspective. Kierkegaard's main argument in the POINT OF VIEW is that from first to last he was, even when writing on aesthetic topics, a religious author. The Pseudonymous works all presuppose a theory of stages, which Kierkegaard describes as moving from the aesthetic to the ethical and into the religious (the precise prepositions, according to SK, being of the utmost importance).

It is not clear that Kierkegaard had a precise understanding of all this at the moment he was writing the first of his Pseudonymous works, but it is unquestionable that he moved to this point of view fairly early on. This little volume is, therefore, a wonderful introduction to Kierkegaard's most famous works, and remains one of the most fascinating reflections by a great writer on the nature of his own work ever written.

If you are a student of Kierkegaard or Philosophy, this book is a must read.

Kierkegaard is a widely misunderstood "author" and this is due, in large part, to his writing of two distinct kinds/ sets of works: pseudonymous and signed works. The pseudonymous works present the viewpoints of varying individuals who relate to life...or understand life, in markedly different ways. The signed works are overtly religious texts that supposedly reflect the theological convictions of Kierkegaard himself.

In The Point of View, he explains why he has written two different kinds of works. I won't totally detail why....kinda takes the fun out of the text anyway, but the Point of View, for Kierkegaard, is a kind of coming clean...a way of explaining the peculiarities of his overall authorship. In short, he's says his primary concern is to get his contemporary Danes to appreciate again some theological ideas that they've grown used to and are no longer in proper awe of (especially the doctrine of sola gratia sola fide). He wants to shock them out of their passivity and into a passionate relationship to the Divine. He uses the two kinds of works, in tandem, to do so.

This is by far my favorite work of his (and I've read them all). A text like this really has helped me understand why the "Kierkegaard" I meet in Fear and Trembling is so different from the "Kierkegaard" I meet in Practice in Christianity (both pseudonymous works). In The Point of View, Kierkegaard will argue that his own ideas are most clearly expressed in his signed theological works (and espeically in the Point of View itself). Students of post-modernity will balk at this, of course, as they will remind us that we are hard pressed to find the "author" of any text, much less a Kierkegaardian text, anyway. Kierkegaard, while clearly one of the forerunners of post-modern thought, would disagree with our postmodern friends. The Point of view clearly suggests that he wants to claim authorship of the signed works while owning up to writing the pseudonymous ones in such a way that the ideas expressed by the various pseudonyms are not considered Kierkegaard's own.

Kierkegaard, in addition to being seen as one of the forerunners of post-modernity, is also seen as the father of modern existentialism. He is loved by some for this and oddly feared by others (who maybe have a particular negative view of what it means to be an existentialist). This text, it seems to me, helps clarify why he focused on particular notions in certain works (primarily in the pseudonymous texts, i.e., the concept of "despair"), notions that were later appropriated by other existentialist thinkers who shared none of Kierkegaard's theological concerns. In fact, the case can probably be made that those who have tended to see Kierkegaard through primarily existentialist lenses have done so based on a selective reading of some of the pseudonymous texts. Moreover, they've done so by either not reading or not taking seriously what Kierkegaard says about his pseudonyms (basically.."they are not me").

If you read this text, and take it at face value, next time you hear someone say "Soren Kierkegaard taught" whatever...you'll be in a position to say: "Which Kierkegaard." If what is allegedly "taught" by Kierkegaard comes from one of the pseudonymous texts, you'll be in a better position to perhaps come to terms what he actually was or wasn't teaching.

If you've never read Kierkegaard, don't get a Kierkegaard for Beginners of Kierkegaard for Dummies. Seriously. Get this text as your Kierkegaard primer. The sad reality in Kierkegaardian scholarship, on the whole, is that most people don't, or don't know to, take The Point of View seriously. Kierkegaard clearly meant it to be. For a guy who is communicating with you indirectly most of the time in the rest of his works, The Point of View is where you'll find Kierkegaard coming as close as he ever does to communicating with his reader in a way that can be understood as "direct."

Basing your understanding of the Kierkegaard authorship as a whole on The Point of View is not, I would say, particularly in vogue. Kierkegaard would be befuddled by this, as the title The Point of View for My Work as an Author suggests that Kierkegaard wants to explain why he wrote at all, what he really wanted to write about, and why he wrote about so many other things than what he wanted to write primarily about.

There is much to be learned about post-modernity and its unique way of affirming non-books with no real authors. If that is your passion, read a thinker like Mark C. Taylor (start with a book like Erring) or even Derrida. Taylor's all about that....and he draws heavily from Kierkegaard. Taylor's readings of Kierkegaard are extraordinary, too (say, in a work like Deconstructing Theology). But the truth is Kierkegaard is hard to understand even when he tries to communicate with you directly. Accept his assistance. Read the Point of View. But my God, then read everything else. Kierkegaard is worth your time....and he is too influential of a thinker not to read seriously. But before you jump headlong into the existentialist reading of Kierkegaard of one of the many post-modern readings, Read the Point of View. You'll be glad you did.

Now if you are a student, and your philosophy teacher is convinced that Kierkegaard is one and the same with his pseudonyms (or he/she is bent on teaching you the existentialist Kierkegaard....or the post-modern Kierkegaard), don't try and talk him/her out of it. Regurgitate the material, get out of the class with a high mark, improve your GPA and then go your way. Misreadings of Kierkegaard are so common you'll be fighting a losing battle if you do otherwise. In fact, Misreadings of Kierkegaard are so common (and I'm not kidding here) that if you pretend to agree with one of the more sexy ones, you'll probably be considered avant garde, cutting edge, and super cool. But secretly? Understand Kierkegaard in light of The Point of View, first and foremost. My experience with learning Kierkegaard was unique. I had a mentor who 1) secretly affirmed the Point of View but 2) so loved Kierkegaardian indirect communication that he never admitted it until I figured it out after many years of reading and agonizing over works like The Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments. The Point of View was one of the last of Kierkegaard's books I read. In hindsight, I'm glad, because suffering through Kierkegaaard for years allowed me to experience, on some level, what he hoped his Danish contemporaries would experience: the awakening to a new appreciation for Grace. Truth be told, if I'd known to read the Point of View first, I would have done so. That's my 2 cents.