Abstract

Among the interlacing series of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous and acknowledged works published during his lifetime, the various sets of Christian discourses occupy a decisive place. These two volumes in particular share a close thematic relationship extending to the very topics written on—for example, the lessons taught by the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, or the right dispositions for receiving holy communion. Readers acquainted only with Kierkegaard’s more widely-read books, like Sickness unto Death, Philosophical Fragments, and Either/or, would do well to read his explicitly Christian writings if they wish to gain a better sense of the proper context and foundations of his thought. Looking back over his works in 1849, he discerned a progression “from ‘the poet,’ from the esthetic—from the philosopher, from the speculative—to the intimation of the most inward interpretation of the essentially Christian”.