Rediscovering Kierkegaard

We will be starting a new course from Swarthmore in January. It is called "Uncanny Voyages" and will be led by Phil Weinstein. The first reading assignment is Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. Ellen has never read Kierkegaard, but this assignment brings me back to a very important part of my life. My first memory of Kierkegaard actually goes back to when I was six years old! I was walking down the sidewalk in our neihborhood with my dad in Minneapolis, and ahead of us was an older man coming out of his house. My dad said, "That is Professor Swensen, the translator of Kierkegaard." Well, that is what I think he said - all I remember is learning that a neighbor had a connection with someone named Kierkegaard, who must have been someone important. I of course knew norhing of Kierkegaard as a six-year-old, and only later did I learn that David Swensen was indeed the person who had "discovered" a book by Kierkegaard in a Minneapolis bookstore, written in Danish, taken it home, read it, and immediately became a fan and tried to lay his hands on as many books by Kierkegaard as he could find. At that time, the early 1900's, Kierkegaard was esentially unknown in the U.S. Swensen made him known, and translated several of his works. It was only in seminary that I actually read Kierkegaard, and when I met Shirley, Thanksgiving weekend, the fall of my first year at CTS, we discovered we had Kierkegaard in common - she had read him at Wellesley, and had been much affected by his thought. I was impressed! Kierkegaard became an important part of our faith, and figured prominently in Shirley's ordination paper. I owe to K my love of paradox, and while I make no pretense to really understand his thought, I feel he has shaped my understanding of what it means to be a Christian in a significant way. So, we have dug out Kierkegaard. Quite literally - a few years ago I boxed up a bunch of books, and my library of Kierkegaard was in a box in the storeroom. Among them - the book we are assigned to read, Fear and Trembling. Reading Kierkegaard is tough sleding, and to help us I have started reading aloud to Ellen an overview of his life and thought by Perry LeFevre, who was one of my teachers at CTS and the author of The Prayers of Kierkegaard, which includes an introduction to Kierkegaard which is clear and intelligible. I'll be very interested to see what Phil Weinstein and the class make of Kierkegaard!

My library of books by or about Kierkegaard. For some reason, I have two copies of Purity of Heart. My favorite of all his works is Works of Love, which I used to own, but which I gave to someone years ago, so we ordered it yesterday and it will come next Tuesday. I am excited to get back into Kierkegaard! This week I have gone to the pool twice - I now have purchased a 3-month membership. Katie and Savanna are coming for a visit this afternoon and tonight we will attend the annual "First Night" concert by the Amidons and friends online (they will be doing it at the BMC and a few hardy souls will be there in person). Tomorrow we are going to Northhampton to see Max and meet his friend Maison (pronounced Mason), and in the evening we are going to a silent movie with live organ acccompaniment with John and Cynthia - that will be at the Baptist Church (now called Epsilon Spires) where there is one of the grand old Estey pipe organs.