Kierkegaard’S Afterlife
KIERKEGAARD’S AFTERLIFE
a fierce debate about the Christian doctrine of immortality: see Ludwig Feuerbach, Thoughts on Death and Immortality, ed. and trans. James A. Massey (University of California Press, 1980); István Czakó, ‘Becoming Immortal: The Historical Context of Kiekegaard’s Concept of Immortality’, in Kierkegaard and Christianity, ed. Roman Králik, Abrahim H. Khan, Peter Sajda, Jamie Turnbull and Andrew J. Burgess (Acta Kierkegaardiana, vol. 3, 2008), pp. 60–65.
‘strangely enough, while this is taking place, certitude declines’: S. Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety, trans. Reidar Thomte (Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 139.
Anders Vestergaard once asked him: this conversation was reported by Andreas Ferdinand Schiødte, who knew Vestergaard, in a letter to H. P. Barfod in 1869: see Encounters with Kierkegaard, ed. Bruce Kirmmse, trans. Bruce Kirmmse and Virginia Laursen (Princeton University Press, 1998), p. 195. See also Kierkegaard’s Journals and Notebooks, Volume 7: Journals NB15–NB20, ed. and trans. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Alastair Hannay, Bruce H. Kirmmse, David D. Possen, Joel D. S. Rasmussen, Vanessa Rumble and K. Brian Söderquist (Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 433: NB20, 58 (July to September 1850): ‘A Socrates in Christendom. Socrates could not prove the immortality of the soul; he simply said: this matter occupies me so much that I will order my life as though immortality were a fact – should there be none, oh well, I still do not regret my choice, for this is the only matter that concerns me. What a great help it would already be in Christendom if there were someone who spoke and acted like that: I do not know whether Christianity is true, but I will order my whole life as though it were, stake my life on it – then if it proves not to be true, oh well, I still do not regret my choice, for it is the only matter that concerns me.’
Søren A. Kierkegaard Collection: Kierkegaard’s possessions were sold by auction after his death. A list of the 280 items and the names of their purchasers can be found in Flemming Chr. Nielsen, Alt Blev Godt Betalt: Auktionen over Søren Kierkegaards indbo (Holkenfeldt 3, 2000).
‘for fear that too many people’: see Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, Joakim Garff and Johnny Kondrup, Written Images: Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals, Notebooks, Booklets, Sheets, Scraps, and Slips of Paper, trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse (Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 19.
he appointed a former newspaper editor, H. P. Barfod: see ibid, pp. 22–9. Barfod found a slip of paper on which Kierkegaard stated his wish that Rasmus Nielsen edit his posthumous writings, in collaboration with Jens Giødvad and Israel Levin, which caused Barfod much concern.
The first volume of Søren Kierkegaard’s Posthumous Papers appeared: ibid, pp. 53–6.
a verse from an eighteenth-century hymn by Brorson: see Christopher B. Barnett, ‘Hans Adolph Brorson: Danish Pietism’s Greatest Hymn Writer’, in Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions. Tome II: Theology, ed. Jon Stewart (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 63–79; Andrew J. Burgess, ‘Kierkegaard, Brorson, and Moravian Music’, in International Kierkegaard Commentary, Volume 20: Practice in Christianity, ed. Robert L. Perkins (Mercer University Press, 2004), pp. 211–43. There is no documentary evidence to show that Kierkegaard sang these (or any other) hymns, but he knew Brorson’s hymns well and often referred to them in his writings.
‘the whole burial plot’: S. Kierkegaard, Letters and Documents, ed. and trans. Henrik Rosenmeier (Princeton University Press, 2009), pp. 26–7.
‘the most dangerous part of his actions’: see Encounters with Kierkegaard, p. 130 – from Nord og Syd, 15 November 1855.
‘The crowd in the aisles was large’: see ibid, p. 136 – from a letter from Hans Christian Andersen to August Bournonville, 24 November 1855.
‘Today, after a large service at the Church of Our Lady’: see ibid, p. 135 – from a letter from H. L. Martensen to L. Gude, 18 November 1855.
‘There was an enormous crowd present’: see ibid, p. 132–3 – from a letter from F. Sodemann to P. M. Barfod, 18 November 1855.
Henrik Lund’s graveside speech: see ibid, pp. 133–5 – from Fædrelandet, 22 November 1855.
‘To me, the entire affair is a distorted picture of Søren K.’: see ibid, p. 136 – from a letter from Hans Christian Andersen to August Bournonville, 24 November 1855.
Bishop Martensen made sure Lund was prosecuted: see Cappelørn, Garff and Konderup, Written Images, p. 10.
the birthday festivities: reported in Kristeligt Dagblad on Monday, 6 May 2013.
Joakim Garff … spoke about the peculiar task: I am grateful to Joakim Garff for showing me the text of his lecture. For a much earlier reflection on similar themes, see Garff’s ‘The Eyes of Argus: The Point of View and Points of View with Respect to Kierkegaard’s “Activity as an Author”’, Kierkegaardiana, 15 (Reitzel, 1991), pp. 29–54.