‎"KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.‎
‎Opbyggelige Taler i forskjellig Aand. (3 Afdelinger). - [""PURITY OF HEART IS TO WILL ONE THING""]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, C.A. Reitzel, 1847. 8vo. Nice contemporary half calf with richly gilt spine. Upper capital worn and some wear along edges of boards. A bit of brownspotting. (4), 155, 64, 140 pp.‎

Reference : 63629

‎First edition of “The Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits”, which constitutes the first work of Kierkegaard’s “second authorship”. Just as “Either-Or”, the beginning of his “first authorship”, the “Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits” was divided into three parts. When Kierkegaard published “Concluding Unscientific Postscript” in February 1846, he marked the end of the authorship that began with “Either-Or”. This was the “Concluding” work, and not another word would be written. Kierkegaard would now live a withdrawn life as a village priest. One thing was the intention, another, however, was fulfilling it. Already in April-May the same year, Kierkegaard secretly began writing what would become En Leiligheds-Tale, which was later to become the first part of Opbyggelige Taler i Forskjellig Aand, which was published in March 1847. The second part was entitled Hvad man lærer af Lilierne paa Marken og af Himmelens Fugle. Tre Taler, and the third Lidelsernes Evangelium. Christelige Taler. This three-part book would become a work of the utmost importance in Kierkegaard’s authorship. In his praise for Part I of Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, the Kierkegaard scholar Eduard Geismar said, “I am of the opinion that nothing of what he has written is to such a degree before the face of God. Anyone who really wants to understand Kierkegaard does well to begin with that…” “Characterized by Kierkegaard as ethical-ironic, Part One... offers a penetrating discussion of double-mindedness and ethical integrity. Part Two… humorously exposes an inverted qualitative difference between the learner and the teacher. In Part Three,… the philosopher explores how joy can come out of suffering.” (Hong-edition, 1993). Kierkegaard had long been working towards creating a place for the concepts of guilt and sin in the conscience of the single individual. To do this, he undertook an extraordinarily rich analysis of inner dividedness. His aim was for the reader to choose God in order to dispel of illusion and ambivalence. Kierkegaard here challenges those who say they are not guilty of anything, he challenges the idea of reason and nature as being perfect (as presented by Goethe and Hegel), and he writes about the joy of following Christ. I It is in this magnificent work that we witness the three categories of the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious being incorporated into the genre of edifying discourses. And it is also here that Kierkegaard introduces the phrase for which he – and the book – is so well known, namely “Purity of heart is to will one thing”. Himmelstrup 101.‎