Caylao, Inna Marie S.
4PHL
AN OUTLINE TO S. KIERKEGAARD’S
FOUR UPBUILDING DISCOURSES
(“discourses” – not sermons, because its
author does not have the authority to preach;
“upbuilding” – not discourses for upbuilding,
because the speaker by no means claims to
be a teacher)
TO NEED GOD IS A HUMAN BEING’S
HIGHEST PERFECTION
“A person needs only a little in order to live
and needs that little only a little while”
- If then it is true that a person needs only a
little – in order to live – then he needs no
more, since he will indeed find a grave, and
in the grave every human being needs
equally little.
- With respect to the earthly, one needs little,
and to the degree that one needs less, the
more perfect one is.
- Conclusion: Be contented with the grace of
God (Ex. Friendship between the destitute
person and powerful person)
Pagan v. Man’s relationship with God
 The former who knew how to speak only of
the earthly has said that the deity is blessed
because he needs nothing, and next to him
the wise man, he needs little.
 While in the latter, it is inverted: the more he
needs God, the more deeply he comprehends
that he is in need of God, and then the more
he in his need presses forward to God, the
more perfect he is.
Secret of perfection: that to need God is nothing to
be ashamed of but is perfection itself, and that it is
the saddest thing of all if a human being goes
through life without discovering that he needs
God.
Human being’s highest perfection: that a person is
fully convinced that he himself is capable of
nothing, nothing at all.
 God in heaven is capable of all things, and man
of nothing at all.
 God and man correspond each other
 Man learns to know himself (And for
the person who does not know
himself, his life is, in the deeper sense,
indeed a delusion.)
From the first self to the deeper self:
 First self – a person turns and faces
himself in order to understand himself, he
steps, as it were, in the way of that first
self, halts that which was turned outward
in hankering for and seeking after the
surrounding world that is its object, and
summons it back from the external
 Deeper self – shapes the deceitful
flexibility of the surrounding world in
such a way that it is no longer attractive to
that first self.
- The person who witnesses the struggle in his
inner being must concede that the deeper self
is right: in that everything can be changed,
and one who does not discover this
continually runs aimlessly.
- When the first self submits to the deeper self,
they are reconciled and walk on together.
- Secret bet. the first self & deeper self: with
regard to the external a person is capable of
nothing at all
- Yet, this is still only the condition for coming
to know himself. But if he is actually to know
himself, there are new struggles and new
dangers.
- But the person who perceived that he was not
capable of the least thing without God,
unable even to be happy about the most
happy event – he is closer to perfection.
Apostle Paul – “boast of his weakness”
Q: In the external world, he was capable of
nothing; but in the internal world, is he not
capable of anything there, either?
A: In the internal world, the opposition can come
only from himself…that he himself is capable of
nothing at all, then he knows himself.