Introduction to Religion Humanities 215.02 March 6, 2013 Targeted Question #5

Soren Kierkegaard’s Stages Aesthetic = whatever looks, feels good Ethical = choices must be made Religious = the choices which are made involve us in suffering, but the suffering may mean we’re authentically alive

Christianity... Moves Us Beyond the Aesthetic & Ethical Lives... But We Have To Start There... Concerns God’s Love (Decision) For The World and Our Love (Decision) for God Admits The Hiddenness of God (Because God’s Not Empirical), And Wants Us To Seek That Essential Hidden Essence

The Content of Christian Life... Love, But What Manner, Mode or Kind of Love?

Simone Weil 1909 1943

Absent? How Might God Be Absent?

Loving God By Loving... Other Things/People, but How? By Loving... The Order & Beauty that May Crush Us By Loving... Religious Practices

“The love of neighbor prepares us for an explicit love of God “The love of neighbor prepares us for an explicit love of God. For as we increase our ability to see ourselves and others quite apart from the identity given to us by earthly circumstances, we are progressively made free to love without any hope of earthly reward...” (p. 113).

Self Things Work Idea of God Others “How could we search for God, since he is above, in a dimension not open to us? We can only advance horizontally...” (Weil, p. 121) Things Work Idea of God Self Others It is only because God is present here below in our neighbors, in nature and in religious ceremonies that awe can reach him (Allen, p. 121)

Each man imagines he is situated in the center of the world Each man imagines he is situated in the center of the world. The illusion of perspective places him at the center of space; an illusion of the same kind falsifies his idea of time; and yet another kindred illusion arranges the whole hierarchy of values around him... (p. 116).

Question #5 March 6

In what sense do Soren Kierkegaard and Simone Weil complement one another as to their reflections on the Love of God and the Love of Neighbor? Do you think they help to express the profound claims of Christianity, or do they confuse things even more?

Let’s Talk... How does the idea of De-Centering the Ego relate to an understanding of God?

Small Group Assigned Days For Friday Small Group Assigned Days “Discussion” Quiz Small Group Research