Purity of heart is to will one thing. In the last week or so, I have been in Tokyo. I came to visit friends who also do house church here. I have been impressed and challenged. I would also say that I have also seen ways that I would do things differently. On the plane and the trains, I have been reading a gift that my wife gave me for my birthday, "Purity of Heart is To Will One Thing."
I would say that this represents a devotional companion of sorts to Works of Love and presents many of the dialectical themes in easier ways to follow. There is also an obvious parallel to Sickness unto Death which is born out in the 1st person perspective required to comprehend the problem of double-mindedness. In SUD, the essential theme was despair (and its opposite faith).
In "Purity", the basic idea is whether one can will only one thing (following the letter of James). The question is ultimately two-fold: what can be willed as one thing and what does it take to will it. Kierkegaard spends the first 50 pages (in the translation I have) discussing the former question: the essential answer is that the only that can be willed in purity is the Good. Like with despair, all the attempts to avoid this claim descend into folly. To will riches or some such thing is not a singular willing. [Interesting parallels (which I will attempt to draw in publication) can be made with certain other segments of the history of philosophy. ]
For Kierkegaard, the problem of double-mindedness is that it works against itself and cannot satisfy. For instance, if I say that I want the good but ultimately only want it insofar as I am used as the agent to bring it about, then I am double-minded (since I could be disappointed if the good happened, but I was not a part of making it happen). If what Kierkegaard says there is true, then only by willing the Good can a human person achieve fulfillment.
I have further thoughts on the matter but have yet to have a chance to place them.
Labels: Kierkegaard
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thank for share, it is very important .￣︿￣
how do u do?
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