The Point of View for My Work as an Author

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will and Joe on 13 August 2013.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

Hope you're both transitioning smoothly into the next phases of your lives.  

I'm up on my annual trip to the UP and reading lots of Kierkegaard.  I just finished reading The Point of View for My Work as an Author and it's blowing my mind how similar our approach was to his.

Here's my favorite quote:

The religious writer must, therefore, first get into touch with men [who Kierkegaard believes live in the aesthetic, or at best, aesthetic/ethical stage].  That is, he must begin with aesthetic achievement...The more brilliant the achievement, the better for him.  Moreover he must be sure of himself, or (and this is the one and only security) he must relate himself to God in fear and trembling, lest the event most opposite to his intentions should come to pass, and instead of setting the others in motion, the others acquire power over him, so that he ends by being bogged in the aesthetic.  Therefore he must have everything in readiness, though without impatience, with a view to bringing forward the religious promptly, as soon as he perceives that he has his readers with him, so that with the momentum gained by devotion to the aesthetic they rush headlong into contact with the religious. 

It is important that religion should not be introduced either too soon or too late.  If too long a time elapses, the illusion gains ground that the aesthetic writer has become older and hence religious [a common interpretation of Kierkegaard's output over time].  If it comes too soon, the effect is not violent enough. Assuming that there is a prodigious illusion in the case of these many men who call themselves Christians and are regarded as Christians, the way of encountering it which is here suggested involves no condemnation or denunciation.  It is a truly Christian invention, which cannot be employed without fear and trembling, or without real self-denial.  The one who is disposed to help bears all the responsibility and makes all the effort.  But for that reason such a line of action possesses intrinsic value.  Generally speaking, a method has value only in relation to the result attained.  Some one condemns and denounces, vociferates and makes a great noise--all this has no intrinsic value, though one counts upon accomplishing much by it.  It is otherwise with the line of action here contemplated.