Dear Colleagues, One of my favourite quotes comes from my Canadian friend and Order colleague, Gay Kennedy. “When you're dead, you’re dead for a long time.” I think SK would appreciate her irony. My partner, Mary Farrar and I are going to Copenhagen in July for eight days to visit her family. We are also in the process of structuring a Soren Kierkegaard pilgrimage. Beret Griffith suggested that I post our inquiry on the listserv seeking your input. Part I - When did JWM encounter the writings of Soren Kierkegaard? I’m curious about the connective tissue between JWM & SK. When did Joe encounter SK? The fruit of that encounter has been astronomical. 1. ‘Philosophical Fragments’ - David F. Swenson, 1936. Revised by Howard V. Hong. “I always reason from existence, not toward existence, whether I move in the sphere of palpable fact or in the realm of thought.” [from Getting to the Bottom of Top – existentialism & phenomenology] At that time, Joe was an undergraduate at Asbury. 2. 'The Sickness Unto Death' - Walter Lowrie, Princeton U., 1941, was just published when Joe was at Union. “By relating to its own self and by willing to be itself, the self is grounded transparently in the Power which constituted it.” 3. 'Shaking the Foundations’ connecting ‘separation' to ‘despair', was published in 1948, the same year that Joe was at Yale Graduate School with HRN. Mathews, Joseph Wesley was born on October 8, 1911, in Breezewood, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of James Donaldson and Laura (Wilson) Mathews. Education Bachelor of Arts, Asbury College, Willmore, Kentucky, 1936. Bachelor of Divinity, Drew University, 1939. Student Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 1939-1941. Student Yale Graduate School, 1948. Career Professor of philosophy and religion Colgate University, 1948-1952. Professor of Christian ethics, Perkins School Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1952-1956. Dean of studies, Christian Faith and Life Community, Austin, Texas, 1956-1962. Dean, Ecumenical Institute, Chicago, 1962-1977. Executive Director, Institute Cultural Affairs, to 1977. National lecturer theology, ethics, education, 1948-1977. Part II – Colleagues that I know of, currently engaged in Soren Kierkegaard reflections include: · Michael May – Interior Mythos Journeys Michael is a lifetime devotee. Attached is his ‘One Second to Choose’. I subscribe to his 57 modules of ‘The Life Journey’.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQyUjNOlU7Q michael@storywarrior.net <mailto:michael@storywarrior.net> …When everything seems to storm in upon me, when everything totters, when all depends upon bending without breaking, when from a full heart I can say: “all God’s gifts are good when received with gratitude,” I have overcome the world. (CMT) —Soren Kierkegaard · Gene Marshall – Realistic Living. At 90, Gene just published The Thinking Christian – Twenty-Three Pathways to Awareness. It is available on Kindle. Attached is his Ecstatic Human Living triangle. gwesleymarshall@gmail.com <mailto:gwesleymarshall@gmail.com>  From Chapter 11, The Doorway of Despair. Tillich’s use of the word “despair” alludes to a book written a century earlier by Søren Kierkegaard—The Sickness unto Death. Kierkegaard’s book on despair is perhaps the most profound volume ever written on that topic. Tillich and Kierkegaard agree that the manifestations of sin are best described as a state of human consciousness called “despair.” They also agree, I believe, that this despair is a result of our hopeless attempts to flee Profound Reality, or to win a fight with Profound Reality, or at least to justify ourselves with an active or passive sort of resignation that protests that Profound Reality is “no damned good.” Kierkegaard’s perspective on sin also clarifies the word “faith.” Sin is the opposite of faith, where “faith” is understood to mean trust in that inescapable Profound Reality in relation to which sin is an estrangement. Faith, so understood, is not a belief of the mind, but an action of the entire person. Faith is a “true deed” that alters our whole life, says Rudolf Bultmann. Faith is the deed of leaping into a radical realism in response to Profound Reality. Tillich also clarifies that faith begins as the deed of “accepting our acceptance” (our forgiveness) from the Ground of Being from which we are estranged and in relation to which we are in despair. Such faith is a choice to pass through the doorway of despair into our authentic life. Marshall, Gene Wesley. The Thinking Christian: Twenty-Three Pathways of Awareness (p. 233). Wipf & Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. · Beret Griffith – Beret is connected with Gordon Marino, a philosopher at St. Olaf College near the twin cities. Professor Marino is the author of Kierkegaard in the Present Age and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, American Poetry Review, and many other periodicals. Marino is also the Curator of the Hong Kierkegaard Library. beretgriffith@gmail.com <mailto:beretgriffith@gmail.com> · David Dunn – His current inner environment activism is inspired by SK and others. dmdunn1@gmail.com <mailto:dmdunn1@gmail.com> Part III – Ken Fisher & Mary Farrar At 80, here I am, in a new, intensely romantic partnership with Mary Farrar, 82, a Kingston, Ontario environmental activist, facilitator of Indigenous Reconciliation, and protector of heritage buildings. With my village being less than an hour away, we spend three-quarters of our time together in either of our homes. After 11 months, when together, we start our day with 20 minutes of silence, finding our state of being in the Other World charts, (Mary is absolutely fascinated,) and a brief study. Right now, the latter is GWM’s Great Paragraphs of Protestant Theology. What a treat to explore our enthusiasm for spirit in this fashion. 60 years ago, Mary had an ‘illegitimate’ daughter in Copenhagen. They reconnected many years ago, and now Hannah herself is a grandmother. Mary and I are going to Copenhagen for 8 days in July for her to meet her great-granddaughter and for me to meet her Danish family. We are also devoting part of that time as a pilgrimage to Soren Kierkegaard. Fortuitously, Hannah is connected to an SK scholar associated with the SK Museum. For inspiration, Michael May is sharing his SK documents and enthusiasm with us. Perhaps naively, and certainly in a non-Kierkegaardian fashion, I am curious to discover if there are specific locations in Copenhagen that are settings for some of his spirit insight. For example, I could imagine finding a place in the harbour where these words could be paired. "The formula that describes the state of the self when despair is completely rooted out is this: in relating itself to itself and in willing to be itself, the self rests transparently in the power that established it.” (Hong’s translation) And then from a recent biography, Philosophy of the Heart by Clare Carlisle, p. 147. 10 Repetition: A New Philosophy of Life The season has turned, control of the country has changed hands, and he looks out from new windows, but the night sky is unchanged. And he can imagine the sea, close by, resting on this quiet night. He tries to open his soul to the sea, deep and transparent beneath the stars: it is possible for a few moments, to let himself ‘rest transparently in God’, as he has described the experience of faith in The Sickness unto Death. This is one of his favourite thoughts. ‘When the sea exerts all its might, then it is precisely impossible for it to reflect the image of the heavens, and even the smallest movement means that reflection is not quite pure: but when it becomes still and deep, then heaven’s image sinks down into nothingness,’ he wrote in 1844. ‘Just as the sea, when it is still, deep and transparent longs for the heavens above, so does the heart that has become pure long for the good. And as the sea reflect the vault of heaven in its pure depths, so does the heart that has become pure long for the good. And as the sea reflects the vault of heaven in its pure depths, so to does the heart that has become still and a deeply transparent reflect the heavenly sublimity of the good in its pure depths,’ he wrote last year, 1847. There is always longing in this stillness – a longing that touches what it longs for, and desires it all the more. When he lets his longing for God fill and expand his soul, everything else is silenced. Ken & Mary - New Year’s Eve in Costa Rica - Abelard & Heloise?  One Second to Choose by Michael May  Ecstatic Human Living - GWM - The Thinking Christian  Ken Fisher 1070 Elizabeth Street - Box 75 Sharbot Lake ON K0H 2P0 Canada 613.203.0180 kenfisher1942@gmail.com Ken Fisher @KandPtrail
