A preliminary work before Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard is trying to find his voice among his contemporary philosophers, most he disrespects. Kierkegaard succeeds by leaving the contemporaries ahead and discusses Christianity with the rules of pre-Christian philosophers. It works for the most part. For the failing parts you either need a leap of faith, or a better head than mine. My version has the translated Thulstrup commentary as endnotes. I recommend reading every endnote whenever one is signaled in the main text. ( )

Kierkegaard is perhaps the midpoint between the solidity of Aristotle and the obscurity of Plato. As such, it is fitting that this work applies Socratic approach to our relationship with God. I don't understand it completely but what I do grasp is important and illuminating. The important concepts here are: Truth, Error, the Moment, and the Paradox. The Teacher cannot show Truth. He can only show that we are in a state of Error. That Teacher is God. That state of being in Error by reason of ones' own guilt is "sin." Repentence is a conversion, a looking back to realize, but if it speeds up the steps in the other direction, that does not bring us closer to the truth. The new birth is something different, the Moment, a realization of being ("Socratic midwifery"). Recollection cannot help man realize his being or God's because he is in Error. (Section C, the disciple is the core of the explanation.) Soren's style is fun: "Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. But the reader has perhaps already lost his patience, seeing that our beginning sounds like a fairy tale, and is not in the least systematic..." Understanding God is a Paradox. ( )

Kierkegaard at his most graceful. This meditation on the Socratic question "How far does the Truth admit of being learned?" explores how to go beyond Socrates' understanding of the roles of Teacher and Pupil to that of Saviour and Disciple. While laying the ground for a distinctly Protestant Christianity, the argument covers territory worth exploring for insight into the nature of education, the meaning of history and love. ( )