(360)S12E24 Great Works: Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing - Preface
Welcome back to the Fourth Wave Podcast. So I've been reading up on and preparing for a season on simplicity. Now I'm sure that doesn't sound all that interesting to you, especially compared to some of the other seasons we've done. But I'm really enjoying it and finding it to be really central to a lot of the things that we've talked about so far. That's what I feel like I've tried to do in my seasons, right?
Speaker 1:It kind of builds up logically, build a case and kind of build up towards something. But also how I think that this is all built up in general, you know, going from non violence to uncovering consequentialism, and you move on to government and propaganda, like you just kind of dig deeper and deeper and deeper and get at the roots. And so I think that's what the season on simplicity is going do. It's going to tie in a lot of the things that we've already talked about and it's going to, it's going to be good, I think, and I hope. But because I'm doing a lot of reading, I thought that one of the things that might be useful for you all is if I take a couple of the the instrumental books for me here and I turn them into audio format because there are a lot of books that just aren't on audio and especially some of the the more instrumental and the more thoughtful works a lot of times aren't.
Speaker 1:And Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing has been absolutely revolutionary for me and it's not one that I've been able to find on audiobook. And because Kierkegaard is long dead and he wrote this stuff a long time ago, I can make it available to you and I don't have to worry about copyright sorts of things. So I decided to make this because it's such an important book to what I'm going to talk about. I decided to put this in our Great Works series and give you a chance to listen to it before you have to go in and listen to the season on simplicity. So that's what we're going to get into today, talking about Kierkegaard.
Speaker 1:Now, I go any further, it is important to know that Kierkegaard is said in a lot of different ways and the smarter people tend to not say it, sur in Kierkegaard. Nevertheless, I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up sur in Kierkegaard or however else other people say it. I'm not going to be able to keep that up. So I'm just going to go with with Kierkegaard and hopefully that doesn't bother you. So Kierkegaard has been a really big influence on my life.
Speaker 1:And that started not primarily from reading him because my first exposure to him, you know, I wanted to like him reading Fear and Trembling, but I just, I couldn't. That was such a that was such a chore to get through. But then I saw some YouTube videos about his life and learned a little bit more about him. And I was like, man, he's a pretty cool guy. Like, I like what he's trying to do.
Speaker 1:And I get in got into some other books that I thought were more accessible that meant a lot more to me, not his pseudonymous works where he's, you know, writing from all these different perspectives and you really have to know the story behind it. But things like Attack on Christendom were really interesting. And I did like Fear and Trembling, although that again, that's, you know, it's hard to work through, but it was it was really interesting too, his talking about despair. So but when I got to purity of heart, it's the one thing, it just blew my mind open. So why do I like Kierkegaard so much?
Speaker 1:I think my biggest draw to Kierkegaard is that he is what I would consider a true prophet. Now, everything he might say might not be true, right? He might be wrong about some things, but he has the heart of a seeker, somebody who is willing to speak truth to power, somebody who is not controlled by the system that is just so blatantly errant. I mean, the state church that Kierkegaard was under was just not good. Now I don't know how close Kierkegaard's, he was from, like he was under the Danish church and I don't know how Denmark compared to, you know, Holland or any of those other places around there.
Speaker 1:But I was just reading a biography of Vincent van Gogh, you know, and his dad was a pastor. And just talking about all the different pastors and the, you know, the way that they treated the poor and didn't help them and just the like, you know, marrying a pastor or becoming a pastor for like social clouts and all kinds of things, it was like really gross. And I think it was probably very similar in a lot of Europe, but especially up in that area, it was probably pretty similar. So, you know, Kierkegaard is is fighting back against this institutionalized church and he's just not really having it and he's he's put off. And so he wants to kind of uncover true Christianity.
Speaker 1:And that's a lot of how I feel. I probably am not a true prophet. I probably am somebody who capitulates way too much and I participate and studying simplicity is showing me that, like how much I am complicit with systems of injustice. So I wouldn't classify myself as a true prophet but it s something that I long to be and it s something that Kierkegaard shows me and he s not perfect either. But he s a beautiful depiction of trying to be a true prophet.
Speaker 1:And he's very anti consequentialistic, which is one of my big draws to him and you're going to see that a lot in Impurity of Heart is to Will One Thing. And you get that like obviously if he's facing down the institutions and he refuses to capitulate, you're like, well, he's probably got to be an anti consequentialist, right? And so he a lot of that comes across in this book. And he's just extremely perceptive and he gives a lot of great analogies and metaphors and he just his insights are so brilliant and so beautiful. That being said, he is extremely difficult to read.
Speaker 1:He is just the way he words things, the elevation of his ideas, just kind of working through thoughts that you've never worked through before because he's got so many unique thoughts. It's really hard to read physically. I rarely go back through books, you know, and like retrace my steps. But with Kierkegaard, I'm doing that a lot. It's like I'll read a paragraph and then go back and read it again and then realize, I really need to go back and read three paragraphs before that.
Speaker 1:And I do that a lot with him. So to try to listen to Kierkegaard's writings is probably gonna be pretty difficult. And you're probably not gonna wanna go higher than one speed and maybe you'll even wanna go lower and you'll probably want the text in front of you when you do it. But if you're going to use this as something to go through it a second or third time after you've read it, or if you want to kind of, prepare the soil before you go through it, this might be a nice supplement for you to have this on audio. Another danger here is going to be that experts argue a lot about what means a lot of the times.
Speaker 1:And I'm not an expert. I understand like 10% of what Kierkegaard says and I'm probably wrong about 50% of the 10% I think I understand. But nevertheless, I, the parts that I do get right about what he says and the realizations that he sparks are so valuable and deep rooted that I think it's worth uncovering for you here. And you don't even have to listen to my commentary. You know, in most chapters, I'm going to just lead with his text.
Speaker 1:I'll say, here's the chapter, here's the title, and then just start reading. And I'll save my commentary for the end and you can just skip that if you want. But for the preface today, I do want to start by telling you just a little bit about it and prepping you for it. The preface, it's like, I think two paragraphs, two or three, but it's one of the most and really it's the second paragraph or the last half that is his really the part where he actually says anything meaningful. But it's one of the most beautiful analogies and pieces of literature that I've read.
Speaker 1:I just go back and read the preface sometimes. But what Kierkegaard talks about is he talks about this needle woman who she's, you know, in her devotion, she's making something an article for worship, for corporate worship. And so she is trying her best and using the best material, spending her money, spending her time, focusing on creating this article for worship. And then Kierkegaard says, Well, what if she like makes a little mistake? What if there's like a thread off kilter here or something?
Speaker 1:He's like, if the worshipper would go into church and the worshipper stares at that thread that's out of place and he's like and he's focused on that instead of being drawn to God, he's like, look, the needle the needle worker, she did her darndest to do a good job and her job is to get you as close to not being distracted as possible. But if you then go into that church and you're distracted by it and you focus on that, He's like, Your job is to go in and to use these tools as portals to the Divine, right? You shouldn't be distracted and the needle woman shouldn't make mistakes to the best of her ability. And so maybe sort of like a kid who draws you a picture, right? If the kid, a kid draws you a picture and brings it to you, you don't talk about how the lines aren't straight, right?
Speaker 1:You're like, Man, that kid spent time and effort and wanted to make something from me because they love me. And you're not going to focus on the helter skelter lines. And that's kind of the same point here. There should be portals to that love through what the needle woman is doing. And I think this is essentially, this is primarily an expression of Kierkegaard, he's giving this preface to point out at least one thing and I think the main thing is of course that he's an imperfect vessel and he's probably going to have some threads that are out of place but he's trying to present a work to bring you in front of God to give you an encounter with the divine.
Speaker 1:And your job is to use, like I said, that 10% that I get, I'm drawn closer to God through that. You're not going to understand everything Kierkegaard says and some of the things that he does say might be wrong or might be kind of weird and awkward. But there's enough here that you can be drawn towards the divine and Kierkegaard wants you to look past Him to God. But I think there's, whether it's intentional or not, think there's a second way that you can look at this as well. You know, the purity of heart, the simple Living by simply living for one thing, by living for the good, it's, going to touch on a lot of the different things that we've discussed throughout our seasons.
Speaker 1:So what I think Kierkegaard, what you could also apply this preface to is that our lives are essentially supposed to be a tapestry for God. A perfect work, if you will. You know Jesus says, Be perfect. Just as your Father in heaven is perfect, right? We are supposed to seek perfection, seek the ideal.
Speaker 1:And Kierkegaard would never argue, I don't think, that we can accomplish that but we should be like that needle woman. We want to know what the ideal is and seek that as best we can because the closer our lives display the ideal, the more easily others are going to be drawn to God and to the good. And so, this purity of heart is going to be that tapestry that we display to draw others in and to be, the closest conduit that we can be to the Divine. So that concept, that purity of hearts, that tapestry, all of that is going to be, what undergirds our season on simplicity. Without further ado then, here it is, the Preface to Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing by Kierkegaard.
Speaker 1:Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing, Preface. Although this little book, it can be called an occasional address yet without having the occasion which produces the speaker and gives him authority or the occasion which produces the reader and makes him eager to learn, is like a fantasy, like a dream by day as it confronts the relationships of actuality. Yet it is not without assurance and not without hope of accomplishing its object. It is in search of that solitary individual to whom it wholly abandons itself, by whom it wishes to be received as if it had arisen within his own heart, that solitary individual whom with joy and gratitude I call my reader that solitary individual who reads willingly and slowly, who reads over and over again, and who reads aloud for his own sake. If it finds him, then in the distance of the separation the understanding is perfect, if he retains for himself both the distance and the understanding in the inwardness of appropriation.
Speaker 1:When a woman makes an altar cloth, so far as she is able, she makes every flower as lovely as the graceful flowers of the field, as far as she is able, every star as sparkling as the glistening stars of the night. She withholds nothing, but uses the most precious things she possesses. She sells off every other claim upon her life that she may purchase the most uninterrupted and favorable items of the day and night for her one and only, for her beloved work. But when the cloth is finished and put to its sacred use, then she is deeply distressed if someone should make the mistake of looking at her art instead of at the meaning of the cloth, or make the mistake of looking at a defect instead of at the meaning of the cloth. For she could not work the sacred meaning into the cloth itself, nor could she sew it on the cloth as though it were one more ornament.
Speaker 1:This meaning really lies in the beholder and in the beholder's understanding. If he, in the endless distance of the separation, above himself and above his own self, has completely forgotten the needle woman and what was hers to do. It was allowable. It was proper. It was duty.
Speaker 1:It was a precious duty. It was the highest happiness of all for the needle woman to do everything in order to accomplish what was hers to do. But it was a trespass against God, an insulting misunderstanding of the poor needle woman when someone looked wrongly and saw what was only there, not to attract attention to itself, but rather so that its omission would not distract by drawing attention to itself. That's all for now. So peace and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it.
Speaker 1:This podcast is a part of Kingdom Outpost Network. Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to non violence in Kingdom Living.
