The Sickness unto Death

This is a chapter and a moment in the book The Great Lamentation.

He sat in the garden with Sarah and Rodolphe, the dog had come to love Chris. He constantly watched over his protégé.

The hammock rocked in its swinging arms; it was sunny outside.

A brief thunderstorm had discharged itself and now the air felt clean and fresh again after the oppressive and sweaty heat of the previous days. The sun was once again peeking out from behind one of the last remaining clouds, the wind was picking up and they were enjoying themselves.

“Lindstrom is coming to visit today,” Sarah said.

“What fun,” Chris said. “Then I’ll ask him to explain Kant’s categorical imperative from a theological perspective. I think Kant’s statement is taken directly from the Bible, and I know that Lindstrom had to study philosophy at university, so he can probably give me a good answer.”

“What’s Kant’s categorical imperative,” asked Sarah?

“It’s like the Golden Commandment, that whatever you want others to do for you, you should do for them.”

“Here comes Lindstrom,” said Sarah.

“Good afternoon, Lindstrom, how are you doing. Oh, lots of books he has with him.”

“Good day, Sarah,” said Lindstrom, “hello Chris, how are you doing in the heat. It feels better in the air now after the discharge, doesn’t it?”

Both Sarah and Chris nodded.

“Well, Sarah,” said Lindstrom, “I’ve brought a packet of books for Chris. He’s become so precocious and curious about everything, so I went to the library and found some old goodies. The Concept of Anxiety by Kierkegaard you have read before, here is The Sickness unto Death and Beyond the Pleasure Principle by Freud. I’m not a big Freud fan, but this book is interesting, it’s a bit more philosophical.”

“Those were terrible books Lindstrom brought,” Sarah said. “The Sickness unto Death, that doesn’t sound good.”

And so Lindstrom began as he always did. He had answers to most things and knew most things.

“Well, Sarah,” said Lindstrom, “The Sickness unto Death is an interesting book, it’s very heavy to read, so I think it’ll be something for Chris to bite into. He won’t finish it in a flash, not if he wants to understand it anyway.

But it is about sin, which is the sickness unto death. Or rather, despair is the sickness unto death. It is about becoming oneself, but people do not want to become or be themselves.

Listen, Lindstrom said: “A human being is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self? The self is a relation that relates itself to itself or is the relation’s relating itself to itself in the relation; the self is not the relation but is the relation’s relating itself to itself. A human being is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, of the temporal and the eternal, of freedom and necessity, in short, a synthesis. A synthesis is a relation between two. Considered in this way, a human being is still not a self. In the relation between two, the relation is the third as a negative unity, and the two relate to the relation and in the relation to the relation; thus, under the qualification of the psychical the relation between the psychical and the physical is a relation. If, however, the relation relates itself to itself, this relation is the positive third, and this is the self. Such a relation that relates itself to itself, a self, must either have established itself or have been established by another.”

“I don’t get it,” said Sarah.

“No, I understand,” said Lindstrom, “neither did I the first time I heard it. But I think I understand it now quite well.

Kierkegaard says that precisely because the relationship is set by God or you are created by God, there are three forms of despair that are the sickness unto death.

Kierkegaard says, ‘To despair over oneself, in despair to will to be rid of oneself—this is the formula for all despair. Therefore, the other form of despair, in despair to will to be oneself, can be traced back to the first, in despair not to will to be oneself. The self is just as possible as it is necessary, for it is indeed itself, but it has the task of becoming itself. Insofar as it is itself, it is the necessary, and insofar as it has the task of becoming itself, it is a possibility. But if possibility outruns necessity so that the self runs away from itself in possibility, it has no necessity to which it is to return; this is possibility’s despair but to lack possibility means either that everything has become necessary for a person or that everything has become trivial. To summarize, to be unaware in despair of having a self, to not want to be oneself in despair and to want to be oneself in despair are the three categories of despair, but all despair comes from sin alone’”, Lindstrom said.

“Kierkegaard says that despair insists on listening only to itself, and only wants to deal with itself, it closes itself up, and locks itself inside itself, and protects itself against every attack or pursuit of the good by despairing over sin.”

 “But why does not despair listens to God, to the Gospel and gets freed?” Chris asked.

“You see, Chris, Kierkegaard also says that the person that despairs over sin sometimes have bitterness against God, as if he were responsible for his sins.”

 “But Scripture clearly states that God cannot be tempted and never tempt anyone.”

“Yes, that is very true, Chris, but this person is very selfish, even his despair is selfish, and the last thing he needs is consolation.

But a self in despair before Christ, it despairs in two ways, either in despair of defiance, it doesn’t want to believe, or a despair in weakness which does not dare to believe.

In the first type of despair, man doesn’t want to be what he is, a sinner, ergo, he despairs, the other kind, the despair of weakness, is one that don’t want to be himself, a sinner, in a way that rend him no forgiveness at all.

We will go through this Chris one day when you have read the book.”

“That sounds interesting,” said Chris, and took the books from Lindstrom.

“Does Lindstrom want some coffee,” Sarah asked?

“Yes, thank you.”