Faith In Love

Kierkegaard (philosopher, 19th century) believed that there were three different forms of life.  He himself used the term 'stages'.  He calls them the Aesthetic Stage, the Ethical Stage, and the Religious Stage.  He used the term 'stage' to emphasize that one can live at one of the two lower stages and then suddenly leap to a higher stage.  Many people live at the same stage all their life.

He who lives at the 'Aesthetic Stage' lives for the moment and grasps every opportunity of enjoyment.  Good is whatever is beautiful, satisfying, or pleasant.  This person lives wholly in the world of the senses, and is slave to his own desires and moods.  Everything that is boring is bad.

A person who lives at the Aesthetic Stage can easily experience 'angst', or a sense of dread, and a feeling of emptiness.  If this happens, there is also hope.  According to Kierkegaard, angst is almost positive.  It is an expression of the fact that the individual is in an 'existential situation', and can now elect to make the great leap to a higher stage.  But it either happens or it doesn't.  It doesn't help to be on the verge of making the leap if you don't do it completely.  It is a matter of 'either/or'.  But nobody can do it for you.  It is your own choice.

The Ethical Stage is characterized by seriousness and consistency of moral choices.  You try to live by the law of morals.  The important thing is not what you may think is precisely right or wrong.  What matters is that you choose to have an opinion at all on what is right or wrong.  The aesthete’s only concern is whether something is fun or boring.

Kierkegaard never claimed that the Ethical Stage was satisfactory though.  Even a dutiful person will eventually get tired of always being dedicated and meticulous.  Lots of people experience that sort of fatigue reaction late in life.  Some relapse into the reflective life of their Aesthetic Stage.  Others make a new leap to the Religious Stage.  Those who take this leap choose faith in preference to aesthetic pleasure and reason’s call of duty.

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