From JOURNALS AND PAPERS (1847)

On rejoicing always.

Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea (1951)

“Every man who truly wants to relate himself to God and be intimate with him really has only one task: to rejoice always. Even the finest of men—one we would dare rely on with complete confidence—can still require counselling and reminding on various matters; I can actually be wiser than he is, really be right, etc. But none of this is required in the relationship to God.”

1847 was a busy year for Kierkegaard: In March, he published Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits and, in September, Works of Love. Both of these texts rank among his most significant, particularly in the domain of theology. At the same, however, they are not discontinuous from his earlier, predominantly philosophical output. Just as Johannes Climacus insists in Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846) that there is an infinite qualitative difference between God and human beings, so do Kierkegaard’s subsequent theological writings tease out the implications of such reasoning. In the journal passage cited above, Kierkegaard observes that human fallibility is inevitable: even the wisest of persons makes mistakes and forgets things. Thus human relationships necessarily involve a range of emotions—anger, anxiety, doubt, hope, relief, etc. Yet, God is not a creature, and his infinite perfection requires only a single response: joy. Here Kierkegaard is doubtless thinking of St. Paul’s famous proclamation, “Rejoice evermore” (1 Thess. 5:16).