From UPBUILDING DISCOURSES IN VARIOUS SPIRTS (1847).

On the "godly diversion" of nature.

“Have you ever seen the starry sky, and have you really found any more reliable sight? It costs not a thing, so there is no urge of impatience. Nothing is said about tonight, still less about 10 o’clock on the dot. Oh no, it waits on you, if, in another sense, it does not wait on you—as the stars now shine sparkling in the night, so have they, unchanged, endured for millennia. As God makes himself invisible—alas, perhaps that is why there are many who never really become aware of him—so does the starry sky make itself just as insignificant—alas, perhaps that is why there are many who never really see it.”

This passage is taken from a tripartite cycle of discourses, What We Learn from the Lilies in the Field and from the Birds of the Air, which itself is the second part of Kierkegaard’s 1847 book Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits. The word “Spirits” (Aand) in the title suggests a kind of spiritual receptivity toward creation, in which one contemplates what the natural order can tell human beings about creaturely existence. Kierkegaard believes that such contemplation is sorely lacking in the modern world, particularly in the urbane, technologically-driven societies of the West. Not only is the pace of life in such places often dizzying, but there are a plethora of diversionary options, including popular entertainment. The irony of such entertainment is that, far from satisfying the human desire for diversion, it actually makes it worse. For example, the purchase of a single Xbox game does not cure boredom; it just leads to the purchase of more Xbox games. In contrast, Kierkegaard here recommends that people seek out what he calls a “godly diversion” (gudelige Adspredelse), which quietly draws one into that which can truly satisfy the restless mind.