Comparing Kierkegaard's View Of Neighbor As Myself

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In this portion of the Works of Love book, Kierkegaard states that the commandment of Christ is that we love our neighbor as ourselves—not more than ourselves, which would be idolatry and that love is commanded by God and solely by virtue of that fact liberated. He starts off by explaining that Christianity presupposes self-love, it presupposes that men love themselves and adds to this only the phrase about neighbors as yourself. But who then is one’s neighbor? Neighbor comes from the word neahgebur meaning near-dweller therefore one’s neighbor is anybody who dwells nearer to him than all others. The neighbor ought to be just as near to you as you are to yourself. In this sense, the concept of neighbor means a duplicating of one’s own self. Loving your …show more content…

Loving your neighbor more than you love yourself or loving the neighbor above all else and in distinction from the rest of the world would be mockery of God. Christianity teaches to love one’s neighbor, all men, even enemies, and not to make exceptions , neither in favoritism nor in aversion. The second argument Kierkegaard makes and perhaps the most important one is that love is commanded by God and solely by virtue of that fact liberated. "You shall love." Only when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally secured against every change, eternally made free in blessed independence, eternally and happily secured against despair (p 44). The idea that one can love by command even though love is supposed to be spontaneous seems absurd. Spontaneous love is not grounded upon the eternal and consequently can be changed. Only love which has gone under the transformation of the eternal by becoming duty has continuity and is eternally secure. Kierkegaard explains at length that rather than being a burden, the command to love is demonstrated to be a source of power and freedom to

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