“(With perhaps pardonable exaggeration, Auden remarked of Kierkegaard that one 'could read through the whole of his voluminous works without discovering that human beings are not ghosts but have bodies of flesh and blood.') And for Auden this deficiency is properly described as theological: Kierkegaard, and other Christian thinkers who share his disregard for embodied human nature, neglect clear and vital Christian teaching about God's redeeming love for this physical world, this whole Creation. (The Poet's Prose)” Human NatureGod S LoveAudenKierkegaard Book:Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant Source: Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant
“Much later in his life, Auden would borrow a musical metaphor from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and say that Kierkegaard was a 'monodist, who can hear with particular acuteness one theme in the New Testament -- in his case, the theme of suffering and sacrifice -- but is deaf to its rich polyphony.' And for the Auden who emerges in the pages of this volume [Prose, Volume III: 1949-1955], the unique power of Christian doctrine is its polyphonic character, its capacity to address every dimension of our being, to give a comprehensive account of how history and nature relate, and -- decisively in Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection -- how they may be reconciled. (The Poet's Prose)” Human NatureReconciliationChristian DoctrineAudenKierkegaardBonhoefferPolyphonyMonody Book:Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant Source: Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant
“As a spirit, a conscious person endowed with free will, every man has, through faith and grace, a unique 'existential' relation to God, and few since St. Augustine have described this relation more profoundly than Kierkegaard. But every man has a second relation to God which is neither unique nor existential: as a creature composed of matter, as a biological organism, is related by necessity to the God who created that universe and saw that it was good, for the laws of nature to which, whether he likes it or not, he must conform are of divine origin. And it is with this body, with faith or without it, that all good works are done. (W.H. Auden) (The Poet's Prose)” FaithHuman NatureAudenGood WorksKierkegaardAugustine Of HippoGod S CreationMan As Organism Book:Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant Source: Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant