The Book on Adler
In paging through Kierkegaard’s copy of Adler’sSome Sermonsit becomes
clear that despite some underlining and marginal notes, the book does not
show signs of particularly careful reading; pages 93–107, containing sermons
24, 25, and 26, have not even been cut. Nor did he cut the pages from 117
to the end of the book, which contained the second half of sermon 28. On
the other hand, Kierkegaard diligently used his knife to cut open the pages
containing sermon 27, where he also underlined various passages. This is
the sermon in which Adler set forth his peculiar views on sexuality. Here
Kierkegaard could read that “the sexual instinct is the evil spirit and came
into the world by means of the evil spirit.” Adler varied this assertion in
a number of his subsequent writings, where he maintained that “sexual
intercourse, as it currently exists, was not originally intended for human
beings,” which was why Adler was compelled to describe the “natural con-
nection between the sexes as it currently exists as sinful and abnormal.” In
this connection he expressed his great admiration for Origen, who castrated
himself for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. “It is profitable to refrain
from touching a woman,” Adler proclaimed, urging sexual abstinence—
nevertheless, the year after the publication ofSome Sermons, Mrs. Adler gave
birth to a healthy baby boy!
In 1846 Adler had aroused a literary sensation with his sudden publication
of four books (or a total of more than eight hundred pages) at one time,
and Kierkegaard resumed his intensive engagement with Adler. On the day
of publication, June 12, Kierkegaard immediately went over to Reitzel’s
Bookshop and purchased all four volumes, returning home withStudies and
Examples;An Attempt at a Brief, Systematic Presentation of Christianity in Its
Logic;Theological Studies; andSome Poems. “Four books at one time!” he
noted in referring to this mountain of paper. At the same time he gave a
little sigh of disappointment at the fact that Adler had not written pseudony-
mously, “so that a person with an artistic sense, if he learns in a roundabout
way that they are by one author, might still take a certain pleasure in enter-
ing into the illusion that these are not four books by one author, but by
four authors....This has in fact been done in Danish literature not long
ago, in a somewhat more artistic manner.” Kierkegaard here alluded to his
own accomplishment in publishingThree Edifying Discourses,Philosophical
Fragments,The Concept of Anxiety, andPrefaces, all four of which appeared
in a two-week period in June 1844.
On August 25 Kierkegaard purchased Adler’sPapers Related to My Suspen-
sion and Dismissal, and by that point had acquired seven of Adler’s works.