Table of Contents

Introduction: Letting Nature Point beyond Nature, Bruce H. Kirmmse vii The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air by Soren Kierkegaard 1 Preface 3 Prayer 5 The Gospel for the 15th Sunday after Trinity Sunday 7 I. "Look at the birds of the air; consider the lily of the field." 9 II. "No one can serve two masters, for he must either hate the one and love the other, or hold fast to one and despise the other." 39 III. "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns"-unconcerned about tomorrow. "Consider the grass of the field-which today is." 71

About the Author

Bruce H. Kirmmse is one of the world's leading Kierkegaard translators and scholars. He is the author of Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark, the editor of Encounters with Kierkegaard (Princeton), and the general editor of Princeton's eleven-volume edition of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks (Princeton).

Reviews

"A gorgeous stand-alone edition. . . . For a reader familiar with Kierkegaard's philosophical work, what's most striking about Three Godly Discourses is its gentle, graceful simplicity."---Will Rees, Times Literary Supplement

"Kirmmse's new translation of Kierkegaard's homiletical reflections on Mat­thew 6:24-34 captures the sermons' beauty and gravitas."
*The Christian Century*

"Kirmmse offers a new translation of this religious work and a concise introduction. In the original preface, Kierkegaard expresses the hope that the lily and the bird would serve as a means for humans to learn silence, obedience, and joy. Those three concepts loom large in some of Kierkegaard's writings, and they receive lucid treatment here."
*Choice*