Kierkegaard We Get To Carry Each Other Analysis

In We Get To Carry Each Other: U2 and Kierkegaard on Authentic Love (Austin, 2007), it is clear that the author has found some similarity between the ideas and views of Kierkegaard and Bono, U2's lead singer. Both of them had unconventional ways to look upon human life. Both of them denied following the traditional rules of Christianity, but they both individually had invested faith in God. When Bono visited Africa to help the people suffering from the destruction of famine and AIDS, he realized that whole world is his neighbor irrespective of any geographical distance. Kierkegaard also reflects this view as he thinks that we should treat every human being as our neighbor and we should give authentic love to all of them (Kierkegaard, 2009). They emphasize on action, not in mere words of love. Kierkegaard divides life …show more content…
Commitment is the base of this stage, as there is almost no place for self-gratification. In the third stage, the religious stage, the person tries to develop an individual faith on God. This faith does not follow on formal religious beliefs; rather it is based upon personal trust in God and a personal happiness. Austin also tries to assess various aspects of Kierkegaard's notion about love. Austin remarks that according to Kierkegaard, poetic love is a sort of erotic love, one type of inauthentic love. As expressed in the literary writings, individuals tend to incline toward self-love. Instead of thinking about selflessly loving the beloved and thinking about the beloved's well-being, a person loves another person with some expectations in return for his superficial feelings. This type of love can transform into hate or other aggressive feelings as time progresses and changes in a human being are noticed. When the beloved fails to fulfill the expectation of the person, this feeling of love can even change into hate. Kierkegaard also provides a