In pages 4-7 from "The Journals" in A Kierkegaard Anthology, Kierkegaard tries to find the heart of Christianity in action rather than simply in thought. Kierkegaard emphasizes the individuality of the Christian calling: "The thing is to . . .
see what God really wishes me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die" (5). Kierkegaard says that knowledge is useful in coming to a moral decision, but it is the "inward action" of an individual which "means everything" (5). This inward action should focus not on human understanding, not on human pleasure, not on human knowledge, but on the Kingdom of Heaven. Kierkegaard reminds himself and the reader that the Christian path is a difficult one, that it is supposed to be difficult, and that the easy Christianity of his time weakened rather than strengthened individuals.
In pages 14-36 from A Kierkegaard Anthology, we find a passage from Kierkegaard's journal in which he struggles between romantic and religious passions, and passages from his book Either/Or.
In the journal entries, Kierkegaard shows that he can be passionate about women as well as about God. He writes of Regina and letting "her being penetrate mine" (14). He writes of making his love known to her, then the feeling that he had made a mistake. He wins her over, in any case, but he continues to grapple with romantic love, trying to understand what is happening to him. He goes back and forth in agony over the engagement. He finally breaks off the engagement, and concludes that the move was a wise one: "When the bonds were broken my thoughts were these: either you throw yourself into the wildest kind of life---or else become absolutely religious, but it will be different from the parson's mixture" (18). In other words, only a Christianity which is rooted in his individual soul will do for Kierkegaard, and not a conventional Christianity which stresses conformity....