Finitude, Necessity, and Healing from Despair in Kierkegaard's The Lily and the Bird

This study underscores The Lily and the Bird's response to despair in The Sickness unto Death. By suggesting in The Lily and the Bird that we look to nature's creatures to learn an attunement and responsiveness to our situation as physical creatures subject to finite constraints, Kierkegaard's text comes into dialogue with a form of misalignment portrayed in The Sickness unto Death as a refusal of the given, the finite, and the necessary. One way of seeking alignment in The Lily and the Bird entails learning to hear and to answer within one's given environment, opening up the possibility of embodied joy.

Automated summary

This study highlights the response to despair in "The Lily and the Bird" within "The Sickness unto Death". By suggesting that we learn from nature's creatures to attune and respond to our physical limitations, Kierkegaard's text engages with a form of misalignment depicted in "The Sickness unto Death" as a rejection of what is given, finite, and necessary. Seeking alignment in "The Lily and the Bird" involves listening and responding within one's environment, opening up the potential for embodied joy.