Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1844

Two Upbuilding Discourses (1844) is a book by Søren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard wrote the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses during the years of 1843–1844. These discourses were translated from Danish to English in the 1940s, and from Danish to German in the 1950s, and then to English again in 1990. These Discourses were published along with Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works.

Scholars generally say that "Kierkegaard's books were of two kinds. There was a series of books ascribed to pseudonyms, which Kierkegaard described as "aesthetic" in character. In Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and Repetition, Kierkegaard explores the nature of human passions in a variety of forms, often presenting his own experiences in a poetically disguised narrative". The pseudonymous books as well as his discourses are understood to be directed to the love of his life, Regine Olsen. "He hoped to reveal himself at last to Regine in this "indirect" manner. At the same time that these aesthetic writings were being published, Kierkegaard wrote a series of edifying, sermon like essays, although he was careful to insist that they were not sermons, in part because he had not been ordained and therefore lacked "authority." Through these he communicated his underlying religious commitments in a more "direct" fashion. Kierkegaard continued to write these "edifying discourses" throughout his life, but as he grew older they focused on more distinctively Christian themes and took on a decidedly sharper tone."

Kierkegaard says individuals are "squeezed into the forms of actuality" but that they have a choice as to what form they will put on. He says "the transition made in Either/Or is substantially that from a poet-existence to an ethical existence.

He "held out Either/Or to the world in his left hand, and in his right he held the Two Edifying Discourses; but all, or as good as all, grasped with their right what he held in his left hand. Kierkegaard wrote in 1848, “I had made up my mind before God what I should do: I staked my case on the Two Edifying Discourses; but I understood perfectly that only very few understood them. And here for the first time comes in the category ‘that individual' who with joy and gratitude I call my reader.’ A stereo typed formula which was repeated in the Preface to every collection of Edifying Discourses. Now he holds out these two discourses of 1844 with his right hand and hopes for better results. He says in his dedication to "that single individual',