TEHRAN – Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard’s book “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air: Three Godly Discourses” has been published in Persian.

Published by Shabgir, the book has been translated into Persian by Elham Delavar. The book was first published in 1849.

An English rendition of the book was released in 2016 by Princeton University Press.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his followers to let go of earthly concerns by considering the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Soren Kierkegaard’s short masterpiece on this famous gospel passage draws out its vital lessons for readers in a rapidly modernizing and secularizing world. 

Trenchant, brilliant and written in stunningly lucid prose, “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air” is one of Kierkegaard’s most important books. 

This profound yet accessible work serves as an ideal entrée to an essential modern thinker.

“The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air” reveals a less familiar but deeply appealing side of the father of existentialism, unshorn of his complexity and subtlety, yet supremely approachable. 

As Kierkegaard later wrote of the book, “Without fighting with anybody and without speaking about myself, I said much of what needs to be said, but movingly, mildly, upliftingly.”

Kierkegaard was a prolific 19th-century philosopher and theologian. Kierkegaard strongly criticized both the Hegelianism of his time and what he saw as the empty formalities of the Church of Denmark. 

Much of his work deals with religious themes such as faith in God, the institution of the Christian Church, Christian ethics and theology, and the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices.

His early work was written under various pseudonyms, who present their own distinctive viewpoints in a complex dialogue.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Soren Kierkegaard’s book “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air”.

MMS/YAW