Climacus, detachment from earthly sources of satisfaction will inevitably hurt. Climacus adds that the prospect of pain in relating absolutely to the absolute good and relatively to relative goods generates reluctance to undergo the necessary suffering and consequently evokes guilt over that hesitation. These points by Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous writers could be read as synopses of major portions of Augustine’s Confessions, including the latter’s admission that he had feared being exceedingly miserable if he were ever deprived of a woman’s embrace.58 Third, the motif of resignation has yet
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