A profound thought by Kierkegaard

by Soren KierkegaardWhen Christianity entered into the world,people were not Christians,and the difficulty wasto become a Christian.Nowadays the difficultyin becoming a Christianis that one must ceaseto become a Christian.One best becomes a Christianwithout "Christianity."Not until a person has becomeso wretched that his only wish,his only consolation,is to die--not until thendoes Christianity truly begin. Does anyone know what he is trying to say in these words? Was Kierkegaard a true believer? If he means that we must discard our faulty understanding of Christianity, and and our reliance on the religous system, as it is commonly practised, then, I can relate. Diane

im fairly certain that he professed to be a christian. And i can definitely relate to him here as well. This is another quote of his, that is along those lines that i like:"Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it" -Joe

I found some more info on Kierkegaard - and the religious atmosphere of his time. The Attack On ChristendomThe church in Denmark was (and is) Lutheran. It was a State Church in which all Danes were born Lutheran and thus de facto "Christians". Citizenship and enrolment in the Church were the same thing. Kierkegaard alleged that this reduced to nothing radical conversion to Christ. The Church sought to transform the sacred economy of God into a profane state religion. Kierkegaard felt that "Official Christianity", or Christendom, had departed so far from the Christianity of the New Testament that it needed to be torn down and rebuilt—not reformed. It must again be underscored that Kierkegaard did not attack the Christianity of the New Testament, but "Official Christianity" or "Christendom". The attack consisted of a series of articles published during the final year of his life. His attack was unusual, since he attacked the Church from within, as a believer. He died in the midst of this heated battle

i like that quote jfedgar. the church can sometimes hold the world's best kept secret-relationship with God -so well, and never know it. the sad thing is that its kept so well under 'religious routine' that they themselves dont want to know- it challenges their persona too much.

Kierkegaard is usually described as a 'Christian Existentialist'. There is a useful introduction in wikipedia.He was not a Bible-believing man but a protester against the status quo of the contremporary Lutheran church in his native Denmark.

Thank you Philologos for that link. My 26 yo daughter, who has been searching deeply for truth came upon Kierkegaard, and suggested that we study his work together. I am wondering if that will help her come closer to trusting the God of the Bible. She is very aware of the religious hypocrisy of our day, and is trying to discern between the false and the truth. I found the above quote on this forum, and thought it was worthy of our attention, because there is a powerful element of truth in it. Wikipedia says more about his beliefs.The desire to live, and to live in the right way, for the right reasons, and with the right desires, is a holy and sacred force.One can also look at this from the perspective of what the meaning of our existence is. Why suffer what humans have suffered, the pain and despair—what meaning can all of this have? For Kierkegaard, there is no meaning unless passion, the emotions and will of humans, has a divine source.Passion is closely aligned with faith in Kierkegaard's thought. Faith as a passion is what drives humans to seek reality and truth in a transcendent world, even though everything we can know intellectually speaks against it. To live and die for a belief, to stake everything one has and is in the belief in something that has a higher meaning than anything in the world—this is belief and passion at their highest.These words seem to be somewhat like a bullet through typical mass religious thought (or rather, thoughtlessness) - perhaps because it brings faith to a personal responsibility and experience. Diane

Francis Schaeffer believed that Kierkegaard was the pivot point of Western philosophy. He said that with Kierkegaard, Western philosophy falls below the "line of despair". This does not mean that philosophers sit and weep, though many of them do. It means that they have given up hope of constructing a unified field of knowledge. There is not a chair of philosophy of any importance in the world today who still believes that it can be done. He called it anti-theology.Kierkegaard rejects the idea that Christianity is based upon objective truth—a truth that can be subjected to verification or falsification by ordinary methods of investigation. Then he asks us to take an irrational leap of faith. As Schaeffer pointed out, Kierkegaard "asks us to believe, against all the evidence of reason and experience, that God is good."In Christ,Ron

My family has begun a chronological reading of Scripture. We are currently in the beginning of the book of Job. The quote from kierkegaard brought a thought of Job's experience with God. Just a reflection.In ChristJeff

Kierkegaard rejects the idea that Christianity is based upon objective truth—a truth that can be subjected to verification or falsification by ordinary methods of investigation. It's a long time since I studied Religious Philosophy but Kierkegaard always gave the impression of an honest but deeply depressed man. He asked demanding questions of the status quo Lutheranism of his culture which were important questions but I can't see that he ever really provided any answers to those questions. Many of those questions were very perceptive and would strike a cord with many on this site but after the demolition he seemed unable to construct anything.