Kierkegaard on Faith as Choice

The following excerpts are taken from Training in Christianity by Søren Kierkegaard.

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This decisive question is presented to man in an entirely different form: whether he will believe that [Christ] is what He said He was; or whether he will not believe.

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The relationship (personality’s relationship) to Christ is not: either to doubt or to believe; but either to be offended or to believe. The whole of modern philosophy (ethically and Christianly speaking) is based upon looseness of thought. Instead of holding men back and calling them to order by talking about being in despair and being offended, it has beckoned them on and invited them to be conceited because they doubt or have doubted.

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He does not say, Ergo I am the Expected One – He says (after having appealed to the proofs [in Matthew 11:6 and Luke 7:23]), “Blessed is he whoever is not offended in me.” That is, He makes it evident that in relation to Him there can be no question of any proofs, that a man does not come to Him by the help of proofs, that there is no direct transition to this thing of becoming a Christian, that at the most the proofs might serve to make a man attentive, so that once he has become attentive he may arrive at the point of deciding whether he will believe or be offended. For the proofs remain equivocal: they are the pro et contra of the reasoning intellect, and therefore can be used contra et pro. It is only by a choice that the heart is revealed (and surely it was for this cause Christ came into the world, that the thoughts of all hearts might be revealed), by the choice whether to believe or be offended.

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The miracle can prove nothing; for if you do not believe that He is what He says He is, you deny the miracle. A miracle can make one attentive – now thou art in a state of tension, and all depends upon what thou dost choose, offense or faith. It is thy heart that must be revealed.

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The God-Man is an individual man, not a fantastic unity which never has existed except sub specie aeterni; and He is least of all a lecturer who teaches directly for scribbling students or dictates paragraphs to stenographers; He does just the opposite, He reveals the thoughts of the hearts. Oh, it is so comfortable to be a listener or a transcriber when everything goes on so directly – but let these gentlemen who listen and transcribe be on their guard … it is the thoughts of their hearts that shall be revealed.

And this only the sign of contradiction can do: it draws attention to itself, and then it presents a contradiction. There is something which makes it impossible for one to desist from looking – and lo! while one looks, one sees as in a mirror, one gets to see oneself, or He, the sign of contradiction, sees into the depths of one’s heart while one is gazing into the contradiction. A contradiction placed directly in front of a man – if only one can get him to look upon it – is a mirror; while he is judging, what dwells within him must be revealed. It is a riddle, but while he is guessing, what dwells within him is revealed by how he guesses. The contradiction puts before him a choice, and while he is choosing, he himself is revealed.

Reflect the Light

God’s light shines even in all our darkness. I desperately want to see this light.

And I want to reflect this light, for I am feeling that the relationships in which I am not a witness to God are largely meaningless. But this witness cannot be something so cheap as simply beginning to talk. Light cannot be described only; it must be seen.

Once we know that the gospel is partly a call to new life, then we realize that that new life in the evangelist is the indispensable witness to the gospel which is proclaimed. It is hollow and impotent to talk about the gospel while refusing to live it out. We cannot proclaim the crucified and risen Lord when we show few signs of having died and risen with Him. We cannot tell the world to believe in the elaborate and terrifying spiritual realities of Christianity when we don’t live as if we believe in them ourselves.

So inasmuch as I’m refusing to follow Christ, and refusing to reflect His light, I’m wasting my time. Correcting this is the most urgent thing I need to do.

“Stand ready and tall, reflect the light.”
– Thrice

The Abolition of Christianity

The following excerpts are taken from Training in Christianity by Søren Kierkegaard.

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What Christ said about His kingdom not being of this world was not said with special reference to those times when He uttered this saying; it is an eternally valid utterance about the relation of Christ’s kingdom to this world, and so it is valid for every age. As soon as Christ’s kingdom comes to terms with the world, Christianity is abolished.

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Christianity is the absolute, has only one mode of being, namely absolute being; if it is not absolute, it is abolished; in relation to Christianity either/or applies absolutely. For a very long time there has made itself heard, and very loudly, the impudent talk about “going farther,” that one cannot stop at faith, at simplicity, at obedience, at the “Thou shalt.” … Hence “reasons” (believing on three grounds) replaced obedience, for people were annoyed at obeying. Hence gentleness replaced severity; for no one ventured to command, and people were loath to be commanded – they that ought to command became cowardly, and they that ought to yield obedience became froward. So it is that Christianity was abolished in Christendom – by gentleness. Without authority, in tattered and outmoded garments, it slinks about in Christendom, and one does not know whether to take off one’s hat to it, or whether it ought to bow to us, whether we are in need of its compassion, or whether it is in need of our compassion.

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But take away the possibility of offence, as they have done in Christendom, and the whole of Christianity is direct communication; and then Christianity is done away with, for it has become an easy thing, a superficial something which neither wounds nor heals profoundly enough; it is the false invention of human sympathy which forgets the infinite qualitative difference between God and man.

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So long as this world lasts and the Christian Church within it, it is a militant Church, yet it has the promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But woe, woe to the Christian Church if it would triumph in this world, for then it is not the Church that triumphs, but the world has triumphed. Then the heterogeneity of Christianity and the world is done away with, the world has won, Christianity lost. Then Christ is no more the God-Man, but only a distinguished man whose life is homogeneous with the development of the race. Then eternity is done away with, and the stage for the perfection of all is transferred to the temporal. Then the way of life is no longer strait, nor the gate narrow, nor are there few that find it; no, then the way is broad and the gate wide open – the gates of hell have prevailed, and many, yea, all find entrance. Christ never desired to conquer in this world; He came to the world to suffer, that is what He called conquering. … And the day when Christianity and the world become friends Christianity is done away with.