Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard
us--well, to make us what we are; that is, make men live as
they please; for to abstain from committing crimes is nothing
but common prudence!
The most terrible blasphemy is the one of which "Christianity"
is guilty, which is, to transform the God of the Spirit into--a
ridiculous piece of nonsense. And the stupidest kind of worship,
more stupid than any idolatry ever was among the heathen, and
more stupid than to worship as a god some stone, or an ox, or
an insect--more stupid than anything, is to adore as god--a fool!
DIAGNOSIS
(No. IV, 1)
I
Every physician will admit that by the correct diagnosis of a
malady more than half the fight against it is won; also, that
if a correct diagnosis has not been made, all skill and all
care and attention will be of little avail.
The same is true with regard to religion.
We are agreed to let stand the claim that in "Christendom" we are
Christians, every one of us; and then we have laid and, perhaps,
will lay, emphasis now on this, now on that, side of the teachings
of the Scriptures.
But the truth is: we are not only not Christians--no, we are not
even the heathen to whom Christianity may be taught without
misgivings, and what is worse, we are prevented through a delusion,
an enormous delusion (viz. "Christendom," the Christian state,
a Christian country, a Christian world) from becoming Christians.
And then the suggestion is made to one to continue untouched and
unchanged this delusion and, rather, to furnish a new presentation
of the teachings of Christ.[6]
This has been suggested; and, in a certain sense, it is altogether
fitting. Just because one lives in a delusion (not to speak even
of being interested in keeping up the delusion), one is bound
to desire that which will feed the malady--a common enough observation
this--the sick man desiring precisely those things which feed his
malady.
II
Imagine a hospital. The patients are dying off like so many flies.
The methods are changed, now this way, now that: of no avail! What
may be the cause? The cause lies in the building--the whole
building is tainted. The patients are put down as having died,
the one of this, the other of that, disease, but strictly speaking
this is not true; for they all died from the taint which is in the
building.
The same is true in religion. That religious conditions are
wretched, and that people in respect of their religion are in
a wretched condition, nothing is more certain. So one ventures
the opinion that if we could but have a new hymn-book; and another,
if we could but have a new service-book; and a third, if we could
but have a musical service, etc., etc.--that then matters would
mend.
In vain; for the fault lies in the edifice. The whole ramshackle
pile of a State Church which has not been aired, spiritually
speaking, in times out of mind--the air in it has developed
a taint. And therefore religious life has become diseased or
has died out; alas, for precisely that which the worldly mind
regards as health is, in a Christian sense, disease--just as,
vice versa, that which is healthy in a Christian sense, is regarded
as diseased from a worldly point of view.
Then let the ramshackle pile collapse, get it out of the way,
close all these shops and booths which are the only ones which
are excepted from the strict Sunday regulations, forbid this
official double-dealing, put them out of commission, and provide
for them, for all these quacks:--even though it is true that
the royally attested physician is the acceptable one, and he
who is not so attested is a quack: in Christianity it is just
the reverse; that is, the royally attested teacher is the quack,
is a quack by the very fact that he is royally attested--and
let us worship God again in simplicity, instead of making a
fool of him in splendid edifices; let us be in earnest again
and stop playing; for a Christianity preached by royal officials
who are payed and insured by the state and who use the police
against the others, such a Christianity bears about the same
relation to the Christianity of the New Testament as swimming
with the help of a cork-belt or a bladder does to swimming alone--it
is mere play.
Yes, let that come about. What Christianity needs is not the
stifling protection of the state--ah no, it needs fresh air,
it needs persecution and--the protection of God. The state does
only mischief in averting persecution and surely is not the
medium through which God's protection can be conducted. Whatever
you do, save Christianity from the state, for with its protection
it overlies Christianity like a fat woman overlying her child
with her carcass, beside teaching Christianity the most abominable
bad habits--as, e.g., to use the police force and to call that
Christianity.
III
A person is growing thinner every day and is wasting away. What
may the trouble be? For surely he is not suffering want! "No,
sure enough," says the doctor, "that is not the trouble. The
trouble is precisely with his eating, with his eating in season
and out of season, with his eating without being hungry, with
his using stimulants to produce an appetite, and in this manner
ruining his digestion, so that he is wasting away as if he suffered
want."
The same is true in religion. The worst of all is to satisfy
a craving which has not as yet made its appearance, to anticipate
it, or--worse still--by the help of stimulants to produce something
which looks like a craving, which then is promptly satisfied. Ah,
the shame of it! And yet this is exactly what is being done in
religion where people are in very truth fooled out of the real
meaning of life and helped to waste their lives. That is in
very truth, the effect of this whole machinery of a state church
and a thousand royal officials who, under the pretense of being
spiritual guides for the people, trick them out of the highest
thing in life, which is, the solicitude about one's self, and
the need which would surely of itself find a teacher or minister
after its own mind; whereas now the need--and it is just the
growth of this sense, of a need which gives life its highest
significance--whereas now this need does not arise at all, but
on the contrary is forestalled by being satisfied long before
it can arise. And this is the way, they claim, this is the way
to continue the work which the Savior of Mankind did begin--stunting
the human race as they do. And why is this so? Because there
happen to be a thousand and one royal officials who have to
support their families by furnishing what is called--spiritual
guidance for men's souls!
THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; THE CHRISITANITY OF "CHRISTENDOM"
(No. V, 4)
The intention of Christianity was: to change everything.
The result, the Christianity of "Christendom" is: everything,
literally everything, remained as it had been, with just the
difference that to everything was affixed the attribute "Christian"--and
for the rest (strike up, fiddlers!) we live in Heathendom--so
merrily, so merrily the dance goes around; or, rather, we live
in a Heathendom made more refined by the help of Life Everlasting
and by help of the thought that, after all, it is all Christian!
Try it, point to what you will, and you shall see that I am right
in my assertion.
If what Christianity demanded was chastity, then away with brothels!
But the change is that the brothels have remained just as they
did in Heathendom, and the proportion of prostitutes remained
the same, too; to be sure, they became "Christian" brothels! A
brothel-keeper is a "Christian" brothel-keeper, he is a Christian
as well as we others. Exclude him from church membership? "Why,
for goodness sake," the clergyman will say, "what would things
come to if we excluded a single paying member?" The brothel-keeper
dies and gets a funeral oration with a panegyric in proportion
to the amount he pays. And after having earned his money in a
manner which, from a Christian point of view, is as filthy and
base as can be (for, from a Christian point of view it would be
more honorable if he had stolen it) the clergyman returns home.
He is in a hurry, for he is to go to church in order to deliver
an oration or, as Bishop Martensen would say, "bear witness."
But if Christianity demanded honesty and uprightness, and doing
away with this swindle, the change which really came about was
this: the swindling has remained just as in Heathendom, "every
one (every Christian) is a thief in his own line"; only, the
swindling has taken, on the predicate "Christian." So we now
have "Christian" swindling--and the "clergyman" bestows his
blessing on this Christian community, this Christian state,
in which one cheats just as one did in Heathendom, at the same
time that one pays the "clergyman," that is, the biggest swindler
of them all, and thus cheats one's self into Christianity.
And if Christianity demanded seriousness in life and doing away
with the praise and approbation of vanity--why, everything has
remained as before, with just this difference that it has assumed
the predicate "Christian." Thus the trumpery business with decorations,
titles, and rank, etc. has become Christian--and the clergyman
(that most indecent of all indecencies, that most ridiculous of
all ridiculous hodgepodges), he is as pleased as Punch to be decorated
himself--with the "cross." The cross? Why, certainly; for in the
Christianity of "Christendom" has not the cross become something
like a child's hobby-horse and tin-trumpet?
And so with everything. There is implanted in man no stronger
instinct, after that of self-preservation, than the instinct of
reproduction; for which reason Christianity seeks to reduce its
strength, teaching that it is better not to marry; "but if they
cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than
to burn." But in Christendom the propagation of the race has
become the serious business of life and of Christianity; and
the clergyman--that quint-essence of nonsense done up in long
clothes--the clergyman, the teacher of Christianity, of the
Christianity of the New Testament, has his income adjusted to
the fact that the human race is active in propagating the race,
and gets a little something for each child!
As I said, look about you and you will find that everything
is as I told you: the change from Heathendom consists in everything
remaining unchanged but having assumed the predicate "Christian."
MODERN RELIGIOUS GUARANTEES
(No. V, 8)
In times long, long past people looked at matters in this fashion:
it was demanded of him who would be a teacher of Christianity
that his life should be a guarantee for the teachings he proclaimed.
This idea was abandoned long ago, the world having become wiser
and more serious. It has learned to set little store by these
illiberal and sickly notions of personal responsibility, having
learned to look for purely objective ends. The demand is made
now of the teacher that his life should guarantee that what he
has to say is entertaining and dramatic stuff, amusing, and
purely objective.
Some examples. Suppose you wanted to speak about Christianity,
that is, the Christianity of the New Testament which expresses
preference for the single state--and suppose you yourself are
unmarried: why, my dear man! you ought not to speak on this
subject, because your congregation might think that you meant
what you said and become disquieted, or it might feel insulted
that you thus, very improperly, mixed in your own affairs. No,
dear sir, it will take a little longer before you are entitled
to speak seriously on this matter so as really to satisfy the
congregation. Wait till you have buried your first wife and
are well along with your second wife: then it will be time for