Soren Kierkegaard on Faith – Fear and Trembling

On folks who say simplistically that Christians walk in complete light and pagans walk in the dark: “Such a statement may be explained by one not knowing what one should say but only that one should say something.”

On the source of greatness: “If the one who is to act wants to judge himself by the outcome, then he will never begin. Even though the outcome may delight the whole world, it cannot help the hero, for he only came to know the outcome when the whole thing was over, and he did not become a hero by that but by the fact that he began.”

Too often I do exactly what Kierkegaard identifies in the first quote: say something just to say something. I don’t mean anything by it but to show effort and excuse myself from any further action. Proverbs emphasizes at several points the importance of the tongue, as does James. I, as I know others in the church do, waste the tongue. The church wastes it on movements like Proposition 8 in California or otherwise meddling in politics as an ideological-interest organization rather than as church people voting their considered conscience. I waste it on trite answers to important questions like “How are you doing?”

The second requires more difficulty. In some sense, as Christians, we all attain to Christ’s victory. We want to participate in his “heroism” on the cross. But we can’t attain that end, Kierkegaard says, without simply beginning. The end does not demonstrate greatness. The process, and even the beginning, demonstrate greatness. Today, where are we called to begin, today and every day?

I’ll try to get James and Proverbs verses up.

~ by ericmonek on November 11, 2008.