"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How could I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming to close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."
-Soren Kierkegaard
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Ok Intellectuals - What are your thots?
Posted by Erica R at 10:49 PM
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6 comments:
I think that perhaps he slightly overstated it. Yes, I do think that we are scared of how radically our livestyles will have to change if we actually did everything in the Bible. It would take a radical commitment that would be very very difficult to do. On the other hand, I think that there are teachings in the Bible that are very difficult to understand and make sense of. Perhaps this is for our benefit and so that we do not think that we have God all figured out...that could lead to quite the awful things. Some might think that the teachings we do not understand are more peripheral to what we are actually called to do...like election, predestination, the end times, how literally, metaphorically, or abstractly we take the words of the Bible. Our calling is to follow the commands of God whole heartedly and I think that the command that we struggle with the most is love and yet this is the one that sums up the law. Yet, the other more 'peripheral' issues that are harder to understand adn that we may never have answers to in this life, do affect the way we live, the way we interpret how GOd interacts his world, and how we treat others and creation. I guess we have to find some sort of balance....
I know I know. I'm terrible... it's like I don't even know what a phone is. Mostly, I don't like the phone cuz sometimes ours does this annoying fuzzy thing, and other times it just gets so hot... I can't handle it. Fuzzy and hot. Dear dear dear...
PS: i'm an intellectual?
Or not at all... but doesn't the thought of having 4 REAL messages get you excited and then brutally let you down when you see it's just me being a bonehead?
Make that 5.
Wow, that's a powerful quote. Thanks for sharing it.
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