April 23 – Leap of Faith
My father loved Kierkegaard. Every possible chance that he got to quote him in a sermon, he took. I didn’t know much about him as I grew up, but I certainly knew that dad liked the way he thought.
This man thought! Soren Kierkegaard had an amazing mind. Out of that mind came profound ideas, ideas that changed how we look at our faith.
Kierkegaard grew up in a wealthy family under a father who exposed him to brilliant people, challenged his mind with puzzles and games and hoped for him to become a priest. He attended the University of Copenhagen and managed to keep attending, becoming a kind of perpetual student.
Then he met a woman. Regina Olsen. They fell in love, he asked her to marry him. She accepted. Then, he became an idiot. For some unknown reason, he decided they couldn’t marry. Maybe he felt unworthy, who knows. He pushed her away, forcing her to finally decide that she wouldn’t marry him. Throughout all of this, the anguish of a young man burst forth in philosophical writings. He questioned everything.
The fun thing that Kierkegaard did was to publish in journals and different areas, profound questions about things of the world. But he published these questions under pseudonyms. He would then respond to those questions under his own name. He looked deeply at life from both sides and was able to communicate clearly all of these ideas.
Kierkegaard is considered the father of existentialism. He also influenced how others began to think about the church. Many of his later writings attacked the Danish church (Lutheran) for its empty rituals and complete lack of life. He questioned how a person could really be a Christian in such a fallen world. His conclusion was that it was only through miracles of God that we can be saved.
Kierkegaard accused the church of being more interested in the system than in Jesus Christ, worship money and power rather than God. He saw God as a living, acting Being who wanted to save mankind – not an object to be analyzed. He recognized that philosophy was trying to deal with abstract truths, and taught that religion was about how to live.
Coming out of the age of reason, he realized that mankind couldn’t reach God through reason – reason only takes us so far. At that point, we had to leap out into the darkness, having faith that God would meet us there.
Soren Kierkegaard brought humanity back into the conversation about our relationship with God. He recognized human frailty and the overwhelming power of God’s miracles.
My father loved Kierkegaard. Every possible chance that he got to quote him in a sermon, he took. I didn’t know much about him as I grew up, but I certainly knew that dad liked the way he thought.
This man thought! Soren Kierkegaard had an amazing mind. Out of that mind came profound ideas, ideas that changed how we look at our faith.
Kierkegaard grew up in a wealthy family under a father who exposed him to brilliant people, challenged his mind with puzzles and games and hoped for him to become a priest. He attended the University of Copenhagen and managed to keep attending, becoming a kind of perpetual student.
Then he met a woman. Regina Olsen. They fell in love, he asked her to marry him. She accepted. Then, he became an idiot. For some unknown reason, he decided they couldn’t marry. Maybe he felt unworthy, who knows. He pushed her away, forcing her to finally decide that she wouldn’t marry him. Throughout all of this, the anguish of a young man burst forth in philosophical writings. He questioned everything.
The fun thing that Kierkegaard did was to publish in journals and different areas, profound questions about things of the world. But he published these questions under pseudonyms. He would then respond to those questions under his own name. He looked deeply at life from both sides and was able to communicate clearly all of these ideas.
Kierkegaard is considered the father of existentialism. He also influenced how others began to think about the church. Many of his later writings attacked the Danish church (Lutheran) for its empty rituals and complete lack of life. He questioned how a person could really be a Christian in such a fallen world. His conclusion was that it was only through miracles of God that we can be saved.
Kierkegaard accused the church of being more interested in the system than in Jesus Christ, worship money and power rather than God. He saw God as a living, acting Being who wanted to save mankind – not an object to be analyzed. He recognized that philosophy was trying to deal with abstract truths, and taught that religion was about how to live.
Coming out of the age of reason, he realized that mankind couldn’t reach God through reason – reason only takes us so far. At that point, we had to leap out into the darkness, having faith that God would meet us there.
Soren Kierkegaard brought humanity back into the conversation about our relationship with God. He recognized human frailty and the overwhelming power of God’s miracles.
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