Understanding Kierkegaard

The Pseudonymous Authors – Introduction to Fear and Trembling

Carnival — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:48:50 +0000

The Book on Adler I believe was a good introductory book because most scholars believe that Kierkegaard agreed with Petrus Minor’s analysis of Magister Adler. Now we will take on Fear and Trembling, a book written under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio. I of course recommend that you read the books for yourselves because Kierkegaard was a very complex man whose writings have not been fully (and may never be) fully understood. He wrote pseudonymous works alongside direct ones. Allow me to explain. If a child reads Crispin by Avi, that child is really reading a book by Edward Irving Wortis. If he/she picks up The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, the author is really Theodor Geisel. Although Wortis and Geisel wrote under pseudonyms, they did not attempt to deceive anyone through their books. They certainly wanted to hide their identities, but Avi is Edward Wortis and Dr. Seuss is Theodor Geisel in the most direct sense. Not so with Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard created fictional authors through which he wrote his pseudonymous books. These fictional authors did not necessarily agree with Kierkegaard, but had their own ideas and personalities. It is generally understood that Kierkegaard wrote these books to deceive people into Christianity. In nineteenth century Denmark “Christians” were becoming less and less interested in learning about Christ directly from the scriptures and were more interested in understanding and reassessing traditional Christian truths through the writings of modern philosophers like Friedrich Hegel. Through his many pseudonyms, Kierkegaard attempted to challenge people to rethink how they understood Christian discipleship – how they understood the God of the Bible. Amid all the technological and scientific advancements in Denmark, Christ had become only one variable in a larger philosophical System. People had forgotten what it meant to “take up their crosses” and follow Jesus. The majority of Danes felt as if their Christian identity was a birthright while the theologians and pastors had watered down the gospel to appeal to a more spiritually-deficient audience. Instead of pastors challenging their parishioners, they helped contribute to the spiritual crisis.

Fear and Trembling is written by Johannes de silentio who is not a Christian. It is important to remember this as we discuss the book. Rather, Silent John is an ordinary man who is trying to understand the story of Abraham’s sacrifice in the Book of Genesis. He recognizes the fact that Christians refer to him as the “Father of Faith,” and, while he himself does not share the faith, he yet attempts to trace Abraham’s footsteps to the mountain in Moriah in hopes of understanding how Abraham could have had the courage to respond to God’s command to kill his only son, Isaac. Maybe, Christians have not really read the story at all – at least not seriously anyway. Unlike many people who praise Abraham for his greatness, John is rather disturbed by the story. Was not Abraham called by God to be a murderer?

Johannes de silentio explores faith through the eyes of Abraham. Abraham was what the author calls a « Knight of Faith.” Abraham, to be faithful to God, had to kill his son even if this action was unethical by the world’s standards. From the Universal point of view, Abraham would have been a murderer if he had killed Isaac but John continues to believe the Scriptures: that this was the will of God and that by following God, Abraham was justified. No one can understand Abraham’s pain nor why he had to sacrifice his son; in fact, Abraham, himself, had no idea either. It is nevertheless clear from the story that Abraham loved his son; it was only in loving his son that Abraham could sacrifice him. The journey of faith is thus a leap into the unknown – the absurd. A “Knight of Faith” like Abraham is completely confident in what the author deems as absurd. Abraham was a man who lived and walked alone with his God. He was not a tragic hero because he had to kill his son neither for his country nor for another noble cause. In fact, he never knew why God asked for Isaac’s life. Abraham’s story is disturbing. After all, it is easy to misunderstand the story and to excuse terroristic actions. God put Abraham to the test, but this test is difficult and disconcerting.

Reflection #1: History, Reason, And Faith

Carnival — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:00:32 +0000

Protestantism is centered on the understanding that humans can only know God through faith, which is the only appropriate Christian response to the free God-given gift of Grace. This belief was in opposition to scholasticism which argued that God could be understood through faith and reason. While the early Martin Luther emphasized the importance of conscience and the necessity of reason, later in life, Luther boldly proclaimed that “reason is a whore.” Søren Kierkegaard, for the most part, agrees. To be contemporaneous with Christ, Kierkegaard argues, forces the Christian individual to come face-to-face with the offensive person of Jesus Christ who looks like an ordinary Rabbi but claims to be at once God and man. This contradictory nature of Christ cannot be understood by reason. When Jesus comes to the first disciples, in an instant they must decide whether or not they will “[leave] their nets and follow him” (Matthew 4:20, NIV). But, how do they know that Jesus is in fact who he claims to be? The answer is faith – only faith.

What a claim. What a claim, indeed!!! Kierkegaard cannot stand the historical-critical method or the argument that time can help Christians come to a better understanding of the Scriptures. In short, we can never know more about Christ than the apostles did no matter how long ago Jesus lived. If the Bible is truly the Word of God then its Truth is self-evident. No amount of discernment can ever help a Christian understand divine revelation. Revelation does not need any external help. Neither Socrates (although Kierkegaard does admire him) nor Plato nor Aristotle nor science nor anything else can ever prove or disprove the Truth that is contained in the Scriptures. Now we can understand why Petrus Minor reacts the way he does towards Magister Adler. If Magister Adler has received a revelation from God, then only he can know that God spoke to him. And if Jesus actually spoke to him, then it must be the Truth. Adler should not turn to anyone else for help, and he must not attempt to prove himself. Reason cannot help him.

But could we not also claim that, assuming people accept Adler’s revelation, future generations could come to misunderstand that same revelation as a result of scientific progress or different cultural settings? Take the book of Revelation for example. This book is one of the most controversial books of the Bible not only because of its seemingly challenging message, but especially because Christians are torn over how to correctly understand the Truth contained in this book. Is this book supposed to be read literally or is it mostly symbolic? Who is the audience? Is it only an eschatological book or is it also appropriate for present-day Christians?

Historians have discovered that when people understand early-Church Christians, the Book of Revelation reveals much that would otherwise have been overlooked. To be sure, history has its limits. It can never distinguish between what is revealed and what is not. It can never define miracles or go beyond empirical facts. But history can give Christians the context in which they can understand revelation. It is this that Kierkegaard has overlooked.

Once we know the context, Kierkegaard is absolutely right. Reading the Bible contextually does not lessen the challenge of following God. It does not even replace faith with reason. Rather, reason and history can help Christians better understand what it is that God is trying to tell them through the scriptures. Assuming that Magister Adler is a new apostle, Petrus Minor is correct to point out that only he can know whether or not Jesus came to him that night. But later Christians would have to understand Hegelianism and 19^th century Danish Lutheranism to understand Jesus’ message. Of course, it is only in faith that one could believe in Jesus at all or that Jesus spoke to Magister Adler. Instead of reason being a whore, I suggest that we understand reason’s limits. It is reason that separates humans from other animals. God created us as rational beings who live in particular cultures and who have the ability of sharing the same messages in multiple contexts. Did not Jesus speak to his disciples using parables appropriate for Jews living in first century Palestine?

The Book On Adler – What Does It Mean To Have Had A Revelation?

Carnival — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:23:55 +0000

Magister Adler is forced to resign from his pastoral duties in the Danish State Church as a result of his responses to the questions posed to him by the ecclesiastical superior. He is released with a pension, and, at the time of Petrus Minor’s book, is living in the countryside where he has published a four-volume series in which he throws light upon certain passages of the Bible. In other words, Adler has re-focused his attention on Biblical scholarship. He has indeed burned his Hegel manuscripts as Jesus supposedly commanded, but Petrus Minor is not satisfied. If Magister Adler received a message directly from Jesus (as indicated in the Preface to his book on Sermons) why doesn’t Adler ever mention the revelation again? Does he not realize that he has been appointed by God to give an urgent message to the world regardless of his position in the State Church? Why in the world is he focusing his attention elsewhere? Does he think that critically analyzing the Bible will somehow prove the orthodoxy of his revelation? Well, Petrus Minor says, if this is in fact his reasoning, then he is sorely mistaken.

Magister Alder may have burned his Hegel manuscripts, but he is still under the Hegelian spell. He does not understand that there is a qualitative difference between an apostle (that “special individual”) and a “lyrical genius” (a term used by Kierkegaard to denote a person who is able to speak and/or write profoundly). An apostle’s message is the Truth not because of its profundity (for that is unimportant) but because it is God breathed. It’s authority is comparable to that of the Bible. On the other hand, someone like Plato can be considered profound, but then he is only a lyrical genius. No matter how insightful Plato may be, he can never be that “special individual” because his words do not come directly from God. So, to judge an apostle’s message is in a way blasphemous because if God said it then it must be unconditionally believed. Adler thinks that Jesus’ message to him is not enough, and that he must write four books so that people can be convinced of the truth of his message. The way Magister Adler is approaching his so-called revelation, together with his responses to the ecclesiastical superior, show that he probably never had a revelation. Rather, he was suddenly awakened from his spiritual torpor, and for the first time in his life actually decided to be a Christian. (I will explain this last statement in the future because it deals with a huge theme in Kierkegaard’s writings, namely the place of Christianity in Christendom).

Adler, like many people in the Danish State Church, has misunderstood the meaning of apostleship.

At one moment it was a hysterical woman who had a revelation, then a sedentary artisan, then a professor who became so profound that he could almost be said to have a revelation, then a peering genus who peered so deeply the he almost, nearly, as good as – had revelations (34).

Here and elsewhere Petrus Minor mocks the contemporary understanding of authority.

But Magister Adler appears one for both and both for one: he is himself the one who has had a revelation and is also the exegete! But for that very reason Magister Adler so splendidly manifests what the modern is (76 footnote).

Adler is unique in his approach to his revelation because like the passage above indicates, he is the one who has supposedly received a revelation, and instead of turning over the analyzing and critical exegesis to others, he does both himself.Imagine Paul analyzing his own divinely inspired epistles using the modern historical-critical method!!! It is true that Paul backs up many of his teachings with the Hebrew Scriptures but never to prove to others that he has had a revelation. This he says plainly, and suffers as a result of his claim. Of course, Adler himself (as indicated in the last post) doesn’t really know if he actually received a revelation. In fact, it seems as if he is trying to prove to himself, more than to others, that he belongs to the “Universal.” If Jesus has spoken then it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. Proof is not needed, neither from history nor from scripture.

Here we are faced with challenging questions. Kierkegaard has made a very strong argument here, and in the next post I will offer some personal reflections on the book thus far.

The Book On Adler – The Interrogation

Carnival — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:20:45 +0000

I have thought quite a lot about how to appropriately introduce you to Søren Kierkegaard. I could write a boring biography of his life, but it would be just that – boring. You would probably forget most of it anyway. While forgetting a philosopher’s childhood and youth may not usually hinder a student’s understanding of that philosopher’s works, with Kierkegaard, this is not so. It is absolutely essential to be familiar with certain events in Kierkegaard’s early life because many of his writings refer repeatedly to these events. Thus, I will not write a biography.

Instead, I will start right away with an analysis of his writings. Along the way, I will refer to these important events in his life so that you, that individual reader, may more easily understand the complex figure that is Søren Kierkegaard. I will use a similar approach to explain his method of writing and vocabulary, which can certainly be confusing and has been, unfortunately, the source of much misunderstanding in the last century. I choose to write first on the Book on Adlerbecause, as his last book (published posthumously), this work captures the essential Kierkegaard. In this 188 page book, all of Magister Kierkegaard’s ideas come together in a giant critique of the Danish State Church and modern-day Christianity.

Although the Book on Adler was one of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous works (written under the name Petrus Minor), from his other writings and journals, it is clear that he fully agrees with his pseudonym. So without further ado, let us begin…

Introduction

Petrus Minor has been interested recently in a certain figure in the Danish State Church: Pastor Adolph Peter Adler. Magister Adler claims to have had a revelation. He writes in the Preface to his book on Sermons:

“That same night a hideous sound descended into our room. Then the Savior commanded me to go up and go in and write down these words:

The first human beings could have had an eternal life, because when thought joins God’s spirit with the body, then the human being is God’s child; Adam would thus have been God’s son. But they sinned. Thought immersed itself in itself without the world, without the body. It separated the spirit from the body, the spirit from the world. And when the human being himself, when thought itself separates the spirit from the body and the spirit from the world, the human being must die and the world and the body must become evil. And what becomes of the spirit? The spirit leaves the body. But God does not take it back. And it becomes his enemy. And where does it go? Back into the world. Why? It is angry with the world, which abandoned it. It is the evil spirit and the world itself created the evil spirit.

Then Jesus commanded me to burn my own works and in the future to keep to the Bible.”

Suddenly, this respectable Lutheran pastor is under suspicion by the church authorities. Thus, an ecclesiastical superior questions Adler, and his responses prompt Petrus Minor (a mere critic) to question Adler’s claim to have had a revelation. Upon questioning, Magister Adler hesitates and claims that time will show the Church that his ideas are in accord with orthodoxy. But Adler’s story has changed.

Petrus Minor pays close attention to the details of Magister Adler’s interrogation, and suddenly he notices discrepancies between Adler’s claim in the Preface to his Sermons and his response to the ecclesiastical superior. When asked whether it was true that he, Adler, was in a confused state of mind when he wrote his Preface, Adler neither supports directly nor recants the statement at the start of the book (Thereupon Jesus told me to burn my own work and for the future keep to the Bible. About Sermons and Discourses from No. 6 to the end I know that they are written through the co-operative grace of Jesus, so that I have only been an instrument). Instead, he argues that he is known to always be in accord with Church teachings and that his present book is not claiming anything new. He argues that with proper analysis and more time, it will be shown that he has not proposed anything new.

It is here that Petrus Minor comes to understand Magister Adler’s dilemma. Adler is claiming to be an apostle, a man who has received a revelation like Saint Paul, but he does not want to rock the boat – he does not want to lose his position in the State Church. Magister Adler claims that he has been called to be the “special individual” (a term Kierkegaard uses elsewhere in his writings to denote a person who has a unique calling with respect to the accepted ethical and social standards of a society), but his response to the superior proves that he really wants to belong to the “Universal.” Maybe, Petrus Minor argues, Magister Adler is confused. Either Adler had a revelation but does not understand what it means to have had a revelation, or else, he merely had a spiritual awakening and thus never had a revelation at all. Either Jesus came to Adler and made him an apostle bearing a message to Christendom, or else, Adler himself merely had one morning a Christian idea – however ingenious. There is an eternal difference between the two. If the latter is true, then Adler must recant his statement in the Preface because he has not had a revelation. If he has in fact had a revelation, then Adler does not understand it, and falsely thinks that time and critical exegesis will throw light on the orthodoxy of the revelation he has received directly from Christ.

In the next post, I will show how Petrus Minor uses Magister Adler’s confusion to critique Christendom and its understanding of Christianity.

To That Single Individual…

Carnival — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:26:20 +0000

Have you ever wanted to read Søren Kierkegaard but never had the time or did not know where to start? Well, you are in luck. Maybe you have never heard of him but are a churchgoer interested in knowing what it means to be a real Christian in the postmodern world. Well, you too are in luck!!! Kierkegaard is a complex philosopher whose writings address the question “What does it really mean for me to be Christian?” This question, posed by him two hundred years ago, is today more relevant than ever. Unfortunately, the existentialists have abducted him in the past century and his message has been gravely misunderstood. Which is not surprising. He was misunderstood during his lifetime as well. Kierkegaard once wrote, “People understand me so little that they fail even to understand my complaints that they do not understand me.” I am on a journey to discover the true Christian Søren Kierkegaard and his message for Christians living in the modern era with all its distractions.

Come and join me on this great adventure. Kierkegaard challenges each of us to become contemporary with the person of Jesus Christ who is not just a historical figure but the meaning of our existence.

For a great commentary on many of Kierkegaard’s works (pseudonymous and direct) check out this website:

http://sorenkierkegaard.org/index.html

For daily quotes from Kierkegaard’s books and journals, check out this blog:

http://kierkegaarden.wordpress.com/