In the sermon a week ago – when I was actually at my home church! – our pastor shared this quote from Søren Kierkegaard. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Without any further commentary…here’s the quote.
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 would 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 too 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.
So…what do you think?
Quote taken from Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, ed. Charles Moore
Picture from Wikipedia.
Brad says
July 21, 2010 at 7:31 PMSince I almost died last December during an 11 day stay at the local hospital in intensive care with H1N1 and Double Pneumonia
I say Bible slice me open and make me whole and slice away any part of me that is in the darkness and bring me into the light so that none of my stains would prevent God from using me as he would. Help me to see God closer. I’ve been a christian for 38 years and every time I read the bible, I see something different.
I’m finding the Bible to be a good dear friend and a new lesson learned every day as I seek humility and wisdom in its depths as place by Jesus the true word and my savior.