Christian Contrarian

Sorry Kierkegaard has always been a proverbial thorn in the side of the church. Why? Because he lived in a day then that is not so different from our day where almost everybody in this country says they are a Christian but few are actually living it out.

So let his satire bite, even hurt, but thank him afterwards for it:


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 pleging yourself to act accordingly. My God,
you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How will 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.


(PROVOCATIONS, p.201)