Tag Archives: Kierkegaard

The difference between understanding and doing

6 Replies

I’ve come to enjoy reading thoughts from Søren Kierkegaard. I’ll confess to never having read an entire book of his. But I’ve read a number of thought-provoking quotes. Here’s one that I find intriguing:

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?

Kierkegaard, Søren. Provocations spiritual writings. Farmington, PA: Plough House, 1999, p. 201

It’s a little like the old Mark Twain quote: “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” That’s how I feel much of the time.

Thief in the night

4 Replies

kierkegaardYears ago, Dr. Arlie Hoover spoke at the chapel at the Missions Seminar at ACU. He used an illustration from Søren Kierkegaard that really stayed with me. I’ve tried for years to find the original citation, but have not been able to find it.

Anyway, the illustration goes something like this: A thief broke into a store at night. Instead of stealing anything, however, he merely changed the prices. What was expensive became cheap; what was inexpensive became costly.

That, Kierkegaard said, is exactly what Jesus did. He came and changed all the world’s priorities. First shall be last. Blessed are the poor, woe are the rich. Give up your life to gain it. Suffer to be glorified. The lion is a lamb. The victory is won through death.

I guess you can see why that illustration has stayed with me.