Although remembered by many as foremost a philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard was quite the theologian in his time, with his own unique approach to theology and Christianity in general. In a time that was ruled by objective methodology in every aspect of acquiring and summarizing knowledge, Kierkegaard sought to bring Christianity back into the realm of the subjective, thereby making it much more interactive and personal. What this paper focuses on is Kierkegaard’s requirement of sacrifice that all Christians must be willing to make in order to be considered true Christians, followed by both a critique and a praise for his contagious notion.
What is Meant by Sacrifice in Christianity?
At the time of Søren Kierkegaard, many relatively new
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Even more drastic, some tied in their religious beliefs and faith with their work ethic and/or national identity, which thought process Kierkegaard gives an example of: “How can you doubt that you are a Christian? Are you not a Dane…do you not perform you duties at the office like a conscientious civil servant; are you not a good servant of a Christian nation…so of course you must be a Christian.” Kierkegaard loathed how cold and detached the Christian faith had become, so he saw it fit that he remind people what being a Christian truly meant. In his famous work Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard declares that “no person has a right to delude others into the belief that faith is something of no great significance, or that it is an easy matter, whereas it is the greatest and most difficult of all things.” The difficulty of faith lies in the requirement of sacrifice. The story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his beloved son, Isaac, is what Kierkegaard utilizes to demonstrate how costly faith in God is. Here is a man, who after seventy years of waiting for God’s promise of offspring finally received his son, is commanded by God to slay his promised son with no stated reason for doing so. Kierkegaard, in attempting to experience what Abraham might have experienced in those moments, cries, “Now all is lost, God demands Isaac, I shall sacrifice him, and with him all my joy – but for all that, God is love and will remain so for me.” What bold words! The cost
My favorite poem was Offerings to an Ulcerated God by Martin Espada. The reason for this is it was the only poem that really made me empathize and feel emotions for the characters. It jumps right in with a quote from the landlord’s lawyer. He says Mrs. Lopez refuses to pay rent and so she has to leave. Mrs. Lopez is the tenet and only speaks spanish, so the judge ask for an interpreter. But, all the interpreters are working elsewhere. A volunteer interpreter stands and Mrs. Lopez shows the interpreter pictures of her apartment/house. The conditions in this apartment/ house are horrible. It has rats, no doorknob and the water in the toilet is frozen. Mrs. Lopez tells the interpreter that she knows the law, will not pay because of the horrible conditions and wants to speak. Without hearing from Mrs. Lopez, the judge states that she must pay and has 10 days to leave. Everyone accepts this gets up to leave. The interpreter is ashamed he could not help her.
In any conception of the human condition, sacrifice inevitably accompanies the choices that life presents. Yet, the definition of sacrifice is ambiguous and relies on individual interpretation: it can be willingly trading lesser possessions for more desirable goals or forcibly relinquishing values. Despite the distinct social contexts and time periods, Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening reflect similar notions of sacrifice through their protagonists, Chris McCandless and Edna Pontellier respectively. Chris McCandless and Edna Pontellier perceive sacrifice as a trade-off between values, where
While the following essay will focus on this discussion of the essence of Christianity, it is important to note that Schleiermacher recognises that there is the possibility, and reality, of
Since, faith is the paradox whereby the single individual’s inner ethical is higher than the outer universal ethical, therefore the single individual preforms the absolute duty to God. When the single individual carries out his absolute duty to God it can not be allowed to be interceded and thus the absolute duty cannot be understood nor communicated in the universal. If there was the possibility of faith being communicated than, this according to Kierkegaard would not be faith in its true essence, but rather simply religious trial.
Kierkegaard’s position on faith is represented with the Knight of infinite resignation and the Knight of faith. The Knight of faith is regarded as the one who believes in that which is absurd. For, he is the knight that is able to believe in the things that are
Starting with Kierkegaard, it is best to understand that he has a deep fulfillment to God and that he feels is the absolute. This absolute is to live in the realm of a paradox and that paradox is proving the existence of God and experiencing it for yourself. To understand this is to go through the different stages, of aesthetic, moral and religious. The aesthetic is all about the individual and focuses on oneself as an individual. The moral is having to be antagonistic towards yourself in
In this essay, I will try to summarize, analyze and discuss several pages of Søren Kierkegaard’s Training in Christianity. I will try to focus on his approach to sacred history, a general Christian history and Christianity, which he discusses in this work in relation to faith in God. In other parts of this essay I will attempt also to relate these pages of his work to some key ideas of Kierkegaard’s theology and philosophy and support this with some concrete quotations from the text. In the end I will very briefly compare different philosophies of Hegel and Kierkegaard and try to relate Kierkegaard’s work to a few topics, which
This transmission and responsible commentary on tradition must be understood in the context of a double judgement made by Kasper around Christianity and the philosophical thought. Kasper suggests that Christianity is in a “transitional state.” In terms of philosophical thought, the author claims that the modern principle of subjective, the process in which “man posits himself as the starting-point and measure for understanding reality as a whole,” is certainly in relation to the history of Christianity. In this way,
Existentialism from a Christian standpoint during and after World War II found itself in a dilemma. In the face of their horrors and fears, they had to question God’s compassion, if not his very being. Their faith was put to a test that had been first expressed by the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard had contended that Christians must live in a state of torment caused by their own freedom of choice. To believe that God became incarnated as a human being (Jesus), they had to confront the fundamental Christian absurdity, that this is even possible. To believe in this requires an incredible leap of faith because its very illogicality means that all reason must be suspended. (Sayre, The Humanities 176).
So much of society seems to live his/her life on a sort of self-serving autopilot mode. Rarely does one stop to think how or why he/she is making certain decisions or how these decisions can affect his/her life in the future. Often times, it is not until one has a “string of bad luck” or something tragic happens in one’s life, when he/she will turn to Jesus for help “getting them through this problem” only to return to one’s self-centered ways once his/her life has returned to normal. Living life with a Christian worldview is not something that one can take off a shelf and use when needed and allow it to collect dust on that shelf the rest of the time. This paper will discuss the many parts that make
The purpose of this book is meant to create a foundation for Christian lifestyles. It addresses the origin of Christian values, and portrays the evolution of Christian worldviews throughout history. It briefly explains the biblical narrative and develops ideas in which Christians are able to live out their faith and deal with other worldviews existing in our world today.
Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money
The connections between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Soren Kierkegaard as philosophers are not at all immediately obvious. On the surface, Wittgenstein deals with matters concerning the incorrect use of philosophical language and Kierkegaard focuses almost exclusively on answering the question 'how to become a Christian'. But this account belies deeper structural similarities between these men's important works. Thus, this paper suggests that their methods, rather than exclusively content, contain a strong parallel on which a natural and hopefully fruitful examination of their work can be based.
Would you be willing to sacrifice something that you really care about for the greater good? Utilitarianism is the theory that we should do what is best for the world as a whole, even if that means that there will be some unhappiness. It is the ethical theory that I believe I base most of my moral judgments on, but as with anything, there are flaws to this theory.
Everyone in the United States has had some sort of interaction with a person from the church, at a church, in a church and has seen countless images of Jesus in various states of crucifixion to constantly remind you of his sacrifice, a promise to you that you are forgiven and you have a place in heaven. Now, this essay is not for everyone, some people cannot function without a crutch, or life is so bad this is the only escape from reality that is possible, this essay is for those who like me as a child was so confused about the Christian religion, but could never isolate those reasons until entering an age of wisdom and clarity.