“It is only all too easy to understand the requirements contained in God's Word ('Give all your goods to the poor.' 'If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left.' 'If anyone takes your coat, let him have your cloak also. Rejoice always.' 'Count it sheer joy when you meet various temptations' etc.). The most ignorant, poor creature cannot honestly deny being able to understand God's requirements. But it is tough on the flesh to will to understand it and to then act accordingly. It is not a question of interpretation, but action.” IfsGivingAbleActionChristianJoyTurnsLeftEasyPoorCreaturesToughVariousDenyStrikesFleshHonestlyIgnorantTemptationEtcOrthodoxGoodsInterpretationRejoiceCheeksSheerRequirementsCoatsOrthodox ChristianCloaksSheer Joy Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...it is not the obscure passages in Scripture that bind you but the ones you understand. With these you are to comply at once. If you understood only one passage in all of Scripture, well, then you must do that first of all. It will be this passage God asks you about. Do not first sit down and ponder the obscure passages. God's Word is given in order that you shall act according to it, not that you gain expertise in interpreting it.” IfsFirstsWellsChristianOrderAsksGivenUnderstoodGainsDown AndScriptureOrthodoxPassagesObscureExpertiseOrthodox ChristianPonderingInterpreting Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“How could it occur to anyone to demonstrate that God exists unless one has already allowed Himself to ignore Him? A king's existence is demonstrated by way of subjection and submissiveness. Do you want to try and demonstrate that the king exists? Will you do so by offering a string of proofs, a series of arguments? No. If you are serious, you will demonstrate the king's existence by your submission, by the way you live. And so it is with demonstrating God's existence. It is accomplished not by proofs but by worship. Any other way is but a thinker's pious bungling.” IfsWayWantTryingChristianExistenceSeriousKingsWorshipArgumentSeriesProofAccomplishedStringsOrthodoxThinkerOfferingSubmissionOrthodox ChristianPiousGod ExistsDemonstratingSubjection Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“The truth is lived before it is understood. It must be fought for, tested, and appropriated. Truth is the way... Anyone will easily understand it if he just gives himself to it.” IfsWayGivingChristianTruth IsUnderstoodOrthodoxTestedOrthodox Christian Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Truth is not something you can appropriate easily and quickly. You certainly cannot sleep or dream yourself to the truth. No, you must be tried, do battle, and suffer if you are to acquire the truth for yourself. It is a sheer illusion to think that in relation to the truth there is an abridgement, a short cut that dispenses with the necessity for struggling for it.” IfsThinkingDreamChristianSufferingSleepStruggleCuttingTruth IsBattleIllusionRelationAcquireAppropriateOrthodoxSheerOrthodox ChristianShort Cuts Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“... the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God!” IfsWorldNeedsHumansChristianHuman BeingsPerfectPerfectionAshamedOrthodoxDiscoveringOrthodox ChristianSaddestNeed God Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“When you say 'Yes' or promise something, you can very easily deceive yourself and others also, as if you had already done what you promised. It is easy to think that by making a promise you have at least done part of what you promised to do, as if the promise itself were something of value. Not at all! In fact, when you do not do what you promise, it is a long way back to the truth.” IfsThinkingWayLongDoneFactsChristianValuesEasyPromiseOrthodoxDeceivingLong WayOrthodox Christian Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...it is presumptuous ridicule of God if someone thinks that only the person who desires great wealth chooses mammon. Alas, the person who insists on having a penny without God, wants to have a penny all for himself. He thereby chooses mammon. A penny is enough, the choice is made, he has chosen mammon; that it is little makes not the slightest difference. The love of God is hatred of the world and love of the world hatred of God.” IfsThinkingWorldWantLittlesPersonsMadeEnoughChristianDesireChoicesDifferencesWealthHatredAnd LoveChosenGod LoveOrthodoxAlasRidiculePenniesOrthodox ChristianWithout GodPresumptuousWorld And Love Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“...a human being not only can choose but... he must choose... for in this way God retains His honor while at the same time has a fatherly concern for humankind. Though God has lowered Himself to being that which can be chosen, yet each person must on his part choose. God is not mocked. Therefore the matter stands thus: If a person avoids choosing, this is the same as the presumption of choosing the world.” IfsWorldWayHumansPersonsMatterChristianHuman BeingsHonorConcernChosenOrthodoxHumankindOrthodox ChristianPresumption Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“Do you know of any more overwhelming and humbling expression for God's condescension and extravagance towards us human beings than that He places Himself, so to say, on the same level of choice with the world, just so that we may be able to choose; that God, if language dare speak thus, woos humankind - that He, the eternally strong one, woos sapless humanity? Yet, how insignificant is the young lover's choice between her pursuers by comparison with this choice between God and the world.” IfsKnowsWorldHumansMayAbleChristianYoungHumanityChoicesSpeakLanguageStrongHuman BeingsLevelsExpressionLoversDareComparisonOrthodoxDo You KnowOverwhelmingHumankindInsignificantOrthodox ChristianYoung LoveHumblingExtravaganceCondescensionCondescension And Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“And if something should be found, particularly in the first part of the dissertation, that one is generally not accustomed to come across in scholarly writings, the reader must forgive my jocundity, just as I, in order to lighten the burden, sometimes sing at my work.” IfsShouldWritingFirstsSometimesOrderFoundWorkJusticeReaderForgivingBurdenAccustomedScholarlyDissertation Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“The commandment is that you shall love, but when you understand life and yourself, then it is as if you should not need to be commanded, because to love human beings is still the only thing worth living for; without this life you really do not live.” IfsLoveNeedsShouldHumansStillsHuman BeingsThis LifeCommandmentsWorth LivingLive Love Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“The individual (no matter how well-meaning he might be, no matter how much strength he might have, if only he would use it) does not have the passion to rip himself away from either the coils of Reflection or the seductive ambiguities of Reflection; nor do the surroundings and times have any events or passions, but rather provide a negative setting of a habit of reflection, which plays with some illusory project only to betray him in the end with a way out: it shows him that the most clever thing to do is nothing at all.” IfsWayWellsDoeEndsMatterPlayUseShowsMightPassionIndividualEventsHabitProjectsReflectionNegativeCleverSettingSettingsThings To DoBetraySurroundingsRipAmbiguitySeductiveIllusoryMost Clever Author:Soren Kierkegaard
