Tuesday, August 16, 2005
A Guest Blogger Strikes! His Title? - Kirkegaard, Feh!
Introducing a guest blogger. This was meant to go up early in my journeys but was forstalled by technical problems. It is response, in part to the Lessons and Sermons post from just before I left. It is my sincere hope that this guest blogger shall retunr from time to time. Without further ado:
While John scours the Baltic for his aquatic namesake, Blogotional proudly presents a number of expert guest contributors. Here's the first: Davis X. McKenna, Liberal Trade-Spokesperson for the North American Blogger's Congress.
Dave writes:
First of all, let me extend my sincere thanks to John Schroeder for leaving the continent. No, I kid. As anyone can tell by reading Blogotional, John can seem to be a very nice person. And believe me, I've met him.
But about Kirkegaard. Once upon a time, I found myself in a Bible study class on the writings of St. Paul. On one evening, in one conversation, I managed to disagree with St. Paul, Kirkegaard, Freud and Einstein. I mention this only to forewarn you, gentle reader. I can be rash and thoughtless.
That said, I'm a big fan of old Soren K., except for the time he came up with that single most destructive and pernicious error in Western Christianity: the Leap of Faith.
He has rightly been called the first Christian Existentialist. And he did it almost a century before Existentialism even appeared. Existentialism, briefly, is the belief that life, the universe and everything are meaningless, but that we should all pretend otherwise because, somehow, pretending makes it real.
Similarly, Kirkegaard imagined an infinite wall between us and God that we can't climb over, dig under or run around. But by believing, we can somehow be on the other side. This is stupid.
In places where the Leap of Faith is embraced, there's really no operational difference between "faith" and "self-delusion". If you're doing this, stop it, now.
On the other hand, Kirkegaard wrote a lovely non-stupid extended metaphor about worship, which, if John or any of his Blogotional readers had bothered to consider, would have obviated the recent effluence of worship discussions on this very blog.
Kirkegaard's idea of a personal encounter with God is also fairly pernicious, but only because it's been misunderstood and misapplied. It makes American Christians sound especially silly. They have a personal computer on their desktop, personal hygiene spray in their medicine cabinet, and a personal lord and savior in their jeans pocket.
While John scours the Baltic for his aquatic namesake, Blogotional proudly presents a number of expert guest contributors. Here's the first: Davis X. McKenna, Liberal Trade-Spokesperson for the North American Blogger's Congress.
Dave writes:
First of all, let me extend my sincere thanks to John Schroeder for leaving the continent. No, I kid. As anyone can tell by reading Blogotional, John can seem to be a very nice person. And believe me, I've met him.
But about Kirkegaard. Once upon a time, I found myself in a Bible study class on the writings of St. Paul. On one evening, in one conversation, I managed to disagree with St. Paul, Kirkegaard, Freud and Einstein. I mention this only to forewarn you, gentle reader. I can be rash and thoughtless.
That said, I'm a big fan of old Soren K., except for the time he came up with that single most destructive and pernicious error in Western Christianity: the Leap of Faith.
He has rightly been called the first Christian Existentialist. And he did it almost a century before Existentialism even appeared. Existentialism, briefly, is the belief that life, the universe and everything are meaningless, but that we should all pretend otherwise because, somehow, pretending makes it real.
Similarly, Kirkegaard imagined an infinite wall between us and God that we can't climb over, dig under or run around. But by believing, we can somehow be on the other side. This is stupid.
In places where the Leap of Faith is embraced, there's really no operational difference between "faith" and "self-delusion". If you're doing this, stop it, now.
On the other hand, Kirkegaard wrote a lovely non-stupid extended metaphor about worship, which, if John or any of his Blogotional readers had bothered to consider, would have obviated the recent effluence of worship discussions on this very blog.
Kirkegaard's idea of a personal encounter with God is also fairly pernicious, but only because it's been misunderstood and misapplied. It makes American Christians sound especially silly. They have a personal computer on their desktop, personal hygiene spray in their medicine cabinet, and a personal lord and savior in their jeans pocket.
