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We Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers
September 13, 2007 · Print This Article
This made me chuckle and then feel quite challenged…..
“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? 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.”
Soren Kierkegaard
Ouch. That is a scarily accurate quote. What am I doing a BD for again?
I feel a bit bad being the token heretic here, but I think there’s a tendency within christianity to really blur the line between God and the bible. One could be forgiven for thinking that bible-worship is the most desireable form of idolatry.
The way that Jesus reacted to the scholars of his time serves as a perfect example.
The magic isn’t in the words; it’s in the heart.
There’s nothing token about your heresy Tim.
I get what you mean about where the magic is. I also think that many hearts have been messed up (in a good way) by the words of the bible.. The challenges in the words spring from those who walked with Jesus and follow his way… they confront me and my self focused heart. They call me help be part of a better world.
Of course the quote does focus on our ‘pledging’ to the words which does sound like bible-olatry to me. But the life direction and changes ask need either great internal commitment from us or something like this falling ‘into the hands of living God’. Recently I heard Jackie Pullinger and a few others who work in slums talk of the reliance on and connection with God when they had given away all and were tired and needing strength. I was challenged and a bit jealous of that experience. The social worker in me had all sort of self care and boundaries lights flashing but she has lived 30(lots?) years in the slums with none of that. Makes me wonder.
Hey Ben - remember Kierkegaard was no small academic too
I guess what I’m wondering (in a rhetorical kind of way) is this… can you know truth without having ever laid eyes on the bible? The answer, even according to the bible itself - is yes. Because, “in their hearts they knew the truth”.
To me, the bible often serves to hide people from the truth they already know, because they can use it’s words to twist, manipulate, and justify.
It’s much more dreadful to be alone with one’s heart!
Yep that could be a scary place. It seems to me that the honesty to look into our hearts like this and see the worth of all people, compassion to care and the guts to respond is not that common….
Can you say some more about what you see (in the heart and the truth from your space)
Perhaps - except what I’m suggesting is that the capacity to know truth exists without the bible; whether or not we spend any time dwelling on it is another thing. Dogma is the antithesis of critical thinking, and - getting back to the original quote - biblical scholarship is more often than not, intrinsically tied to dogma.
Yeah I guess I assume truth must exist without the Bible… even the most conservative position would find it this true… I mean its nowhere near as tricky as what came first the Chicken or the Egg.
I know, I know I can hear the dogma forming silence… the word reveals the truth of truth, completion, fulfillment, God breathed and all that. The dogma that answers before the sentence is even finished is linked to same biblical scholarship at separates us from doing/being the change. This particular line of scholarship does seem to lead us, or is that retreat, into fear and a violent ‘them vs us’ frame. Critical thinking and dogma in action.
But even though its off topic of the quote, I’m still keen to ponder what we know from self reflection of our hearts…intraspection?….. and if that leads to a deeper love for all people and a deeper understanding of self? Would it lead us into risking confronting the norms, powers etc?
Old Celtic Mystic Christian types wrote about thin places and the internal/limitless depths of the soul. Personally I have had times where I could say I was getting this sense… but none spiring to mind recently. (I think having kids messes with these practices although I get lot more moments with a sense of awe sparked by my tribe.)