Training in Christianity (Vintage Spiritual Classics)

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It is too daunting to summarize this work here, but one of my favorite thoughts is the author's challenge tat when Christ bid us to come follow Him He did so from His "abasement" and not His glorification. Too often we skip past this and bask in the glory of the risen Lord (which is great and necessary), which can lead to a shallow life devoid of the sacrificial love and humility that provides the best argument for the way of Jesus. But everything called purely human compassion is related to direct recognizability. Yet if he does not become the object of faith, he is not true God; and if he is not true God, then he does not save people either. Therefore, by the step he takes out of love he at the same time plunges that person, mankind, into the most horrible decision. Indeed, it is as if one heard a cry from human compassion: Oh, why are you doing this! And yet he does it out of love; he does it to save people (p. 137f.).

One of the main contributions of Training in Christianity to psychology is the importance that Kierkegaard attaches to authenticity and sincerity in the experience of the Christian faith. For Kierkegaard, authenticity involves deep introspection and reflection on one's motives, desires, and beliefs. In Training in Christianity, Kierkegaard argues that we can only experience true faith if we are absolutely honest with ourselves and with God, which can have a positive impact on our mental health, particularly our self-esteem and self-confidence. In fact, authenticity is a fundamental skill in the field of psychology, as it involves recognizing and expressing our emotions and thoughts honestly and without reservation. The skill for authenticity can be particularly important for those who experience strong feelings and intense emotions or who seek to continually improve their self-awareness and psychological well-being. Section 3 is entitled "The Impossibility of Direct Communication". Kierkegaard emphasizes that the very nature of the incarnation is indirectness. God did not, after all, appear in a cloud, but rather in the attire of a man. Kierkegaard maintains that even the apparent direct sayings of Christ, such as "I and the Father are one", are indirect to an extent since the speaker is the God-man, the mediator, a human who has come from God, in the veil of flesh. My favorite work by Kierkegaard (that I've read so far). A challenging book in the best sense, though also one of his most readable. It carries you along in a deep dive into what Christ is all about. Along the way Kierkegaard dismantles popular notions (at least popular in the 19th century Denmark, but generally still very relevant today) of Christ. As with other Kierkegaard works like "Fear and Trembling", the emphasis is on the individual taking seriously his/her life and their relationship to God (as you would expect from the father of existentialism). Kierkegaard's main task is to, in a sense, remove many of the religious paradigms that enshroud Christ in our minds and distances us from just how singular He is. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-03-17 02:06:37 Associated-names Hong, Howard V. (Howard Vincent), 1912-2010; Hong, Edna H. (Edna Hatlestad), 1913-2007 Boxid IA40076512 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Col_number COL-658 Collection_set printdisabled External-identifierThe problem, however, is Kierkegaard tends to overstate a few things (like how no one has contributed anything to Christianity for 1800 years) and he is very repetitive. Christ is made into the speculative unity of God and man, or Christ is thrown out altogether and his teaching is taken, or Christ is really made into an idol. Spirit is the denial of direct immediacy. If Christ is true God, then he also must be unrecognizable, attired in unrecognizability, which is the denial of all straightforwardness. Direct recognizability is specifically characteristic of the idol. But this is what people make Christ into, and this is supposed to be earnestness. They take the direct statement and fantastically form a character corresponding to it (preferably sentimental, with the gentle look, the friendly eye, or whatever else such a foolish pastor can hit upon), and then it is directly altogether certain that Christ is God. Another important contribution that Kierkegaard makes to psychology is his emphasis on passion and emotional commitment in the life of faith. For Kierkegaard, faith is not simply an intellectual matter, but involves a deep emotional commitment to God and to others. He holds that true faith implies a complete surrender of the individual, and that only through passion and surrender can we experience divine truth and grace.

What abominable, sentimental frivolity! No, one does not manage to become Christian at such a cheap price! He is the sign of contradiction, and by the direct statement he attaches himself to you only so that you must face the offense of the contradiction, and the thoughts of your heart are disclosed as you choose whether you will believe or not.” Kierkegaard has the uncanny ability to haunt you well after you finish reading his books, and when he is dissecting scripture he is in even more familiar territory to set up his traps, forcing you to remember him when you're approaching the passages that so strongly shaped his peculiar philosophy. Or perhaps you could argue that he shaped the passages to his theology, either way its hard to forget his exegesis when you come across those same passages. Although I gave this book only three stars, there was a lot that was great about this work. Most of Practice in Christianity is centered around the verse from John 12:32: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself." Kierkegaard writes under the name Anti-Climacus although he names himself as the editor. In other words, Kierkgaard agrees 100% with Anti-Climacus, but does not want the reader to get the impression that he is an ideal Christian. Kierkegaard is also trying to learn from Anti-Climacus. The problem in Kierkegaard's Danish State Church (and certainly in our own churches) is that being Christian is like being Danish. It is a label and nothing more. Christianity is preached on Sunday and people attend church every Sunday, but people are more interested in admiring Christ rather than imitating him. Anti-Climacus argues that the problem is that people are no longer contemporaneous with Christ. Following Jesus means accepting the suffering and possibly martyrdom that comes along the way. A sign is not what it is in its immediacy, because in its immediacy no sign is, inasmuch as "sign" is a term based on reflection. A sign of contradiction is that which draws attention to itself and, once attention is directed to it, shows itself to contain a contradiction (p. 125). Kierkegaard and the early Barth think that in Christianity, direct communication is impossible because Christ appears incognito. For them Christ is a paradox, and therefore one can know him only in indirect communication. They are fully aware of the importance of the moment when the human being stands before God, and is moved by him alone from time to eternity, from the earth to which (s)he belongs to the heaven where God exists.

Fifth Period: Direct Communication (1848-51)

Just as the concept "faith" is an altogether distinctively Christian term, so in turn is "offense" an altogether distinctively Christian term relating to faith. The possibility of offense is the crossroad, or it is like standing at the crossroad. From the possibility of offense, one turns either to offense or to faith, but one never comes to faith except from the possibility of offense.... Offense...relates to the God-man and has two forms. It is either in relation to the loftiness that one is offended, that an individual human being claims to be God, acts or speaks in a manner that manifests God...or the offense is in relation to lowliness, that the one who is God is this lowly human being, suffering as a lowly human being.... The God-man is the paradox, absolutely the paradox. Therefore, it is altogether certain that the understanding must come to a standstill on it (p. 81f.).

In part three, one of the verses that Kierkegaard refers to is from the Gospel of John: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself" (12.32). There has long been recognized an ambivalence in this verse. On the one hand, the text refers to the glorified Christ, soon to be lifted up from the earth at the ascension. On the other hand, and perhaps primarily, it refers to the crucifixion. The crucifixion is an offense because Christ is punished as a common criminal when he is innocent. It is offensive because it does not seem to follow that salvation comes from punishment. For Kierkegaard, it is the Christ, as the God-man, who calls us to follow him from the cross, that is, to a life of suffering. Christ did not only call men when he preached during his period of favor, earlier in his ministry. He calls to men from the cross, to the cross. This means that the Christian, though he may not suffer physically for the doctrine, he will suffer inwardly, as Kierkegaard believed himself to be doing. This calls for imitation, which is also a theme in Judge For Yourself! Kierkegaard's whole point is to offend the complacent so-called Christians of his day, to convince them that Christ accused them rom the cross, all to incite a sense of offense in them. This offense, again, leads either to further offense or to faith. urn:lcp:practiceinchrist0000kier:epub:9f370243-889c-422d-80a6-18c91f8a2b9f Foldoutcount 0 Identifier practiceinchrist0000kier Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t7mq5ct0r Invoice 1652 Isbn 0691073961 Practice in Christianity was reprinted in 1855. On May 16, 1855 Kierkegaard published an article in The Fatherland entitled "With regard to the new edition of Practice in Christianity".Lccn 91009575 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-alpha-20201231-10-g1236 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9047 Ocr_module_version 0.0.12 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA18514 Openlibrary_edition Kierkegaard’s influence on Karl Barth's early theology is evident in The Epistle to the Romans. The early Barth read at least three volumes of Kierkegaard’s works: Practice in Christianity, The Moment, and an Anthology from his journals and diaries. Almost all key terms from Kierkegaard which had an important role in The Epistle to the Romans can be found in Practice in Christianity. The concept of the indirect communication, the paradox, and the moment of Practice in Christianity, in particular, confirmed and sharpened Barth’s ideas on contemporary Christianity and the Christian life. The final part digs into Christ's commitment to draw all unto himself on high. Kierkegaard does not believe we are to meet Christ directly on high, rather mimic Christ's ascension to high through lowliness and inwardness on Earth. Christ draws us to be more inward and reflective which leads us to experience acceptance from God (thus, in the end, being drawn to Christ on high). Again, Kierkegaard is hypercritical of what he calls established "Christendom." "Christ never desired to conquer in this world; He came to the world to suffer, that is what He called conquering." He then goes deeper and contrasts what it means to admire Christ vs. follow Christ which he believes Christ has called us to. In admiring Christ, Christians get caught up in spiritual loftiness but overlook, perhaps, Earthly lowliness. To truly admire Christ is to mimic him -- to follow his example of life. This is the profound difference between authentic Christianity and cultural, luke-warm Christendom to Kierkegaard. Section B is entitled "The possibility of essential offense in relation to loftiness, that an individual human being speaks or acts as if he were God, declares himself to be God, therefore in relation to the qualification 'God' in the composition God-man". There are passages in the Gospels where Christ strongly implies either his deity or his absolute relation to the deity of God. There are other passages where Christ acts as if he is deity, for example when he allows a man to worship him, or when he claims to forgive the offense of one man against another. He claims to be the true shepherd, the true bread, living water, etc. The offense taken by the Jewish religious leaders is a standard motif in the Gospels. Section 4 is entitled "In Christ the Secret of Sufferings is the Impossibility of Direct Communication". Kierkegaard emphasizes that the sufferings of Christ were primarily of inwardness.