Let us imagine one of these exalted spirits. He lives among his contemporaries without being understood, his signifi- cance is not recognized — he is misunderstood, and then mocked, persecuted, and finally put to death like a common evil-doer. But the consequences of his life make it plain who he was; history which keeps a record of these conse- quences re-instates him in his rightful position, and now he is named in one century after another as the great and the noble spirit, and the circumstances of his debasement are almost completely forgotten. It was blindness on the part Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 175 of his contemporaries which prevented them from compre- hending his true nature, and wickedness which made them mock him and deride him, and finally put him to death. But be no more concerned about this; for only after his death did he really become what he was, through the conse- quences of his life which, after all, are by far more im- portant than his life.
Now is it not possible that the same holds true with re- gard to Christ? It was blindness and wickedness on the part of those times' — but be no more concerned about this, history has now re-instated him, from history we know now who Jesus Christ was, and thus justice is done him.
Ah, wicked thoughtlessness which thus interprets Sacred History like profane history, which makes Christ a man! But can one, then, learn anything from history about Jesus? (cf. h) No, nothing. Jesus Christ is the object of faith — one either believes in him or is offended by him; for "to know" means precisely that such knowledge does not per- tain to him. History can therefore, to be sure, give one knowledge in abundance; but "knowledge" annihilates Jesus Christ.
Again — ah, the impious thoughtlessness! — for one to pre- sume to say about Christ's abasement: "Let us be concerned no more about his abasement." Surely, Christ's abasement was not something which merely happened to him — even if it was the sin of that generation to crucify him; was surely not something that simply happened to him and, perhaps, would not have happened to him in better times. Christ himself w i s h e d to be abased and lowly. His abasement (that is, his walking on earth in humble guise, though being God) is therefore a condition of his own making, some- thing he wished to be knotted together, a dialectic knot which no one shall presume to untie, and which no one will untie, for that matter, until he himself shall untie it when returning in his glory.
His case is, therefore, not the same as that of a man who, "Cf. the claim of the Pharisees, Matth. 23, 30: "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with theni in the blood of the prophets."
176 University of Texas Bulletin through the injustice inflicted on him by his times, was not allowed to be himself or to be valued at his worth, while history revealed who he was; for Christ himself wished to be abased — it is precisely this condition which he desired. Therefore, let history not trouble itself to do him justice, and let us not in impious thoughtlessness presumptuously imagine that we as a matter of course know who he was. For that no one knows; and he who believes it must become contemporaneous with him in his abasement. When God chooses to let himself be born in lowliness, when he who holds all possibilities in his hand assumes the form of a humble servant, when he fares about defenseless, letting people do with him what they list: he surely knows what he does and why he does it; for it is at all events he who has power over men, and not men who have power over him — so let not history be so impertinent as to wish to reveal who he was.
Lastly — ah the blasphemy! — if one should presume to say that the percution which Christ suffered expresses something accidental! If a man is persecuted by his gen- eration it does not follow that he has the right to say that this would happen to him in every age. Insofar there is reason in what posterity says about letting bygones be by- gones. But it is different with Christ! It is not he who by letting himself be born, and by appearing in Palestine, is being examined by history; but it is he who examines, his life is the examination, not only of that generation, but of mankind. Woe unto the generation that would pre- sumptuously dare to say: "let bygones be bygones, and for get what he suffered, for history has now revealed who he was and has done justice by him."
If one assumes that history is really able to do this, then the abasement of Christ bears an accidental relation to him; that is to say, he thereby is made a man, an extraordi- nary man to whom this happened through the wickedness of that generation — a fate which he was far from wishing to suffer, for he would gladly (as is human) have become a great man; whereas Christ voluntarily chose to be the lowly one and, although it was his purpose to save the world, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 177 wished also to give expression to what the "truth" suffered then, and must suffer in every generation. But if this is his strongest desire, and if he will show himself in his glory only at his return, and if he has not returned as yet; and if no generation may be without repentance, but on the con- trary every generation must consider itself a partner in the guilt of that generation: then woe to him who presumes to deprive him of his lowliness, or to cause what he suffered to be forgotten, and to clothe him in the fabled human glory of the historic consequences of his life, which is neither here nor there.
The Misfortune of Christendom But precisely this is the misfortune, and has been the misfortune, in Christendom that Christ is neither the one nor the other — neither the one he was when living on earth, nor he who will return in glory, but rather one about whom we have learned to know something in an inadmissible way from history — ^that he was somebody or other of great account. In an inadmissible and unlawful way we have learned to k n o w him; whereas to believe in him is the only permissible mode of approach. Men have mutually con- firmed one another in the opinion that the sum total of in- formation about him is available if they but consider the result of his life and the following 1800 years, i.e. the con- sequences. Gradually, as this became accepted as the truth, all pith and strength was distilled out of Christianity; the paradox was relaxed, one became a Christian without no- ticing it, without noticing in the least the possibility of being offended by him. One took over Christ's teachings, turned them inside out and smoothed them down — he himself guar- anteeing them, of course, the man whose life had had such immense consequences in history! AJl became plain as day — very naturally, since Christianity in this fashion became heathendom.
178 University of Texas Bulletin There is in Christendom an incessant twaddling on Sun- days about the glorious and invaluable truths of Christian- ity, its mild consolation. But it is indeed evident that Christ lived 1800 years ago; for the rock of offense and object of faith has become a most charming fairy-story character, a kind of divine good old man,- People have not the remotest idea of what it means to be offended by him, and still less, what it means to worship. The qualities for which Christ is magnified are precisely those which would have most enraged one, if one had been contemporaneous with him; whereas now one feels altogether secure, placing implicit confidence in the result and, relying altogether on the verdict of history that he was the great man, concludes therefore that it is correct to do so. That is to say, it is the correct, and the noble, and the exalted, and the true, thing — if it is he who does it; which is to say, again, that one does not in any deeper sense take the pains to under- stand what it is he does, and that one tries even less, to the best of one's ability and with the help of God, to be like him in acting rightly and nobly, and in an exalted manner, and truthfully. For, not really fathoming it in any deeper sense, one may, in the exigency of a contemporaneous situa- tion, judge him in exactly the opposite way. One is satis- fied with admiring and extolling and is, perhaps, as was said of a translator who rendered his original word for word and therefore without making sense, "too conscientious," — one is, perhaps, also too cowardly and too weak to wish to understand his real meaning.
Christendom has done away with Christianity, without being aware of it. Therefore, if anything is to be done about it, the attempt must be made to re-introduce Chris- tianity.
**One is here irresistibly reminded of passages in Ibsen's "Brand," e. g., Brand's conversation with Einar, in Act I. Cf. also p. 207 and Introduction p. 1.
I Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 179 II He who invites is, then, Jesus Christ in his abasement, it is he who spoke these words of invitation. It is not from his glory that they are spoken. If that were the case, then Christianity were heathendom and the name of Christ taken in vain, and for this reason it cannot be so. But if it were the case that he who is enthroned in glory had said these words: Come hither — as though it were so altogether easy a matter to be clasped in the arms of glory — well, what wonder, then, if crowds of men ran to him! But they who thus throng to him merely go on a wild goose chase, imag- ining they know who Christ is. But that no one knows; and in order to believe in him one has to begin with his abasement.
He who invites and speaks these words, that is, he whose words they are — whereas the same words if spoken by some one else are, as we have seen, an historic falsification — he is the same lowly Jesus Christ, the humble man, bom of a despised maiden, whose father is a carpenter, related to other simple folk of the very lowest class, the lowly man who at the same time (which, to be sure, is like oil poured on the fire) affirms himself to be God, It is the lowly Jesus Christ who spoke these words. And no word of Christ, not a single one, have you permission to appropriate to yourself, you have not the least share in him, are not in any way of his company, if you have not become his contemporary in lowliness in such fashion that you have become aware, precisely like his contemporaries, of his warning: "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."° You have no right to accept Christ's words, and then lie him away; you have no right to accept Christ's words, and then in a fantastic manner, and with the aid of history, utterly change the nature of Christ; for the chatter of his- tory about him is literally not worth a fig.
It is Jesus Christ in his lowliness who is the speaker. It is historically true that h e said these words; but so soon as ^Matthew 11, 6.
180 University of Texas Bulletin one makes a change in his historic status, it is false to say that these words were spoken by him.
This poor and lowly man, then, with twelve poor fellows as his disciples, all from the lowest class of society, for some time an object of curiosity, but later on in company only with sinners, publicans, lepers, and madmen; for one risked honor, life, and property, or at any rate (and that we know for sure) exclusion from the synagogue, by even letting one's self be helped by him — come hither now, all ye that labor and are heavy laden! Ah, my friend, even if you were deaf and blind and lame and leprous, if you, which has never been seeh or heard before, united all human mis- eries in your misery — and if he wished to help you by a miracle: it is possible that (as is human) you would fear more than all your sufferings the punishment which was set on accepting aid from him, the punishment of being cast out from the society of other men, of being ridiculed and mocked, day after day, and perhaps of losing your life. It is human (and it is characteristic of being human) were you to think as follows: "no, thank you, in that case I pre- fer to remain deaf and blind and lame and leprous, rather than accept aid under such conditions."
"Come hither, come hither, all, ye that labor and are heavy laden, ah, come hither," lo! he invites you and opens his arms. Ah, when a gentlemanly man clad in a silken gown says this in a pleasant, harmonious voice so that the words pleasantly resound in the handsome vaulted church, a man in silk who radiates honor and respect on all who listen to him; ah, when a king in purple and velvet says this, with the Christmas tree in the background on which are hanging all the splendid gifts he intends to distribute, why, then of course there is some meaning in these words! But whatever meaning you may attach to them, so much is sure that it is not Christianity, but the exact opposite, some- thing as diametrically opposed to Christianity as may well be; for remember who it is that invites!
And now judge for yourself — for that you have a right to do; whereas men really do not have a right to do what is so often done, viz. to deceive themselves. That a man Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 181 of such appearance, a man whose company every one shuns who has the least bit of sense in his head, or the least bit to lose in the world, that he — well, this is the absurdest and maddest thing of all, one hardly knows whether to laugh or to weep about it — that he — indeed, that is the very last word one would expect to issue from his mouth; for if he had said: "Come hither and help me," or: "Leave me alone," or: "Spare me," or proudly: "I despise you all," we could understand that perfectly — but that such a man says: "Come hither to me!" why, I declare, that looks inviting indeed! And still further: "All ye that labor and are heavy laden" — as though such folk were not burdened enough with troubles, as though they now, to cap all, should be exposed to the consequences of associating with him. And then, finally: "I shall give you rest." What's that? — he help them? Ah, I am sure even the most good-natured joker who was contemporary with him would have to say: "Surely, that was the thing he should have undertaken last of all — to wish to help others, being in that condition himself! Why, it is about the same as if a beggar were to inform the police that he had been robbed. For it is a contradiction that one who has nothing, and has had nothing, informs us that he has been robbed; and likewise, to wish to help others when one's self needs help most." Indeed it is, humanly speaking, the most harebrained contradiction, that he who literally "hath not where to lay his head," that he about whom it was spoken truly, in a human sense, "Behold the man!" — that he should say: "Come hither unto me all ye that suffer— I shall help!"
Now examine yourself — for that you have a right to do. You have a right to examine yourself, but you really do not have a right to let yourself without self-examination be de- luded by "the others" into the belief, or to delude yourself into the belief, that you are a Christian — therefore examine yourself: supposing you were contemporary with him I True enough he — alas I h e affirmed himself to be God! But many another madman has made that claim — and his times gave it as their opinion that he uttered blasphemy. Why, was not that precisely the reason why a punishment was 182 University of Texas Bulletin threatened for allowing one's self to be aided by him? It was the godly care for their souls entertained by the ex- isting order and by public opinion, lest any one should be led astray: it was this godly care that led them to persecute him in this fashion. Therefore, before any one resolves to be helped by him, let him consider that he must not only expect the antagonism of men, but — consider it well! — even if you could bear the consequences of that step — ^but con- sider well, that the punishment meted out by men is sup- posed to be God's punishment of him, "the blasphemer" — of him who invites!
Come hither n o w all ye that labor and are heavy laden!
How now? Surely this is nothing to run after — some little pause is given, which is most fittingly used to go around about by way of another street. And even if you should not thus sneak out in some way — always providing you feel yourself to be contemporary with him — or sneak into being some kind of Christian by belonging to Christendom: yet there will be a» tremendous pause given, the pause which is the very condition that faith may arise: you are given pause by the possibility of being offended in him.
But in order to make it entirely clear, and bring it home to our minds, that the pause is given by him who invites, that it is he who gives us pause and renders it by no means an easy, but a peculiarly difficult, matter to follow his in- vitation, because one has no right to accept it without ac- cepting also him who invites — in order to make this entirely clear I shall briefly review his life under two aspects which, to be sure, show some difference though both essentially pertain to his abasement. For it is always an abasement for God to become man, even if he were to be an emperor of emperors; and therefore he is not essentially more abased because he is a poor, lowly man, mocked, and as Scripture adds,'° spat upon.
lOLuke 18, 32.
Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 183 THE FIRST PHASE OF HIS LIFE And now let us speak about him in a homely fashion, just as his contemporaries spoke about him, and as one speaks about some contemporary — let him be a man of the same kind as we are, whom one meets on the street in passing, of whom one knows where he lives and in what story, what his business is, who his parents are, his family, how he looks and how he dresses, with whom he associates, "and there is nothing extraordinary about him, he looks as men gen- erally look"; in short, let us speak of him as one speaks of some contemporary about whom one does not make a great ado; for in living life together with these thousands upon thousands of real people there is no room for a fine dis- tinction like this: "Possibly, this man will be remembered in centuries to come," and "at the same time he is r e a 1 1 y only a clerk in some shop who is no whit better than his fellows." Therefore, let us speak about him as contem- poraries speak about some contemporary. I know very well what I am doing; and I want you to believe that the canting and indolent world-historic habit we have of always rever- ently speaking about Christ (since one has learned all about it from history, and has heard so. much about his having been something very extraordinary, indeed, or something of that kind) — that reverent habit, I assure you, is not worth a row of pins but is, rather, sheer thoughtlessness, hypoc- risy, and as such blasphemy; for it is blasphemy to rever- ence thoughtlessly him whom one is either to believe in or to be offended in.
It is the lowly Jesus Christ, a humble man, born of a maiden of low degree, whose father is a carpenter. To be sure, his appearance is made under conditions which are bound to attract attention to him. The small nation among whom he appears, God's Chosen People as they call them- selves, live in anticipation of a Messiah who is to bring a golden period to land and people. You must grant that the form in which he appears is as different as possible from what most people would have expected. On the other hand, his appearance corresponds more to the ancient prophecies 184 University of Texas Bulletin with which the people are thought to have been familiar. Thus he presents himself. A predecessor has called atten- tion to him, and he himself fastens attention very decidedly on himself by signs and wonders which are noised abroad in all the land — and he is the hero of the hour, surrounded by unnumbered multitudes of people wheresoever he fares. The sensation aroused by him is enormous, every one's eyes are fastened on him, every one who can go about, aye even those who can only crawl, must see the wonder — and every one must have some opinion about him, so that the purvey- ors of ready-made opinions are put to it because the demand is so furious and the contradictions so confusing. And yet he, the worker of miracles, ever remains the humble man who literally hath not where to lay his head.
And let us not forget: signs and wonders as contempo- rary events have a markedly greater elasticity in repelling or attracting than the tame stories generally re-hashed by the priests, or the still tamer stories about signs and won- ders that happened — 1800 years ago! Signs and wonders as contemporary events are something plaguy and impor- tunate, something which in a highly embarrassing manner almost compels one to have an opinion, something which, if one does not happen to be disposed to believe, may exasper- ate one excessively by thus forcing one to be contempora- neous with it. Indeed, it renders existence too complicated, and the more so, the more thoughtful, developed, and cul- tured one is. It is a peculiarly ticklish matter, this having to assume that a man who is contemporaneous with one really performs signs and wonders; but when he is at some distance from one, when the consequences of his life stimu- late the irnagination a bit, then it is not so hard to imagine, in a fashion, that one believes it.
As I said, then, the people are carried away with him; they follow him jubilantly, and see signs and wonders, both those which he performs and those which he does not per- form, and they are glad in their hope that the golden age will begin, once he is king. But the crowd rarely have a clear reason for their opinions, they think one thing today and another tomorrow. Therefore the wise and the critical Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 185 will not at once participate. Let us see now what the wise and the critical must think, so soon as the first impression of astonishment and surprise has subsided.
The shrewd and critical man would probably say: "Even assuming that this person is what he claims to be, that is. something extraordinary — for as to his affirming himself to be God I can, of course, not consider that as anything but an exaggeration for which I willingly make allowances, and pardon him, if I really considered him to be something extraordinary; for I am not a pedant — assuming then, which I hesitate to do, for it is a matter on which I shall at anj' rate suspend my judgment — assuming then that he is really performing miracles: is it not an inexplicable mystery that this person can be so foolish, so weak-minded, so altogether devoid of worldly wisdom, so feeble, or so good-naturedly vain, or whatever else you please to call it — that he behaves in this fashion and almost forces his benefactions on men? Instead of proudly and commandingly keeping people away from himself at a distance marked by their profoundest submission, whenever he does allow himself to be seen, at rare occasions: instead of doing so, think of his being ac- cessible to every one, or rather himself going to every one, of having intercourse with everybody, almost as if being the extraordinary person consisted in his being everybody's servant," as if the extraordinary person he claims to be were marked by his being concerned only lest men should fail to be benefited by him — in short as if being an extra- ordinary person consisted in being the most solicitous of all persons. The whole business is inexplicable to me — what he wants, what his purpose is, what end he has in mind, what he expects to accomplish; in a word, what the meaning of it all is. He who by so many a wise saying re- veals so profound an insight into the human heart, he must certainly know what I, using but half of my wits, can pre- dict for him, viz. that in such fashion one gets nowhere in the world — unless, indeed, despising prudence, one consist- ently aims to make a fool of one's self or. perchance, goes so far in sincerity as to prefer being put to death; but anyiiMatthew 20, 27f.
186 University of Texas Bulletin one desiring that must certainly be crazy. Having such profound knowledge of the human heart he certainly ought to know that the thing to do is to deceive people and then to give one's deception the appearance of being a benefaction conferred on the whole race. By doing so one reaps all advantages, even the one whose enjoyment is the sweetest of all, which is, to be called by one's contemporaries a bene- factor of the human race — for, once in your grave, you may snap your fingers at what posterity may have to say abouT you. But to surrender one's self altogether, as he does, and not to think the least of one's self — in fact, almost to beg people to accept these benefactions: no, I would not dream of joining his company. And, of course, neither does he invite me; for, indeed, he invites only them that labor and are heavy laden."
Or he would reason as follows: "His life is simply a fan- tastic dream. In fact, that is the mildest expression one can use about it; for, when judging him in this fashion, one is good-natured enough to forget altogether the evidence of sheer madness in his claim to be God. This is wildly fantastical. One may possibly live a few years of one's youth in such fashion. But he is now past thirty years. And he is literally nothing. Still further, in a very short time he will necessarily lose all the respect and reputation he has gained among the people, the only thing, you may say, he has gained for himself. One who wishes to keep in the good graces of the people — the riskiest chance imag- inable, I will admit — he must act differently. Not many months will pass before the crowd will grow tired of one who is so altogether at their service. He will be regarded as a ruined person, a kind of outcast, who ought to be glad to end his days in a corner, the world forgetting, by the world forgot; providing he does not, by continuing his pre- vious behavior, prefer to maintain his present attitude and be fantastic enough to wish to be put to death, which is the unavoidable consequence of persevering in that course.