Training in Christianity: Second part of his life

It happened to him as they foretold

In Section II, Part B, of Training in Christianity, Soren Kierkegaard continues his call for self-examination by asking Christians to look at the second of Christ’s life. He does this by asking if all the things that the shrewd and prudent said about Jesus in Part A were true, what would be the implications of those truths?

Kierkegaard has very little patience for the insights of establishment Christianity into Christ. In fact, he says that establishment has garbled the very message of Jesus beyond all recognition, saying, “men of power and repute, the opposition of the establishment as a whole and the measures out in effect against him have attenuated the impression he produced at the first… …goes more and more backward to ever greater and greater degradation.” (p. 49)

Judged by the company he keeps

Kierkegaard claims that all people are judged by the company they keep. Christ is no exception. Instead of seeking out the rich and powerful in society, he sought out the “lowest class of the population, including, furthermore, sinners and tax-gatherers… …his company consists, moreover, of lepers, who are shunned by everybody, madmen, who provoke only horror, of the sick and the needy, of poverty, and wretchedness.” (p. 49)

Because this is the company that Jesus keeps, it is the kind of company Christians should keep. The apostles not only came from the outcast of their society, they focused their ministry on those same individuals. Most importantly, it is in that kind of human that God decided to show up. Christ came, not as one of the shrewd or powerful in the world. For God, Christ is a “queer way of making Himself entirely one with the poor and going about with beggars.” (p. 51)

For Kierkegaard, any church that is more concerned about the rich and powerful establishment is simply keeping the wrong kind of company. I think that he is right. What was true then is true now. The same sort of self-examination he called Christians to in 1850’s Denmark could also apply to 21st century Americans. Christian nationalism is a betrayal of the gospel, props up an exploitative status quo, and oppresses the very people whom Jesus came to save.

Counterpoint of profane history

Kierkegaard was not naive about the difficulty of “reintroducing Christianity to Christendom.” He said that the world would necessarily view the message of Christ as pitiable foolishness because Jesus did not meet their expectations, “the people discovered that they were mistaken in Him, that they fulfillment He would consummate was at the farthest possible remove from the gold and green gardens they were expecting. So the people fell away from him, and the mighty drew the net closer.” (p. 51)

In this way Kierkegaard described the inevitable pushback from the establishment when its supremacy is challenged. However, even in that acknowledgement, he does not let Christians off the hook. He points to Christ’s own example of compassion, even compassion unto death. He encourages us to be brave enough to say, “let them say what they will, and condemn Him as severely as they will,” knowing that they will say the same things about us.

Responding to the Invitation and the Inviter

All of this is hard. It requires a level of faith that most of us do not posses. It is easier to remain comfortable in establishment Christendom than it is to pursue the risks of Christlike Christianity. The knowledge of the difficulty involved is precisely why Kierkegaard will remind his readers of the Inviter, and of the profundity of the Invitation, in section III.