one thing that confused me was the interpretation of Christ's life being suffering from the beginning. What makes you think that his childhood with Mary and Joseph was one of suffering rather then the normal joy of childhood and loving family?
Great question! This comes down to S. K.'s understanding of the "infinite qualitative difference" between humanity and God - when we say God is wholly "other" to humanity, that means He truly is completely dissimilar.
Because of this gap, the shift from God to the God-Man is a shift of unimaginable self-denigration - to be infinite and restrain your infinity into the finite form of a man is to suffer immeasurably; to be eternal and restrain your eternality into the temporal form of a man is to suffer immeasurably. S. K. went on to say that it wouldn't have mattered if Christ came as a vagrant or a king; both are equally as lowly in relation to God, therefore suffering was necessarily in Christ's life and could only be in His life as He was the only one to bridge the gap between the finite and the infinite.
ok I’ll buy that for a dollar. Hey I haven’t read much of you, but this was one of the best Christian articles I’ve read yet on substack, I guess you have a big advantage compared to other writers because you are standing on the shoulders ( no pun intended on the hunchback) of Kierkegaard whom I haven’t really delved into. ( lots of dostoievski and Nietzsche). But the issues are very pertinent to my life on the personal level, I had a big family and that was great, but now they’re growing up and am struggling with the desire to “ get my hands dirty” in the real Christian sense with the sense of loyalty to my wife who doesn’t much want the suffering that sometimes is entailed in getting our hands dirty. I believe me i’m aware of the line Christ had about loving the marriage more than discipleship…. that being said ripping a family apart over grandiose religious thinking often doesn’t seem God’s will either. I’ll figure it out, and I look forward to reading more of your stuff
I haven't, but I've read that much of his work that I'm used to being "provoked"! I've just found a .pdf after a quick Google, so I might idly meander through the text today.
one thing that confused me was the interpretation of Christ's life being suffering from the beginning. What makes you think that his childhood with Mary and Joseph was one of suffering rather then the normal joy of childhood and loving family?
Great question! This comes down to S. K.'s understanding of the "infinite qualitative difference" between humanity and God - when we say God is wholly "other" to humanity, that means He truly is completely dissimilar.
Because of this gap, the shift from God to the God-Man is a shift of unimaginable self-denigration - to be infinite and restrain your infinity into the finite form of a man is to suffer immeasurably; to be eternal and restrain your eternality into the temporal form of a man is to suffer immeasurably. S. K. went on to say that it wouldn't have mattered if Christ came as a vagrant or a king; both are equally as lowly in relation to God, therefore suffering was necessarily in Christ's life and could only be in His life as He was the only one to bridge the gap between the finite and the infinite.
ok I’ll buy that for a dollar. Hey I haven’t read much of you, but this was one of the best Christian articles I’ve read yet on substack, I guess you have a big advantage compared to other writers because you are standing on the shoulders ( no pun intended on the hunchback) of Kierkegaard whom I haven’t really delved into. ( lots of dostoievski and Nietzsche). But the issues are very pertinent to my life on the personal level, I had a big family and that was great, but now they’re growing up and am struggling with the desire to “ get my hands dirty” in the real Christian sense with the sense of loyalty to my wife who doesn’t much want the suffering that sometimes is entailed in getting our hands dirty. I believe me i’m aware of the line Christ had about loving the marriage more than discipleship…. that being said ripping a family apart over grandiose religious thinking often doesn’t seem God’s will either. I’ll figure it out, and I look forward to reading more of your stuff
Reminds me so much why I love Kierkegaards writings. Thanks for putting this together. Have you read Provocations, the summaries / paraphrases of SK?
I haven't, but I've read that much of his work that I'm used to being "provoked"! I've just found a .pdf after a quick Google, so I might idly meander through the text today.