Choose
I don't know about you, but I've always thought that if you're gonna believe in God, you better go all the way. Whether it's heaven and hell, the resurrection as atonement, Calvinist elites, salvation through grace or works, whatever your ticket to the holy- shouldn't it be the single dominant force in your life? How can you buy into an Old Testament God without shuddering at the immensity of his fiery wrath? Shouldn't you be cowering in corners a good part of the day, waiting for the theophonous whirlwind to pronounce your human punyness? How can you accept the New Testament without trying to imitate JC? Shouldn't you be throwing out your worldly possessions and taking that message to the streets, turning cheeks at the mocking secularists in their low-riding pants and Enter Here above-ass tattoos? If it isn't all or nothing, then your belief has got to be suspect, and that's why my favorite Christian writer has always been Soren Kierkegaard. The man refused to let folks poopoo their faith, and he spent his life attacking what he contemptuously referred to as Christendom, what he considered a mealymouthed institutionalized Christianity that required no action and kept its leading figures in velvet robes and diamond-studded hats. For Kierkegaard, you must choose between an aesthetic life and an ethical one, and that choice must be a total commitment. You are either for God or you are not. Kierkegaard, after being publicly ridiculed for years for his refusal to soften his attacks on Denmark's state church, pinned all his hopes for the future of Christianity upon the awakening of the common man, whom he wanted to help first out of the deceptions of the pastors and thereafter into an environment of sincerity and honesty- God would surely take care of the rest. He further refused to call himself a Christian, arguing that the only salvation is honesty and the admission that one is humbled, crushed under the weight of the New Testament ideal. Thereafter, the only things remaining are grace and God's mercy.

I chose the aesthetic life a long time ago, but I've always admired Kierkegaard's courage as that of the true Jesus freak. For more, check out Jorgen Bukdahl's tidy 130-page volume, Soren Kierkegaard and the Common Man. Bukdahl places Kierkegaard in his historical context (like a tiny version of Frank's Dosty bio) to show how the life affected the work and visa versa. Check it out here www.eerdmans.com, or bring a 12-pack to my house, and we can wallow in our aesthetic commitment together.