Training in Christianity: First period of his life

How do we speak about our contemporary?

Throughout Training in Christianity, Soren Kierkegaard asks his readers to think of Christ as a “contemporary.” Part of what I hear him saying in that term is the idea that Jesus is not just an abstract divine figure in heaven that Christians talk about. Instead, we are called to think of Jesus in the here and now. By making him present with us today, we are better able to relate to him and to more fully shape our lives around his teachings.

Part of the challenge of thinking of Christ as a contemporary is that there are so many understandings of who Jesus is. One of the challenges of Christianity is that we tend to relate to Jesus as who we think he is, as opposed to who he actually is. As part of the self-examination process of discovering just how Christian we are, Kierkegaard also invites us to consider how Christlike our image Jesus actually is.

Essentially, are we accurately seeing Christ as a contemporary in our lives, or have we constructed an abstraction that shelters from the demands of actually living the Christian life?

The wise and prudent might say

Using the first half of Jesus’ life and ministry as a benchmark, Kierkegaard presents a long series of possibly explanations for who Christ is, how Christ works in the world, and how the Christian should relate to Christ. He looks at the philosopher, the parson, the statesman, the cynic, the poor, the unlearned, the business person, and many others. Each argument is presented with a very subversive “or.”

As in “the wise and prudent might say this,” or “they might say that.”

This extended argumentation takes a bit of work on the part of the reader. It is often not exactly clear which position Kierkegaard (or Anti-Climacus, the pseudonym to whom the book is credited), actually holds. Every argument sounds reasonable, and tracks with many of the arguments used in the world today. The challenge is that many of them are in conflict with each other and the attempt to harmonize them creates a domesticated Christ who bears no resemblance to the one who actually invites us to come in search of rest.

What a disparaging opinion this implies

In short, I hear Kierkegaard saying that any Jesus we can control, or fully know, is not one worth following. In fact he says, “think what a disparaging opinion of the Inviter this implies.” (p. 48) Instead, we are called to follow Christ as the one who transcends any of the labels placed upon Jesus by mere human beings.

He then goes on to examine what that followership implies by looking at the second half of Jesus’ life.