Kierkegaard on Preaching
The following excerpts are taken from Training in Christianity by Søren Kierkegaard.
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In Christendom they preach perpetually about what happened then after Christ’s death, how He triumphed, and how His disciples made a triumphal conquest of the whole world – in short, one hears only sermons which might properly end with Hurrah! rather than with Amen. No, Christ’s life here upon earth is the paradigm; it is in likeness to it that I along with every Christian must strive to construct my life; and this is the essential object of the sermon, this is the end it should serve, to keep me alert when I would become slack, and to strengthen me when I would become disheartened.
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I have never heard any discourse or sermon about which, if before God the question was put to me, I could dare to say unconditionally that it was Christian – for even the most Christian sermons I have heard had ever about them a suspicious admixture of reasons, a smack of human whimper and compassion, a dissonant note of ingratiation.
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Hence it is a venturesome thing to preach; for when I mount to that sacred place [the pulpit] – whether the church be crowded or as good as empty – I have, though I myself may not be aware of it, one hearer in addition to those that are visible to me, namely, God in heaven, whom I cannot see it is true, but who verily can see me. This hearer listens attentively to discover whether what I say is true, and He looks also to discern (as well He can, for He is invisible, and in that way it is impossible to be on one’s guard against Him) – so He looks to see whether my life expresses what I say. And although I possess no authority to impose an obligation upon any other person, yet what I have said in the course of the sermon puts me under obligation – and God has heard it. Verily, it is a venturesome thing to preach! … “That he be true” – this means that he himself is what he preaches, or at least strives to be that, or at the very least is sober enough to admit that he is not. Alas, and how many who in mounting to this sacred place to preach Christianity are keen enough of hearing to detect the repugnance and scorn which this sacred place feels for him at hearing him preach with enthusiasm, in moving tones, with tears, the opposite of that which his life expresses.
