Training in Christianity

Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850)

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

Plain boards and a very narrow door.

Catch rate: 52 / 255
Base research: 272
Stat total: 334

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina86

Contend88

Defend82

Popularity78

Total334

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 86

STAMINA — Moderate. It is three long studies on one text.

Contend 88

CONTEND — High. It aims at the reader who already thinks he is a Christian.

Defend 82

DEFEND — Solid. It names no heresy to attack. It asks one question, and only the answer to it can be disputed.

Popularity 78

POPULARITY — Moderate. It was ignored in Denmark and has been read since.

Cited for this book

Kierkegaard wrote Practice in Christianity in 1850. Its text is Matthew 11:28, the invitation to everyone who labours and is heavy laden. His Denmark baptised everyone and counted everyone a Christian, and he asked what had become of the One who was doing the inviting. The Hollander selection prints it as “Preparation for a Christian Life.”

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

Training in Christianity→
Lv 66The Works of Kierkegaard

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
1	The Inviter Claims To Be God	Christology	Argument	90	100%	10
16	Christendom Has Done Away With Christianity	Ecclesiology	Argument	88	100%	10
30	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
38	Not Judged By His Consequences	History	Argument	86	100%	10

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“Let us forget for a little while what, in the strictest sense, constitutes the ‘offense’; which is, that the inviter claims to be God. Let us assume that he did not claim to be more than a man, and let us then consider the inviter and his invitation.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), printed in Hollander’s selection as “Preparation for a Christian Life”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

The Inviter Claims To Be God

ChristologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard is looking at the invitation of Matthew 11:28, to everyone who labours and is heavy laden. Set aside the offence for a moment, he says: the offence is that the one inviting claims to be God. He will not let the invitation be admired without that claim.

Strong against

×2.5The Many Faiths, One Realan argument · why?

Hick wants Jesus as one valid response among others. Kierkegaard says: set aside for a moment the offence, which is that the one who invites claims to be God, and look at the invitation. There is nothing left to look at. The claim is what the invitation stands on, and a view that gives it up has given up the invitation too.

“Christendom has done away with Christianity, without being aware of it. Therefore, if anything is to be done about it, the attempt must be made to re-introduce Christianity.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), printed in Hollander’s selection as “Preparation for a Christian Life”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

Christendom Has Done Away With Christianity

EcclesiologyArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard’s charge against his own country, where everyone was baptised and counted a Christian. A whole nation had become Christian by habit, and the habit had replaced the thing. His answer is not to give up on the church. It is to bring Christianity back in.

Strong against

×2.5The Man of the Worldan argument · why?

The man at ease in the world who is untroubled by these questions has a Christian cousin, who is untroubled because he was baptised. Kierkegaard went after that second man harder than any unbeliever did: a country had become Christian by habit and the habit had replaced the thing. He cannot be answered by being counted among the saved.

“He does not wish to be judged in a human way, from the results of his life; that is, he is and wishes to be, a rock of offense and the object of faith. To judge him after the consequences of his life is a blasphemy, for being God, his life, and the very fact that he was then living and really did live, is infinitely more important than all the consequences of it in history.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), printed in Hollander’s selection as “Preparation for a Christian Life”, trans. L. M. Hollander, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard (University of Texas Bulletin, 1923), public domain.public domain

Not Judged By His Consequences

HistoryArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameKierkegaard on Jesus (“he” in this passage is Christ). He says you cannot settle who Jesus was by looking at what came of his life, as you can with a great man. A reader who waits for the results is not yet his contemporary.