Søren Kierkegaard was indeed sore sometimes! Mincing no words in his journal, Kierkegaard reached for an ant metaphor to critique what he perceived as the mediocrity of contemporary Christendom:

“Consider first Peter the apostle. He is an apostle and therefore measures a good two feet taller than what we call the mediocre… listen, you battalions of mediocrity, you who are ants compared to Peter and yet are duped by the preachers to thinking that you are Christians and that by this kind of Christianity you get to heaven…”

[From: Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, vol. 3, p. 2685, ed. and trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong]

Luckily for the “battalions of mediocrity”, one could easily do more than a mite worse than an ant.

A luscious-lipped philosopher.

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One response to “The Antagonistic Kierkegaard”

  1. Jiu Jiu Avatar
    Jiu Jiu

    Most of Kierkegaard’s writings reflect this view of “christians”, he must be read in that light.

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