“Save me, O God, from ever being completely sure; keep me unsure until the end so that then, if I receive eternal blessedness, I might be completely sure that I have it by grace! It is empty shadowboxing to give assurances that one believes it is by grace — and then to be completely sure. The true, the essential expression of its being by grace is the very fear and trembling of unsureness. There lies faith.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “Resurrection of the Dead” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Save me, O God, from ever being completely sure; keep me unsure until the end so that then, if I receive eternal blessedness, I might be completely sure that I have it by grace! It is empty shadowboxing to give assurances that one believes it is by grace — and then to be completely sure. The true, the essential expression of its being by grace is the very fear and trembling of unsureness. There lies faith.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “Resurrection of the Dead” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Ordinarily everyone who lives in Christendom has unconditionally enough knowledge about Christianity to be able to invoke and supplicate, to be able to turn in prayer to Christ. If he does that with the need of inwardness and in honesty of heart, he surely will become a believer. If only it is altogether definite before God that this person feels the need to believe, he will very definitely find out what he is to believe. The opposite is: without a need to believe, to go on researching, ruminating, and pondering, more and more wanting nigglingly to waste year after year of one’s life, and finally one’s eternal salvation, on getting absolutely and precisely definite, down to a dot over a letter, what one is to believe. This opposite is empty shadowboxing that merely becomes more and more self-important, or it is a scholarly, learned practice in the wrong place, therefore a scholarly, learned malpractice, or it is cowardly, inhuman, and to that extent also ungodly pusillanimity.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “He Was Believed in the World” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Save me, O God, from ever being completely sure; keep me unsure until the end so that then, if I receive eternal blessedness, I might be completely sure that I have it by grace! It is empty shadowboxing to give assurances that one believes it is by grace — and then to be completely sure. The true, the essential expression of its being by grace is the very fear and trembling of unsureness. There lies faith.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “Resurrection of the Dead” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Imagine a gathering of worldly-minded, timorous people whose highest law in everything is a slavish regard for what others, what ‘they’ will say and judge, whose sole concern is that unchristian concern that ‘everywhere they speak well’ of them, whose admired goal is to be just like the others, whose sole inspiring and whose sole terrifying idea is the majority, the crowd, its approval — its disapproval. Imagine such an assembly or crowd of worshipers and devotees of the fear of people, that is, an assembly of the honored and esteemed (why should such people not honor and esteem one another — to honor the other is, after all, to flatter oneself!) — and imagine that this assembly is supposed (yes, as it is in a comedy), is supposed to be Christians. Before this Christian assembly a sermon is delivered on these words: It is blessed to suffer mockery for a good cause!

But it is blessed to suffer mockery for a good cause!”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “But It Is Blessed to Be Mocked” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Save me, O God, from ever being completely sure; keep me unsure until the end so that then, if I receive eternal blessedness, I might be completely sure that I have it by grace! It is empty shadowboxing to give assurances that one believes it is by grace — and then to be completely sure. The true, the essential expression of its being by grace is the very fear and trembling of unsureness. There lies faith.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “Resurrection of the Dead” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Imagine hidden in a very plain setting a secret chest in which the most precious treasure is placed — there is a spring that must be pressed, but the spring is concealed, and the pressure must be of a certain force so that an accidental pressure cannot be sufficient. The hope of eternity is concealed within a person’s innermost being in the same way, and hardship is the pressure. When the pressure is put on the concealed spring, and forcefully enough, the content appears in all its glory!” ——————————————————– ~Source: Christian Discourses: “Hardship Procures Hope” (1848) Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Save me, O God, from ever being completely sure; keep me unsure until the end so that then, if I receive eternal blessedness, I might be completely sure that I have it by grace! It is empty shadowboxing to give assurances that one believes it is by grace — and then to be completely sure. The true, the essential expression of its being by grace is the very fear and trembling of unsureness. There lies faith.”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “Resurrection of the Dead” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Ordinarily everyone who lives in Christendom has unconditionally enough knowledge about Christianity to be able to invoke and supplicate, to be able to turn in prayer to Christ. If he does that with the need of inwardness and in honesty of heart, he surely will become a believer. If only it is altogether definite before God that this person feels the need to believe, he will very definitely find out what he is to believe. The opposite is: without a need to believe, to go on researching, ruminating, and pondering, more and more wanting nigglingly to waste year after year of one’s life, and finally one’s eternal salvation, on getting absolutely and precisely definite, down to a dot over a letter, what one is to believe. This opposite is empty shadowboxing that merely becomes more and more self-important, or it is a scholarly, learned practice in the wrong place, therefore a scholarly, learned malpractice, or it is cowardly, inhuman, and to that extent also ungodly pusillanimity.” ——————————————————– ~Source: Christian Discourses: “He Was Believed in the World” (1848) Author: Søren Kierkegaard

“Imagine a gathering of worldly-minded, timorous people whose highest law in everything is a slavish regard for what others, what ‘they’ will say and judge, whose sole concern is that unchristian concern that ‘everywhere they speak well’ of them, whose admired goal is to be just like the others, whose sole inspiring and whose sole terrifying idea is the majority, the crowd, its approval — its disapproval. Imagine such an assembly or crowd of worshipers and devotees of the fear of people, that is, an assembly of the honored and esteemed (why should such people not honor and esteem one another — to honor the other is, after all, to flatter oneself!) — and imagine that this assembly is supposed (yes, as it is in a comedy), is supposed to be Christians. Before this Christian assembly a sermon is delivered on these words: It is blessed to suffer mockery for a good cause!

But it is blessed to suffer mockery for a good cause!”
——————————————————–

~Source: Christian Discourses: “But It Is Blessed to Be Mocked” (1848)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard