Soren Kierkegaard — "To be a Christian is the most terrible of all things, if one really means it."
To be a Christian is the most terrible of all things, if one really means it.
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More from Soren Kierkegaard
"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself."
"The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever."
"Don't forget to love yourself."
"The most dangerous of all delusions is that you are not deluded."
"The most painful state of being is rememberin' the future, particularly the one you'll never have."
About Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Danish philosopher and theologian considered the founder of existentialism; Either/Or (1843) and Fear and Trembling (1843) explored the leap of faith. Closely associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (his existentialist successor working in the opposite theological direction) and Fyodor Dostoevsky (literary parallel exploring faith-and-despair). For an intellectual contrast, see G.W.F. Hegel, German Idealist of the totalizing system — Kierkegaard called Hegel's system a 'palatial residence' that nobody could actually live in — his entire authorship is structured against Hegelian abstraction in favor of the existing individual's inwardness.
The standard scholarly entry points to Soren Kierkegaard's work: Joakim Garff (University of Copenhagen, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre) — Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography (2000); Walter Lowrie (Princeton, his major postwar English translator) — A Short Life of Kierkegaard (1942); C. Stephen Evans (Baylor University, philosophy of religion) — Kierkegaard: An Introduction (2009). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Soren Kierkegaard.