Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism Quotes

“Preferential love seeks only those who share one's passions--the more similar the lovers the more fervent the love. By contrast, neighbour love is not preferential and there is no question of loving for sameness' sake. It thrives in a situation of difference, able to include many people under its aegis. The drift of love based on passionate preference is always towards 'the one.' The drift of neighbour love is always towards 'the many.”
― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism

“Kierkegaard disparages the irresponsibility afforded by the modern press which allows people to address the crowd in an arena where public opinion has become the hallmark of truth, but in which the opinion-formers remain hidden. Everyone seeks anonymity--in the press, in the crowd, to the point where everyone is no one!
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― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism

“By looking to the glory of the passing years and successive generations as demonstrations of the truth of its religion, Christendom has done away with the sharp shock of having to make a decision that -this- man is -God-, and thus, for Kierkegaard, has done away with Christianity altogether.”
― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism

“When considering -the- event of history, namely the incarnation, Kierkegaard does not de-historicize this event to make faith more palatable to a sophisticated modern audience. Instead, employing contemporaneity he accentuates the historicity of the event, and then identifies our response to it as -either- faith -or- offence. In this way coming to have faith, and thus becoming a whole, authentic person, is essentially and inextricably tied up with the attitude towards an historical event.”
― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism

“For Kierkegaard, the ethical task facing all persons is the task of deciding either obedience or offence in the face of the God-man.”
― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism

“Contemporaneous faith invokes a stance that is opposite to triumphalism, fact-gathering or apologetics.”
― Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism