Paradoxical Musings "Christianity fastens the end by means of the paradox"

11May/050

Time Does Not Exist

The past is completed; the present is not; only the future is, which yet is not.

-- Soren Kierkegaard

True; time past and time future do not exist, and as soon as one acknowledges the present it is already past; so what's time?

That "time will be no more" may simply be the statement that we will dwell always in the moment, in the life of God.

Then again, the ESV translates that totally differently.

3May/052

To Drink or Not to Drink

Tacitus wrote, that by the ancient Germans it was held no shame at all to drink and swill four and twenty hours together. A gentleman of the court asked: How long ago it was since Tacitus wrote this? He was answered, about fifteen hundred years. Whereupon the gentleman said: Forasmuch as drunkenness has been so ancient a custom, and of such a long descent, let us not abolish it.

-- Martin Luther

And just when I thought living on a college campus had made me privy to every imaginable justification for drunkenness!

Filed under: Luther, Quotes 2 Comments
3May/052

Procrastination

Procrastination is as bad as overhastiness. There is my servant Wolf: when four or five birds fall upon the bird net, he will not draw it, but says: O, I will stay until more come, then they all fly away, and he gets none.

-- Martin Luther

Filed under: Luther, Quotes 2 Comments
25Apr/053

Worrying About tomorrow

When the thought now becomes absorbed into the future, it strays hither and thither in its restless efforts to force or coax from the mystery its explanation; like a spy it hastens from one possibility to another, but in vain; and under all this the wishing soul becomes sorrowful, sits there and waits for the thought to return and enlighten it as to what it might venture to wish with all its heart.

-- Soren Kierkegaard

Filed under: Kierkegaard, Quotes 3 Comments
23Apr/051

Let’s All Be Goats!…

When two goats meet upon a narrow bridge over deep water, how do they behave? neither of them can turn back again, neither can pass the other, because the bridge is too narrow; if they should thrust one another, they might both fall into the water and be drowned; nature, then, has taught them, that if the one lays himself down and permits the other to go over him, both remain without hurt. Even so people should rather endure to be trod upon, than to fall into debate and discord one with another.

-- Martin Luther

I though we were supposed to be sheep...?

Filed under: Luther, Quotes 1 Comment
21Apr/050

Comprehension vs. Belief

To comprehend is the range of man's relation to the human, but to believe is man's relation to the divine.

--Soren Kierkegaard

18Apr/050

Know Thyself

And this is the wonder of life, that each man who is mindful of himself knows what no science knows.

--Soren Kierkegaard

14Apr/051

“…that you love one another as I have loved you.”

It is not that Jesus' commands have been tried and found lacking; it is that they have not been tried.

--John Armstrong

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11Apr/050

The Strength of Abraham

Greater than all was Abraham, great with that power whose stregth is powerlessness, great in that wisdom whose secret is folly, great in that hope whose outward form is insanity, great in that love which is hatred of self.

--Soren Kierkegaard

8Apr/056

Depression Prescription

When you are assailed by gloom, despair, or a troubled conscience you should eat, drink, and talk with others. If you can find help for yourself by thinking of a girl, do so.

--Martin Luther

Filed under: Luther, Quotes 6 Comments