From “Joyful Notes in the Strife of Suffering,” within Christian Discourses:
That God is the strongest is evidenced by one sign, that man is entirely weak. For God there is but one obstacle, man’s selfishness, which steps in between God and man like the shadow of the earth when it produces the eclipse of the moon. If there is this selfishness, then man is strong, but his strength is God’s weakness; if the selfishness is absent, then man is weak, and God strong; the weaker man becomes, the stronger God becomes.
However, if this is so, then in another sense, in the true sense, the relation is inverted; and with this we come to the joyfulness.
For he who is strong without God, precisely he it is who is weak. The strength by which a man stands alone without God is weakness. God is in such a degree the strong one that He is all strength, is strength itself. So to be without God is to be without strength. So to be strong without God is to be strong…without strength; it is like being loving without loving God, and so to be loving without love, for God is love.
…Is not this then joyful, that the weaker thou dost become, all the stronger does God become in thee, or is it not joyful that thou dost become weak? Is there at bottom anything to complain of because a hard lot fell to thee, that perhaps which thou didst most dread and which made thee entirely impotent and weak? The weaker thou dost become, so much the stronger does God become in thee. And that this is joyful thou thyself wilt surely admit! Consider how poor a man would be if he could pass his whole life, proud and self-satisfied, without ever having admired any one; but how horrible a thing if he could pass his whole life without ever having marvelled at God, without ever having lost himself in worship through marvelling at God! But one can worship only by becoming oneself weak, thy weakness is essentially worship; woe to the presumptuous man who in his presumptive strength would be audacious enough as a strong man to worship God! The true God can be worshipped only in spirit and in truth–but precisely this is the truth, that thou art entirely weak.
So then there is nothing in the world to fear, nothing to fear in that which can bereave thee of all thine own power and make thee entirely weak, which can break all thy confidence in thyself and make thee entirely weak, which can completely sap thy earthly courage and make thee entirely weak–for the weaker thou dost become, all the stronger does God become in thee.
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2 responses to “The Weaker, the Stronger, According to Kierkegaard”
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I love Kierkegaard, and who am I to contest him? Honestly, I just did a series on my humble blog on his ideas about Abraham and Isaac.
However, this seems a specious argument, like saying gravity causes apples to fall. We know that apples fall, we can measure the speed, but what exactly IS it that causes masses to be drawn together? Calling it gravity is essentially nothing. Why can we not be ‘strong’ and worship well? Aren’t we called to worship Him with our strength? What exactly is meant by ‘strength’? Why does this weakness produce joy? I don’t see any connections or essential insights here. Declarations are made which do not convince, because a huge ocean of essential truths divide the connection between weakness and joy. I have my ideas, but this is a comment on a blog post!
This is similar to his argument that all human intelligence reasons to the point of its limit, and there occupies itself, and beyond this is God. I halfway agree, we DO do reason that way. But all else is God? What about angels? Demons? Spatial dimensions? God is limited to being outside of human knowability? Does this weird idea tie into this idea of weakness as leading to joy? It doesn’t fly.
I cannot help but relate the idea of weakness to my experience with addiction. It is such an in-your-face dilemma where my ‘strength’ actually becomes my ‘weakness’ because the ‘truth’ becomes so blatantly clear that I am completely powerless (without real strength). I think this is the ‘walking in the light’ aspect of my faith which is to see very clearly my inability to choose right (strength)…which means I am infinitely weak…which leads to a process of relying on God’s strength…which seems to increase to the degree I stop trying to be strong (becoming weaker). If that makes any sense.