In his day, Kierkegaard viewed church buildings as one of the primary factors that inhibited the health and mission of the church. In his book, Attack upon Christendom, he wrote this:
Think of a hospital. The patients are dying like flies. The methods are altered in one way and another. It’s no use. What does it come from? It comes from the building, the whole building is full of poison. That the patients are registered as dead, one of this disease, and that one of another, is not true; for they are all dead from the poison that is in the building.
So it is in the religious sphere. That the religious situation is lamentable, that religiously men are in a pitiable state, nothing is more certain. So one man thinks that it would help if we got a new hymnal, another a new altar-book, another a musical service, etc., etc.
In vain—for it comes from…the building…
Let it collapse, this lumber room, get rid of it, shut all these shops and booths… And let us again serve God in simplicity, instead of treating him as a fool in magnificent buildings.
This concludes my series on church buildings, which will eventually find their way into my book, Close Your Church for Good. Next week, we move on to a different subject: Pastors.
If the topic of church buildings is controversial, the subject of professional pastors is even more so. Don’t miss a post: Subscribe to the blog in a reader or by email.
I like Keirkegaard, but had not run across this quote. So we’re not voices crying alone in the wilderness!
Even if those little copper books that have been in the news lately turn out to have something inscribed by the hand of Paul or Peter or John that warns the church to have no buildings, I doubt most groups would leave their buildings. I’m suspicious that it’s going to take churches becoming too poor to afford their buildings.
I hardly ever read or listen to the news… what little copper books?
Yeah, what little copper books?
The first reports I read said they are copper. Here’s a link to the BBC story, which says they are little lead books. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12888421 Some scholars who have seen them say they could be the most important archaeological discovery of Christian artifacts in history.
As one who has read lots of obscure old stuff, I find this potentially very exciting. For example, there are claims that certain people in the very early church suppressed certain writings, changed certain writings and even produced writings purporting to be from the hands of Paul or the Apostles.
Wouldn’t it be wild if, for example, one of those little books should identify the writing we identify as I Timothy and say something to the effect that “it is not from the hand of Paul, but was written by_____ to put forth their opinion that________”? (Which has been a repeated rumor throughout the Christian era, and is supported by certain modern day scholars as possible.)
Or perhaps some of Paul’s supposed “lost letters” could be there, or an even earlier manuscript of some NT writing which omits some cherished doctrine or includes a new passage with some startling info (What if it says “Jesus and his wife……”?)
Wow. I read the article. That is amazing. I hope it doesn’t take as long to learn what these books contain as it took for information from the Dead Sea Scrolls to start to trickle out. Of course, it says the books were discovered between 2005-2007, and here it is, 2011, and we are just now hearing about it, so it will probably be another 20-30 years before we hear anything else…
HmmI reported twice about these..they’re fakes…you may want to read the posts I wrote:
http://antwrites.com/2011/04/02/the-oldest-christian-books-recently-discovered-are-fakes/
Try holding shift when you hit refresh, it clears out your cache.
I hadn’t read your blog, but had read opinions on both sides of the issue. Either way wouldn’t surprise me. I remember a similar discussion before the Dead Sea Scrolls became sort of available to the public. Even fakes get lots of publicity for certain scholars, antiquities dealers, publications and even countries.
Thanks for the links. I went and read your post and the articles you mentioned. Great find!
My blog article has references from well-known theologians. I REALLY wanted it to be real. The Greek was gibberish, like it was copied from an advertisement and has misspellings…
Here were my finding from when I studied the lead codices: “Contents of the Ancient Lead Codices of Scripture Revealed!” I published this article on April 1 of this year, fyi.
-Alan
Alan, I read your post on that day, and thought you were making an April Fool’s joke. Of course, you were… but still, I didn’t realize there was some basis in fact to your story. Hilarious!
Hey Jeremy
This fellow you quoted, is this the same guy that helped pioneer “Extentialism” He had a disreguard for presuppostions, or I should say correct presuppostions!
besides that.. I did like what he said. very true.
Vaughn B.
Vaughn,
Yes, it is the same guy. He and Nietzche shared some ideas about truth and presuppositions, but they came at it from completely different positions.
WEll I guess I your quote from Kierkegaard surprised me when his approach to Hermeneutics ignores the text’s original context adn interprets existentially or experientially in the contemporary context. So really it says “What does the text mean to me today?” He relied on a leap of faith rather than fact. I am sure you know all this. I just am kind of a guy that pulls information which I try to use that has good support all rounded. But maybe I don’t understand enough of this guy. So even though your quote from Kierkegaard is good and suites my idea .. the guys approach is a bit off in other areas but like I said I don’t know but what I have studied on Historical Criticism and he really did a lot of damage where F. Schaeffer had to deal with .. with the trend we see today.. : a disreqard of presuppostions. Hence evangelicals are facing today.. about truth… grrrr..
sorry … just my rant I guess.
sincerely
Vaughn
Good points about him. I have not read much of his writings, only 2-3 books, but interestingly, he does seem to read and understand Scripture in a fairly straightforward way without trying to explain it away as some hermeneutical schools do.
Hey Jeremy
Yes.. I would agree, he is not some out there kind of guy. 🙂 I guess I have been a little shy of using people for reference that.. have not done a lot of good to help support good solid teaching. But these guys are good to study for sorting out those topics.. good or not so good. Thanks…
I appreciate your discussion.. on this..
Vaughn