This was something for me. I thought as follows: You are quite bored with life's diversions, bored with girls, whom you love only in passing; you must have something that can totally occupy your time. Here it is: find out where the misunderstanding between speculative thought and Christianity lies. (241)
Needless to say, Kierkegaard lived a celibate life.
... for without risk, no faith; the more risk, the more faith... (209)
When I feel that I am stepping away from faith, I realize I can never take the final leap back to the faith-less existence. It would require an infinite amount of resolve to hurdle that leap, because the chasm below is terrifying. A great sense of horror arrests me when I think about a faith-less existence (should that be my lot). It might seem morbid, but in my zealous younger days, I contemplated the appropriateness of suicide at the cusp of losing faith. Though only a little bit wiser, "losing" faith still ought to be on par with such a concept; it is, after all, not simply physical damnation but spiritual destruction as well. This is why I have never understood how some Christians can be so blase about the state of their faith; Isn't it an eternal matter with eternal consequences? More so, I wonder, if they lose faith, how did they cross that River Styx that separates life and death and emerge without spiritual scars of any sort?
Faith ought to be tenacious enough to survive on a sliver of hope.
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