The established or state church of Denmark was the Lutheran Church. The nation considered it a God-given duty to protect the Church, to promote its welfare by instituting compulsory religious training in all schools, and to safeguard the clergy by assuring them a respectable economic level and by giving them the status of civil servants
It was against this system of security and state control that Kierkegaard rebelled. The security of a Christian Church meant to him the betrayal of every tenet of Christ’s teaching and example. … The anonymous early Christian followers were martyred, not honored, paid, and respected for belonging to the Church.
— Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche & Kafka; Hubben, p. 25
According to Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and even Nietzsche, the Christian churches of nineteenth-century Europe were not aligned with the teachings of Christ. Only the individual willing to question and challenge the churches could appreciate how far from the teachings and example of Jesus the churches had strayed. This was nothing new. Geoffrey Chaucer had mocked the clergy several hundred years earlier. What was potentially new was the existential description of faith.
The following individuals are key figures in modern theological discussions of existentialism:
The Leap of Faith
For Kierkegaard, there is a moment when the believer realizes that faith is not reasonable, logical, or scientific. Trying to defend faith actually proves the believer has doubts. Faith is a surrender to something beyond what can be known. That churches and religious zealots try to prove the existence of the Creator(s) is evidence these individuals care more about what others think than what is personally experienced. Theological existentialism tends to view faith in the following light:
- Faith is a personal experience that can never be fully explained to others;
- Faith requires sacrifices emotionally and socially;
- Faith is usually damaged by religious organizations; and
- Faith is preceded by doubt and a quest for answers.
None of these concepts is alien to religion, but the theological existentialists see the alienation as far from extreme than previous philosophers. True faith is so apart from a group udnerstanding that it can only be damaged if the believer entrusts his or her spirituality to an organized church. Even explaining faith reduces its purity, to some degree, but it is important to be authentic and honest about believing.
