Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Radical Call
Kierkegaards Concept of Church Reform for Every Age
The sixth annual Student Essays in Christian Wisdom competition attracted papers from a range of students at Anglican seminaries
and university divinity schools. As ever, our judges evaluated the papers blindly, with no knowledge of the name or institutional
affiliation of the author.
Cassandra Swick, a student at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto, took the top prize with her paper, A Radical Call, which THE
LIVING CHURCH is pleased to publish in this edition. The other winners were: Second place: Lyndon Jost, Wycliffe College, University of
Toronto: The Bible that Jesus Read: The Inception, Reception and Fulfillment of Israels Scriptures Third place: Ragan Sutterfield, Virginia
Theological Seminary: The Beginning of Wisdom: Recovering Our Creatureliness in Job and Proverbs.
We are grateful to the judges of this years competition: The Rt. Rev. John C. Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee The Rev. Jordan
Hylden, doctoral student at Duke Divinity School Mother Miriam, CSM, superior of the Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province.
By Cassandra Swick
A Radical Call
(Continued from previous page)
Kierkegaard in his age is through a devaluing of an ideal that should properly be uncommonly elevated (p. 213). People have
lost the ideal of true reformation and its
constituent inwardness and discipline in
the noisiness of the age. The public as a reified entity comes to replace inward silence
and transformation. Kierkegaard claims
that it is an invention of his age that people
now believe it is number (the numerical),
the crowd, or the most honored and most
honored cultured public from which reformations proceed (p. 19). This might be apNow that all want to reform, there is an uproar
propriate for reforms in street lighting, in
public transportation but not in Christianas if it were a public dance hall. This cannot
ity where, of course, reformation is to
come from the individual who is transbe Gods idea but is a foppish human device,
formed by Gods discipline (p. 19).
There is an obvious qualitative difference
between the number and the individual:
which is why, instead of fear and trembling
number is not seen as a collective of individuals, but as an impersonal entity, someand much spiritual trial, there is: hurrah, bravo,
thing directly opposed to true individual
identity. With the loss of silence brought
applause, balloting, bumbling, hubbub, noise
on by the public or the crowd, which is
now enamored with reformation, there is
and false alarm.
a sort of explosion. He writes: now that all
want to reform, there is an uproar as if it
one is to have with God, but there is little talk of
were a public dance hall. This cannot be Gods idea
grace. This is an important point as we think about apbut is a foppish human device, which is why, instead
plying Kierkegaards argument to our own situation.
of fear and trembling and much spiritual trial, there is:
On the one hand, we in the Episcopal Church and the
hurrah, bravo, applause, balloting, bumbling, hubbub,
Anglican Church of Canada can and should find ournoise and false alarm (p. 213). Kierkegaard disselves challenged by the warning against hasty refortinguishes between Gods idea and foppish human
mation borne of noise and ballots rather than prayerdevice in these terms. In an age when people feel enful humility. It is a constant danger for all of us,
titled to shout about reformation in a public forum
regardless of where we find ourselves, to let the upamidst hurrahs, balloting, hubbub, and noise,
roar of the rushing world and its ever-changing exKierkegaard questions whether their desire for reforpectations drown out the still, small voice of God,
mation is borne through something like Luthers radwhose eternal words are so much greater than our
ical self-humbling and fear and trembling before God
small concerns as to make them straw. Hasty deci a vocation so radical that Kierkegaard found it
sions and shallow living must be avoided. On the
lacking in his entire generation or whether it grows
other hand, each generation of the Church is comfrom other, more human, motives. He prays that the
posed of sinners in need of grace and constant corevil he perceives in his age may also be perceived, if
rection. Christ has promised us these gifts. We will
possible, everywhere, and God grant that wherever it
make mistakes again and again even Martin Luther
is heard it may be earnestly considered (p. 213).
made grave errors in his time and all that any of us
Whether Kierkegaards prayer was answered is a myscan do is seek to be as faithful as possible in our day.
tery, but his dedication to his ideal of reformation
The wait for a perfect reformer would be never-endand his challenge to his age remain uncompromising.
ing.
One shortcoming in these sections pertaining to
Church reform is the lack of a robust Christology
Cassandra Swick is an MTS student at Wycliffe Col(which lack does not pertain to the work as a whole);
lege, University of Toronto.
Christ is no doubt implied in the radical relationship