Opinion of Søren Kierkegaard

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I am currently reading A Kierkegaard Anthology, one of the books I got for Christmas.  It is a fairly comprensible introduction to his work for laymen, in so far as the man's writing can be appreciated by a wider audience.  His observation of the Western Christianity of his time - that those who practice it sacrifice essentially nothing, as they are more or less conforming to the norms of a "Christianized" society, and are in essence adhering to a religion which is completely alien to that of its founders - undoubtedly displays itself today, and augments itself with the mass commercialization that we are exposed to every holiday season.

The Christian faith as a whole, therefore, has very little to offer that diverts itself from contemporary society.  And such is evident by the decline in church membership in all denominations, irrespective of their "liberal" approaches to theology or emphasis on social justice issues.  And it's no coincidence that those countries which adopted Christianity as a pillar of the culture saw the fastest decline in religiosity in the last century.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I have a lot of respect for him, and his understanding of faith is infinitely more profound than the one you get from your average megachurch pastor. I'm not sure how far I can go in agreeing with him (he can get a little too angsty for my tastes even now), but I haven't found myself disagreeing with him on much.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

A somewhat interesting writer, but the leap of faith is stupid as hell and pretty much undermines his entire philosophical project.