Attack upon ChristendomIf you want to reassure yourself that Christianity is wrong or stupid or whatever, read Nietzsche's Antichrist. If you want to read something that actually frightens Christians, this is the book for you. The difference is Kierkegaard is a Christian with extensive Church experience so unlike Nietzsche he knows where the bones are buried.
The whole thing amounts to an elaborate Conspiracy theory. In order to be rid of Christianity Society has not rejected it, but enthroned it. But in so doing created a hierarchy (the institutional Church) with the covert purpose of making certain that Christianity does not exist. Christianity is professed as the StateReligion. There are many civil servant employed to promote it. There is much Real Estate devoted to it. Church attendance is high. And, as a result, Christianity is effectively nullified, because it actually exists nowhere.
One must remember that SK and Han Christian Andersen were drinking buddies (they fell out when SK reviewed one of Andersen's novels) and SK here announces another naked emperor. In a Christian nation no one is a Christian!
If you are just starting SK I suggest this book because here he is at his most open and "direct." Everything else has deep ironic undercurrents, but a "surface" reading of this one is probably close to right. --Reviewer: silvannus (see more about me) from Malden, MA USA
