                           19970713.01

     Rodney Daut asks: "... is it necessary to take the
contemporinaity issue so literal in a historical sense.  Can it
be the reverse, that K is stating that one must live as though
Jesus is now, rather than the Christian lived then?
Dear Rodney,

     I think your question is very well put. Dostoevsky, if I
remember correctly, conferred about it with his Grand Inquisitor,
who opined that living today, Jesus would probably be put to
death. But we need not go so far afield; if we choose to live "as
though Jesus is now", we should look for Jesus closer to home.

     No need to be hypothetical: "Jesus lives!" as my local radio
evangelist assures me every morning. If this be true, then we
should be able to find him.  Is he the leader of the free world?
No - I don't think Jesus is Bill Clinton, or Bill Clinton is
Jesus.  Is he the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? No I don't
think William Rehnquist is Jesus.  Is Jesus the House Majority
Leader?  I don't think so; Newt Gingrich doesn't seem cut out for
the role.  nor Bill Gates nor Donald Trump nor for that matter,
any of the University Professors at Harvard.

     Jesus lives! - today on death row. Tomorrow he dies by
lethal injection, in the electric chair, before a firing squad or
on the gallows.  The cross, you must understand, is no longer
fashionable as an instrument of judicial execution. Its facsimile
one wears around her neck or pins to his lapel as talisman to
make the wearer comfortable with the thought that crucifixions or
for that matter, executions by any other means, are indispensable
sacrifices for purifying a sinful world.

     So there is really nothing remarkable about the fact that
"Jesus is now", that he lives in our midst, that our Supreme
Court sanctimoniously denies his appeals from the death sentences
that we have laid on him. It makes little difference whether we
are contemporary with Jesus two thousand years ago or today.  As
Kierkegaard saw so clearly and discussed so eloquently in the
preface to Fear and Trembling, we are in good shape, because we
all have faith; we are all Christians
     I vor Tid bliver Enhver ikke staaende ved Troen,
     men gaaer videre.

     In our day faith is not an obstacle that keeps
     a person from getting ahead.


     So it makes sense to ask, as did one of our contributors:
"what in the hell is this stuff?" I agree: let's get on to more
important matters.

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