As a child I was raised with exposure to both Buddhism and Christianity, the faiths of my father and mother, respectively. My mother later converted to Buddhism when I was a teenager. As such, my journey toward Christian faith began with an analytical study of the religion, in which I sought out religious texts and scholars known to have influenced the tradition. I count many of these writers and theologians as formative in my journey, but none more so than Soren Kierkegaard.
As a teenager I was drawn to the transformative nature of Christianity. Kierkegaard writes about the three ways of life one may live: an aesthetic life, an ethical life, or a Christian life. It was the distinction between the last two categories that captivated me. To be a Christian is to do more than the “right thing” simply because it is the right thing to do. One can lead an ethical life following such
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Indeed, we are commanded to love our neighbors, and this is the distinction that to Kierkegaard makes all the difference. We are not to love out of mere duty, nor are we to love only those for whom we already have a preference. Christ calls us to love all people and love them with the kind of love so powerful it encompasses all other forms and comes not merely from within ourselves, but through God and the Spirit who inspires it. As an illustration, Kierkegaard explains: “But so scrupulous is Christian equality and its use of language that it demands not only that you shall feed the poor – it requires that you shall call it a feast.” (Works of Love, p.