Christ’s indirect communication with us is an attempt to draw us to Him in faith.
Faith is a product of accepting Christ as the paradox
which surpasses human reason. Furthermore, Christ demands belief through his indirect relation
to us. Therein lies the necessity of indirect communication.
Kierkegaard himself argues in numerous places that we or better still, specifically I the reader, am under an illusion. Direct communication assumes I'm capable of hearing correctly and therefore understanding but if I'm under an illusion than I need to be deceived into the truth.
Very much like an elderly neighbor of mine who suffering from dementia barricaded himself in his home one day believing that men were across the street shooting at him. Every attempt to convince him otherwise sent him deeper into his illusion. When finally the police told him that not only was no one shooting at him but no one was even across the street, the elderly man accused them of being in cahoots with his attackers. Hoping, he said, to lure him out. The only way to get through to him was to deceive him. To pretend as it were that you could see his attackers and were yourself being shot at. Then, and only then, did he allow you inside where, continuing to deceive him, you could get him into a car and eventually the hospital. The deception is indirect communication.
Addicts suffer from the same immunity to direct communication.
No comments:
Post a Comment