IN THE POLEMIC OF THE MOMENT, HAS THE CHURCH (YET) SALVATION?

(SØREN KIERKEGAARD & HANS KÜNG)

Abstract

The Moment, finally translated into Portuguese from Danish, brings the ironic and caustic, Kierkegaardian controversy
with the official Denmark church, which was denounced as turned
into something mundane, childish, clerical and with nothing to do
with the “NT Christianity” anymore. This paper aims to make true the promised “catastrophe”, postponed to after the Bishop of
Mynster’s death and Martensen’s election. ”“ By means of distinguishing between Christendom (a cultural and geographic phenomenon); Christianity (the existential message), and Christicity
(the authentic Christian way to be), those pamphlets had a strong
impact in Germany in dissident pastors like the translator Chr.
Schrempf and ”“ thanks to the volume Angriff auf die Christenheit
(1896) and to the tome 12 of Kierkegaards Werke ”“ they stimulated the works of Jaspers, Heidegger, Adorno, Barth, Bultmann and Tillich. In order to illustrate the up-to-dateness of the questions and the Socratic method of the polemicist, we have cross-checked this now translated work with the one written by the Swiss, ecumenical catholic theologian Hans Küng: Does the church have salvation? While they discuss religion in the public sphere, both authors criticise “Christendom” by defending an authentic Christianity.