Philosophical Crumbs as a Response to Strauss

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Kierkegaard often wrote in response to other writers. In the case of Philosophical Crumbs, Kierkegaard might have been responding to David Strauss’ book, Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, which means ‘The Life of Jesus, Critically Examine.’ In this work, which created quite the scandal, Strauss claimed that the gospels were edited so that they would match Jewish tradition and predictions. He claimed that that much of the story of Jesus was simply myth, and that his life likely didn’t match traditions.

As it turns out, this might not have been as radical as it first seems. Catholicism has for a long time had two versions of theology, one that was for the masses and the other for theologians. The masses got a watered down version that the Church thought people could handle, and also which included all the miracles that attracted the masses. However, those that actually studied the Bible knew that not everything added up, and they also realized that the book had been altered many times before becoming the version they had.

In the end, Kierkegaard says that it simply doesn’t matter, what actually matters is that God did come down and that he died. He believed that even if Jesus did not perform a single miracle, that it wouldn’t matter. The miracles aren’t the point- God’s unending love for all mankind is. After all, he believed that you could not separate someone coming down and dying for you from someone loving you.

**All my information about Strauss came from his Wikipedia page**