There is very little about this book on the web though this is Soren Kierkegaard's last book and the most relevant to contemporary Christianity. Try substituting a rich TV preacher with "Bishop Mynster" and note any similarity.

Mark's comments in *[...]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Translated by Walter Lowrie

Princeton University Press: 1944

PART 1 - Articles In The Fatherland, I - XX

... Bishop Mynster is represented as one of the genuine witness to the truth ... With the figure of the deceased bishop, his life and the manner of it and the issue of it, before our eyes, we are exhorted "to imitate the faith of the true guide, the genuine witness to the truth" ... The deceased bishop is by Professor Martensen introduced ... "into the holy chain of witnesses to the truth which stretches through the ages from the days of the Apostles," etc.

Against this I must protest. .... Bishop Mynster's preaching soft-pedals, slurs over, suppresses, omits something decisively Christian ... p.5

A witness to the truth is a man whose life from first to last is unacquainted with everything that is called enjoyment. A witness to the truth is a man who in poverty witnesses to the truth - in poverty, in lowliness, in abasement, and so is unappreciated, hated, abhorred, and then derided, insulted, mocked .... then at last crucified, or beheaded, or burnt, or roasted on a gridiron, his lifeless body thrown by the executioner in an out-of-the-way place (thus a witness to the truth is buried), or burnt to ashes and cast to the four winds, so that every trace of the "filth" (which the Apostle says he was) might be obliterated. p. 7

Verily there is that which is more contrary to Christianity, and to the very nature of Christianity, than any heresy, any schism, more contrary than all heresies and schisms combined, and that is to play Christianity. But precisely in the very same sense that the child plays soldier, it is playing Christianity to take away the danger (Christianly, "witness" and "danger" correspond), and in the place of this to introduce power (to be a danger to others), worldly goods, advantages, luxurious enjoyment of the most exquisite refinements - and then to play the game that Bishop Mynster was a witness to the truth ... p.8

To represent a man who by preaching Christianity has attained and enjoyed in the greatest measure all possible worldly goods and enjoyments, to represent him as a witness to the truth is as ridiculous as to talk about a maiden *[a virgin] who is surrounded by her numerous troop of children.. pp. 10-11

What we call "priest", "dean", "bishop", *["pastor", "minister", "reverend"]

indicates a livelihood, like every other employment in the community, and in a community, be it noted, where, since all call themselves "Christians", no danger is in the remotest degree connected with teaching Christianity, where on the contrary this profession may be considered one of the most agreeable and most highly honored. p. 23

... is this then Christian worship, or is it treating God as a fool, treating Him as a fool by such an official worship, perhaps with the notion that, if only we call this Christianity, we can get away with it, by preacherfying this at Him every Sunday we can make Him believe that this is Christianity? p. 26

The portraitlike description of the priest *[pastor, minister] is this: a half worldly, half Churchly civil servant, a person of rank, who (with the hope of promotion according to seniority, and of becoming in his turn recipient of a knightly order - how thoroughly in the spirit of the New Testament!) makes a certain living for himself and his family, if necessary by the help of the police (who exact the tithes), .... makes a certain living, supports himself by the fact that Jesus was crucified, .... walks around in long robes, which Christ, however, does not exactly recommend when both in Mark and Luke He says (Mark 12:28; Luke 20:46), "Beware of those who go about in long robes." p. 27

The Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist. Here there is nothing to reform; what has to be done is to throw light upon a criminal offence against Christianity, prolonged through centuries, perpetuated by millions (more or less guilty), whereby they have cunningly, under the guise of perfecting Christianity, sought little by little to cheat God out of Christianity, and have succeeded in making Christianity exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament. pp. 32-33

One can well be alone in being a Christian. p. 34

... if there is, Christianly, any difference before God, then the beggar is infinitely more important to Him than the king - infinitely more important, for to the poor the gospel is preached! But, true enough, to the priest the king is infinitely more important than the beggar. "A beggar, what help will he be to us? We might have to give him money." ... is it not true, thou shopkeeper's soul clad in velvet? *[priests, ministers, pastors] ... when a king is a Christian ... then come silk and velvet, and stars and ribbons, and all the most exquisite refinements, , and the many thousands per year. The many thousands - this is blood money! For it was blood-money Judas received for Christ's blood - and these thousands and millions were also blood-money, which was procured for Christ's blood and by betraying Christianity and transforming it into worldliness. p. 36

If I do not reform, the Dean would have me punished ecclesiastically. And how? ... If I do not reform, the church door should be closed to me. ... ... excluded from hearing on Sundays ... excluded from what can be truly called nourishing, seeing that it nourishes the priest and his family! ... However, it turns out so fortunately for me that whereas, for example, the punishment of compelling me several times every Sunday to hear the eloquence ... of the witnesses to the truth would create disturbance in my customary mode of life, the application of that other punishment would not in the least alter a way of life which for Christian reasons I have chosen and to which during a considerable time I have already become accustomed. p. 45

... industrial priests have invented under the name of Christianity a sweetmeat which has a delicious taste, for which men hand out their money with delight. p. 47