(No. V, 4)
The intention of Christianity was: to change everything.
The result, the Christianity of "Christendom" is: everything,
literally everything, remained as it had been, with just the
difference that to everything was affixed the attribute "Christian"--and
for the rest (strike up, fiddlers!) we live in Heathendom--so
merrily, so merrily the dance goes around; or, rather, we live
in a Heathendom made more refined by the help of Life Everlasting
and by help of the thought that, after all, it is all Christian!
Try it, point to what you will, and you shall see that I am right
in my assertion.
If what Christianity demanded was chastity, then away with brothels!
But the change is that the brothels have remained just as they
did in Heathendom, and the proportion of prostitutes remained
the same, too; to be sure, they became "Christian" brothels! A
brothel-keeper is a "Christian" brothel-keeper, he is a Christian
as well as we others. Exclude him from church membership? "Why,
for goodness sake," the clergyman will say, "what would things
come to if we excluded a single paying member?" The brothel-keeper
dies and gets a funeral oration with a panegyric in proportion
to the amount he pays. And after having earned his money in a
manner which, from a Christian point of view, is as filthy and
base as can be (for, from a Christian point of view it would be
more honorable if he had stolen it) the clergyman returns home.
He is in a hurry, for he is to go to church in order to deliver
an oration or, as Bishop Martensen would say, "bear witness."
But if Christianity demanded honesty and uprightness, and doing
away with this swindle, the change which really came about was
this: the swindling has remained just as in Heathendom, "every
one (every Christian) is a thief in his own line"; only, the
swindling has taken, on the predicate "Christian." So we now
have "Christian" swindling--and the "clergyman" bestows his
blessing on this Christian community, this Christian state,
in which one cheats just as one did in Heathendom, at the same
time that one pays the "clergyman," that is, the biggest swindler
of them all, and thus cheats one's self into Christianity.
And if Christianity demanded seriousness in life and doing away
with the praise and approbation of vanity--why, everything has
remained as before, with just this difference that it has assumed
the predicate "Christian." Thus the trumpery business with decorations,
titles, and rank, etc. has become Christian--and the clergyman
(that most indecent of all indecencies, that most ridiculous of
all ridiculous hodgepodges), he is as pleased as Punch to be decorated
himself--with the "cross." The cross? Why, certainly; for in the
Christianity of "Christendom" has not the cross become something
like a child's hobby-horse and tin-trumpet?
And so with everything. There is implanted in man no stronger
instinct, after that of self-preservation, than the instinct of
reproduction; for which reason Christianity seeks to reduce its
strength, teaching that it is better not to marry; "but if they
cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than
to burn." But in Christendom the propagation of the race has
become the serious business of life and of Christianity; and
the clergyman--that quint-essence of nonsense done up in long
clothes--the clergyman, the teacher of Christianity, of the
Christianity of the New Testament, has his income adjusted to
the fact that the human race is active in propagating the race,
and gets a little something for each child!
As I said, look about you and you will find that everything
is as I told you: the change from Heathendom consists in everything
remaining unchanged but having assumed the predicate "Christian."