“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we
Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to
understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are
obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget
everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will
say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place
of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious
invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue
to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to
fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone
with the New Testament.”

Soren Kierkegaard, “Kill the Commentators!” in Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2003), 201.