Why, then, this lowliness and abasement? Because he who is truly to be the prototype and be related only to imitators must in one sense be behind people, propelling forward, while in another sense he stands ahead, beckoning. This is the relation of loftiness and lowliness in the prototype. The loftiness must not be the direct kind, which is the worldly, the earthly, but the spirtual, and thus the very negation of worldly and earthly loftiness. The lowliness must be the direct kind, because direct lowliness, if one must go through it, is precisely the way (but also for the worldly and earthly mentality the roundabout way) that makes sure the loftiness is not taken in vain. Thus the prototype stands infinitely close in abasement and lowliness, and yet infinitely distant in loftiness, indeed, even further away than if it were distant only in loftiness, because to have to go through lowliness and absement in order to reach it, in order to define oneself in likeness to it, to have no other way at all, is an even greater, is actually the infinite distance. Thus in one sense the prototype is behind, more deeply pressed down into abasement and lowliness than any human being has ever been, and in another sense, ahead, infinitely lifted up. But the prototype must be behind in order to be able to capture and include all; if there were one single person who could honestly underbid or stoop lower by establishing that he was situated even lower in abasement and lowliness, then the prototype is not the prototype, then it is only an imperfect prototype - that is, onlythe prototype for a great crowd of people. The prototype must be unconditionally behind, behind everyone, and it must be behind in order to propel forward those who are to be formed according to it.
Kierkeggard Practice in Christianity
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