Introduction

According to Kierkegaard, infinite resignation is the final step before faith, so that anybody who has not reached this movement has no faith. It is only in infinite resignation does one become conscious of his or her eternal validity; and only then can he or she speak of existence through the virtue of faith.  For instance, the knight of faith infinitely renounced the love or the substance of his life and reconciled in pain. However, the marvel was that he made one more movement that was more amazing than all the others.  He nonetheless had faith that he would get her by virtue of absurdity – the fact that with God nothing is impossible (Kierkegaard, 46).  The knight was persuaded of the impossibility when he implemented the act of resignation, which, humanly speaking was the conclusion of his understanding. The knight of faith realized that he could only be saved by the absurd, which he grasped by faith. As a result, he acknowledged the impossibility, and at the same time, believed the absurd, because if he imagined that he had faith without keenly acknowledging the impracticality with his entire soul and heart, then he would be deceiving himself.  Besides, his testimony would neither be here nor there, because he would not have achieved infinite resignation.

Discussion

One’s identity is as essential as a definition.  However, even though the identity is fixed, it fails to dictate a rigid way of acting as though it were an inflexible compulsion, obsession or infatuation.  This does not symbolize an expression of freedom.  Kierkegaard calls everybody who could sustain the threat of an unconditional obligation a‘Knight of faith’.  According to Kierkegaard, the Knight was free to forget the entire thing, though in so doing, the Knight would disagree with himself. In the story of Abraham, he climbed the mountain; and even when the knife gleamed, he still believed that God would not claim Isaac. The faith of Abraham is regarded as a product of the second level in a double-movement, which begins in his decision to comply with the command of sacrificing Isaac. Abraham was keen to receive and obey this command, and this marked him a knight of faith. Though he was astonished by the outcome, he came back to his former position via a double movement, and thus, he received Isaac more gladly than the first time.

The author uses Abraham to reveal a deeper point on the insufficiency of the Hegelian system, as well as the significance attached to an individual’s radical freedom. In Kierkegaard terms, Abraham had faith that if he sacrificed his son Isaac, God could grant him a new son. This could have happened because he believed that ‘everything is possible’, which meant that even the inconceivable was possible. In Abraham’s story, God is praised that he gave back Isaac and that the entire experience was just an ordeal. All along, Abraham had faith and believed that God could not demand Isaac from him, though he was still willing to sacrifice him if needed of him.  He had faith in the absurd strength, as there was no question of human calculation (p. 69).

Considering that resignation is a precursor, faith is not an esthetic feeling, but something far high – it is not a spontaneous inclination of one’s heart, but a paradox of existence. For instance, if in the face of difficulties a young girl still continues to have conviction that her desires would be fulfilled, this reassurance is in no way the reassurance of faith, notwithstanding that she has grown up in a Christian family. In all her innocence and naiveté, she is convinced that she has a supernatural magnitude, which can help her raise the limited powers of existence.

Kierkegaard notes that faith has different movements.  Whereas he made the movements of infinity, faith causes opposite movements; subsequent to making the movements of infinity, it also makes the movements of finitude. However, the person who is able to make these movements is the fortunate one. He does the amazing, and will always be admired. For instance, from Abraham’s reaction to Isaac’s question, there was a demonstration of double-movement in his soul. His first movement involved infinite resignation, and he, at every moment built the subsequent movement of faith through absurdity. Abraham did not speak an untruth, because by virtue of absurdity, it was certainly possible that God would do something quite different (p. 119).

Kierkegaard also notes that faith is required for one to renounce everything.  Faith is another matter, though no one has a right to lead others into believing that it is something inferior or an easy matter because in contrast, it is the most difficult and the greatest of all. It is important to discover the unusual paradox of faith – a paradox that made a murder into a God-pleasing and holy act; a paradox that gave Isaac back to Abraham – something no one can embrace, because faith starts precisely where thought ends (p.53).

He presents the Hegelian philosophy, which is a rational and conceptual enterprise.  According to Hegel, both religion and philosophy are concerned with similar material, whereas religion appeals to faith, revelation, philosophy and authority.  It goes further than the figurative and pictorial representations, symbolic language of religion to deal with a similar issue in the form of concepts and thoughts. Kierkegaard’s objection to the Hegelian contemporary is that when philosophy aspires to reflect on the issue of religion and faith, it misrepresents and misunderstands it.

Recent philosophy, as Kierkgaard notes, has allowed itself to replace the ‘immediate’ for faith.  If this is done, then it becomes ridiculous to refute that there has been faith always. This puts faith in rather a commonplace company of moods, idiosyncrasies, and feelings.  Faith is preceded by an infinity movement; and only then, does it commence by virtues of absurdity.  This does not mean that the ethical must be invalidated.  Rather, it receives an absolutely different expression, for instance, that love to God could make the knight of faith, to give his or her love to the neighbor. If this does not happen, then faith lacks a place in life; faith becomes a spiritual trial; and Abraham becomes a loser, inasmuch as he conceded to it.

Conclusion

The knight of faith understands that it is encouraging to renounce himself for the universal; and that it takes courage to achieve it; but that there is also a security in it specifically because it is surrender for the universal. Faith is precisely a paradox that the sole individual is greater than the universal, and this determines his or her relationship to the universal through his or her relationship to the absolute.  This can also be expressed in a different view that there is an unconditional (absolute) duty to God, for in such a relationship of duty, an individual relates himself or herself as the sole individual completely to the absolute (p. 70). Faith is a wonder, and yet no person is left out from it; because what unites all beings is passion, and faith is passion (p. 67). Faith is a paradox that interiority is greater than exteriority – the uneven number is greater than even.  This means that there is some kind of interiority, which is incommensurable with exteriority.

Faith higher than the Universal?

Work cited

Kierkegaard, Søren, Howard V. Hong, Edna H. Hong, and Søren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling: Repetition. , 1983. Print.

Faith higher than the Universal?