Kierkegaards Account of Faith - Book Report/Review Example

The two accounts of faith are not interrelated to one another. The reconciliation of the knight of Faith with his fate of not getting the princess ever is surpassed by a belief in the absurd, i.e., an amorphous, formless, and intangible feeling based on the fact that through the power of God everything is possible. Here the main premise of the two philosophies of Faith is different. One is the insider view and the other is the outsider view. However both talk about the content of Christianity and the process of becoming a Christian.

Johaness Climacus’s account of faith is the outsider view. His philosophy states that infinite passion is capable enough of overriding the seemingly impossible. It goes against the seemingly uncertain and the unlikely Even if there is objective uncertainty, infinite passion has the power to bring about change and make things happen. On the other hand, the account of faith discussed by Johannes de Silentio in Fear and Trembling, through Knight of Faith, resides on the premise that through belief in the absurd, even the impossible can be made possible.

This is intrinsic faith. We all believe in the absurd. What is absurd? It could be God, it could be the “universe conspiring for you to connect you with your goal, it could be holy spiritual energy, it could be coincidence or anything which defies reason. Intrinsic Faith is a concept or a practice that can be cultivated through belief and conscious conviction about a thing happening or an event taking place successfully despite the mammoth obstacles in front. In the case of Knight of Faith, he has resigned to the fact that he will never get the princess, but through faith, it is possible to get to his desired destination.

The power of faith is at its fullest application in connecting the Knight of Faith with his goal.  Do they converge, and if so why, or do they diverge, and if so in what ways)? The two perspectives of faith, one in which the Knight of Faith, believes in the virtue of the absurd, the unknown, the infinite i.e., the spiritual power of Goa, and the other where Johannes Climacus argues that faith is the contradiction between objective uncertainty and infinite passion are divergent. These two philosophies of faith are different.

According to the writer Pojman, the difference in the two accounts of faith, that of Kierkegaard and that of Johannes Climacus is perspective. These two philosophies of faith are different. According to the writer Pojman, the difference in the two accounts of faith, that of Kierkegaard and that of Johannes Climacus is perspective. Their perspectives are different. Kierkegaard writes with an insider-point of view about Christianity, whereas Climacus writes about it from the outside. However, both agree on how one becomes a true Christian and on the matter of Christianity.

(Sands 17) If a situation or a circumstance or an event is foreseen with infinite passion and belief in the absurd, it gathers positive energy from the ‘doer’ or ‘wisher’ as well as spiritual energy from the unknown power – God. If anything had to happen beyond the predictable turn of events, defying reason it had to happen through positive belief in the divine power and through infinite passion. . (Sands 25) What objections might be made to Kierkegaard’s account(s) of faith, and how might he answer them?

The objection that can be made to Kierkegaard’s account of faith is that by writing from the view-point of an unbeliever, Kierkegaard hoped to ‘beguile’ readers into recognizing their own necessity to convert into Christianity. . (Sands 17) Another objection raised against Kierkegaard’s account of faith is “Kierkegaard's treatment of religious belief is that it fails to distinguish between someone who has a justified belief and someone who is insane.” (Philosophy of Religion 1) To this objection Kierkegaard would say that like existence itself, religious belief has no ultimate rational justification, and therefore there is no way to distinguish it from reality.

Kierkegaard would say that stage of infinite resignation is the last stage before faith. Therefore, anyone who has not made this movement consequentially does not have faith, because only in infinite resignation does an individual become conscious of his eternal presence and eternal validity. It is only then that one can speak of grasping existence by virtue of faith." (Philosophy of Religion 1)Kierkegaard would have defended his argument by saying that Faith is as absurd as reality. Existence is itself an illusionary concept and therefore in such a realm of illusion, faith to an infinite degree, through the reliance on the inexplicable and the absurd can help accomplish one’s goal.