Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, in a way, redefines faith. In a normal sense, faith would be a spiritual assent to a fact or conviction. However, Kierkegaard's notion is a very radical call to much more than a mere spiritual assent. It is a radical surrender.
Another point regarding the 'infinite resignation' that Kierkegaard speaks of as pre-requisite for faith, is with regard to the identity of the one submitting. The difficulty in making this resignation is that one has given up his or her will for ever. What else is left of the identity of the individual to sustain his being as distinct from the one to whom he or she has submitted his or her will. For me, faith is not a once-and-for-all act done sometime ago; it is an ongoing-commitment that I make, as me. Even my perpetual profession as a religious brother, is an act of commitment that I made verbally in 2005, but something that I live consciously every moment of my life.
Last of all, Kierkegaard's faith, sounds more like an achievement than a grace. I strongly feel that grace does not work in vacuum, and that there is a great element of giftedness, but it certainly is not pure achievement on my part.
Infinite resignation is the last stage before faith, so anyone who has not made this movement does not have faith, for only in infinite resignation does an individual become conscious of his eternal validity, and only then can one speak of grasping existence by virtue of faith (p. 46).But this rides on the notion of the Infinite as distinct from me. There is someone other than me, outside of me, to whom I surrender. This demarcation is not an issue for Schleiermacher who would consider the world, and God as an organic being (organic monism). Though I've not really got my head around all the implications of going along with that notion of Schleiermacher, I find most of his writings (at least those in the initial chapters of On Religion) quite open and very much 'Catholic' - certainly not popular protestant thought.
Another point regarding the 'infinite resignation' that Kierkegaard speaks of as pre-requisite for faith, is with regard to the identity of the one submitting. The difficulty in making this resignation is that one has given up his or her will for ever. What else is left of the identity of the individual to sustain his being as distinct from the one to whom he or she has submitted his or her will. For me, faith is not a once-and-for-all act done sometime ago; it is an ongoing-commitment that I make, as me. Even my perpetual profession as a religious brother, is an act of commitment that I made verbally in 2005, but something that I live consciously every moment of my life.
Last of all, Kierkegaard's faith, sounds more like an achievement than a grace. I strongly feel that grace does not work in vacuum, and that there is a great element of giftedness, but it certainly is not pure achievement on my part.
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