Augustine & Kierkegaard

In Confessions, Augustine gives an account of his conversion to Christianity through the telling of his life story. In this text Augustine explains his relationship with God, both past and present, and in doing so confesses the doubts that he has had and the problems that he has encountered in attempting to follow a path that leads him towards God. In the text Fear and Trembling, Johannes de Silentio writes on the topic of the knights of infinite resignation and faith, both of which deal with the way in which people approach the events that occur in their life. Thinking of Augustine in terms of Johannes de Silentio begs the question: which applies to Augustine? Is Augustine a knight of faith or a knight of infinite resignation?

When Silentio writes on the knights of infinite resignation he speaks of those who resign to the irrationality of their situation and will act out of obedience rather than faith, which speaks to those who have blind submission to the church. In the situation of Abraham taking Isaac up the mountain to be sacrificed, if Abraham was a knight of resignation, he would have obeyed God because he was resigned to the fact that God must be obeyed. Abraham would resign fully to the idea that God is correct and there would be no doubt in his mind to what he would have to do.

When Silentio write on the knights of faith he speaks to those who demonstrate faith in choosing their actions. The knights of faith operate on a more individual level as opposed to the group level of church submission that the knights of infinite resignation function on. In the situation where Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac, he is only willing to follow God's orders because he has faith that in the end God will not actually make him kill his son or that God has another, grander plan that will explain why it was necessary for him to sacrifice someone he loves [Kierkegaard].

The difference between the two knights is, essentially, the difference between faith and belief. As a knight of faith, Abraham has faith that God will save his son in the end, but he does not necessarily believe this to be true. If it was a matter of whole-hearted belief it would not have been a test for Abraham because there would be no inner-conflict for him to overcome. However, Abraham is not fully confident in the fact that God will not make him sacrifice his son and so a leap of faith is required on his part. The situation is more hopeful than it is certain, because there is a possibility that he will be proven incorrect (Kierkegaard).

Thinking of Augustine, it would have to be said that he is a knight of infinite resignation. In book eight, even after Augustine experienced an internal conversion to Christianity, he still has trouble giving up his old habits; he still desires a powerful career in rhetoric, plans to marry an heiress, and even desires to have a concubine as well. It is not until Augustine hears the tales of Victorinus and Saint Paul the Apositle that he desires to have a public conversion (which eventually leads to the desire of writing Confessions) and to withdraw from his worldly desires of career, honors, and sexual activity. It is in this way that Augustine displays attributes of a knight of infinite resignation because he does not give up his desires because he has faith that God will bring him joy in other respects, but because he is told that