A Feminist Interpretation of tine Leaps in Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling

Abstract

Traditional spiritualist philosophies such as those of Plato, Plotinus, or Augustine of Hippo, have tended immure themselves within a binary framework according which there is an antinomy between finite and infinite, between here and now and eternal. Within this framework, material world, body, and even human love have often been considered be hindrances our quest for infinite and eternal. Throughout ages, established religions such as Hinduism, Islam, and even Christianity have had propensity slide into same binary position. In Fear and Trembling, Johannes de Silentio's knight of infinite resignation, who his attempt reach faith or his eternal consciousness renounces finite with no hope of getting it back, is an excellent example of this position. The deep faith God of his counterpart, knight of faith, impels him give up the dearest things, yet miraculously enables him fully participate joys and simple pleasures of life. Kierkegaard offered this visionary model his Lutheran compatriots 1843 as a subtle but forceful corrective their model of religiousness according which-in complete opposition other-worldly spiritualist philosophies and religions-godliness had become a this-- worldly frank-hearted enjoyment of life.1 When reexamined through a feminist lens, knight of faith model proves be a powerful paradigm today's post-modern climate.2 Silentio's Two Leaps The metaphor of leap which Silentio uses try pinpoint essential difference that exists between attitude of two knights is forceful, but his analytical exegesis of that difference is rather misleading, as shall become evident this essay. According Silentio, as knights come down from their leap, knight of resignation vacillates for an instant, but knight of faith touches ground firmly and transforms leap of life into a walk (FT 52). Silentio, a professed knight of infinite resignation, explains that his is a single movement which makes him a stranger finite. He cannot enjoy it, cannot relate it. In other words, he is not embodied. There is him a break between finite and infinite. He cannot abandon himself either-- thus he vacillates when he lands. He insists that to exist such a way that my opposition existence is expressed as most beautiful and assured harmony with it, is something I cannot (FT 60). Note his 44 opposition existence-the key his disembodiment and lack of abandon both finite and infinite. He greatly envies knight of faith's full involvement life-the fact that he takes delight everything-the water sound, rat gutter, children playing street-all with nonchalance of a girl of sixteen. As knight of faith is walking home with gait of a tax collector, he imagines that his wife has prepared his favorite dish-a calf's head. When he arrives home, he finds that she has not, but he is not least bit disappointed (FT 50). For he has made, according Silentio, a double movement, having renounced one he loves best, he is still able enjoy finiteness and live joyfully. Abraham is for Silentio model of knight of faith. He believed, in virtue of absurd (FT 60), that when he sacrificed Isaac-as God had asked him do-he would get him back, and he did. This is a prodigy, according Silentio. And he insists throughout much of Fear and Trembling that he cannot understand this prodigy and that he cannot do it himself (FT 48). But he suggests at one point, that prodigy might be less elusive, and difference between relation reality of each of knights a little easier delineate, if he concretized both his own movements as knight of infinite resignation and those of knight of faith, by viewing them through an allegory, that of young swain who falls love with a princess. …