Faith and Certainty

FAITH AND CERTAINTY TIE TASK OF CRITICALLY comparing and conasting the thought and writings of G. W. F. Hegel . d S. Kierkegaard is one that has been assumed by a number of contemporary scholars.1 However the relationship between the two thinkers is to be properly and finally construed , it seems to be a working premise among such scholars that the relationship itself is a highly significant one.2 A deeper understanding of it should serve both to illuminate the writings of each thinker and to yield valuable resources for future philosophical and theological inquiry. Consequently, this task has both a historical significance and a contemporary relevance. While underscoring the importance of the undertaking , however, it should be quickly observed that the relationship between Hegel and Kierkegaard has shown itself to be rather complex, a clear and consistent description of it, somewhat elusive. Several _insightful analyses have been produced ; a good deal remains yet to be accomplished. In this essay, I will explore both the Hegelian and the Kierkegaardian perspectives on religious knowledge, focusing on the relationship between faith and certainty. This project has been rendered manageable for an essay of this length by a necessary limiting of its scope. First of all, while a. complete analysis would need to be descriptive, comparative, and evaluative , I will confine myself to the initial task of describing the positions of both thinkers on a number of related topics. In 1 E.g., see S. Crites, In The Twilight of Christendom: Hegel vs. Kierkegaard on Faith and History (Scholars Press, 1972); M. Taylor, Journeys To Selfhood : Hegel and Kierkegaard (U. of California Press, 1980); N. Thulstrup, Kierkegaard's Relation To Hegel, tr. G. Stengren (Princeton U. Press, 1980). 2 Even Thulstrup, who appears to be the exception here, argues that it is highly significant that no such relationship exists! See, eg., Thulstrup, Relation , p. 12. 86 MICHAEL L. RAPOSA the process of executing this task, certain similarities and differences will inevitably emerge, but no rigorous comparative analysis will be attempted, nor will I evaluate each thinker's arguments in order to make some sort of judgment about the superiority of one over the other. Secondly, I have focused my attention on a few key texts. Within the Hegelian corpus, the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion 8 (including, in the third volume of the English edition, the important " Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God") contain vast amounts of relevant material . Hegel's Faith and Knowledge will not be considered in detail, even though it embodies, in its critique of Kantian, Jacobian, and Fichtean "faith-philosophy," the outline of Hegel's own constructive arguments concerning the epistemological status of faith and its relationship to philosophy. Material from Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript and Philosophical Fragments will be examined, and the unfinished Johannes Climacus will provide a few additional insights , but the remainder of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous and non-pseudonymous writings will not be discussed. Here, the nagging problem of Kierkegaard's relationship to his pseudonyms emerges as a possible stumbling block. It is a problem that I will certainly not attempt to resolve in this paper. I can offer, as justification for my method, only two brief observations : (1) The Kierkegaardian texts with which I am dealing are the work of the same pseudonymous author, Johannes Climacus (with the exception of the short work bearing his name as its title, which is, nonetheless, about Climacus): so at least they should represent a consistent point of view. (2) It has been argued that, of all his pseudonyms , Kierkegaard most closely identified himself with Climacus.4 It is possible, of course, that Climacus's perspec8 The Scholars Press edition of Hegel's 7'he Christian Religion (1979, ed. Hodgson) will be used whenever it overlaps with the older Speirs edition. 4 See L. Mackey, Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet (U. of Pennsylvania Press, 1971), p. 281; and .A. Burgess, Passion, "Knowing How," and Under11tand· ifi,g: An Essay on the Concept of Faith (Scholars Press, 1975), p. xii. FAITH AN.D CERTAINTY 87 tive on faith and certain knowledge does, in fact, significantly differ from that of Kierkegaard...