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101 7 The Pseudonymous dialectic of faith, ii Johannes Climacus [t]he one who introduced the issue did not directly define himself as being Christian and the others as not being that; no, just the reverse—he denies being that and concedes it to the others. This Johannes Climacus does. (PV, 8n) in chapter 2 we saw that Climacus, a humorist, discusses religion from a position outside faith; thus, in this respect, his illumination of faith is similar to de silentio’s. however, insofar as Climacus’s two-book corpus devotes itself to presenting the issue of what it means to become a Christian, his account of faith has significantly greater Christian content than de silentio’s. in what follows, we will consider Climacus’s view of faith as (1) a passion, (2) against the understanding, (3) a task, (4) a gift, (5) a relationship of contemporaneity with Christ, and (6) having a historical point of departure. Faith Is a Passion (Part Two) Climacus, like de silentio, holds the concept of passion in high regard and views faith as a passion—“indeed the highest passion of subjectivity” (CuP, 132). and like haufniensis, Climacus believes faith includes inwardness, a characteristic compatible with other virtues that involves the idea of appropriating or “making inward” those ideals to which one is committed. The context for Climacus’s elucidation of faith’s passion and inwardness is the well-known distinction between two different approaches to and conceptions of Christianity we have touched on already. Those whose faith is primarily a matter of objectivity are concerned chiefly with the truth or falsity of doctrinal statements about god. Those whose faith is “the highest passion of subjectivity” emphasize the believer’s truthful relation to 102 | Faith and Virtue god in light of the doctrine, the making inward of the outward confession. again, in concert with haufniensis, for Climacus the prevailing approach to Christianity that prioritizes objective concerns is misguided: “to know a creed by rote is paganism, because Christianity is inwardness” (CuP, 224). Climacus does not outright dismiss creedal formulations or doctrine itself; he wishes to show their proper place in the life of a believer. for instance, the one who maintains the passion of inwardness not only affirms the proposition “Christ suffered and died to save humans from their sin” but makes inward the truth that one is in error (Climacus says “untruth”) and that Christ alone can remedy that error. Such inwardness might reflect itself in an attitude of increased humility toward others and god, or a generous and giving spirit responsive to the gift of salvation, or a repentant spirit. anti-Climacus’s conception of primitivity is once more relevant at this point, although Climacus has his own special term for this personal relating in truth to god. in Philosophical Fragments he calls it faith’s autopsy or, literally, faith’s seeing-for-itself: “[t] he believer . . . continually has the autopsy of faith; he does not see with the eyes of others and sees only the same as every believer sees—with the eyes of faith” (Pf, 102). autopsy suggests direct acquaintance with what is seen through the eyes of faith (later we will consider a related Climacean term: contemporaneity with Christ). abraham seems to possess faith’s autopsy by virtue of his obedience to god, not simply in the binding of isaac but in leaving his homeland. his faith exemplifies making inward or subjective the calling of god, and his trust reflects that idea that however he receives the word of god, he sees for himself. if one’s relation of faith to god is of this quality, does it follow that the faith relation to god is direct? insofar as abraham’s relation to god is not mediated through society, the “universal,” it may be described as direct. however, in another sense, it is not direct—one does not perceive god as one perceives another person or an idol one might worship. de silentio refers to this as aesthetic immediacy and argues that it is the only sort of “faith” hegel allows. Climacus mocks a similar pagan view of religion that wants a god to appear directly, perhaps in the form of “a rare, enormously large green bird, with a red beak, that perched in a tree on the embankment and perhaps even whistled in an unprecedented manner” (CuP, 245).1 Thus the inwardness of faith’s passion reflects a close, trustful relation to the divine, closer than any dependent relation...

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