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The knight of faith is a concept Johannes de silentio uses to represent any person who has true faith in God. To become a knight of faith, a person must first make the spiritual movement of infinite resignation, giving up whatever it is in this world that is most precious to them and completely reconciling themselves to the pain of losing it. This is where the knight of infinite resignation stops, but the knight of faith goes further because they believe that they will get back whatever they gave up in this world—in other words, they won’t have to wait to die and go to heaven to get back whatever they gave up. Because of this, the knight of faith finds great happiness in both the temporal world and in their belief in the infinite. Abraham is a clear example of a knight of faith because he developed real faith, as shown by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac when God asked him to. Even though a reasonable person might believe that once Isaac was dead then he couldn’t possibly come back to life, Abraham believed that he could get Isaac back in this world because everything is possible through God. The knight of faith is something any person can become, but it takes a lot of courage and hard work to make all the necessary spiritual movements to become one.
Knight of Faith Quotes in Fear and Trembling
The Fear and Trembling quotes below all refer to the symbol of Knight of Faith. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Preamble from the Heart
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He drains in infinite resignation the deep sorrow of existence, he knows the bliss of infinity, he has felt the pain of renouncing everything, whatever is most precious in the world, and yet to him finitude tastes just as good as to one who has never known anything higher, for his remaining in the finite bore no trace of a stunted, anxious training, and still he has this sense of being secure to take pleasure in it, as though it were the most certain thing of all. […] He resigned everything infinitely, and then took everything back on the strength of the absurd.
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Problema 2
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The tragic hero renounces himself in order to express the universal; the knight of faith renounces the universal in order to be the particular.
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The true knight of faith is a witness, never a teacher, and in this lies the deep humanity in him which is more worth than this foolish concern for others’ weal and woe which is honoured under the name of sympathy, but which is really nothing but vanity. A person who wants only to be a witness confesses thereby that no one, not even the least, needs another person’s sympathy, or is to be put down so another can raise himself up. But because what he himself won he did not win on the cheap, so neither does he sell it on the cheap; he is not so pitiable as to accept people’s admiration and pay for it with silent contempt; he knows that whatever truly is great is available equally for all.
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Problema 3
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But as the task is given to Abraham, it is he who must act, so he must know at the decisive moment what he is about to do, and accordingly must know that Isaac is to be sacrificed. If he doesn’t definitely know that, he hasn’t made the infinite movement of resignation, in which case his words are not indeed untrue, but then at the same time he is very far from being Abraham, he is less significant than a tragic hero, he is in fact an irresolute man who can resolve to do neither one thing nor the other, and who will therefore always come to talk in riddles. But such a Haesitator [waverer] is simply a parody of the knight of faith.
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Get the entire Fear and Trembling LitChart as a printable PDF.
Knight of Faith Symbol Timeline in Fear and Trembling
The timeline below shows where the symbol Knight of Faith appears in Fear and Trembling. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Preamble from the Heart
Although Johannes has never met a true knight of faith , he believes that if he ever did, then he’d divide his time between admiring...
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Johannes moves on to describe how the young man would handle the situation as a knight of faith . He would go through the same process of renunciation and reconcile himself to its...
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...he knows it must be wonderful to experience the same peace and confidence as a knight of faith who believes they’ll receive everything back on the strength of the absurd.
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Problema 1: Is There a Teleological Suspension of the Ethical?
...tragic hero can talk to others and get advice during their journey to heroism. A knight of faith , however, must walk alone because nobody can understand them, let alone properly advise them....
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Problema 2: Is There an Absolute Duty to God?
...faith can’t be mediated in the universal, Abraham can’t make anyone understand him. Unfortunately, a knight of faith can’t even make themselves understood by another knight of faith—even if they try to share...
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...do only makes them a tragic hero because the “Church” belongs to the universal; a knight of faith acts on something higher (faith). Johannes also notes that there’s a popular misconception that living...
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Like a knight of faith , Abraham must have known how secure, inspiring, and glorious it must be to make...
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...When they’re finished, they can find comfort in the universal that praises their actions. The knight of faith , however, doesn’t have this comfort. They are constantly aware that they can return to...
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It’s ultimately up to the individual to determine if they’re a knight of faith or just in a state of temptation. However, they might realize they’re a knight of...
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