Problema I

Is there a teleological suspension of the ethical?

Kierkegaard says that if we are to go saying that these people do not have faith and these others do have faith, we must be clear about what we mean by faith, for it is very easy to fall into old clichés. It’s not difficult to explain the whole of existence, answering every moral and philosophical question cleanly and clearly, faith included, and this man is not the worst kind who is admired for such an achievement. There are worse things a man could do, however, as Boileau says, “A fool can always find a greater fool who admires him.” So then, what does Kierkegaard himself mean by faith? Kierkegaard talks about the ethical, which is the universal. I think this means the absolute moral laws we follow. Teleological is a philosophical doctrine that believes that final purposes exist in life—there are absolutes. When Kierkegaard refers to the universal, he means absolute moral laws, with of a view of what is right and wrong is right and wrong in all circumstances, at all times, and to every person equally. In this case he is talking specifically about the beliefs of Christianity.

Faith is putting aside what we hold as the universal—the absolute moral code—in the interest of something higher. Abraham put aside the universal when he brought Isaac up the mountain, ready to kill his own son. When taken outside of the pretty picture storybook version of Sunday school, this looks an awful lot like murder. Not only was it murder, but it was murder of his own son, which is child sacrifice which we know the lord despises. Or at least we thought we knew. But that is the key to faith. God asked Abraham to sacrifice, or murder, his own son, and Abraham obeyed God, even though every moral code he held to was being violated by his act of obedience.  Kierkegaard says, “For faith is just this paradox, that the single individual is higher than the universal, though in such a way, be it noted, that the movement is repeated, that is, that, having been in the universal, the single individual now sets himself apart as the particular above the universal. If that is not faith, then faith has never existed in the world, just because it has always existed.”  I think what he means is that in faith the particular, which is everything is outside the ethical, and is usually described as sin, becomes higher, than the universal when a person who first followed the ethical code breaks away from this law and does something outside of the ethical code in obedience to the Lord. Faith will always look ridiculous, idiotic, or absolutely sinful, and yet it is higher than the absolute moral code of the Bible.