The Paradox

In Problema 2, Kierkegaard further presents the problem of faith. God has given a commandment: Love thy neighbor. In this sense, when we fulfill this commandment, and preform other ethical acts, we are loving God, insofar as to be ethical is to love God. Thus, the universal is the ethical is God. There is no direct relationship with God - there is only acting in an ethical manner to please God. Thus, when God speaks directly to an individual (like Abraham) and asks him to preform an unethical act, he is asking him to do disservice to God, by preforming God's will. So we are left with the lingering question of the validity of the ethics of the Knight of Faith. Unlike the Tragic Hero, who can find redemption and validity in the universal (he gives up his desire or duty in order to serve a higher duty - the universal, and is thus ethical), the Knight of Faith can find no such validity, except by and to himself. This is faith, if it is not, there has never been faith (according to Kierkegaard).