Faith and ethical judgment › Resignation gives something up

The distinction between resignation and faith introduces another part of the difficulty. Infinite resignation is the movement through which someone relinquishes a finite hope while retaining an enduring attachment to what has been loved. It is not ordinary disappointment or the discovery that the object was worthless all along.

Johannes illustrates resignation through a young man whose love for a princess cannot be realized. The person does not escape the difficulty by forgetting her or replacing her immediately. He gives up the hope of possessing the relationship in ordinary life while preserving his love in an inward form. Johannes regards this as an achievement he can understand.

The example helps distinguish resignation from cheerful optimism. The resigned person recognizes the loss rather than treating it as a temporary inconvenience that will probably vanish. The achievement lies in the way the loss is borne. A promise of later good fortune would change what is being described.

Applied to Abraham, resignation alone would mean giving Isaac up and finding an inward or eternal way of bearing that loss. Johannes thinks faith includes this willingness but goes further. It concerns receiving the finite again, rather than becoming reconciled solely to life without it.