As I have previously suggested, Augustine initiates a turn to the inner as the necessary way to God. This suggests further that an acknowledgment of God, say as trust in his promise, goes via the self-revelation and confession; or otherwise put, the third-person employment of acknowledgement is inextricably connected to the first-person employment. This brings out the religious sense in the fact that to acknowledge (recognise) the infinite other demands that I reveal myself in responding to that other, but also, conversely, that to acknowledge (reveal, confess) hitherto hidden aspects of myself takes place in the face of the (infinite) other. This is confirmed in Cavell’s reading of Descartes’ argument for God’s existence, which he takes to be saying that “it would not be possible for my nature to be what it is, possessing the idea of God, unless God really existed”, and we could add, if God does exist, so do I.
— ESPEN DAHL, “On Acknowledgment and Cavell’s Unacknowledged Theological Voice”
Acknowledgments
01.07.2011
