"I am he who himself has been educated to the point of becoming a Christian. In the fact that education is pressed upon me, and in the measure that it is pressed, I press in turn upon this age; but I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."
As a reflection of his own experience of influence, Kierkegaard seeks to consequently influence others toward religion. He sees religion and education as highly compatible, even essentially mutually dependent. His faith is a consequence of his education, a natural next step. He does not, however, set himself apart as having access to a specific kind of knowledge, rather humbling himself to a status of mutual ignorance alongside those he hopes to influence.
"If all the angels united, they would still be able to produce only an approximation, because in historical knowledge an approximation is the only certainty -- but also too little on which to build an eternal happiness."
Kierkegaard makes distinctions between the perfect divine and the approximate reproduction. While there is merit to the approximation (or replication if you prefer), it cannot eclipse the real thing. Kierkegaard enjoys discussion which approximate truth, but he also alludes to the temporary and ultimately despair-inducing qualities of that pursuit as a solitary end.
"Such a Teacher the learner will never be able to forget. For the moment he forgets him he sinks back again into himself, just as one who while in original possession of the condition forgot that God exists, and thereby sank into bondage."
In short, Kierkegaard believes that people are born with an inherent knowledge of God, but they forget and must rediscover God. He believes that an encounter with a sacrificial teacher like God is transformative by its very nature. The teaching of God awakens a sleeping awareness in a person which cannot return to dormancy again.
"His love is a love of the learner, and his aim is to win him. For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal, and it is only in equality or unity that an understanding can be effected, and without a perfect understanding the Teacher is not the God, unless the obstacle comes wholly from the side of the learner, in his refusing to realize that which had been made possible for him."
Kierkegaard describes God, as a teacher, in terms of love. Love is the motivating factor always. Because God desires to learn, He draws people into a state of learning as well, through a mutual attraction. This love creates an open field of engagement which otherwise would be impossible given God's divine nature and unknownableness.
