First I wanted to thank you for this post, it clarifies some points of Kierkegaard’s thesis that I didn’t quite understand, and moreover I enjoyed how you develop your reflection.
Then I have question related to your post. Faith is supposed to save us from despair, from the nothingness which pervades existence, from the uncertainty that Descartes cast aside. Hence, isn’t faith just another cogito ? Doesn’t Kierkegaard cast aside the possibility that God might not exist ? And does it mean that the cogito is irrational ?
I know, it is a pretty tough question and may be you’re not competent enough in Kierkegaard’s philosophy to give a concret answer, I am myself quite confused, but these are the thoughts raised by you post.
Anna, I would like to answer your question, of course there are only facts that I believe understanding. I think the difference between Kierkegaard’s Faith and Descartes’ Cogito is the way they are using it. Descartes uses the cogito to prove that he exists and he makes the bet that God exists too, proving it with a questionable logical reasoning. In Descartes’ thoughts, the world cannot exist without God. It is a primary condition of the rational approach of the world and the existence. Kierkegaard’s approach is quite different because faith has not to be based on something real or rational to be efficient. Indeed, the fact of being faithful is more important that the existence or the non-existence of God. Here, the uncertainly is not casted aside, because we do not really care about the rationality or the reality of our faith. So two ideas : - Descartes uses Cogito to prove he exists whereas Kierkegaard uses faith to save us from dispear. - Descartes' conception needs the real existence of God -Kierkegaard's faith does not really need this existence.
My imperfect but sincere reaction to Anastasia’s blog post :-) « Faith is preceded by a movement of infinity; only then does faith commence, by virtue of the absurd.” I believe that Kierkegaard, through this sentence, assumes our reason is too limited to reach faith. Therefore, to his mind, faith can only be a free gift of God, a gift that one can discover when learning to hear his heart, in other words, when getting interiority (for Kierkegaard faith does not stand in “immediacy”) and trusting it. *
Indeed, one can consider that only when dying and seeing God in His Glory we will be able to fully understand how God acts in the world He has created. We already foresee that for instance in the tiny probability of a human being cellular constitution, there must have been a hand of God to realize it. It is the same for the miracles the water of Lourdes allow (no one is obliged to trust it, I only write from my lecture of Kierkegaard and my own most profound convictions). Doctors working with energies also begin to understand the physical impact the laying-on of hands of Jesus could have on a sick lady (Luc 13:12-13). But God, to respect our freedom towards Him, rarely shows His Glory openly. Only at the end of time, Saint Paul writes that, from the three theological value, “charity” will remain alone, for there will be no more “faith and hope” toward the faith of God. Indeed the fact of trusting involves the existence of a mystery.
Considering our reason in search of Truth but limited, the “leap faith” is for Kierkegaard needed in order to know God and His will in this life. Through the character of Abraham, the philosopher explains us what faith is. This man from the Old Testament lived with his wife in the desert as a nomad. His wife was infertile and then postmenopausal. She did not believe anymore God would allow her to have a son and she proposed to Abraham her maid, with who he had a son called Israel. One day, three people arrived and asked for Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality. By the name of God, they promised he would have a child with Sarah the next year at the same period. Sarah laughed at her husband when he told her about God’s promise, finding it irrational, impracticable. Still Abraham trusted God. One year later, his wife gave birth to Isaac. Kierkegaard reminds us of this history before writing about the Isaac Sacrifice which required another “leap of faith” from Abraham. As Anastasia wrote it: “If you believe in God with passion, then only miracles can happen.”
*Christian faith is discovering that a God loves us and that our only duty in this earth is in return, to love others as ourselves. “Faith is a marvel yet no human being is excluded from it; for that which unites human life is passion, and faith is a passion” says Kierkegaard.
First I wanted to thank you for this post, it clarifies some points of Kierkegaard’s thesis that I didn’t quite understand, and moreover I enjoyed how you develop your reflection.
ReplyDeleteThen I have question related to your post. Faith is supposed to save us from despair, from the nothingness which pervades existence, from the uncertainty that Descartes cast aside. Hence, isn’t faith just another cogito ? Doesn’t Kierkegaard cast aside the possibility that God might not exist ? And does it mean that the cogito is irrational ?
I know, it is a pretty tough question and may be you’re not competent enough in Kierkegaard’s philosophy to give a concret answer, I am myself quite confused, but these are the thoughts raised by you post.
Anna, I would like to answer your question, of course there are only facts that I believe understanding.
DeleteI think the difference between Kierkegaard’s Faith and Descartes’ Cogito is the way they are using it. Descartes uses the cogito to prove that he exists and he makes the bet that God exists too, proving it with a questionable logical reasoning. In Descartes’ thoughts, the world cannot exist without God. It is a primary condition of the rational approach of the world and the existence. Kierkegaard’s approach is quite different because faith has not to be based on something real or rational to be efficient. Indeed, the fact of being faithful is more important that the existence or the non-existence of God. Here, the uncertainly is not casted aside, because we do not really care about the rationality or the reality of our faith.
So two ideas :
- Descartes uses Cogito to prove he exists whereas Kierkegaard uses faith to save us from dispear.
- Descartes' conception needs the real existence of God
-Kierkegaard's faith does not really need this existence.
I hope my thoughts will help yours to go further!
My imperfect but sincere reaction to Anastasia’s blog post :-)
ReplyDelete« Faith is preceded by a movement of infinity; only then does faith commence, by virtue of the absurd.” I believe that Kierkegaard, through this sentence, assumes our reason is too limited to reach faith. Therefore, to his mind, faith can only be a free gift of God, a gift that one can discover when learning to hear his heart, in other words, when getting interiority (for Kierkegaard faith does not stand in “immediacy”) and trusting it. *
Indeed, one can consider that only when dying and seeing God in His Glory we will be able to fully understand how God acts in the world He has created. We already foresee that for instance in the tiny probability of a human being cellular constitution, there must have been a hand of God to realize it. It is the same for the miracles the water of Lourdes allow (no one is obliged to trust it, I only write from my lecture of Kierkegaard and my own most profound convictions). Doctors working with energies also begin to understand the physical impact the laying-on of hands of Jesus could have on a sick lady (Luc 13:12-13). But God, to respect our freedom towards Him, rarely shows His Glory openly. Only at the end of time, Saint Paul writes that, from the three theological value, “charity” will remain alone, for there will be no more “faith and hope” toward the faith of God. Indeed the fact of trusting involves the existence of a mystery.
Considering our reason in search of Truth but limited, the “leap faith” is for Kierkegaard needed in order to know God and His will in this life. Through the character of Abraham, the philosopher explains us what faith is. This man from the Old Testament lived with his wife in the desert as a nomad. His wife was infertile and then postmenopausal. She did not believe anymore God would allow her to have a son and she proposed to Abraham her maid, with who he had a son called Israel. One day, three people arrived and asked for Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality. By the name of God, they promised he would have a child with Sarah the next year at the same period. Sarah laughed at her husband when he told her about God’s promise, finding it irrational, impracticable. Still Abraham trusted God. One year later, his wife gave birth to Isaac. Kierkegaard reminds us of this history before writing about the Isaac Sacrifice which required another “leap of faith” from Abraham. As Anastasia wrote it: “If you believe in God with passion, then only miracles can happen.”
*Christian faith is discovering that a God loves us and that our only duty in this earth is in return, to love others as ourselves. “Faith is a marvel yet no human being is excluded from it; for that which unites human life is passion, and faith is a passion” says Kierkegaard.