Anne Zagursky--Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard)

Faith and Reason

Reason and faith are always topics debated in religion. It is hard to say which ought to take more precedence or have more influence. Some believe that reason is more important and that faith is secondary. These people tend to find things like miracles and charismatic experiences as doubtful or impossible. On the other end are those who are purely based on faith. These people tend to believe whatever their religion tells them whether it makes any sense at all. There are many who are in the middle. There are some that still use faith to understand reason and others that use reason to find faith. I think that I use reason to understand faith most but sometimes I have faith without reason at all. Some things just make no sense to believe but I believe it anyways. That is what faith truly is anyway, believing in the unseen.

Kierkegaard believed that faith must surpass reason because you cannot arrive at a belief through calculations and reasoning. He did believe that reasoning was important in that it led people to think about their lives and reflect upon the events that have brought them to the place they are at. However, faith must be supreme. In his book Fear and Trembling, he talks about the process Abraham goes through from being a man of the law and infinite resignation to a knight of faith. Abraham made a choice to listen to God's voice and ignore the laws and his own common sense. He took Isaac to be sacrificed because he had that much faith in God. And through that faith his son was spared. Had he used reasoning, he most likely would not have brought his son up on that mountain and he would not have had that test. However, that would have left him without faith in God. He trusted God to provide and protect him and his son. It is difficult to imagine that kind of faith, but that is what Kierkegaard thought was the ultimate in human experience. Have faith above all else.