Faith: The leap into the absurd

Source: The knight of faith: When words run out

"Abraham cannot speak, for he cannot say the final thing... that he knows: that this is a test... unless he says: this is a test, and also: it is absurd that this demand is presented to me... the knight of faith gives up everything and yet finds everything by virtue of the absurd."

(Søren Kierkegaard, "Fear and Trembling" 1843)

Explanation: Abraham's paradox: Sacrificing and keeping at the same time

Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, unpacks the binding of Isaac. Abraham is not a historical hero (like Agamemnon, or the judge Jephthah, who sacrifice their daughters for victory). Abraham is a "knight of faith" because he acts without understanding what 'gain' he will receive, or for the sake of what achievement he is commanded to sacrifice his son. Abraham finds himself, Kierkegaard says, inside a logical contradiction: he believes he must sacrifice Isaac, and in the same breath believes that Isaac will live and inherit him. Faith, according to Kierkegaard, is a "suspension of the ethical"—the moment when a person is willing to relinquish universal reason and morality in favor of a private and absurd command, and still believe there is reason and morality.

Perspective: Beyond proof: Faith as a leap into the unknown

The attempt to prove God's presence in the world (as distinct from the mere claim of His existence) through logic is a futile endeavor. Even if it were possible, that would be mathematics, not faith. Faith begins where reason ends—not only faith in God, but also trust in people or in reality. Every act of placing trust is a leap beyond scientific proof. Someone looking for "proofs" is a coward who wants to walk on water while asking to see the concrete foundations below. The true believer is the one who knows there is no logical reason to believe, and yet takes the leap of faith anyway. Faith is the willingness to live within the impossible tension of paradox, without blinking and without asking for help from science or magic.

Going Deeper: The vacant space: When silence is the answer

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (Likkutei Moharan 64) speaks of the chalal hapanui, the "vacant space" (one of the key philosophical concepts of the holy Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria)—a realm from which God withdrew Himself and where there is no divine revelation. Rabbi Nachman argues that there are "difficulties" that have no answer, because they stem from this empty void. Whoever tries to answer them through reason falls. The only way to reach the vacant space is through prayer, and to cross that void one stands in silence and with a faith that leaps over reason. This is the mystical equivalent of Kierkegaard's "leap of faith."

Culture: The stranger among us: The loneliness of faith in a world of reason

In the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, David Bowie plays an alien who arrives on Earth trying to save his planet. The film depicts a figure driven by an absolute inner knowing that is completely foreign to the human logic around him. The loneliness of the believer who refuses to surrender to the shadows of the cave where everyone else is captive—that is both the tragedy and the grandeur of faith.