Kierkegaards View on Faith Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Kierkegaards View on Faith Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher in the mid 1800s. He is cognize to be the father of existentialism and was at least 70 years ahead of his time. Kierkegaard set out to attack Kants rational ethics and oblige attacks on the Christianity of our day. He poses the question, how do we understand reliance? He states that trust equals the absurd. In Fear and Trembling, he uses the story of Abraham and his give-and-take Isaac to show an showcase of faith as the absurd. The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac signifies a break in the theory that ethics and religion go glide by in hand. He shows how the ethical and the religious can be completely different. I by no means conclude that faith is something inferior scarce rather that it is the highest, also that it is dishonest of philosophy to give something else in its place and to disparage faith (Fear and Trembling, 12). To Kierkegaard, the whole biblical story is a paradox. Thinking astir(predicate) Abraham is another matter, however then I am shattered. I am constantly aware of the prodigious paradox that is the content of Abrahams life, I am constantly repelled, and, despite all its passion, my thought cannot penetrate it, cannot get ahead by a hairsbreadth (Fear and Trembling, 12). Faith to Kierkegaard is even paradoxical. Precisely because resignation is antecedent, faith is no esthetic emotion but something far higher it is not the spontaneous inclination of the heart but the paradox of existence (Fear and Trembling, 19). Under the ethical, Abraham was discharge to commit murder. Kierkegaard uses an example of a preacher going to him after the murder and screaming, You despicable man, you scum of society, what devil has so possessed you that you want to murder your son (Fear and Trembling, 10). He knows that murder cannot be ethically disclosed and wonders how that can be faith. Under the absurdity of faith, Abrahams crime of murder becomes a merited occ upation to his Creator. The ethical expression for what Abraham did is that he meant to murder Isaac the religious expression is that he meant to sacrifice Isaac (Fear and Trembling, 11). Abraham had to suspend his duty to the universal, or the ethical in order to dribble out his duty to God. The Christian must make an existential leap out of the universal to acquire faith. This ultimately means that faith is higher than the un... ...f unalloyed Reason, 616). Kant places religion within the rational realm. He starts with the rational individual which is living in an absolute clean-living society. The moral law is based upon religion. ...and I maintain, consequently, that unless moral laws are laid at the basis or used as a guide, there can be no theology of reason at all (Critique of Pure Reason, 613). To Kant, a societys commitment to absolute morality, moral law, and the church was the rational worlds meaning for religion.Kierkegaard argued against Kant that rationalism was w anting where religion was concerned. Kierkegaard fought that religion had nothing to do with rationalism, but everything to do with an individual relationship with God. The individual is free to maintain an intimate relationship with God which comes with faith as the absurd. Unlike Kant, Kierkegaard sees moral rationalism in society, but religion has nothing to do with it. It is a completely different subject that cannot be combine with moral reason. He states that religion belongs only to the person seeking religion and overpowers all things rational. Kierkegaard places religious philosophy beyond the context of rationalism completely.