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A leap of faith, in its most commonly used meaning, is the act of believing in or accepting something intangible or unprovable, or without empirical evidence. It is an act commonly associated with religious belief as many religions consider faith to be an essential element of piety. The phrase is commonly attributed to Søren Kierkegaard; however, he himself never used the term, as he referred to a leap as a leap ''to'' faith. A leap of faith according to Kierkegaard involves circularity insofar as a leap is made ''by'' faith.〔Hannay, Alastair, and Gordon Marino. (eds.) ''The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard''. Cambridge, ISBN 0-521-47719-0〕 In his book ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'', he describes the core part of the leap of faith, the leap. "Thinking can turn toward itself in order to think about itself and skepticism can emerge. But this thinking about itself never accomplishes anything." Kierkegaard says thinking should serve by thinking something. Kierkegaard wants to stop "thinking's self-reflection" and that is the movement that constitutes a leap.〔Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Hong p. 335〕 He's against people thinking about religion all day without ever doing anything. But he's also against external shows and opinions about religion and in favor of the internal movement of faith.〔''Fear and Trembling/Repetition,'' 1843, Hong p. 68ff, ''Practice In Christianity'', Hong p. 133ff ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'', Hong p. 607ff〕 He says, "where Christianity wants to have inwardness, worldly Christendom wants outwardness, and where Christianity wants outwardness, worldly Christendom wants inwardness."〔Works of Love, Hong p. 146〕 But, on the other hand, he also says, "The less externality the more inwardness if it is truly there; but it is also the case that the less externality, the greater the possibility that the inwardness will entirely fail to come. The externality is the watchman who awakens the sleeper; the externality is the solicitous mother who calls one; the externality is the roll call that brings the soldier to his feet; the externality is the reveille that helps one to make the great effort; but the absence of the externality can mean that the inwardness itself calls inwardly to a person-alas, but it can also mean that the inwardness will fail to come."〔Concluding Postscript, p. 382, Hong translation〕 The "most dreadful thing of all is a personal existence that cannot coalesce in a conclusion,"〔Søren Kierkegaard, Stages on Life's Way, Hong p. 232〕 according to Kierkegaard. He asked his contemporaries if any of them had reached a conclusion about anything or did every new premise change their convictions. ==The leap into sin and into faith== Kierkegaard describes "the leap" using the famous story of Adam and Eve, particularly Adam's qualitative ''leap'' into sin. Adam's leap signifies a change from one quality to another, mainly the quality of possessing no sin to the quality of possessing sin. Kierkegaard maintains that the transition from one quality to another can take place only by a "leap" (Thomte 232). When the transition happens, one moves directly from one state to the other, never possessing both qualities. "The moment is related to the transition of the one to the many, of the many to the one, of likeness to unlikeness, and that it is the moment in which there is neither one nor many, neither a being determined nor a being combined."(Thomte Note 82-85). "In the Moment man becomes conscious that he is born; for his antecedent state, to which he may not cling, was one of non-being. In the Moment man also becomes conscious of the new birth, for his antecedent state was one of non-being."〔Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments p. 15〕 It is important to understand that Kierkegaard felt a leap of faith was necessary in accepting Christianity due to the paradoxes that exist in Christianity. In his books ''Philosophical Fragments'' and ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'' Kierkegaard delves deep into the paradoxes that Christianity presents. Kierkegaard's use of the term "leap" was in response to "Lessing's Ditch" which was discussed by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) in his theological writings.〔See ''Concluding Postscript'', Hong p. 61ff and 93ff〕 Kierkegaard was indebted to Lessing's writings in many ways. Lessing tried to battle rational Christianity directly and when that failed he battled it indirectly through, what Kierkegaard called, "imaginary constructions".〔''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'', Vol I, Hong p. 114, 263-266, 381, 512, 617 See Lessing's Nathan the Wise (Nathan the Wise ) Archive.org〕 He also used Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) use of the term in his 1784 essay, ''Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?''. Kant wrote: Lessing said, "(accidental ) truths of history can never become the proof of necessary truths of reason." Kierkegaard points out that he also said, "contingent truths of history can never become the demonstrations of necessary truths of reason."〔''Lessing's Theological Writings'', On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power, Chadwick, p. 53, ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'', Vol 1 p. 97〕 Kierkegaard liked Lessing because he "had a most uncommon gift of explaining what he himself had understood. With that he stopped; in our day people go further and explain more than they themselves have understood."〔Fear and Trembling, note p. 88〕 Kierkegaard has Don Juan in ''Either/Or'' escort young girls "all in the dangerous age of being neither grown-up nor children" to "the other side of the ditch of life" as he, himself, "dances over the abyss" only to "instantly sink down into the depths."〔Either/Or Part I, Swenson p. 107, 128-129, 133-134〕 He has Don Juan "preach the gospel of pleasure" to Elvira and seduces her from the convent and wonders if there is a priest who can "preach the gospel of repentance and remorse" with the same power as Don Juan preached his gospel.〔Either/Or Part I, Swenson p. 191-197〕 Both Lessing and Kierkegaard are discussing the agency one might use to base one's faith upon. Does history provide all the proofs necessary to cross that "ugly, broad ditch"?〔Lessing, Theological Writings p. 55〕 Or is there "no direct and immediate transition to Christianity".〔Concluding Unscientific Postscript Vol I, p. 49〕 Does one become a Christian "in the fulness of time" as Kierkegaard puts it〔Søren Kierkegaard, ''Philosophical Fragments'' p. 12-13〕 or is "there only one proof of spirit and that is the spirit’s proof within oneself. Whoever demands something else may get proofs in superabundance, but he is already characterized at spiritless."〔The Concept of Anxiety, Nichol, p. 95〕 He also writes about this in his ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript''. The implication of taking a ''leap of faith'' can, depending on the context, carry positive or negative connotations, as some feel it is a virtue to be able to believe in something without evidence while others feel it is foolishness. It is a hotly contested theological and philosophical concept. For instance, the association with "blind faith" and religion is disputed by those with deistic principles that argue reason and logic, rather than revelation or tradition, should be the basis of belief "that God has existed in human form, was born and grew up". Jesus is the "paradox", the "absolute paradox".〔''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'', Vol I, Hong see pages 208-225〕 When Christianity becomes a scholarly enterprise one tends to "reflect oneself into Christianity" but Kierkegaard says, one should "reflect oneself out of something else and become, more and more simply, a Christian."〔Søren Kierkegaard, ''Point of View'', Lowrie p. 144〕 Kierkegaard was concerned that individuals would spend all their lives trying to define Christianity, define love, define God, define the Trinity, define sin and never get to the business of "actually" making a decision, in time, to try to become a Christian and then acting on the basis of that decision. He discussed the inner and the outer relationship existing in belief. "Compared with the Hegelian notion that the outer is the inner and the inner the outer, it certainly is extremely original. But it would be even more original if the Hegelian axiom were not only admired by the present age but also had retroactive power to abolish, backward historically, the distinction between the visible and invisible Church. The invisible Church is not a historical phenomenon; as such it cannot be observed objectively at all, because it is only in subjectivity."〔Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Vol I p. 54〕 There has to be a balance between objective and subjective knowledge. Hegel went to the extreme objective side so Kierkegaard decided to go to the extreme subjective side. Even some theistic realms of thought do not agree with the implications that this phrase carries. For instance C. S. Lewis argues against the idea that Christianity requires a "leap of faith," (as the term is most commonly understood). One of Lewis' arguments is that supernaturalism, a basic tenet of Christianity, can be logically inferred based on a teleological argument regarding the source of human reason. Nonetheless, some Christians are less critical of the term and do accept that religion requires a "leap of faith". What is often missed is that Kierkegaard himself was an orthodox Scandinavian Lutheran in conflict with the liberal theological establishment of his day. His works built on one another and culminated with the orthodox Lutheran conception of a God that unconditionally accepts man, faith itself being a gift from God, and that the highest moral position is reached when a person realizes this and, no longer depending upon her or himself, takes the leap of faith into the arms of a loving God. In a Lutheran context, the leap of faith becomes much clearer. Jacobi, Hegel, and C.S. Lewis wrote about Christianity in accordance with their understanding but Kierkegaard didn't want to do that because he felt that it was too dangerous to put in writing what was most holy to himself. He said, "Not even what I am writing here is my innermost meaning. I cannot entrust myself to paper in that way, even though I see it in what is written. Think what could happen! The paper could disappear; there could be a fire where I live and I could live in uncertainty about whether it was burned or still existed; I could die and thus leave it behind me; I could lose my mind and my innermost being could be in alien hands; I could go blind and not be able to find it myself, not know whether I stood with it in my hands without asking someone else, not know whether he lied, whether he was reading what was written there or something else in order to sound me out." Kierkegaard was of the opinion that faith is something different from other things, something unexplainable, and inexplicable. The more a person tries to explain personal faith to another the more entangled that person becomes in language and semantics but "recollection" is "''das Zugleich'', the all-at-once," that always brings him back to himself.〔(Stages on Life's Way, Hong p. 386) 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「leap of faith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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