Faith and reason are central avenues through which Christian spirituality is accessed and experienced. The dialectic between the two, however, has alternately been characterized as being either synergistic or adversarial. For some faith is an intrinsic aspect of “knowing” and a necessary facet of properly warranted belief. Others would agree with Mark Twain that “faith is believing what ain’t so.”
In classical theology faith is both associated with and contrasted to knowledge. For Aquinas, faith holds a position midway between opinion and knowing. Like “knowledge” faith is firm and secure in its assent. Like “opinion,” though, faith deals with matters that are not accessible to reason alone. The Reformed tradition has regularly viewed faith as having a compound nature: knowledge (notitia), assent (assensus), and trust (fiducia). For Calvin, faith is a form of knowledge distinct from other kinds. For Barth any theology that does not proceed first from faith is a theology that will lead the church astray.
Comparing Edwards and Kierkegaard on faith and reason might be considered a fool’s errand. They wrote a century apart with different contexts, tools and targets. One is reformed, the other Lutheran; one tried to think the faith anew using some of the reigning philosophical tools of his day, while the other tried to free theology from being entangled in what he saw as one of the popular, impersonal, dehumanizing philosophical systems of his day; one seems to want to maximize the role of reason in relation to faith – the other appears to minimize it.
On the other hand, similarities abound. Both Edwards and Kierkegaard combined a sense of God’s transcendence with a deep desire for spiritual union with him; both were passionately evangelical and missional; both were concerned about the subjective as well as objective dimensions of faith; both pursued theology with an astute philosophical bent; both recognized the limitations of human reasoning – though in different ways and to different degrees; and for both faith is not a human achievement but a gift of God.
While as metaphysically engaged as, perhaps, any author since Aquinas, Edwards was also preoccupied with religious affections and the life of faith. And while Kierkegaard is typed by many as a fideistic irrationlist, he might better be understood as a unique author whose goal was to extend the rational beyond the range of intellectual reflection alone.
Despite differing cultural contexts, literary strategies, and intellectual interests, however, this paper will show that significant similarities exist between Edwards and Kierkegaard in their understanding of faith and reason. Many of their shared insights can be attributed to their mutual desire to think scripturally. As a consequence, they could both be understood to be what Hans Frei calls “theologians of Christian self-description.”
Both Kierkegaard and Edwards reflected significantly on scripture. They strove to relate philosophical insights to scriptural teaching. Both agree that objective thought and human understanding are limited. Both agree that faith is a consequence of the grace of God. Both agree that matters of the heart not the mind are paramount in matters of faith, and both understand that while faith involves itself with mystery that does not mean it is antagonistic to reason. Both Edwards and Kierkegaard might be pleased if their reflections on faith and rationality found their end in love. Edwards sees faith as suffused with love, and in Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments, Climacus likens reason’s relation to faith in terms of romantic love. In genuine love self-love gives itself away to another – and finds itself as well. By analogy, then, reason may find its deepest purpose in the service of faith.