The Kierkegaardian Leap

Søren Kierkegaard’s concept, central to Schaeffer’s analysis of the Line of Despair, that religious faith requires a “leap” beyond rational evidence into the absurd. Kierkegaard accepted the rationalist critique that reason cannot prove the existence of God or the truth of Christianity; and then argued that this is the point. Faith is not rational assent to evidence; it is a passionate, subjective commitment made in the face of objective uncertainty. Schaeffer saw this as the moment philosophy gave up; Kierkegaard conceded the entire lower story to rationalism and retreated into the upper story of pure subjectivity. The leap is an admission that facts and faith have nothing to do with each other. Schaeffer’s response: if the leap is into a real, existing God who has actually spoken in history, then the contents of the leap are not arbitrary; and if the contents are not arbitrary, then reason is back in the conversation whether Kierkegaard wanted it there or not.