Editing Leap of faith (section)

==Development of concept by Kierkegaard==
[[File:Soeren kierkegaard 5627.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|right|Kierkegaard in 1838 or 1840]]
A leap of faith, according to Kierkegaard, involves [[circular reasoning|circularity]] as the leap is made ''by'' faith.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Alastair Hannay |editor2=Gordon D. Marino |name-list-style=amp |year=2006 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-47719-2}}</ref> In his book ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments|Concluding Unscientific Postscript]]'', Kierkegaard describes 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.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=335}}

Kierkegaard was an orthodox Scandinavian [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] in conflict with the [[Liberal Christianity|liberal theological]] establishment of his day. His works included 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.

Kierkegaard describes "the leap" using the story of [[Adam and Eve]], particularly Adam's qualitative "leap" into sin. Adam's leap signifies a change from one quality to another—the quality of possessing no sin to the quality of possessing sin. Kierkegaard writes that the transition from one quality to another can take place only by a "leap".<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |title=The Concept of Anxiety |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1980 |editor-last=Thomte |editor-first=Reidar |orig-year=1844}}</ref>{{Rp|page=232}} When the transition happens, one moves directly from one state to the other, never possessing both qualities.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=82–85|location=note}} Kierkegaard wrote, "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."{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1936|p=15}} Kierkegaard felt that a leap of faith was vital in accepting Christianity due to the [[Paradox|paradoxes]] that exist in Christianity. In his books ''[[Philosophical Fragments]]'' and ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript]]'' Kierkegaard delves deeply into the paradoxes that Christianity presents.{{Cn|date=August 2023}}

In describing the leap, Kierkegaard agreed with [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Vincent Edward |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009946721 |title=Idea-Men of Today |publisher=Bruce |year=1950 |place=Milwaukee, WI |pages=254–255}}</ref> Kierkegaard's use of the term "leap" was in response to "Lessing's Ditch" which was discussed by Lessing in his theological writings.<ref>{{harvnb|Lessing|2005|pp=83–88}}.<br />{{*}}{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=61ff & 93ff}};<br />{{*}}{{cite journal |last1=Benton |first1=Matthew |date=2006 |title=The Modal Gap: the Objective Problem of Lessing's Ditch(es) and Kierkegaard's Subjective Reply |url=http://philpapers.org/rec/BENTMG |journal=Religious Studies |volume=42 |pages=27–44 |doi=10.1017/S0034412505008103 |s2cid=9776505}}</ref> Both Lessing and Kierkegaard discuss the [[Agency (philosophy)|agency]] one might use to base one's faith upon. Lessing tried to battle rational Christianity directly and, when that failed, he battled it indirectly through what Kierkegaard called "imaginary constructions".<ref>{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=114, 263–266, 381, 512, 617}}.<br />{{*}}{{harvnb|Lessing|1893|p={{page needed|date=March 2021}}}}</ref> Both were influenced by [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]. In 1950, philosopher Vincent Edward Smith wrote that "Lessing and Kierkegaard declare in typical fashion that there is no bridge between historical, finite knowledge and God's existence and nature."<ref name=":0" /> 

In 1846, Kierkegaard wrote, "The leap becomes easier in the degree to which some distance intervenes between the initial position and the place where the leap takes off. And so it is also with respect to a decisive movement in the realm of the spirit. The most difficult decisive action is not that in which the individual is far removed from the decision (as when a non-Christian is about to decide to become one), but when it is as if the matter were already decided."{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1941|pp=326–327|loc=(Problem of the Fragments)}}

{{Quotation|Suppose that [Friedrich Heinrich] [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi|Jacobi]] himself has made the leap; suppose that with the aid of eloquence he manages to persuade a learner to want to do it. Then the learner has a direct relation to Jacobi and consequently does not himself come to make the leap. The direct relation between one human being and another is naturally much easier and gratifies one’s sympathies and one’s own need much more quickly and ostensibly more reliable.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=610–611}}}}