Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off.”
Søren Kierkegaard · Existentialism (forerunner) · Modern · 1843
What does it mean?
Faith begins where thinking leaves off. Johannes de Silentio says this of Abraham: the paradox gives Isaac back, and no thought can grasp it, because faith is not the last step of an argument. A rival reading hears anti-intellectualism, a ban on thinking, or a blank cheque for any conviction that calls itself faith. He has spent the book saying he cannot make the movement, and that infinite resignation comes first. Faith is not a feeling that skips the ethical without residue. Another reading identifies the sentence with Kierkegaard's signed view.
Did Søren Kierkegaard really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The cadence 'faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off' is the older English, close to Walter Lowrie's 'where thinking leaves off'. Hong and Hong, the translators this library names for Kierkegaard, are closer to a paradox 'which no thought can grasp'. The claim is Johannes de Silentio's, the pseudonym: faith is not a conclusion of thinking. Confirm the Hong sentence before calling this cadence verbatim.
Where it comes from
Fear and Trembling, at the turn into the Problemata, in the older English tradition
Approximate date: 1843.
How to use it
Someone in a difficult family decision in Birmingham says thinking has ended so faith, or instinct, must begin. Silentio's Abraham is a specific story about a command that ethics cannot house. Using the sentence for an ordinary dilemma borrows a paradox you may not be in. If you are not in it, thinking has not left off. It has been abandoned.
A mindset reading
The older English is clear and a little smoother than the Hong paradox. Smoother is a reason to check the translation, not a reason to ignore the claim. The claim is about a limit of thought in this one case, which readers constantly widen.
Understand the philosophy
Fear and Trembling, 1843, is Silentio's book, and Kierkegaard thought highly of it. The problemata ask whether there is a teleological suspension of the ethical. This sentence is the door into that question, not the answer written as a proverb.
- knowledge
- ethics
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
Faith begins where thinking leaves off. Johannes de Silentio says this of Abraham: the paradox gives Isaac back, and no thought can grasp it, because faith is not the last step of an argument. A rival reading hears anti-intellectualism, a ban on thinking, or a blank cheque for any conviction that calls itself faith. He has spent the book saying he cannot make the movement, and that infinite resignation comes first. Faith is not a feeling that skips the ethical without residue. Another reading identifies the sentence with Kierkegaard's signed view.
Did Søren Kierkegaard really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The cadence 'faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off' is the older English, close to Walter Lowrie's 'where thinking leaves off'. Hong and Hong, the translators this library names for Kierkegaard, are closer to a paradox 'which no thought can grasp'. The claim is Johannes de Silentio's, the pseudonym: faith is not a conclusion of thinking. Confirm the Hong sentence before calling this cadence verbatim.
Which work is it in?
Fear and Trembling, at the turn into the Problemata, in the older English tradition Approximate date: 1843.