Once upon a Nature of Human Nature class, Professor Johnson brought in tape cassette and told the students that he was going to try something new. What the eager honors students didn't know was that this tape cassette was actually a guest lecturer in disguise of a tape cassette. The guest lecturer, whose name escapes me, gives insight to the philosophies of Soren Aabye Kierkegaard.
While I did not enjoy the tone of this lecturer's voice at all, I did enjoy what he had to say about Kierkegaard. I think I got more out of it than I would have reading it out of a book.
The lecturer, Professor Carey, introduces Kierkegaard as a radical Christian who was the first existentialist because he was really the first person to question (and attempt to answer) "where does one's own existence fit in to the world surrounding him/her?" From there, Professor Carey begins to tackle, as he supposes Kierkegaard would, Kierkegaard's view of a the "leap of faith."
This "leap of faith" idea of really stuck with me. As Professor Carey made the distinction between reason and faith- reason being proof and faith being believing for oneself, the leap of faith becomes paradoxical. The 'leap' that Kierkegaard is referring to is over a ditch, over eternity and time. There were some philosophers (I can't think of their names right now) who questioned his theory saying, "how do I get from believing about Jesus...I can't seem to make this leap." Instead of just saying "God will help you" or something to that effect, Kierkegaard had a theory of "inwardness". It was this inwardness that would get you to make the leap. However, you had to do it on your own and it could not be directly communicated.
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