KİERKEGAARD VE JASPERS’IN VAROLUŞ FELSEFESİNDE AKIL, DİN VE İMAN İLİŞKİSİ⃰ (original) (raw)

2017, KİERKEGAARD VE JASPERS’IN VAROLUŞ FELSEFESİNDE AKIL, DİN VE İMAN İLİŞKİSİ⃰

Theist philosopher Sören Kierkegaard, known as the father of existentialism, argues that faith and absolute submission to God are essential for an individual to realize its existence and he emphasizes the paradox of faith. According to Kierkegaard, faith is not a rational attitude; but it is a paradoxical leap. His view was that, the truth regarding individual’s existence is subjective; thus, he thinks that institutional reflection of corrupted Christianism together with the hegemony of systematic philosophy and scientific areas are obstructions to this and he made criticisms to all. Like Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers also protests church faith; but he is a nonclassical theist philosopher, defending a philosophical faith in which a philosopher can live his self-faith that is not imposed to him. For Jaspers, faith is a general concept embracing both philosophic and religious faith. Criticizing the theology based on religion or revelation, he considers that faith in God is one of the conditions of realizing one’s existence. Reason does not conflict with philosophic faith and philosophic faith is the sole faith that a philosopher shall have. According to him, God of the church is no more a transcendent being but became an ordinary subject in the universe. In this framework our study aims to compare the views of Sören Kierkegaard and Karl Jaspers on religion, faith and reason relations, whether reason or in other words philosophical thought is enough to found God and faith or not; or do they compromise or not. Keywords: Sören Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Existence, God, Religion, Faith, Reason.