Faith

Abstract

Faith (Tro--noun; tro--verb, adjective) From the Old Norse trú (assurance, belief), Old English derived truwa (agreement) and treow (fidelity, truth), and subsequently Middle English derived trowthe (troth) and Modern English "true" and "trust." All these meanings resonate in the Danish Tro, which is usually translated as "belief" or "faith." Its lexical meanings include: (1) the belief that a person is completely to be relied upon; (2) the conviction that a person will fulfill one's expectations; (3) conviction of truth or correctness about something; (4) subjective certainty; (5) a religious conviction about supernatural phenomena; (6) creed or faith. Kierkegaard draws several distinctions among his uses of Tro: (1) between epistemological belief and knowledge; (2) between faith in another human being and faith in God; (3) between epistemological belief "in the ordinary sense" and religious faith "in the eminent sense"; (4) between immediate religious faith, which is unreflective and undialectical, and religious faith as a higher immediacy or "spontaneity after reflection"; and (5) between immanent religious faith and Christian paradoxical faith.