The Essence of Christianity

Religious faith is not a gift, nor is it anything supernatural. Rather, “faith is nothing else than confidence in the reality of the subjective in opposition to the limitations or laws of Nature and reason,—that is, of natural reason” (85). While not supernatural, faith is still concerned with what we call the miraculous, which is the outward manifestation of the interior power of faith. In faith, one holds to the limitless power of the subjective, and sees God as the symbol of this unlimited power. When humans lose faith and unbelief takes over, God is removed and set up as a devil.

Faith is the manifestation of desire, “the idea that that which man wishes actually is: he wishes to be immortal, therefore he is immortal; he wishes for the existence of a being who can do everything which is impossible to Nature and reason, therefore such a being exists” (86). Faith makes the imagination the true arbiter of reality. Faith is the origin of miracles since miracles are products of the imagination—“miracle presents absolutely nothing else than the sorcery of the imagination, which satisfies without contradiction all the wishes of the heart” (90)—transforming the interior feeling and subjectivity.