Encounter as a Paradigm of Faith

Abstract

The author of the paper attempts to reflect critically on the encounter paradigm of faith. In his opinion, faith cannot be understood as an encounter, because man never meets a personal God directly, instead only having some experience of Him through another being. The two main reasons for this view stem from a reflection on the nature of encounter and of religious experience. The article consists of two main parts. The first part presents the concept of faith as an encounter against the background of the main ways of understanding faith (propositional and non-propositional). In the second part, the author offers a critique of the encounter paradigm of faith based on a reflection on the nature of encounter and of religious experience. Particular attention is paid to the essential features of encounter and religious experience.