Between Kierkegaard and Descartes

In this essay I pose the question of the relationship between faith and reason by examining central texts of Kierkegaard and Descartes.  I focus particularly on the relationship of the Genesis story creation – its ontology and ethics – to Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and Descartes’ Meditations and Discourse on Method in order to examine the history and ethics that underpin the latter three texts.  I argue that, in aligning their projects with biblical principles and values, and in also distinguishing their work from the principles and values underpinning ancient Greek thought, Kierkegaard and Descartes together teach us that existence cannot be divided between faith and reason, that existence is religious or philosophical, faithful or rational, only if it is both simultaneously.