On Faith

The indefinite structure and invisible foundations of faith have remained inscrutable to thinkers for centuries. The late Nathan Rotenstreich believed that faith was such a difficult topic for so many because of its inextricable links to theology and religion. In On Faith, his last work, Rotenstreich attempts to detach the concept from its religious underpinnings and consider it in its own right, as a human phenomenon and distinctive cognitive attitude. By making faith a philosophical rather than a historical or theological subject, Rotenstreich explores its essence as an awareness of how we relate within mundane reality to all that is beyond the human world. Arguing for the intentionality of faith, he shows how it structures a variety of relations that range from the experience of the holy to the nature of cults, traditional religion, and the idea of servitude to God. Rotenstreich's phenomenological study will be of great importance for religious scholars as well as for philosophers.