"What inclines even me to believe in Christ's Resurrection? ... If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like another man ... but if I am to be REALLY saved - what I need is certainty - not wisdom, dreams or speculation - and this certainty is faith. And faith is faith in what is needed by my heart, my soul, not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were, with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say: only love can believe in the Resurrection. Or: it is love that believes the Resurrection ... what combats doubt is, as it were, redemption ... so this can come about only if you no longer rest your weight on the earth but suspend yourself from heaven. Then everything will be different and it will be 'no wonder' if you can do things you cannot do now."Ludwig Wittgenstein
Quoted in Anthony Kelly, "ONLY LOVE CAN BELIEVE: THE SINGULARITY OF THE RESURRECTION"
However many times I've read this passage, it's meaning seems to slip by me in one direction or the other. I share it with you here, however, because it suggests something that I am coming to accept more and more: rational thought is not the only nor even the best measure of faith. Meaning, purpose, and faith are constructed by the heart as much as by the mind. The human spirit's thirst for more, deeper, and truer can't be satisfied by reasonable discourse alone—nor do "the facts" no matter how solid bring it profound rest.
