Christ Agonistes

William James would like you to imagine that you are stuck on a mountain ledge, “from which the only escape is by a terrible leap.” Now for the good news: if you have faith that you can jump across, then you will. But let yourself brood on the odds of success and “you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll in the abyss.”’ The thought experiment underlines that you must “believe what is in the line of your needs, for only by the belief is the need fulfilled.” If you succumb to pessimism about the worth or meaning of our world, then your despair may become so self-fulfilling that it even ends in suicide. But if you live in the faith that is a spiritual order beyond this realm, which justifies its evils, you will pull through.