Leap Of Unfaith Poem by gershon hepner

Although he tried, he couldn’t make the leap
of unfaith, since it gave him less relief
when wading in its waters, hardly deep,
he found, as those he swam in with belief.

That ultimately we’re all dead
did not cause him to lose much sleep,
but though God never caused him dread,
He was the company he’d keep.

He found God far beyond his in-
ellectual reach, and though a man’s
reach should exceed his grasp, found sin
trumped God––it always has more fans.


Inspired by a statement by Ian McEwan concerning John Updike in an article in TNR, March 12,2009 (“On John Updike”) :

This most Lutheran of writers, driven by intellectual curiosity all his life, was troubled by science as others are troubled by God. When it suited him, he could easily absorb and be impressed by physics, biology, astronomy, but he was constitutionally unable to “make the leap of unfaith.” The “weight” of personal death did not allow it, and much seriousness and dark humor derive from this tension between intellectual reach and metaphysical dread.

2/25/09