Percy, Walker. "The Message in the Bottle" in The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, And What One Has To Do With the Other. New York: Picador.
Island news is something the islanders can figure out on their own; news from across the sea can only be delivered by a divine messenger. Percy asserts, "It is news, however, this news from across the seas, and it is as a piece of news that it must be evaluated. Faith is the organ of the historical, says Kierkegaard" (144). Percy contrasts the different conceptions of faith as defined by Kierkegaard and Thomas Aquinas: Aquinas states, "The act of faith consists essentially in knowledge and there we find its formal or specific perfection." Aquinas is saying that faith resides in the intellect. Arvin Vos states that Aquinas's view of faith is that faith is an act of the intellect, for its goal is truth. However, the intellect is moved to this act "under the impetus of the will moving it to assent." In contrast, Kierkegaard argues, "Faith is not a form of knowledge; for all knowledge is either knowledge of the eternal, excluding the temporal and the historical as indifferent, or it is pure historical knowledge. No knowledge can have for its object the absurdity that the eternal is the historical." Stephen Evans asserts, that according to Kierkegaard, "Christian faith is understood to be a passion, a new or higher 'second' form of immediacy, what Kierkegaard sometimes calls an 'immediacy after reflection,' meaning that it is not simply a natural or spontaneous form of immediacy but a quality that must be developed, and that the individual has some role in developing."
Kierkegaard seems to be stressing that faith is a movement of the heart and will. It is not mere intellectual assent. Evans states that Aquinas's concept is a faith beyond reason. In describing Kierkegaard's view of faith, he says it is both above reason and against reason. Percy sides with Aquinas in believing that faith is knowledge, and he thinks Kierkegaard is wrong in setting up an "antinomy of faith versus reason." He argues that island news and news from across the sea "would correspond roughly with the two knowledges of Saint Thomas: (1) scientific knowledge, in which assent is by reason, (2) knowledge of faith, in which scientific knowledge and assent are undertaken scientifically" (107). Scientific knowledge for medievals is not restricted to modern day science, but all forms of knowledge. Percy wants to argue with Aquinas and the Catholic tradition that faith does not contradict reason. Percy thinks Kierkegaard sees faith as the "Absolute Paradox" and that embracing it is "setting aside reason."
The castaway sees himself in a predicament in which island news will not help him. Because he knows that island news does not address his situation, he is open to a message from across the seas. Westkarp explains Percy's view on faith as knowledge: "Faith is news 'from across the seas' is, according to Percy, not Kierkegaard's embrace of the Absolute Paradox, not credo quia absurdem est, but a knowledge in which with Thomas Aquinas scientific knowledge and assent are undertaken simultaneously. . . Percy accepts Kierkegaard's definition of faith as 'the organ of the historical' but adds to it Aquinas's understanding of faith as a special kind of knowledge 'in which scientific knowledge [assent achieved by reason] and assent are undertaken simultaneously,' . . . combining in a magnificent way Kierkegaard's and Aquinas's thoughts about faith."
Percy says that faith must be communicated to the hearer. For faith comes by hearing the message. Percy asserts, "Faith comes from God, but is also comes from hearing. It is a piece of news and there is a news bearer. But why should we believe a news bearer?" (146). Percy draws from Kierkegaard's distinction between an apostle and a genius. A genius would communicate island news, but an apostle would deliver news from across the seas. Westkarp states, "It is characteristic that Percy, in 'The Message in the Bottle,' presents his view of the revelation in a paradoxical form, since the scientist-philosopher-artist would expect the message about salvation to be presented as knowledge sub specie aeternitatis. But Percy shows that precisely the opposite is true, 'that salvation comes by hearing, by a piece of news, and not through knowledge sub specie aeternitatis.
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