Is there anything transitive or virtuous about faith itself?
Yes.
A) There are 3 important concepts:
A1)
Knowledge: Imagine you are Daniel Russo in "The Karate Kid". You come to a new town. The ex of a girl you like and who likes you, has it in for you. He and his friends are good at Karate. He and his friends can beat you up any time they like. That is certain. That is true. That, you know.
A2)
Belief: The local maintenance guy in your building is a little old Japanese man. He thinks he can teach you to defend yourself against the bullies. He seems to be really good at fighting. You don't really know if he can teach you how to fight, or if it will be any good at fighting off several bullies who are much bigger than he is. But, you think there's a good chance that he's right, enough that it's worth the effort. You BELIEVE in Mr Miyagi.
A3)
Faith: You're in a fight with the bullies. They're more powerful than you. They've got you on the ground, and are kicking you mercilessly. It seems like all the things Mr Miyagi taught you, are worthless. You're upset. You're angry. You're afraid. You can't even think straight.
But you remember that at one stage, you thought that Mr Miyagi really was a good teacher, and how he taught you to do things you never thought possible. So you tell yourself "even though now, it seems crazy to do what he said, I know that in the past, I thought what he taught me was the best way to defend myself, so I'm going to stick with what he said NOW, anyway, despite my pain, my fears and all my doubts."
So, even though they're still kicking you, you calm yourself, steady your breathing, and do what your Sensei taught you. If what you remember was correct, and what he taught you does work, you will defeat them.
That is what faith means.
It means "fidelis", loyalty, to that which you knew in the past was true, even when in the present, your emotions and your doubts now cloud your judgement and make you think of giving up your path.
B) That is why people who do not cheat on their spouses are called "faithful". When you are first in love, you are sure that you don't want to be with anyone else. After years of marriage, you have a wife and kids, and are sure of the value of keeping that.
Then your life turns to sh*t, and you meet a pretty young woman who wants you. You don't see any point in sticking with your wife and your kids.
But if you have faith, then you remember how things used to be between you and your wife, and you are reasonably sure that even though it doesn't make sense to you now, it did in the past, and you think it's worth sticking to what you were sure of in the past.
So you don't throw your marriage away. You say "thanks, but I'm married." You go home to your wife and kids, in the hope, the belief, that what you used to be certain of in the past, is still true, and your feelings on the matter now, are just temporary feelings that will soon change.
If you are not faithful, you just move on.
C) The video's author states that Kierkegaard writes "Faith begins precisely where thought stops".
Note that he does not say "where reason stops", but "where thought stops". He lived in a time when David Hume wrote about the difference between "thoughts" and "feelings".
He means "When you have your thoughts, you can reason well, then you do not need faith to guide you. Faith only begins to matter, once you cannot think straight anymore, and what used to make perfect sense to you, now seems to be pointless. That is when you either give up and lose all of your past efforts, or you persevere and see the road you began, to the end."
The video illustrates an example of faith, in a religious context, but it's explination does not block it into that context, and niether does Kiekergaard.
I have analysed the video. But I'll leave that for another post.
