In “Dover Beach,” what kind of faith remains when absolute religious faith is gone?

In this bleak but poignant poem Arnold describes the
context of his times, where he felt that faith was retreating like the retreating tide
from his society, leaving people naked and exposed to the world and its harshness and
cruelty. In Arnold's vision of the world, the only form of faith that remains is that
which is based on love and the relationships that we have with our loved ones. Note how
he develops this theme in the last stanza:

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Ah, love, let us be true
To one
another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of
dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy,
nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for
pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused
alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by
night.

Note how the bleak
image of Arnold's world is developed. It has no 'joy, nor love, nor light / Nor
certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.' Existence is described as being on a 'darkling
plain' where 'ignorant armies clash by night.' The only recourse or faith that is
available therefore is expressed in the speaker's plea to his love for them to be true
to each other. Without religious faith, faith in our relationships and with our loved
ones is the only security we can have in such a world.