As I began to think about this question I realized that there is no simple yes or no answer. In order to understand this question you have to know what faith is. Faith to me is a trust in someone or something when you do not know what the outcome will be. It is believing that a person will be there for you if you need them. It also could be a simple faith in yourself, knowing who you are as a person. While I did see Holden exhibiting some faith, I also saw him having no faith at other times. I do think Holden exhibited faith towards people like Jane whom he liked and trusted. Also before he got into a fight with his roommate Stradlater, he exhibited some faith in him. He admired Stradlater, and trusted him while at Pency Prep.
Besides those few instances where he did have faith in people, mostly he exhibited no faith in people. For instance after Holden leaves Pency he travels from club to club in the city, where he stumbles across people all of which he thinks are phony. I think this demonstrates a lack of faith.
I also think he demonstrates a lack of faith in the children at the school Phoebe, his younger sister, attends. As he walks through the school he sees curse words on the wall, so he tries to erase them to protect their innocence. He then realizes that he can’t erase all the curse words because every where he goes there will always be more. He shows a lack of faith because he doesn’t trust the children to make good decisions after the see the curse words.
I also think Holden demonstrates a lack of faith in himself. All throughout the book, Holden is torn between trying to fit in with the kids he encounters and trying to fit in with the adults. He wants to help the kids at the playground, but they look at him funny when he tries to help them on the seesaw. I think this shows a lack of faith in himself because he seems to not even know who he really is.
As I thought about this book, I do not think that Holden’s faith can be categorized as yes he has faith or no he doesn’t, I think the answer is that he exhibits both. However I do think that he exhibits a greater degree of a lack of faith though.