Chapter 1 - Homing in on Fear and Trembling

Summary

Introduction

Questions posed by the stark cameo of parental sacrifice in Fear and Trembling penetrate to the heart of Kierkegaard’s writings. Yet to serve as an introduction to these, the work itself must be read through a suitably adjusted lens. To those meeting Kierkegaard here for the first time, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac and the attached notion of “suspending the ethical” may simply confirm those once widespread rumors of the Danish writer’s irrationalism. Even sympathetic commentators seeking a place for it within a consistent picture of Kierkegaard’s thought and works can feel its challenge.

A useful first adjustment is to read Fear and Trembling in the context of Kierkegaard’s lifelong project of relieving the traditional disciplines of philosophy and theology of their hold on questions of value and morals. If only as a start, it helps to see Fear and Trembling as a literary stunt aimed at startling its readers into considering a situation where, in the absence of such traditional backing, we, the readers, are left to answer such questions on our own.