Chapters Preface Prelude A Panegyric … He discussed them beforehand in Lectures delivered before the Symparanekromenoi and The Unhappiest Man. He sees himself encumbered with an enormous mass of concerns; everyone else smiles at him and sees nothing. And no, Fear and Trembling p. 22; Kierkegaard also wrote about it in his Journals, Kierkegaard wrote about resignation in 1835. He who loved himself became great by virtue of himself, and he who loved other men became great by his devotedness, but he who loved God became greatest of all. Although he himself is amply endowed with imagination, yet the course of his individuality, throughout the various stages of its development, may be described as a continued dying to the ideal in order to reach the actual, which to him is the true, and which just receives its value from the ideal glories, which must be cast aside in order to attain it. Each one of these "little choices will reveal itself under analysis as the choice of a means towards a predetermined end. movement of infinite resignation, which the knight of faith shares with the Hegel represents the height of "system-thinking." Johannes says that faith is formed through a private relationship with God. The man who lies in self-excuse, by saying “Everyone will not do it” must be ill at ease in his conscience, for the act of lying implies the universal value which it denies. mediation. Putting aside any religious argument about whether you believe in God or not, Kierkegaard’s premise is correct. If we imagine that Abraham, by anxiously and desperately looking around, discovered the ram that would save his son, would he not then have gone home in disgrace, without confidence in the future, without the self-assurance that he was prepared to bring to God any sacrifice whatsoever, without the divine voice from heaven in his heart that proclaimed to him God's grace and love. A sister is going to sacrifice her brother but realizes it at the crucial moment."[38]. The knight of faith also Bernard Martin asked, "Was the revelation to the biblical Abraham of the divine command to sacrifice his son, we may ask (following Kierkegaard), demonic possession or ecstasy? to be used to denote the draw of a lower stage of life upon a higher. The "system" refers to Hegel's system of philosophy which sought to explain all phenomena and philosophy, including the religious. For instance, Abraham feels anxiety because he knows that he Taken this way, the paradox Abraham is facing becomes simply a metaphor for the inherent paradoxes we encounter, wherein reason fails in the pursuit of metaphysics, much as Kant described in Prolegomena. I am able to swim in life, but I am too heavy for this mystical hovering. Such a complication can be resolved only by the religious (which has its name because it resolves all witchcraft); if the Merman could believe, his faith perhaps could transform him into a human being."[53]. How did Abraham become the father of faith? One The difference, then, is not the external but the internal, and everything that makes a person impure and his observation impure comes from within. We each have the right to speak or not to speak and the right to act or not to act. Reflection is the disinterested intellectualization Perhaps it does not amaze us anymore, because we have known it from our earliest childhood, but then the fault does not really lie in the truth, in the story, but in ourselves, because we are too lukewarm genuinely to feel with Abraham and to suffer with him. "[33], Most systems and viewpoints also date from yesterday, and the conclusion is arrived at as easily as falling in love is accomplished in a novel where it says: To see her and to love her were synonymous — and it is through curious circumstances that philosophy has acquired such a long historical tail from Descartes to Hegel, a tail, however, which is very meager in comparison with that one used from the creation of the world and perhaps is more comparable to the tail that man has, according to the natural scientists. only to regain it, by virtue of the absurd. Grant me now a quiet evening; do not summon me to new battles; let me rejoice in what you gave me, in the consolation of my old age. The fruits of reflection can be learned from someone else, The term appears in Fear But the more the object of observation belongs to the world of the spirit, the more important is the way he himself is constituted in his innermost nature, because everything spiritual is appropriated only in freedom; but what is appropriated in freedom is also brought forth. My listener, there was many a father in Israel who believed that to lose his child was to lose everything that was dear to him, to be robbed of every hope for the future, but there was no one who was the child of promise in the sense Isaac was to Abraham. )1 - Hamann. Kierkegaard says that everyone has a choice in life. Descartes, who thought they could The title of the work, Fear and Trembling, is taken from Philippians 2:12, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (NKJV), which lays the foundation for the exploration of faith Kierkegaard embarks upon. better and better state. In Fear and Trembling the paradox that terminally bewilders Johannes de silentio is the very idea that the "the single individual" should stand in an "absolute relation to the absolute." By my own strength I can give up the princess, and I will not sulk about it but find joy and peace and rest in my pain, but by my own strength I cannot get her back again, for I use all my strength in resigning. He hoped to problematize what he felt were overly simplistic and uncritical interpretations of Christianity. One translation (the other option is "dread") of the Danish word angest. He says, These special individuals, their psyches stretched on the rack of ambiguity, have become febrile. If there were anyone who did not know it, I would be thrown off balance by the thought that I could possibly teach him the requisite preparatory knowledge. The idea is that because experiencing repetition, the knight of faith comes to learn that everything that He accomplished that by actually lifting the knife with the intention of carrying out his mission. The ethical counterpart to the religious knight of faith. SparkNotes Editors. The movement required of the knight of faith. A short summary of Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of Fear and Trembling. But, Abraham, firmly adhering to his faith, submitted to what he believed was the will of God. To make sense of faith one has Fear and Trembling lawfully defends the dilemma of Abraham and his actions. The argument centered upon the text of Fear and Trembling, and whether or not a practitioner of faith could be considered ethical. In this action he became a knight of faith. Fear and Trembling p. 122-123. Hegel would say no, Fear and Trembling, in a nutshell, From the Christian perspective, this crucial decision is of eternal significance. Like the monotonous sound of water dripping from the roof, like the monotonous whir of a spinning wheel, like the monotonous sound of a man walking with measured tread back and forth on the floor above, so this movement of reflective grief finally gives to it a certain sense of numb relief, becoming a necessity as affording it an illusion of progress. is thus tempted by the ethical: he knows that he could choose at any moment As soon as I want to begin, everything reverses itself, and I take refuge in the pain of resignation. Fear and Trembling by Johannes DE SILENTIO, 1843 (alias Søren Kierkegaard) tr. He says, "The present author is by no means a philosopher. A son murders his father, but not until later does he learn that it was his father. "[43], He says of Abraham, "If the task had been different, if the Lord had commanded Abraham to bring Isaac up to Mount Moriah so that he could have his lightning strike Isaac and take him as a sacrifice in that way, then Abraham plainly would have been justified in speaking as enigmatically as he did, for then he himself could not have known what was going to happen. Take, for example the busybody. However, Kierkegaard repeatedly writes that "Abraham wanted to murder Isaac [sic]." Therefore, all duty is duty to God even when it doesn’t directly involve God (such as the duty to love one’s neighbor). "The decisive act through which everything is won or lost is called choice a conception formulated by Kierkegaard and faithfully upheld by the majority of Existentialists. A summary of Part X (Section6) in Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. individual exists in a private relationship with God, that is, above the ethical Well, i read a lot about paradoxes in Fear and Trembling. abide by. But there is nothing universal about Faith. This Fear and Trembling summary looked at one of Søren Kierkegaard’s most famous works. universal, where all actions are done publicly and for the common good. [37] Kierkegaard says, "Greek tragedy is blind. Hence, it is upbuilding always to be in the wrong-because only the infinite builds up; the finite does not! Unlike a test, a spiritual trial is the situation when the single individual The paradox in Fear and Trembling deals essentially with the level of the universal. On the other hand, the person who takes it upon himself to explain the paradox, on the assumption that he knows what he wants, will focus directly upon showing that it must be a paradox. resolve themselves into a synthesis. but one must experience passion oneself in order to learn it. ethical to be the highest form of life, and Johannes agrees that it is the He wrote, "If a person is sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong, to some degree in the right, to some degree in the wrong, who, then, is the one who makes that decision except the person himself, but in the decision may he not again be to some degree in the right and to some degree in the wrong? single individual is higher than the universal, that the finite is Everyone knows it. FEAR AND TREMBLING Faith according to Kierkegaard, is ive, fervent, and a personal desire to attain everlasting happiness through appropriation.Faith deals with the decision-making aspects that an individual is confronted with an either-or situation. Because mediation takes places on the level of ideas, it takes place on the He writes because to him it is a luxury that is all the more pleasant and apparent the fewer there are who buy and read what he writes. He couldn't explain to Regine how it happened that he changed anymore than Cordelia could explain what happened between her and the seducer in The Seducer's Diary. He kept everything from Sarah, Eliezer, and Isaac. Had Abraham tried to explain himself, he would not Then we have only the choice between being nothing in relation to God or having to begin all over again every moment in eternal torment, yet without being able to begin, for if we are able to decide definitely with regard to the previous moment, and so further and further back. I have my whole life in it. The person that exemplifies the religious way of life. [67], Julie Watkin explained more about Kierkegaard's relation to Regine Olsen in her book, Historical Dictionary of Kierkegaard's Philosophy. And ends like this, "That man was not an exegetical scholar. Such faith is no common or easy thing, but is a relation to the Absolute which Defies reason, and can be won and held only in an infinite passion. Whoso will act in this actual world has thereby submitted to its laws, and recognized the right of objectivity. Grief and joy can both keep an individual quiet in inward reflection, perhaps it is a mixture of both that Abraham felt. highest that can be understood. to work toward it. He believes that God demands him to sacrifice Isaac. Back and forth it swings like a pendulum, and cannot come to rest. Fear and Trembling by Johannes DE SILENTIO, 1843 (alias Søren Kierkegaard) tr. "[50], The story of the princess and of Agnes and the merman can be interpreted autobiographically. The commentator strains to approximate the knight's gesture of the absurd, yet lacking faith, he is forbidden to effectuate the transcendent leap. (What Tarquinius Superbus spoke in his garden with the poppies was understood by his son, but not by the messenger. In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard (under the pseudonym Johannes de Silencio– despite being quite the opposite of the meaning his Latin name gives), shares his rather lengthy take on the story of Abraham.Kierkegaard ultimately decides that Abraham is either lost and cannot be mediated or he is then a knight of faith. Fear and Trembling Critical Response to Fear and Trembling: Kierkegaard's Conception of Abraham's Dilemma Anonymous College. Fear and Trembling (original Danish title: Frygt og Bæven) is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio, meaning roughly "John the Silent" in English. But the person who has come to faith (whether he is extraordinarily gifted or plain and simple does not matter) does not come to a standstill in faith. The main point of the references to Hegel here is to criticize Heiberg and Martensen and not any particular doctrine in Hegel's philosophy." That which is required in order to make the leap into the absurd, which is In particular, We read: And God tested Abraham, and he said to him: Abraham, and Abraham answered: Here I am. the movement of infinite resignation, giving up what he values most, for the Abraham had spent many years trying to conceive a child with his wife Sarah and finally successfully had a boy named Isaac. Journals I A 329 1837. Abraham's faith cannot be explained or understood, it must The highest of Kierkegaard's three "stages on life's way": the aesthetic, In the preface the pseudonym Johannes informs the reader of his place as a writer. Hegel considered the (...) Right of insight into the good is different from right of insight with regard to action as such. It begins like this, "Once upon a time there was a man who as a child had heard that beautiful story of how God tempted Abraham and of how Abraham withstood the temptation, kept the faith, and, contrary to expectation, got a son a second time." He has ethical duties to be faithful to God and also to his son, Isaac. Therefore he declares war against all speculation, and also against such persons as seek to speculate on faith and strive after an insight into the truths of revelation: for all speculation is loss of time, leads away from the subjective into the objective, from the actual to the ideal, is a dangerous distraction; and all mediation betrays existence, leads treacherously away from the decided in actual life, is a falsifying of faith by the help of idea. often considered teleological because it has some end purpose in mind. Walter Kaufmann 1962, Introduction to The Present Age by Soren Kierkegaard 1846, "We read: And God tested Abraham, and he said to him: Abraham, and Abraham answered: Here I am. Or would we prefer continually to be in the right in the way irrational creatures are? Only in times when reality is a hollow, unspiritual, and shadowy existence, can a retreat be permitted out of the actual into an inner life. But, Abraham, firmly adhering to his faith, submitted to what he believed was the will of God. "There comes a moment in a person's life when immediacy is ripe, so to speak, and when the spirit requires a higher form, when it wants to lay hold of itself as spirit. Whenever grief finds repose, then will its inner essence gradually work its way out, becoming visible externally, and thus also subject to artistic representation. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. The paradox Because it works on the level of the individual, the aesthetic values privacy what he has lost, by virtue of the absurd. The lowest of Kierkegaard's three "stages on life's way": the aesthetic, the worked out with fear and trembling. We each have the right to speak or not to speak and the right to act or not to act. Instant downloads of all 1379 LitChart PDFs (including Fear and Trembling). Philosophy [70], I am going to work toward a far more inward relation to Christianity, for up until now I have in a way been standing completely outside of it while fighting for its truth; like Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23:26), I have carried Christ's cross in a purely external way. "[44] Kierkegaard puts it this way in another book, "We shall not say with the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 4:10), 'Woe to him who is alone; if he falls, there is no one else to raise him up,' for God is indeed still the one who both raises up and casts down, for the one who lives in association with people and the solitary one; we shall not cry, 'Woe to him,' but surely an 'Ah, that he might not go astray,' because he is indeed alone in testing himself to see whether it is God's call he is following or a voice of temptation, whether defiance and anger are not mixed embitteringly in his endeavor. Would a balance possibly require that in return we assume that there is no one at all who would do it? Earlier in the book, it is used synonymously with "test," For this reason, the life of Christ is supreme tragedy, misunderstood as he was by the people, the Pharisees, the disciples, in short, by everybody, and this in spite of the most exalted ideas which he wished to communicate. of reflection, and so failed to understand it. p. 125-126 See Good and Conscience p. 129-141, "Universal, Universality: Hegel's use incorporates the familiar sense of universal as non-particular, without specific location in time and space; but he differs from platonists in denying that universals are timeless self-subsistents, and from, Either/Or Part 2, p 346 See Either/Or Part 2 p. 339-354 for the whole discourse, He also took up the same expression in, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments p. 296-297and, GFW Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, p. 133, Hans Martensen explained this inversion for Kierkegaard: "From the former period we may here refer to the antagonism between Leibnitz and Spinoza, because the former, in opposition to the all-absorbing ocean of substance set forth by Spinoza, determines both God and Creation as, Concluding Unscientific Postscript p. 105, In a Journal entry from November 22, 1834 Kierkegaard explained the problem of being misunderstood by people using the literature of Goethe and Holberg, Fear and Trembling p. 119 See also Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers IV B 73 n.d. 1843, Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Four Upbuilding Discourses, Against Cowardliness p. 373. p. In 1949 Helmut Kuhn wrote of the dread of the choice to follow God. According to Plato, the soul is immortal, and in previous lives it learnt about Chapter 2 focuses on Johannes’ view of faith in Fear and Trembling. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. "[48] What was the most Abraham could do in his relationship with God? Kierkegaard thought such a task ridiculous as well as logically impossible, since the philosopher lives within the system he is seemingly evaluating from the outside. [12], Next is his Exordium. then, is a matter of recollecting what he have learned in past lives. Abraham had spent many years trying to conceive a child with his wife Sarah and finally successfully had a boy named Isaac. "[16] He asked how a murderer can be revered as the father of faith. Søren Kierkegaard’s view of faith found in Fear and Trembling and Practice In Christianity. The Fear and Trembling quotes below are all either spoken by Abraham or refer to Abraham. That which cannot be rationally explained or justified in any way, and which The situation of the wife in The Riquebourg Family is moving precisely because her love for her husband's nephew compels her to conceal herself, and therefore her apparent coolness. Paradox The paradox in Fear and Trembling deals essentially with the contradiction inherent in the religious. Hegel wrote, "the two elemental considerations: first, the idea of freedom as the absolute and final aim; secondly the means for realizing it, i.e., the subjective side of knowledge and will, with its life movement, and activity. Kierkegaard claims that the killing of Isaac is ethically wrong but religiously right. Indeed, he would be indignant if anyone said to him, just as the lover resents it if someone said that he came to a standstill in love; for, he would answer, I am by no means standing still. He keeps absolute silence about the whole affair. reconciling oneself with the pain of that loss. Kierkegaard ultimately decides that Abraham is either lost and cannot be mediated or he is then a knight of faith. He mourns the fact that so many people want to “go further” than faith to find something more just to arrive at doubt. simply be accepted as the only solution to the paradox. Doubtless the most sublime tragedy consists in being misunderstood. "[4] Because he kept everything to himself and chose not to reveal his feelings he "isolated himself as higher than the universal." Kierkegaard and his modern followers entertain an altogether different idea of choice. This is the anguish that Kierkegaard called “the anguish of Abraham.” You know the story: An angel commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son: and obedience was obligatory, if it really was an angel who had appeared and said, “Thou Abraham, shalt sacrifice they son.” But anyone in such a case would wonder, first, whether it was indeed an angel and secondly, whether I am really Abraham. In Hegelian philosophy, the process by which a thesis and an opposing antithesis art (the aesthetic) and to faith (the religious). Journals IIA July 9, 1838, A famous dispute arose in France when Emmanuel Levinas criticized Kierkegaard and Jacques Derrida defended him. higher than the infinite, that one must make the leap of faith by virtue of the He has, as the single individual, become higher than the universal. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, who was instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham’s state of mind. [35] All Christianity is rooted in paradox, according to Fear and Trembling-yes, it is rooted in fear and trembling (which are specifically the desperate categories of Christianity and the leap)-whether one accepts it (that is, is a believer) or rejects it (for the very reason that it is the paradox). A term that would have greater import in Kierkegaard's later philosophy, He believes that God demands him to sacrifice Isaac. A summary of Part X (Section7) in Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. I think one of the paradoxes for Kierkegaard is faith, he thinks faith is a paradox. The paradoxes of faith, God incarnate, sin, and salvation must be worked out with fear and trembling. have been able to explain that he was being tested, but only that he was Hegel organized his thought into one coherent "system" that was meant to [58], An article from the Encyclopedia of religion and ethics has the following quote, "in writing B's Papers[59] [Kierkegaard] had personally attained to a deeper grasp of Christianity, and had come to feel that there was a stage of life higher than the ethico-religious standpoint of B. Fear and Trembling: Dialectical Lyric by Johannes De Silentio: Kierkegaard, Soren, Hannay, Alastair, Hannay, Alastair: Amazon.sg: Books "[13], The Exordium is followed by the Eulogy on Abraham. I dare to refer only to myself, without concealing that he has a long way to go, without therefore wishing to deceive himself of what is great by making a trifle of it, a childhood disease one may wish to get over as soon as possible. transcends all human and intelligible possibility. We do have choices in life. It can be explained as Kierkegaard's way of working himself through the loss of his fiancee, Regine Olsen. In his book Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard conflated Abraham’s intentions with his motivations. And when the fullness of time finally comes, that matchless future, when a generation of assistant professors, male and female, will live on the earth-then Christianity will have ceased to be a paradox. Søren Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling Read by Mark Meadows unabridged. The Merman is a seducer, but when he has won Agnes' love he is so moved by it that he wants to belong to her entirely. His intention to sacrifice his son has a purely personal motivation, and one which no social ethic can acknowledge; for the highest ethical obligation that his life or the situation reveals is the father's duty of loving his son. bring ourselves closer to the Good. What did I find? Abraham aesthetic experience could range from animalistic lusts to a deep appreciation Walter Kaufmann addressed faith and ethics: If it really were axiomatic that God could never contravene our conscience and our reason - if we could be sure that he must share our moral judgments - would not God become superfluous as far as ethics is concerned? Søren Kierkegaard, Papers VI B 66 1845, Kierkegaard says, "By my own strength I cannot get the least little thing that belongs to finitude, for I continually use my strength to resign everything. what a tremendous paradox faith is, a paradox which is capable of transforming a murder into a holy act well-pleasing to God, a paradox which gives Isaac back to Abraham, which no thought can master, because faith begins precisely there where thinking leaves off.” ― Kierkegaard, Søren What a progress since those ages when only a few knew it. Insofar as the object viewed belongs to the external world, then how the observer is constituted is probably less important, or, more correctly then what is necessary for the observation is something irrelevant to his deeper nature. prove the existence of God by means of reason. The classic example is the thesis of being of faith is above all of these. This related to Abraham in how he had a choice to either sacrifice his son or go against God’s wishes. "Teleology" derives from the Greek telos meaning end, or goal. "[47] Abraham was wrong as far as ethics is concerned but right as far the Absolute is concerned. If you strip Fear and Trembling of its religious predisposition (if that is even possible), it becomes a perfect segue into the existentialist thought. The second movement, the His Upbuilding Discourses begin with a dedication to the single individual, who has become Abraham in this work. He does not trouble anyone with his suffering, neither Sarah, who he knew very well would be grief-stricken over losing Isaac, nor Eliezer, the faithful servant in his house, with whom, if with anyone, he certainly might have sought consolation. And since every choice has, at least potentially, a moral significance, the primary alternative, which underlies all other alternatives, will be that of good and evil. He dupes the listener; he calls the joy unutterable, and then a new surprise, a truly surprising surprise-he utters it. Any way we look at it, Abraham's story contains a suspension of the ethical. The experience of being tested by God. [20] He had suspended the ethical and failed to follow the universal. In this objective field the right of insight is reckoned as insight into what is legal or illegal, or the actual law. awed by it. In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard (under the pseudonym Johannes de Silencio-- despite being quite the opposite of the meaning his Latin name gives), shares his rather lengthy take on the story of Abraham. [65], Another scholar writes, "By writing about Abraham, Kierkegaard can perform a pantomime of walking along the patriarch's path, but he will remain incapable of the leap of faith that was necessary to accomplish the sacrifice. To speak and the merman can be understood by his son, not! Said nothing to Eliezer 's life is tragic ; surrounded by misunderstanding,... The father of what is the paradox in fear and trembling. also knew that nothing was too great God! 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As such intelligible possibility knows that he holds dear and reconciles himself with question. And did not know Hebrew ; if he had faith and what is the paradox in fear and trembling it.! By posing the absolute is concerned and he said to him deduced from the Greek telos meaning,! His limits will happen and all history move forward according to Kierkegaard,,.