First published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio
(“John of Silence”), Soren Kierkegaard’s richly resonant Fear
and Trembling has for generations stood as a pivotal text in the
history of moral philosophy, inspiring such artistic and
philosophical luminaries as Edvard Munch, W. H. Auden, Walter
Benjamin, and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. Now, in our era of
immense uncertainty, renowned Kierkegaard scholar Bruce H. Kirmmse
eloquently brings this classic work to a new generation of readers.
Retelling the biblical story of the binding of Isaac, Fear and
Trembling expounds on the ordeal of Abraham, who was commanded by
God to sacrifice his own son in an exceptional test of faith.
Disgusted at the self-certainty of his own age, Kierkegaard
investigates the paradox underlying Abraham’s decision to allow
his duty to God to take precedence over his duties to his family.
As Kierkegaard’s narrator explains, the story presents a
difficulty that is not often considered—namely, that after the
ordeal is over and Isaac has been spared at the last moment,
Abraham is capable of receiving him again and living normally, even
joyfully, for the rest of his days. Almost inexplicably, “Abraham
had faith and did not doubt.” Deftly tracing the autobiographical
threads that run throughout the work, Kirmmse initially, in his
lucid and engaging introduction, demystifies Kierkegaard’s
fictive narrator, Johannes de silentio, drawing parallels between
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son and the author’s
personal “sacrifices.” Ultimately, however, Kirmmse reveals
Fear and Trembling as a fiercely polemical volume, designed to
provoke the reader into considering what is actually meant by the
word “faith”, and whether those who consider themselves “true
believers” actually are. With a vibrancy almost never before seen
in English, and “a matchless grasp of the intricacies of
Kierkegaard’s writing process” (Gordon Marino), Kirmmse here
definitively demonstrates Kierkegaard’s enduring power to
illuminate the terrible wonder of faith.
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