Fear and Trembling (Penguin Classics)
by Soren Kierkegaard
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Book Reviews of Fear and Trembling (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: The debate on the ethical and the spiritual
Summary: 5 Stars
Kierkegaard's book expands on his basic heirarchy of modes of existence - aesthetic, ethical and religious. The book begins with the case of Abraham's decision to sacrifice Isaac because God had ordered him to. The choice of the case is tied to Kierkegaard's desire to exposit on the conflict between ethical and religious modes of existence and show why the religious mode is a higher mode of existence.
Abraham's sacrifice was something that has debatable ethics. However, it is not as simple as a religion-obsessed man sacrificing his son. Abraham and Sarah got the son by appealing to Yehovah. And the same Yehovah asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham's dilemma does not end there. He has to hide the sacrifice from Sarah and from Isaac. He needs to take Isaac with him using Isaac's trust in his father. He needs to take Isaac away using Sarah's trust in Abraham. He needs to do that with the consciousness that he is betraying that trust. And he has to cope with his own conflicting emotions of love for his son, guilt about abusing trust, and his own trust in god. Kierkegaard goes on to explain that it is his trust in god that allowed Abraham to do this - a trust that god would not really want the sacrifice to happen, a trust that god would return his son.
From this, Kierkegaard goes on to prove why a 'teleological supsension of the ethical' is possible and why ethics is not sufficient to serve as a basis for spirituality.
Book Review: Is Going Beyond Faith Possible?
Summary: 5 Stars
Kierkegaard first takes issue with the prevailing (i.e., Hegelian) notion that faith is something to be "transcended" by means of systematic philosophy, and almost baits the reader to consider what it means to go "beyond" faith anyway. Next, he postulates 4 thought experiments that (poetically) reconstruct the Abraham and Isaac ordeal, each of which is intended to show how the story might be harmonized with the prevailing Hegelian mode of understanding the "univeral" in ethical terms. Finally, the section on "Problemata" argues against three (at the time well-known) postulates of Hegelian ethical thought by showing that these are all inconsistent with some remarkable feature of the faith that Abraham evidences. The section on the Knight of Infinite Resignation and the Knight of Faith provide, albeit obliquely, support for the view that the movement of faith is absolute, and cannot be transcended.
Hannay's introduction is excellent (however, I would suggest first skimming it, then reading Kierkegaard's book, then reading it in earnest at the end).
Book Review: Goes Good With Free On-line Course
Summary: 3 Stars
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard originally published in the mid-1800s is widely considered a classic of existentialist literature. These comments pertain to the Penguin version of Fear and Trembling translated by Hannay.
Though Kierkegaard talent is readily apparent, his work can be a difficult slog without the appropriate context or guidance. Personally, I have always found Kierkegaard difficult and as a result have tended to refer to secondary rather than primary sources in dealing with him. My experience with Fear and Trembling was different and markedly more fulfilling. I stumbled across a wonderful free, on-line University of California Berkley existentialist literature course available through i-tunes. The first half dozen or so lectures of this course deal with Fear and Trembling - I highly recommend it.
Overall, it is an excellent version of an important work. I recommend the text as well as a look at the Berkley site.
Book Review: Radical Call to Christian Faith
Summary: 5 Stars
Kierkegaard first takes issue with the prevailing (i.e., Hegelian) notion that faith is something to be "transcended" by means of systematic philosophy, and almost baits the reader to consider what it means to go "beyond" faith anyway. Next, he postulates 4 thought experiments that (poetically) reconstruct the Abraham and Isaac ordeal, each of which is intended to show how the story might be harmonized with the prevailing Hegelian mode of understanding the "univeral" in ethical terms. Finally, the section on "Problemata" argues against three (at the time well-known) postulates of Hegelian ethical thought by showing that these are all inconsistent with some remarkable feature of the faith that Abraham evidences. The section on the Knight of Infinite Resignation and the Knight of Faith provide, albeit obliquely, support for the view that the movement of faith is absolute, and cannot be transcended.
Book Review: Awe-inspiring
Summary: 5 Stars
Somewhat ironically, given that it is ostensibly a work of philosophy and not literature, Fear and Trembling is truly a book to instil awe in the power of language. The reader is swept along in a sea of powerful words, with phrases repeating and overlapping, washing through the mind with waves of energy. Kierkegaard, unlike the majority of major philosophers, can really write.
Or maybe it is the subject matter that allows the flowing style. For this is surely one of THE books of the individual, an examination of the inexplicability of certain actions and the failure of systematic thinking in dealing with real faith. It was brand new in European philosophy at the time, and remains relevant and challenging today. If you want to reassess what God might be, and if you want to understand (without fully understanding) what true belief might mean, open these pages.