Religious Studies and Theology, Vol 34, No 1 (2015)

From the Shadows of Mt. Moriah: Approaching Faith in Fear and Trembling

Chandler D. Rogers
Issued Date: 27 May 2015

Abstract


Johannes de Silentio, the pseudonymous author of Fear and Trembling, purports to be an individual who admires faith but cannot attain to its unearthly standards. The discontinuity between Kierkegaard, who self identified as a religious author, and de Silentio, who approaches Abraham in self-doubt, is apparent—and as a result, some have argued for an utter dissociation between these two authors. I argue that such dissociation undermines the potency of the work, especially with regard to the perspective on faith presented therein. The significance of de Silentio’s perspective becomes clear when set against the backdrop of Kierkegaard’s view of the relationship between anxiety and faith; in this light, de Silentio turns out to represent an early stage of the individual’s religious development, and Kierkegaard turns out to have recently surpassed this stage before writing the work.

Download Media

PDF (Price: £17.50 )

DOI: 10.1558/rsth.v34i2.26011

References


Davenport, John J. 2008. “Faith as Eschatological Trust in Fear and Trembling.” In Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard: Philosophical Engagements, edited by Edward F. Mooney. 196–233. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


Dillard, Annie. 1974. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Harper.


Evans, C. Stephen. 2006. Kierkegaard’s Ethic of Love: Divine Commands and Moral Obligations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Green, Ronald M. 1986. “Deciphering Fear and Trembling’s Secret Message.” Religious Studies 22(1): 95–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500018060


Kierkegaard, Søren. 1978a. Journals EE-KK. Vol. II of Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, edited by Howard and Edna Hong. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


———. 1978b. Journals NB-NB5. Vol. V of Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, edited by Howard and Edna Hong. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


———. 1981. The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin (Kierkegaard’s Writings, VIII). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


———. 1983. Fear and Trembling/Repetition (Kierkegaard’s Writings, VI). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


———. 1986. Fear and Trembling. New York: Penguin Classics.


———. 2009. Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Crumbs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Kirmmse, Bruce H. 1996. Encounters in Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


Mooney, Edward F. 1991. Knights of Faith and Resignation: Reading Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. Albany: State University of New York Press.


———. 2013. “Pseudonyms and Style,” in The Oxford Handbook of Kierkegaard, edited by John Lippitt and George Pattison, 191–210. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Santurri, Edmund N. 1977. “Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling in Logical Perspective.” The Journal of Religious Ethics 5(2): 225–247.


Rumble, Vanessa. 1997. “Eternity Lies Beneath: Autonomy and Finitude in Kierkegaard’s Early Writings.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 35(1): 83–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hph.1997.0017


Watts, Daniel. 2011. “Dilemmatic Deliberations in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.” Faith and Philosophy 28(2): 174–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/faithphil20112823


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Equinox Publishing Ltd - 415 The Workstation 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)114 221-0285 - Email: [email protected]

Privacy Policy