According
to Kierkegaard in the first chapter of Fear and
Trembling, Abraham's faith was tested and maintained in the prolonged wait for
his promised successor, but the hardest test was yet to come. In one moment all
was lost, the impossible was made possible in the birth of Isaac but now God
demands to destroy everything. God does not seem to have mercy not for the
elderly man nor for the innocent child. The promise given to Abraham, to turn
him into a great nation, hangs in the balance when God asks him to sacrifice
his only child, everything that Abraham ever did for God, Abraham himself, is
about to become meaningless and forgotten.
But Abraham, Kierkegaard says, held on to his faith. Abraham
did not doubt God nor his promise even in the face of an impossible
contradiction. God asked of Abraham to eradicate all conditioned devotion by abandoning
reason and the willingness to carry out God's task of ending what God himself
gave him.
But Abraham, according to Kierkegaard, believed in the
impossible, in the Paradox and the absurd. He
was no skeptic philosopher (see preface to Fear and Trembling). Kierkegaard argues that had
Abraham chosen at that point to end his own life over his son's he would have
been remembered as an admirable man, but not as the father of faith but as yet
another tragic hero.
Abraham does not oppose God nor try to dissuade him. All Abraham does is confidently
say "Here I am". We know that Abraham's was a test, but had he
himself had any doubt in that moment as to what he is supposed and about to do,
his faith would have been lost for good. Only by completely obeying God can
Abraham maintain his faith. But Kierkegaard says that the mountain of Moriah
will be remembered as a place of faith, not of doubt, and as the place in which
Abraham got it all (including immortal fame). Kierkegaard concludes the
"Eulogy of Abraham" by saying that Abraham spent his days never
trying to "get further than to faith" (Fear and Trembling,
p.75).
Back to the main summary of Fear and Trembling
or by chapter:
Preface
Exordium
Eulogy on Abraham
Preliminary Expectoration
Problem I
Problem II
Problem III
or by chapter:
Preface
Exordium
Eulogy on Abraham
Preliminary Expectoration
Problem I
Problem II
See also:
Some books to check out:
