In
his exordium to Fear and Trembling Søren
Kierkegaard accounts for a man's growing fascination with the story of
Abraham's binding of Isaac. This interest culminated in a deep desire to
witness the event and to accompany Abraham and Isaac on their three day
journey. This man did not try to go beyond faith in understanding the
impressive Abraham (see the Preface to Fear and Trembling), and he was no biblical scholar who knows Hebrew
and therefore he has only himself in order to make sense of the story.
Kierkegaard offers four alternative versions or interpretations
of the binding of Isaac. In the first one Abraham poses to Isaac as an idolater
in order for him not to lose faith in God's goodness. In the second version
Abraham returns from the mountain but he has lost any joy in his life following
the event. In the third alternative version Kierkegaard offers Abraham rides
alone to the mountain where he asks forgiveness for considering sacrificing
Isaac. In the fourth take on things it is Isaac who loses faith following his
attempted sacrifice.
All the different variation of the sacrifice story are
accompanied by a comparison with the relationship of a child with his mother's
breasts. In the first scenario the mother covers her breasts and denies them in
order to maintain herself in the eye of the child. The father, Abraham, in this
case is the one who is sacrificed and no longer serves as mediator between God
and the child. In the second version, the mother denies her breasts and the
child loses his mother. Isaac is alive but he has lost his father. In the third
version the sorrowing mother keeps the child close just a little longer before
they sadly part. Abraham mediates Isaac's relation to God, and both of them
bemoan losing him. In the fourth version the mother has better food for her
child to keep him alive after weaning.
Kierkegaard concludes the exordium to Fear and Trembling by
stating that there is no one who is as great as Abraham, and who can understand
him? The story of the sacrifice of Isaac will be the focal point of Fear and
Trembling.
Back to the main summary of Fear and Trembling
or by chapter:
Exordium
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