Soren Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that, in his book "Fear and Trembling", Soren Kierkegaard considers Abraham's climbing up the mountains to sacrifice his son, even though Abraham could not understand the command, as an act of blind and ultimate faith. The author points out that the concept of infinite resignation---when the tragic hero tries to make major leaps of faith and hopes to get nothing in return because he believes to have submitted to faith---is used by Kierkegaard in rather negative terms. The paper relates that, compared to infinite resignation, a knight of faith believes that acts of faith must be done repeatedly and regularly, feels that these acts must be "made in virtue of the absurd" and considers that the reward comes in the form of "gaining the finite".

From the Paper:

"Knight of faith is described as someone who gives up everything for faith but believes to be amply rewarded for all his actions. He is a simple man with an honest and sincere belief that he will be rewarded. Abraham as a knight of faith "The knight of faith is someone who is able to remain fully committed to an absurd action with faith that, as Kierkegaard says, through the absurd the object which was resigned will be granted back through the infinite." Infinite is something that is not within the boundaries of rationale and the phenomenon is unexplainable because when one accepts the repercussions of an action and acts..."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Mohrfeld, J. & Liebendorfer, D. (2005). Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard and the Unspeakable. Journal of Undergraduate Research. MSU-Mankato. Volume 5.
• Kierkegaard. S. (1954). Fear and Trembling with The Sickness Unto Death.Trans. Walter Lowrie. New York: Doubleday and Company Inc.
• William James. "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth". Lecture 6 in Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. New York: Longman Green and Co (1907): p. 83

More papers on Soren Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling":

• Essay # 4115 : "Fear and Trembling"
• Essay # 55528 : "Soren Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"
• Book Review # 99820 : "Fear and Trembling"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: