Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling is a classic in both
theology and philosophy alike. In what is probably his most well-known
book, Denmark’s most famous philosopher muses, through his pseudonym
Johannes de Silentio, about the Akedah story, the story within
the book of Genesis which recounts Abraham’s binding of his son Isaac as
a sacrifice to God. This collection brings together seven essays that
read Fear and Trembling as a classic, that is: as a work that
can speak meaningfully to people in different places and at different
times, and that can be read fruitfully from within a diversity of
theoretical frameworks and approaches. Fear and Trembling is
linked here, not only with other important philosophers, such as Adorno,
Heidegger and Westphal, but it is also related to the so-called
“non-metaphysical” approach to Hegel and to the debate on the “ethics of
belief”. Questions are raised about Fear and Trembling and
religious diversity, historical criticism, and authorial intent, and the
work is approached from within poetry (Erik Johan Stagnelius) and drama
(Paul Claudel), but also from within one contributor’s personal
experiences with theological education. In this way, the seven
contributions brought together in the present book offer something of a
panoramic view on Fear and Trembling, a view that may inspire to
either turn or return to Kierkegaard’s most famous book, and let
oneself, for the first time or once more, be challenged, disturbed, and
maybe even repelled by this text that reflects on a father that is, or
at least seems, willing to sacrifice his only son because God ordered
him to do so.