Comparing Kierkegaard's Fear And Trembling

In Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, he tries to understand and comprehend the concept of faith through the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. In this story, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, and when he goes to do so, he is stopped at the last second by God and is rewarded with a ram. Kierkegaard finds it very difficult to understand how faith works and how Abraham could just take a risk of losing his son. As the book progresses, he tries to put faith in his own perspective and understand the meaning of it as well. In the beginning of the book, we are introduced to the story of Abraham and Kierkegaard trying to switch the story around multiple times to try and find an understanding. He is fascinated by it because he doesn’t …show more content…
He describes this by giving an example of a man being in love with a princess. The knight of infinite resignation loves the princess and says he will never forget her, but he comes to realize he can only grieve so much and consoles himself. All he can do is just keep a part of her with him and he does not fight for her because he feels that it is impossible. He does want to, but feels that it is absurd and he soon just lets it go. The knight of faith does the exact same thing as the knight before him, but he takes it one step further by actually fighting to be with the princess. He knows he may not win her over, but he chooses to still fight to be with her anyways. All that can save him is the absurd and he does this by keeping his faith, even though he knows it may be impossible. Abraham can be considered a knight of faith due to his actions. He puts his faith in God and goes that extra step in his situation. This is where we first see the phrase “leap of faith” where a person takes a leap into the unknown. He or she takes a chance and trusts that they can have their faith to fall back on. This is where the story of Abraham ties in; he was courageous to do what he did and he trusted his