Kierkegaard presents a dilemma in the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. The story goes that Abraham is asked by God to take his only son Isaac up a mountain to be sacrificed. When Abraham is but moments away from slaying Isaac as an offering to God, an angel calls out to him and tells his to stop as he has proven his fear of God. On one hand, plain and simple, Abraham is a man who came extremely close to murdering his own son in cold blood. This side would argue that Abraham should not be admired for his actions, rather shunned. The other moral standpoint, and Kierkegaard’s own view, is that while Abraham’s actions were ethically abhorrent, they were religiously virtuous. Essentially this argument states that while Abraham was fully aware
