Fear And Trembling Kierkegaard Analysis

In Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard contrasts the knight of infinite resignation with the knight of faith, in reference to the narrative of Abraham and Isaac. Faith can be defined to be an individual’s practice of beliefs towards God. This factor is further discussed in Kierkegaard’s reading, where he discusses faith on a moral and religious level. The story of Abraham and Isaac display an act of ultimate and absolute faith upon on God from Abraham’s perspective, where his act characterizes the many behaviours of faith followed with the end results discussed by the narrator Johannes Silentio.
“Faith begins precisely where thought stops,” (p.53) states Johannes, further distinguishing the difference between the knight of infinite resignation
The way Johannes make sense of Abraham is identifying him as the knight of faith, where his behaviour cannot be understood by anyone but himself and therefore his behaviour would be justifiable on a religious level, instead of an ethical level. Johannes discusses that Abraham had a duty to God, but as a father he had an ethical duty to his son; to love and care for him, to keep him safe. The test that Abraham is put forward to, is to sacrifice the individual that he loves most and the moment he raised the knife on Isaac, that moment could never be undone or unseen. That journey up Mount Moriah symbolizes the movement of infinite resignation, but the moment where he receives Isaac back, he’s faced with the consequences of fulfilling his duty as Johannes states that he had already lost Abraham, that the father-son relationship could never reconcile back to how it was before. In this scenario, Abraham had lost his son despite regaining him, he had lost that bond, Isaac had lost faith. Another consequence of what faith is that it is itself the paradox of the ethical principles. As mentioned, a father’ s duty is to love his son more than anything, however Abraham’s absolute faith does not allow this, it in fact contradicts it. In Problema I, Johannes discusses the difference between a tragic hero and Abraham as a knight of faith. An example would be Agamemnon who sacrifices his daughter as a pledge to allow him to save his people and his nation. This movement is considered the movement of infinite resignation, where he must sacrifice his daughter and come to terms with it, making him a tragic hero as this deed has a purpose behind it, differentiating a tragic hero from Abraham. With no greater purpose behind the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham does not hesitate to fulfill his duty to God, but this deed would be ethically considered a sin; making Abraham a