Fear and trembling: existential anxiety in human experience

¶ … Knight of Faith' and the 'Knight of Infinite Resignation' in Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling? Please include a discussion of Abraham's silence.

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Philippians 1:7-3

Soren Kierkegaard's philosophical classic Fear and Trembling tells the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Old Testament in a series of versions. The book begins in a poetic form, showing a selection of snapshots of the patriarch, viewed in different ways from the pseudonymous author of the work 'Silent John'. Kierkegaard, in the authorial guise of 'silent John' interprets the story of Abraham and Isaac from a Protestant and Christian perspective as a tale of the value of Faith rather than Jewish nation building, as is evident from the title, which is taken from one of the Pauline epistles. However, the faith exhibited by Abraham over the course is not that of one of sadness, but of joy. Thus, in Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard creates a fundamental contrast between a 'Knight of Faith,' whom he admits is a man such as himself, and the far greater 'Knight of Infinite Resignation,' of which Abraham was one, the true Abraham unlike the sad visions of Abraham that begin the text in the imagination of the philosopher. In contrast to the 'Knight of Faith,' who obeys God, sacrifices Isaac but fears God's wrath and will and dwells with the pain of the loss of the beloved firstborn, the second, true Abraham who is the 'Knight of Infinite Resignation' obeys God in action but knows in his heart that God is good and something -- he knows not what -- but something will happen so that he will gain all he has lost back.

Critical to Kierkegaard's thesis of the greatness of Abraham as a 'Knight of Infinite Resignation' is the notion of the teleological suspension of the ethical. This refers to the fact that, because it is God's request, Abraham does an action that he knows is wrong. Kierkegaard stresses that merely because God tells Abraham to do something, this does not make the sacrifice of Isaac right. Rather, Abraham agrees to sacrifice his own morality because of his absolute trust, faith, and resignation in the will and the goodness of God. This level of trust is absurd, of course. How will the murder be prevented? But it is also absurd that God would give Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, long after the two were too old to have children. As Abraham trusted in God's absurdity before when God gave Isaac to him, so must he, the 'Knight of Infinite Resignation' resign himself to the will of God when he does not like the absurdity of the request God gives, and obey with trust in God's action. A bitter 'Knight of Faith' might grit his teeth, obey God, all the while raging to himself -- why force the father to brutally sacrifice the son, after Abraham has sacrificed so much to bring the young man into being? But Abraham is silent as he rides obediently next to Isaac because he trusts that he will receive it all back. His trust based on the strength of the absurd, based on his absolute trust in God.

This is what for Kierkegaard makes Abraham so great. He states that he, as John of Silence, would be capable of sacrificing Isaac, but he would do so bitterly, sadly, and with infinite resignation to the will of God. Thus his silence next to Isaac would be different -- it would be a sad silence. Abraham's silence is not sad. It is the silence of faith. For faith like Abraham's is only to be found in the belief of the absurd and the suspension of the ethical in the will and mind as well as in one's actions.

For Kierkegaard, this faith in the absurd is demonstrated in Abraham's belief that God would not let the sacrifice of Isaac occur, despite all physical evidence to the contrary and despite God's articulated request. Thus, the exterior actions, to the outside world, of the 'Knight of Faith' (Kierkegaard) and the 'Knight of Infinite Resignation' (Abraham) might seem to be the same. Both obey God in their actions; both ride silent next to the son. However what is inside the hearts of these two different knights is in complete contrast. Kierkegaard's knight would be silent and morose and angry. His heart would be filled with words of rage. While Abraham, the Knight of Infinite Resignation, would simply be filled not with sadness but belief that his beloved son would be brought back from the dead somehow, even if he could not articulate or know the way that God would accomplish this.