Preface and Prelude to "Fear and Trembling" - By Soren Kierkegaard

Preface

Kierkegaard begins his preface with a lament about philosophy in his day. He talks about how every idea is doubted, every idea is thrown around such that it is surprising anyone values ideas at all. Indeed, no one is even giving thought to the methods used in throwing off and around these ideas. At least Descartes was a firm believer in his faith and was not necessarily trying to get others to doubt, but has developed a personal way to justify more belief. 1 

It has gotten so bad, he says, that the great philosophical questions which the Greeks weighed over a lifetime, the people of his day begin skipping all of that and beginning in skepticism. "What those ancient Greeks (who also had some understanding of philosophy) regarded as a task for a whole lifetime, seeing that dexterity in doubting is not acquired in a few days or weeks, what the veteran combatant attained when he had preserved the equilibrium of doubt through all the pitfalls he countered, who intrepidly denied the certainty of sense-perception and the certainty of the processes of thought, incorruptibly defied the apprehensions of self-love and the insinuations of sympathy - that is where everybody begins in our time." 

Again, Kierkegaard says that the people of his time are not content to have faith, but continue to keep pushing further in doubting and seeking, and yet does this not show some type of faith in being? But it's not done as an old man might do as he pushes further to know the limits of God before he dies, having persevered in faith with "fear and trembling" all his lifelong. But again, people want to start from this point today and to push the boundaries without appreciating them. 2 

Kierkegaard ends his preface by saying that he does not understand "The System", i.e. the Hegelian system which dominated the philosophy of his day. He is not writing for his but for himself. He is writing because faith cannot be reduced to a concept. Nor does he want to be a part of the literary and publishing system of the time, to write easily digestible works which are then parceled up by critics. 3 The preface concludes. 4 

Prelude

The prelude opens as, under a pseudonym, Kierkegaard speculates a about a man who had thought about the story of Abraham and Isaac his whole life, and who wanted nothing more than to witness the events. He wanted to accompany them on their journey to Moriah and see it for himself, for as he had grown older he began to understand the story less and less. 5 

I

Kierkegaard begins to retell the story of Abraham and Isaac's final approach and assent to Moriah. He includes a very strange addition, namely, that since Abraham cannot help Isaac to understand and accept what is happening, he pretends to be a wicked madman who wants to kill Isaac for his own desire. He does this so that in dying Isaac will not lose faith in what God has asked. 6 

II 

Kierkegaard recounts the story again, this time in a much more subdued manner where Abraham quietly does what he is told, it relieved, returns home and life continues ... but Abraham is changed by what God asked him to do, his "eyes were darkened". 

III

He retells the story again and again, putting different thoughts into Abraham's head.7 "He could not comprehend that it was a sin to be willing to offer to God the best thing he possessed, that for which he would many times have given his life; and if it was a sin, if he had not loved Isaac as he did, then he could not understand that it might be forgiven. For what sin could be more dreadful?" 

IV

His last retelling has Isaac losing faith from what happened. "They they returned again home, and Sarah hastened to meet them, but Isaac had lost his faith. No word of this had ever been spoken in the world, and Isaac never talked to anyone about what he had seen, and Abraham did not suspect that anyone had seen it." 

Regardless, these reflections go to show that Kierkegaard ponders and ponders about Abraham and his faith. 8

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1 - Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death. trans. Walter Lowrie. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973. Pg. 22.

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