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mmarty228's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Author Soren Kierkegaard (S.K.) was the youngest of seven children. He was born 5 years before Karl Marx, on the same date, 5/5 (May 5). His brother, Peter, was eight years older and a Danish theologian who publicly criticized Soren's writings a few times. The following details might help explain why S.K. wrote what he wrote and lived how he lived. He had an older brother, also named Soren, who died (1819), a sister, Maren, who died (1822), a sister, Nicoline, who died (1832), a brother, Niels, who died (1833), and a sister, Petrea, who died the same year his mom died (1834). He started studying at the University of Copenhagen in 1830 and published his first book review one month after his dad died in 1838. He then wrote feverishly for 17 more years until his death in 1855. (This review is for everyone, but not everyone will like reading the book, Fear and Trembling: A New Translation.)
Individual thoughts Hegel annulled the individual and (like Meta Facebook) treats the human organism "team" as a bell-curve for behavioral analysis of trends. Even so, as S.K. knew, it is the individual who has to live (and die), who has mental activity, who sometimes has variant thoughts--Shall I dwell on this thought of which I am afraid, or shall I not? Freud himself cowered (and fainted) from some of his thoughts (about visiting Rome, about Egypt, and while at the Acropolis)--while trying to establish equal footing with his parents and while trying to maintain dominance over the students in his field. Society would like to keep people's thoughts Privatissium (concealed), but S.K. contends that greatness depends upon being able to convert one's thoughts into outward actions, against the recommendations of Hegel.
Which faith? "Trembling" is not an everyday word. S.K. uses it in his title even though few people are able to associate it anymore with the idea from Philippians. Tolstoy concluded that the theology of the Russian Orthodox church was a mix of nonsense, and thanks to the Christological pantheistic righteousness of the Pauline epistles, and the efforts of schools like the Union Atheism Seminary, "[i]t is easy to explain the whole of existence, faith included, without having a notion of what faith is..." In fact, people who do not want the truth to be told often go to church so they can rest in the cliché (which they believe to be false)--"what [the pastor] said, that is the truth." A pragmatist believes in whatever works to get a particular outcome, yet "his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; ... [for] the righteous shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4 ASV). Philippians 2:12 says it this way--"work out your own salvation with fear and trembling..."
False explanations Words can be false or true or pragmatic. (Pragmatic words are a mixture of false and true.) S.K. starts his Problemata pages with a proverb that indicates that the one who works gets the bread while his observation (of life) is that the ones who do the least work have the most bread available. S.K. draws attention to the jarring divergence between his classroom theological studies and life in the land of the living; the weariness borne from the distinction between categorial imperative ethics and reality. Aesthetics and ethics are different critters--the modern Hollywood "happily ever after" endings being a good case in point. Aesthetics are only pragmatic, empty words.
False explanations Family boundaries are indistinct, shifting, and shifty. S.K. began his voluminous writing years shortly after splitting his father's inheritance with his brother Peter, and this was fresh in his mind as he wrote this book about Jewish money, about Jewish family ties, and about Abraham (the originator of the Jewish faith). Slithering money corporation cartel family gangs are those which establish secret living trusts (i.e. "frauds"), in the name of stewardship, to create pragmatic slavery "for the ones you love." In a sense, death (or "life") insurance is a form of sex insurance--"procreate and we'll pay you (someday)." "Friendly liars" is an oxymoron as perhaps also "false explanations in a family" is not a family.
Unhid Exposed as he is, the man who behaves in opposition to universal, or cultural, norms must build a tower as his support system. Descartes was an honest thinker who did this while S.K. also describes the hypothetical knight (or dame) of faith who bends the universal, who translates himself into the new universal, and who lets himself be read by everyone, uncovered and exposed.
Understanding ideas Possibility #1, possibility #2, possibility #3, and possibility #4 are the interpretations that occurred to S.K. (as Johannes de Silentio) as he tried to explain and understand the meaning of the reading assignments of Isaac, Sarah, and Abraham on which this book is based. He grapples with the ideas of preferred beneficiaries, concealment, self-preservation, idolatry, fatherhood, child weaning, unspoken words, and, of course, faith. As Marty alluded to in his confession, Bio Marty Vita: Life Life Life, God is not the Creator of Nature; in this life, God is the possibility.
Faith's first step Step to it and grow up. Wean the child. Leave childish things behind, for faith is a childhood illness. However, S.K. ascertains that it is not. I can relate to his ideas, because when I had immersed myself in "the entirety of love," not lacking "the courage to attempt and to venture everything," after surveying my "situation in life..." when I was younger I headed to NYC in a wave of faith. Is "the courage of faith... the only humble courage"? As S.K. describes in the Epilogue, a disciple of Heraclitus went further than his teacher by saying that one cannot walk into the same river even once--lol. As we all know, to go further and farther and to do more, one must necessarily venture a single, frightful first step.
Longevity Dying on Earth, for many people today, as well as in the past, is like an army of martyrs sacrificing to the doctrine of the world whose lives are crushed with groans and sobs (per Tolstoy, My Religion). This is one way to live (and die), but S.K. writes that "the hero always dies before he dies..." or, as Paulo Freire indicated to J. Kozol (The Night Is Dark and I Am Far from Home), "A young man is going to have to die in certain ways in order to become the kind of man he needs to be." There is a sort of human longevity that comes from joining or forming a corporation, there is a sort of family longevity, and there is also a form of longevity that comes from melting into a principle--by faith, as S.K. has described. None of these are infinite longevity, however. Therefore, perhaps you should read this book. It might make you mad; you might find it ridiculous; but it might just push you up to a higher level of living before you one day succumb to your eventual dying.
Translator Twenty years ago, I read some excerpts of Fear and Trembling from the W. Lowrie translation. It used words like else, stupid, Thee, abyss, and particular, while this B.H. Kirmmse translation replaced these words with "strange," "foolish," "you," "gulf," and "single individual." If you like Fear and Trembling, other works to consider reading are Leo Tolstoy (biography) by E.J. Simmons and The Philosophical Works of Descartes by G.R.T. Ross and E.S. Haldane. #HofferAward #didyougetajahbyet
cronchychomp's review against another edition
5.0
good lord, I fear I will never read something so profound that speaks of the Bible and the difficult questions it poses to the modern "Christian." Specifically, what does it mean to have faith, and how you must disregard both universalist ethics and aesthetics to hold Abraham up as a hero and not a kinslayer in thought, if not in deed. My only critique would be the constant references to Hegel that you must understand to get anything out of this book, as this work is a refutation of Christian Hegelians.
toryw's review against another edition
4.0
this was crazy dude. got me doing all kinds of metal gymnastics. if you’ve ever considered ethics, morality, and the divine, this will REALLY give you something to think about. kierkegaard grapples with the story of abraham sacrificing his son and how, to most, that just makes so sense at all. was he a murderer or the revered father of faith? he explores in a mind melting way what it means to have complete faith, using the story of abraham as a guide, and uses the concept of “the absurd” to tie it all together. maybe one day i’ll be a knight of faith for reading this
grindmonkey82's review against another edition
5.0
Sorta of unreadable prose but I did understand the main points. I also get good ol Soren had that moment of autism with that young lady in his time. Totally makes sense. Lol.