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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.
mattinthebooks's review against another edition
4.0
There’s a lot to this book even though its short, so I’ll try to summarize my feelings on it in a play-by-play:
Stage 1: Poetic. Over my head at points, but I sat with it for a while. Wished at times that I was either smarter so that I could understand it or dumber so that I didn’t care to, but it eventually made sense, and that gave the beautiful aesthetic some substance.
Stage 2: Analytics. Kierkegaard tells short stories about knights to explain what it takes to have faith. Epic.
Stage 3: Questions. In his three-part “Problemata” sections, Kierkegaard turns to his issues with the Abrahamic story and how it is understood that provides one of the most three-dimensional accounts of what faith should and does look like that I have encountered.
All in all, although its one book that I probably have taken the longest to read in my collection (so dense) it was well worth it.
Stage 1: Poetic. Over my head at points, but I sat with it for a while. Wished at times that I was either smarter so that I could understand it or dumber so that I didn’t care to, but it eventually made sense, and that gave the beautiful aesthetic some substance.
Stage 2: Analytics. Kierkegaard tells short stories about knights to explain what it takes to have faith. Epic.
Stage 3: Questions. In his three-part “Problemata” sections, Kierkegaard turns to his issues with the Abrahamic story and how it is understood that provides one of the most three-dimensional accounts of what faith should and does look like that I have encountered.
All in all, although its one book that I probably have taken the longest to read in my collection (so dense) it was well worth it.
casparb's review against another edition
5.0
I was quite surprised by this one. K is sometimes referred to as a kind of 'lesser Nietzsche', or an exclusively Christian philosopher. The Nietzsche link is real (and fantastic). F+T is gorgeously written, despite K's denial of the 'poet' label. It explores a wonderful variety of texts - both testaments, Faust, Shakespeare, Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, and a peculiar story about a merman that I didn't quite follow.
It's also shockingly effective, that is, concise, philosophically. The opening to problema II induced me to annotate a wow. Sharp, elastic writing. I'm looking forward to eventually reading Either/Or.
It's also shockingly effective, that is, concise, philosophically. The opening to problema II induced me to annotate a wow. Sharp, elastic writing. I'm looking forward to eventually reading Either/Or.