Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling ‘This is an excellent piece of work . I can think of no other text that provides what it provides – a clearly written and thorough introduc- tion to this fascinating but difficult text, which brings out the full range of its implications for moral philosophy and philosophy of religion.’ Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford ‘John Lippitt manages to capture the brightness and excitement of Kierkegaard’s remarkable work while explicating its themes with depth and insight. On every page one finds eye-opening clues and interpretations. This little book is a treasure.’ Charles Guignon, University of South Florida ‘This is an excellent and much-needed commentary on what is probably Kierkegaard’s most widely read work. It is an engaging and accessible introduction to a highly complex text.’ Anthony Rudd, St Olaf College, Minnesota Kierkegaard, described by Wittgenstein as ‘by far the most pro- found thinker of the [nineteenth] century’, has influenced a wide range of philosophers and theologians. Fear and Trembling, which investigates the nature of faith and its relation to ethics, is one of Kierkegaard’s most compelling and popular works. Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling introduces and assesses: • Kierkegaard’s life and the background to Fear and Trembling • The ideas and text of Fear and Trembling, possibly his most famous work • Kierkegaard’s continuing importance in philosophy John Lippitt is Reader in Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought (2000). IN THE SAME SERIES Plato and the Republic Second edition Nickolas Pappas Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations A. D. Smith Descartes and the Meditations Gary Hatfield Hegel and the Philosophy of Right Dudley Knowles Nietzsche on Morality Brian Leiter Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit Robert Stern Berkeley and the Principles of Human Knowledge Robert Fogelin Aristotle on Ethics Gerard Hughes Hume on Religion David O’Connor Leibniz and the Monadology Anthony Savile The Later Heidegger George Pattison Hegel on History Joseph McCarney Hume on Morality James Baillie Hume on Knowledge Harold Noonan Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason Sebastian Gardner Mill on Liberty Jonathan Riley Mill on Utilitarianism Roger Crisp Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations Marie McGinn Spinoza and the Ethics Genevieve Lloyd Heidegger on Being and Time Stephen Mulhall Locke on Government D. A. Lloyd Thomas Locke on Human Understanding E. J. Lowe Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling John Lippitt First published 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2003 John Lippitt All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lippitt, John. Routledge philosophy guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and trembling/John Lippitt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813–1855. Frygt og Bæven. 2. Christianity– Philosophy. I. Title: Kierkegaard and Fear and trembling. II. Title. B4373.F793K54 2003 198′.9—dc21 2002045500 ISBN 0-203-63427-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-63772-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–18046–5 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–18047–3 (pbk) CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Reference Key to Kierkegaard’s Texts viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Tuning up: ‘Preface’, ‘Attunement’ and ‘Speech in Praise of Abraham’ 18 3 Infinite resignation and faith: the ‘Preamble from the Heart’ 35 4 ‘Suspending the ethical’: Problemata I and II 81 5 The sound of silence: Problema III 110 6 What is Fear and Trembling really about? 135 7 How reliable is Johannes de Silentio? 177 Bibliography 209 Index 215 A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS All authors incur various debts of gratitude. I am grateful to Anthony Rudd and an anonymous reader for Routledge for reading the penultimate draft of this manuscript in its entirety and for their helpful comments. For feedback on earlier drafts of portions of the text, or for other forms of help, I should also like to thank Dan Hutto, Brendan Larvor, Erik Linland, Jolita Pons, Hugh Pyper and Jane Singleton. Some of the material in chapter 3 is developed from part of my ‘Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and the narratives of faith’, in John Lippitt and Jim Urpeth (eds) (2000) Nietzsche and the Divine, Manchester: Clinamen Press, 77–95 (used with permission). I gave an earlier version of part of chapter 7 at ‘Kierkegaard: between ethics and religion’, an international conference of the Søren Kierkegaard Society of the UK held at Leeds University in July 2001. Thanks to members of the audience for their comments and questions on that occasion. Some of the research for this book was undertaken at the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library at St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota during a short research fellowship in 1999, and I am grateful to Gordon Marino and Cynthia Lund for their support. Finally, I should like to thank the editors of this series and all at Routledge, especially Muna Khogali and Siobhan Pattinson, for their patience during various delays, and the University of Hertfordshire for the semester’s research leave that has enabled me to complete the manuscript. John Lippitt University of Hertfordshire November 2002 REFERENCE KEY TO KIERKEGAARD’S TEXTS Quotations from Fear and Trembling (cited as FT) are taken from Alastair Hannay’s Penguin Classics edition (Harmondsworth: Pen- guin, 1985), which my enquiries have led me to believe is the most commonly used English translation. Probably the other most commonly used English translation is that by Howard V. and Edna H. Hong in Fear and Trembling and Repetition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). For other Kierkegaard texts cited, the following abbreviations and editions have been used, in consultation with the third edition of the Samlede Vaerker (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962). I have relied predominantly on the translations in the series Kierke- gaard’s Writings, as detailed below. Numerical references in rela- tion to Kierkegaard’s texts are to page numbers. The only exception to this concerns his journal entries, where I have used Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, ed. and trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong, 7 volumes (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1967–78), abbreviated JP. In such citations, I give the volume number followed by the number of the entry itself (e.g. JP 6: 6491 refers to entry 6491 in volume 6). CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. Howard V. and reference key to kierkegaard’s texts ix Edna H. Hong, 2 volumes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). All references are to the first volume unless otherwise stated. EO Either/Or, trans. Alastair Hannay (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). PC Practice in Christianity, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). PF/JC Philosophical Fragments and Johannes Climacus, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985). PV The Point of View, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998). SUD The Sickness Unto Death, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980). TA Two Ages, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978). All biblical quotations are taken from the King James Version. The specific edition used is The King James Study Bible, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988. 1 INTRODUCTION Fear and Trembling is probably Kierkegaard’s best-known and most commonly read work, and Kierkegaard himself seems to have seen this coming. In an entry in the journal that he kept for most of his adult life, he claimed that ‘once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author. Then it will be read, translated into foreign languages as well. The reader will almost shrink from the frightful pathos in the book.’ (JP 6: 6491). Yet the book’s fame has been a mixed blessing. Robert L. Perkins is probably right in his claim that Fear and Trembling is ‘the most studied of Kierkegaard’s works in the undergraduate cur- riculum’,1 but this comes at a price. Sometimes, it is the only text in a course in which Kierkegaard appears as one among several thinkers, a situation that brings with it twin dangers. First, the apparent argument of Fear and Trembling is often attributed to ‘Kierkegaard’. Yet, like many of Kierkegaard’s works, Fear and Trembling was not written under his own name, but under a pseudonym, in this case the mysterious Johannes de Silentio (‘Johannes of silence’ or ‘Johannes the silent one’). This fact should not be forgotten, and we shall consider its significance shortly. Second, Fear and Trembling is taken to be ‘Kierkegaard’s’ definitive view of the nature of faith and the relation between ethics and 2 introduction religion. That this is so should certainly not be assumed, as an acquaintance with such later texts as Concluding Unscientific Post- script, The Sickness Unto Death and Works of Love, to name but three, will show any curious reader. But this second issue is not merely a function of the first. That is, as well as the fact that the text is the work of a pseudonym, there is a rather more obvious problem in attributing Fear and Trembling’s message to Kierke- gaard.