Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard

What is the proper role for faith with respect to our beliefs? If explanation must begin somewhere, and where our explanation begins we cannot provide further justification, then why not just take a leap of faith towards the values we want to believe in without the tower of reasons bottoming out on some hinge beliefs which must be taken on faith anyway? In Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard explores the concept of the Knight of Faith who has the courage to take a blind leap of faith across a chasm in order to commit to beliefs. He uses the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac by God, as well as alternative versions of the story creatively provided by Kierkegaard, in order to explore these difficult questions. Join us as we immerse ourselves in this thought experiment for two weeks, thoroughly discussing the concept of faith and what role it should play in our lives.

Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. I will be reading from this version here and a free copy can be found here. For the first week we will read the Preface, Attunement, Speech in Praise of Abraham, Preamble from the Heart, and Problema I (p. 41-95).

For questions please send me a message or post to meetup.

Best,

Brian