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In Defense of a Straightforward Reading of Fear and Trembling

  • Ryan Kemp
Published/Copyright: October 24, 2013
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Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 2013 Issue 1

Abstract

In this essay, I attempt to carve out interpretive space for a so-called “straightforward” reading of Fear and Trembling. Toward this end, I argue that recent attempts to challenge the reliability of Johannes de Silentio and/or emphasize the presence of a “hidden message” succeed, in large part, by (1) misconstruing the goals and method of Kierkegaard’s indirect communication and (2) relying too heavily on elements of the text that lend only circumstantial support to their interpretation. Given this, interpreters should be considerably more open to the possibility that Kierkegaard means what Fear and Trembling explicitly says.

Published Online: 2013-10-24
Published in Print: 2013-10

© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Preface
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Section 1: Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Motifs and Figures
  5. Kierkegaard on the Atonement: The Complementarity of Salvation as a Gift and Salvation as a Task
  6. Recognition and Its Discontents: Johannes de Silentio and the Preacher
  7. In Defense of a Straightforward Reading of Fear and Trembling
  8. Verführung nach Kierkegaard. Ein soziologischer Versuch
  9. Johannes Climacus on Coming into Existence: The Problem of Modality in Kierkegaard’s Fragments and Postscript
  10. Kierkegaard’s Passion for Equality
  11. The Abyss of Demonic Boredom: An Analysis of the Dialectic of Freedom and Facticity in Kierkegaard’s Early Works
  12. Section 2: Love and Passion
  13. Selfless Passion: Kierkegaard on True Love
  14. Kierkegaard, Metaphysics, and Love
  15. Self-Love and Neighbor-Love in Kierkegaard’s Ethics
  16. Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love
  17. “Love” Among the Post-Socratics
  18. Love, Death, and the Limits of Singularity
  19. Kierkegaard and the Sheer Phenomenon of Love
  20. Love’s Hidden Laugh: On Jest, Earnestness, and Socratic Indirection in Kierkegaard’s “Praising Love”
  21. Passion as a Will to Existence in Kierkegaard
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaard in Dialogue
  23. Die philosophische Verflüchtigung des Glaubensbegriffs. Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Immanuel Hermann Fichte
  24. Kierkegaard and the Traditions of the Comic in Philosophy
  25. Why a Danish Golden Age? Structural Holes in 19th Century Copenhagen
  26. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Living by a Guiding Passion
  27. The Self as a Center of Ethical Gravity: A Constructive Dialogue Between Søren Kierkegaard and George Herbert Mead
  28. Section 4: Current Debates and Controversies
  29. The Soul of a Philosopher: Reply to Turnbull
  30. Abbreviations
  31. List of Contributors
https://doi.org/10.1515/kier.2013.2013.1.49

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. Preface
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Section 1: Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Motifs and Figures
  5. Kierkegaard on the Atonement: The Complementarity of Salvation as a Gift and Salvation as a Task
  6. Recognition and Its Discontents: Johannes de Silentio and the Preacher
  7. In Defense of a Straightforward Reading of Fear and Trembling
  8. Verführung nach Kierkegaard. Ein soziologischer Versuch
  9. Johannes Climacus on Coming into Existence: The Problem of Modality in Kierkegaard’s Fragments and Postscript
  10. Kierkegaard’s Passion for Equality
  11. The Abyss of Demonic Boredom: An Analysis of the Dialectic of Freedom and Facticity in Kierkegaard’s Early Works
  12. Section 2: Love and Passion
  13. Selfless Passion: Kierkegaard on True Love
  14. Kierkegaard, Metaphysics, and Love
  15. Self-Love and Neighbor-Love in Kierkegaard’s Ethics
  16. Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love
  17. “Love” Among the Post-Socratics
  18. Love, Death, and the Limits of Singularity
  19. Kierkegaard and the Sheer Phenomenon of Love
  20. Love’s Hidden Laugh: On Jest, Earnestness, and Socratic Indirection in Kierkegaard’s “Praising Love”
  21. Passion as a Will to Existence in Kierkegaard
  22. Section 3: Kierkegaard in Dialogue
  23. Die philosophische Verflüchtigung des Glaubensbegriffs. Kierkegaards Auseinandersetzung mit Immanuel Hermann Fichte
  24. Kierkegaard and the Traditions of the Comic in Philosophy
  25. Why a Danish Golden Age? Structural Holes in 19th Century Copenhagen
  26. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Living by a Guiding Passion
  27. The Self as a Center of Ethical Gravity: A Constructive Dialogue Between Søren Kierkegaard and George Herbert Mead
  28. Section 4: Current Debates and Controversies
  29. The Soul of a Philosopher: Reply to Turnbull
  30. Abbreviations
  31. List of Contributors
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