On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
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Aaron J. Goldman
Abstract
This article interrogates the concepts of faith, the ethical, and tragedy in Fear and Trembling by examining Johannes De Silentio’s allusions to heroic characters. I argue that these heroes are emblematic of faith or tragedy through their orientation to a promise in their respective mythic narratives. Abraham’s faith in the covenant with God commits him to the reconcilability of virtue and the good life, while the tragic heroes’ commitments to the ethical reveal their inability to transcend the (tragic) presumption that virtue and the good life are ultimately incommensurable. I conclude by sketching a politics corresponding to De Silentio’s conception of tragedy.
I am grateful for insightful comments I received from an anonymous reviewer, as well as from colleagues and mentors on various versions of this paper, including Matteus Collvin, Elisabeth Gerle, James Gillard, Tobias Giversen, Bjarke Mørkøre Stigel Hansen, Amanda Houmark-Ørsøe, David C. Lamberth, Anne Louise Nielsen, Lucilla Pan, Tomer Raudanski, René Rosfort, Simon Pedersen Schmidt, Samuel Cuff Snow, Jon B. Stewart, Barbara Tautz, Cæcille Varslev-Pedersen, and Roy Wiklander.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Front matter
- Title pages
- Preface
- Contents
- Articles
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- Section 1: Problems and Perspectives in Kierkegaard’s Authorship
- A Christian Art? Søren Kierkegaard’s Views on Music and Musical Performance Reconsidered
- Between the Two Ethics: Why Assessor Wilhelm is not a Judge
- Narrative Variation and the Mood of Freedom in Fear and Trembling
- On Fear and Trembling’s Motif of the Promise: Faith, Ethics and the Politics of Tragedy
- The Ambiguity of Mimesis: Kierkegaard between Aesthetic Fantasy and Religious Imitation
- Know Yourself in the Mirror of the Word: Kierkegaard on Self-Knowledge
- „Mein Bestreben, das Martyrium zu verherrlichen…“ Zur Idee des Martyriums in Kierkegaards Journalen ab 1846
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- Section 2: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
- The Faust Project in Kierkegaard’s Early Journals
- Of Clairvoyants and Mousvoyants: Kierkegaard’s Polemic against Speculative Philosophy in the “Telegraph Messages”
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Section 3: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
- Does Kierkegaard’s Rewritten Parable of the Good Samaritan Leave the World to the Devil? Kierkegaard and Adorno on What it Means to Love one’s Neighbor in the Modern World
- Kierkegaard and Beauvoir: Existential Ethics as a Humanism
- Double Consciousness and Despair: Exploring a Connection Between Søren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois
- Hitchcock Meets Kierkegaard: Selfhood and Gendered Forms of Despair in Vertigo and The Sickness unto Death
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- Section 4: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
- The Mutiny of the Pseudonyms in the Kierkegaardian Authorship
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Section 5: Primary Texts in Translation
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s “Literary Winter Crops” and Kierkegaard’s Polemic
- Back matter
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
