Fear and Trembling

Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and religious writer interested in human psychology. He is regarded as a leading pioneer of existentialism and one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century.

In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard examines the anxiety Abraham must have felt when God commanded him to offer his son as a human sacrifice. Abraham faced the choice of carrying out the command or ignoring it. He resigned himself to the loss of his son, acting according to his faith: one must be willing to give up all earthly possessions in infinite resignation and to surrender whatever one loves more than God. Abraham passed the test—his love for God proved greater than anything else in him, and because a just Creator would not will a father to kill his son, God intervened at the last moment to prevent the sacrifice.