Wan-I Yang is a Taiwanese professor at the Institute of Philosophy, National Sun Yat-sen University.

From the description of Abraham in Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, beyond discovering that Abraham is a “person” steeped in “love,” we cannot ignore that he also takes duty seriously. After climbing Mount Moriah alone, Abraham bows to pray that God forgive him for having agreed to consecrate his son Isaac as a sacrifice, thereby forgetting[^15] his duty as a father.^16 Here we see Abraham’s attentiveness to duty, such that he specifically prays that God forgive his neglect of paternal duty. As Abraham’s immanent love — a love toward his son and toward God — if paternal love appears in the form of a duty that may be neglected because of love for God, does this mean that Abraham’s love — as one of God’s people — for God (the father in heaven) is higher than a father’s love for his son arising from blood kinship? Abraham’s duty toward Isaac designates the human being’s love for himself[^17] or for another; because of his love for God, Abraham forgets “love for oneself” or “love for another” in the person interpreted through duty. But is this forgetting not itself a form of concealment? Does Abraham’s forgetting not signify his concealment of “love for oneself” or “love for another”? Yet does concealment not also express a possibility of appearance? Once the conflict between the two loves disappears, Abraham’s own human love will make him feel pain over his former resolve.[^18]

“He prepared the burnt offering in silence and bound Isaac. In silence, he drew the knife. Then a ram appeared that God had provided. He sacrificed it and returned home.”[^19] Abraham had already resolved to consecrate his son; although he did not, in the end, kill Isaac, Kierkegaard’s account tells us that from that day Abraham begins to age further, and he can never forget what God had entrusted him to do.^20 Abraham suffers because of his duty (his love for his son) and because of the conflict within his immanence (the conflict between love for his son and love for God); he is not only solitary but also in pain. Because of his duty toward his son, he cannot forget God’s former decree; in the pain caused by duty, Abraham continues to endure God.

II [sic]. IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

In Søren Kierkegaard’s text, beyond revealing Abraham’s solitude and suffering, he also shows us Abraham’s doubt. Abraham and Isaac arrive together at Mount Moriah; Abraham calmly prepares the offering of the sacrifice. When Abraham turns to draw the knife, Isaac sees his father’s left hand clench tightly in despair, yet Abraham draws the knife anyway, his body trembling. After returning home, Isaac loses his faith; people never discuss this fact, Isaac never tells anyone what he saw, and as for Abraham, he does not think that people can discover any of it.[^21] Although Abraham obeyed God’s word in bringing Isaac to the mountain to offer the sacrifice, Kierkegaard’s account presents Abraham’s doubt. Abraham’s doubt is never “known”; Isaac does not “understand” his father’s doubt through logos — Isaac directly senses his father’s interiority, and it is upon perceiving his father’s doubt that Isaac loses his faith. As a transcendental mode, logos can only lead the human being to detach from himself........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)