Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: a response to a specifically modern religious situation?

Religion, modernity and women's rights strikes in Poland

Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling can be viewed as stringly responding to a specifically modern religious situation, a view that has highly shaped my own existential crisis regarding the institutalisaiton of faith and the on going women's crisis in Poland surrounding abortion and domestic violence laws. Here, I will assess Kierkegaard's analysis of Abraham as a knight of faith after God's command for him to kill his only son Isaac.

Firstly, I will explain what Kierkegaard means by the knight of faith with comparison to the knight of infinite resignation. I will then investigate Kierkegaard’s preface and epilogue of Fear and Trembling signifying that the separation from institutional laws is necessary, but had not yet occurred during the 19th century.

I will argue that Kierkegaard's study of Abraham mirrors Nietzsche's Parable of the Madman and the decline in faith through the death of God, illustrating the response to the current religious situation did not occur at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century. When defining modernity, I will be referring to the 21st century exemplifying Kierkegaard's response to a current religious situation undergoing in the women's rights strikes in Poland (2020) which has signified a crisis of faith.

Kierkegaard: knights of faith and knights of infinite resignation

Kierkegaard admires Abraham for going beyond reason, in giving faith value. For instance, Kierkegaard portrays Abraham as a knight of faith. This knight of faith is an individual who has placed complete confidence in himself and God and can act freely and independently from the world, going beyond what is universally correct in the sacrifice of Isaac on God's command.

Abraham's ethical judgement is analysed by the dancer's analogy proposed by Kierkegaard where he illustrates a distinction between three types of people, those who do not join the dance, the knights of faith and knights of infinite resignation.

The knights of faith and infinite resignation both take the elevated leap and fall down again. However, where these two knights differ is that the knight of infinite resignation cannot assume the position straightway. They waver an instant, demonstrating they are nevertheless strangers in the world when they come back down. They are still strangers to the world and bound to the ethical-moral codes of the world exemplified by the institutions. Hence, they cannot be at home in the world as forced to come back down to reality.

On the other hand, the knight of faith lands with no struggle, continuing having belief in the impossible and yet still grounded to the world. They are at home in the world, even when faced with reality, they continue to have faith in the impossible as Kierkegaard describes, Abraham as a knight of faith as he gives up his son's (Isaac's) life.

Image: the sacrifice of Isaac, Caravaggio

Through this, he gives up his hope of being this great patriarch that God promised that he would imply that Isaac would return. Though this seems like a contradiction, as one cannot sacrifice one’s son and expect him to live, Abraham, loses sight of infinite resignation. Thus, Abraham did not become bound to universal morals and believes that Isaac will come back to him as all things are possible with God.

Abraham put all his faith and love in God in his upwards movement of giving everything up. Abraham, as the knight of faith, is reconciled with pain and nevertheless believes that all things are possible with God and his absolute love. However, to understand how he could have absolute love is perplexing due to the suspension of the ethical over the universally religious life that applies to all individuals. Isaac's and Abraham's relationship did not change through having faith in the impossible even though one risked sacrificing one's, only son.

Not everyone is capable of the complexity of faith and its freedom of spirit and trust in the impossibility. Kierkegaard argues that we should all aspire to be knights of faith; however, this did not seem possible during his time in the 18th century.

The line of argument that I will be framing is faith requires risk, which not everyone, especially during the 19th century, can accredit to Abraham’s faith. For instance, in the preface, Kierkegaard suggests that it is in the world of ideas that the commercial world is placing a clearance sale upon where everything is so cheap that the want to make a bid is reduced.

This commercial metaphor illustrates that Kierkegaard is maintaining that there is a decline in the value of faith, similarly to the decrease in the want to buy a discounted item that was already cheap. This problem of devaluing ideals, such as religious principles and faith, it is doubtful that in the end, anyone would desire it.

This commercialisation is the institutional governing of religion and trust in the church, with Kierkegaard analysing the decline in the desire of faith in the context of Denmark, where Kierkegaard is implying that people are made to believe faith is easy. Faith is the most challenging of all. The individual has to have the ability to doubt what the institutional church is spoon-feeding them with so that they can go further with their faith and build their relationship with God, that is being an authentic Christian for Kierkegaard.

However, it is this desire of faith and relationship to God that is really at the core of religious life, yet no one takes this leap as the knight of faith does. Instead, with faith having been commercialised, this passion and desire are lost. Faith is devalued as people always stay within the universal ethical laws constructed by the church.

It can be argued that in the epilogue, Kierkegaard mirrors the preface, further indicating the worth of increasing the price of faith. As with the cost of spices rising in Holland, if something is more expensive, it seems more desirable and required. Hence, the merchants sunk some of the cargo of spices at sea. Therefore, it becomes not something that everyone has and so more desirable.

If Kierkegaard is suggesting that the value of faith can only rise if something is lost, it can be assumed that this sacrifice is the institutional abandonment to get rid of this untrue deception of faith. Hence demonstrating that the 18th century was not ready for Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, similarity, the unreadiness to abandon institutional thought is reflected during the start of the 20th century.

Nietzsche and the Parable of the Madman

Nietzsche also signified that individuals should not have blind faith, through following institutions; however, people did not mirror the sensation during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. For instance, Nietzsche exclaimed in his Parable of the Madman that ‘God is dead’.

Image: Fredrich Nietzsche

What is meant by the death of God is not God’s physical death, rather a symbolic death of the declining value of faith in God, echoing Kierkegaard's thought in Fear and Trembling. Nietzsche suggests that individuals are not accrediting their faith in God; instead, they are endorsing blind faith in the institutions.

Faith is devalued in the impossible, which degrades passion for God necessary to become at home in the world. Instead, people had been herding in churches, like sheep, to await their commands for an ethical life. However, I argue that Nietzsche is neither celebrating nor condemning the proclamation of God's death.

The Madman merely diagnoses the problem of the death of God, that belief in God had become unbelievable. However, unlike Kierkegaard, Nietzsche recognises that this position is not unique to religious belief but also scientific and atheistic view.

To illustrate, Nietzsche explains that science also holds onto blind faith as many theories are yet to be proven and hold onto the same moral foundations. As a replacement for blind faith, Nietzsche claims that one ought to detach oneself from ethical codes of society and craft one’s moral framework without bind faith.

Nietzsche differs from Kierkegaard's notion, since he was critical of the individual's autonomy, as one should follow belief with passion for God. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche both highlight that rejecting blind faith cannot be achieved by everyone and show their admiration to those that can. Kierkegaard through his dancer’s analogy and Nietzsche with the Madman, as it is tough to leave all foundations behind, yet Kierkegaard shows the struggle in comprehending Abraham’s actions.

However, Nietzsche goes further than Kierkegaard as the Madman recognises that he has come too early and that the event of God’s death is still underway. Therefore, this suggests that individuals were not ready for the separation from institutional in the late 19th century.

In my view, this could have eased understanding that religion itself was not being targeted or undermined; instead, it was the established structures of society that were being put into question. Through observing all institutions in this way, people have been more passionate to change their faith. The separation of institutional values is imitated in the current, 21st century, gradual separation from institutional moral codes with the church, state and the people.

Women's Rights in Poland and Kierkergaard's as a Response to a Modern Religious Situation

Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling is a response to the current religious situation within the 21st century. This is conducted by the analysis of the ongoing women’s rights strikes on matters of domestic violence and abortion, as well as LGBTQI+ restrictions, in Poland. In particular, it can be understood that Poland’s Law and Justice (Pis) political party have ruled abortions as unconstitutional.

Image: Vogue Polska: covering the women's crisis in Poland 'the power of women'

As Poland is one of the most strongly Catholic countries in Europe it can powerfully be argued that the institution of the Catholic church imposed a stricter law on abortion.Nevertheless, the majority of Poles oppose the restrictive law as thousands of protestors marched across Poland, and internationally, to complete control of ethics.

It is this that I argue Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling responds to the current religious situation and the overly political power of the church in government policy. It is not the fact that people no longer have faith in God; instead, it is the established laws of morality that are questioned.

The fundamentalism of the church turned individuals away from blind faith in a modern response to Kierkegaard's text. It can be argued that it is the pro-choice attitude that draws passion for a relationship with God as it gives people the desires for God rather than instructing how to live one’s life. As Kierkegaard highlights through his struggles with institutions, there are some issues of understanding when one can go beyond the universal moral code for the love and passion for God rather than for selfish desires.

For instance, there is a question of whether women rights restrictions in Poland are for love and passion for God or if it is the politician’s selfish desires to stay robust and authoritative over society. In this way, it can be understood that the politicians are not even knights of infinite resignation as they do not join the dance, but stand in blind faith for the laws.

Instead, these politicians contradict themselves in their claim for their love of God through their selfishness. It is not faith in the impossible, that desire and individual's differing ethical outcomes can coexist. Therefore, it is not faith in God. On the other hand, Poland’s protestors have the desire of having human rights, which seems like an impossibility with the politicians, which has led to the death of women's human rights.

However, with protestors having faith in change, through rebelling, their confidence is not lost and not forgotten. Although church protests may not seem like passion in God, the wish to separate the church and state demonstrates Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling is a response to the modern, 21st century, religious situation and the crisis of faith.

Image: Women's marches in Warsaw, Poland

The crisis of faith signifies that faith is much more hard work than people suppose as it is the most difficult of all. For instance, while people are protesting against institutional laws of the Catholic church, it could imply that they do not love or have faith in God as their actions are self-contradictory.

Kierkegaard highlighted these doubts in Fear and Trembling as something that gives confidence its value and what makes it so difficult such as when Abraham put all his faith in God in the sacrifice of Isaac. It is the fact that Abraham felt anguish, and had faith, that he was not a murderer.

It was more complicated than the fact that he wanted to kill Isaac. Abraham felt extreme pain and mental suffering of his only son during the journey up mount Moriah. Nevertheless, he did not change his choice.

There are similarities to this with women who protest against abortion bans as women who have abortions do not wish to have one for the sake of killing a child. There are always more profound and complicated reasons for women to have abortions, such as that the child will not survive.

It can be incomprehensible to know why an individual has chosen to act in a way that they have, but it does not mean that they acted immorally. Kierkegaard indicated that knowledge is not necessarily something that increases over time, reflecting on his perplexed comprehension of the story of Abraham. Nevertheless, his desire and enthusiasm become more vigorous, increasing his passion for God, at the same time as trying to deconstruct his understanding of faith. Correspondingly, Kierkegaard hopes that the reader will question faith.

Hence, though ironic progress, the crisis of faith is reflected within the 21st century through abortion protests. It is an individual matter between the person and their relationship to God that no institution should condemn. Instead of judgement, they should be able to reach an amicable agreement in this respect.

The protest against women's rights is a process taking place in the modern world as institutions are questioned, rewarding faith with value. In this way, faith has become more complicated than the easy choice of institutional blind faith. Therefore, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling firmly holds as a response to the current religious situation.

In conclusion, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling strongly respond to a specifically modern religious situation. Although I argue that women's rights protestors in Poland undergo a crisis of faith to God, yet going against institutional laws, I do not claim that they are knights of faith as Kierkegaard claims Abraham is.

Though the protestors hold great courage and bravery, not all of them may have passion for God as the driving force for their human rights. Instead, I argue that their specific situation of protesting for the separation of the church and state holds Kierkegaard's response to a specifically modern crisis.

Additionally, the complexity of people's understanding of why some choose to be pro-choice may not be comprehensible for institutions or individuals. As Nietzsche exclaims, the separation from institutional regulations is not unique to religious institutions but also the scientific and atheistic.

Therefore, especially in the modern world where not everyone holds faith in God, the complexity of why people do what they do will not always be identified. Those who do keep the passion in God should aim to become a knight of faith though it is a too difficult position to embrace.

For More Information:

Soren, Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. Translated by Alastair Hannay. Great Britain: Penguin Classics, 1985, p66.

Fredrich, Nietzsche. The Gay Science. Edited by B. Williams. Translated by Josephine Nauckhoff. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p120.

Karolina, Duzniak. “Kozy, Poland (CNN)”. CNN News. 21/11/2020. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/world/lgbt-free-poland-intl-scli-cnnphotos/.

Adam, Easton. “Poland abortion ruling: Protesters disrupt church services.” BBC News. 21/11/2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54683735.