How Did Kierkegaard Choose Abraham As The Perfect Example Of Faith

The life of Abraham is one of varied geographical places as Abraham moves from place to place as well as an expedition through life's ups and downs with its challenges and disappointment. Abraham's spiritual life is also a journey, as he moves from periods of great faith to those moments of weakness and sin. Ultimately we find that Abraham, this man of faith, learned to trust in God as he traveled, not only from his home in Ur but as he journeyed towards faith.

To better illustrate and understand the perspective of our present age as to that of Kierkegaard’s, we must first examine what Kierkegaard meant by these four phenomena which he claimed plagued his society in 1840’s Copenhagen. We will start by analyzing his concept of reflection. This reflection isn’t one of idleness which Kierkegaard shows praise towards but to that of overthinking. Through reflection, man overanalyzes situations before him to the point of driving the

Abraham was instructed by God to take his son Isaac to the land of Moriah (New American Version, Gen. 22.2). As Søren Kierkegaard states Fear and Trembling, Abraham is a Knight of Faith because embraces his absurd condition, i.e. God asking him to sacrifice the son that He just gave Abraham, and is rewarded with Isaac being spared, save the traumatic experience of his father trying to sacrifice him. Since Abraham is a Knight of Faith and transcends earthly query, one cannot judge his character or claim to understand him as by doing such would make them pitiful or arrogant in the eyes of Kierkegaard (Kierkegaard 91). Abraham, in his moment of infinite resignation and probable uncertainty, decided to accept his absurd condition and live at ease with a paradox because he believed that God would not steer him

Placher presents the essay of Thomas de Vio, Cardinal Cajatan, a treatise that discusses the disagreement of the Catholic’s faith and the Lutheran’s faith concerning the issue of “Faith & Works”. Cajetan rejected the concept of Lutherans claimed that one could be justified while remaining a sinner. The treatise laid out Cajetan view of evidence against the Lutheran’s claim.

In the 11th century, Spanish Rabbi Yona Ibn Janach wrote that God only wanted a symbolic sacrifice; He didn’t actually want Abraham to kill Isaac. Many rabbis claimed that God would never command such a horrific act. Others also note that Abraham was willing to do anything to spare his son. He was even willing go against the divine command. In addition, although it was God gave Abraham the orders, it was an angel, a subordinate being in the holy hierarchy, that stopped him. In a few later Jewish writings, the idea of God’s test of faith is rejected, and the sacrifice of Isaac is seen as a punishment for Abraham's previous "mistreatment" of his oldest son, Ishmael, who he kicked out at his wife’s request. However, this theory is rather misleading because the Bible states that God agreed with Abraham’s wife and actually insisted that Ishmael leave. Moreover, Rabbi Menachem Mendel said that, “as great a Mitzvah as it is, this test is considered trivial for someone of the spiritual stature of Isaac,” (Gen. Rabba 47:6), who represented the godly traits of kindness, strictness, and compassion. The one truly tested was Abraham in order to see whether or not he would doubt God's words. Remarkably, Abraham believed with faith, that this is what God was telling him to do now, this must be the right thing to do. Some Jewish scholars, such as Lippman Bodoff, believe that Abraham was never really going to sacrifice his son because he actually had faith that God never intended to go through with it. In this theory, Abraham's compliance was in fact his way of testing

Abraham’s seriousness and dedication in regards to his covenant with God control tense actions and events between Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is compelled in his actions by his understanding and faith that his belief in God will reap benefits. Without hesitation, he considers doing everything that God tells him to do. Abraham’s willingness and sacrifice of Isaac show the great power that God has over Abraham. Abraham’s desire for God’s approval and blessings compel him toward grave actions without the concrete command from God. Abraham merely implies God’s intentions from the limited conversations held between Abraham, God, and the angel.

Kierkegaard’s position on faith is represented with the Knight of infinite resignation and the Knight of faith. The Knight of faith is regarded as the one who believes in that which is absurd. For, he is the knight that is able to believe in the things that are

Starting with Kierkegaard, it is best to understand that he has a deep fulfillment to God and that he feels is the absolute. This absolute is to live in the realm of a paradox and that paradox is proving the existence of God and experiencing it for yourself. To understand this is to go through the different stages, of aesthetic, moral and religious. The aesthetic is all about the individual and focuses on oneself as an individual. The moral is having to be antagonistic towards yourself in

The title of this paper draws a critical question about the absolute truth and reason. Perhaps, reason can bring a person to the absolute truth, but it depends on the individual willingness to accept or deny the absolute truth. The absolute truth for this paper refers to God. Thus, the paper will focus on two great existential complementary philosophers in the nineteenth century such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. The role of reason to reach the absolute truth differs for Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Nietzsche pushes towards will of power and reason in order to achieve the absolute truth while Kierkegaard pushes towards to passion for the absolute truth and compassion. In fear and trembling, Kierkegaard explores the biblical faith of Abraham.

God selected Abraham to be the father of the His people. The bible does not directly state why God selected him, but after reading scripture one can conclude that God selected Abraham due to his great faith. Abraham’s life lends itself as an example to all who desire to walk with God.

What is faith? Faith is something different to everyone. If you asked a hundred different people, it is possible that you would get many diverse answers. Religious faith and non-religious faith are two very distinct terms. Faith holds an extremely complex meaning when discussing it in the context of religion. Faith is a belief. That holds true to every religious and non-religious person. Every faith involves a decision. It is not about what we claim to believe, but what we actually do believe, that is true faith. Throughout this paper, I am going to discuss Christian faith, how it pertains to daily life and Christianity as a whole. I also intend to delve into George W. Forell's discussion of Christian faith and analyze and

In this essay, I will try to summarize, analyze and discuss several pages of Søren Kierkegaard’s Training in Christianity. I will try to focus on his approach to sacred history, a general Christian history and Christianity, which he discusses in this work in relation to faith in God. In other parts of this essay I will attempt also to relate these pages of his work to some key ideas of Kierkegaard’s theology and philosophy and support this with some concrete quotations from the text. In the end I will very briefly compare different philosophies of Hegel and Kierkegaard and try to relate Kierkegaard’s work to a few topics, which

     Abraham stands as one of the most important figures in the Hebrew Bible, and is central to the understanding of God’s solution to the problem of mankind. Man, the mysterious creature that God wraught as a semi-experiment, is constantly prone to believe he is self-sufficient and capable of survival without God, the central problem God must deal with in the Hebrew Bible. To solve this problem, God decides to strike fear in the heart of man and to revolutionise his lifestyle by creating laws and empowering a chosen group of people, who will spread the word of God by example. These people are the Hebrews, and Abraham is the father of their race, the man from whom all

The connections between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Soren Kierkegaard as philosophers are not at all immediately obvious. On the surface, Wittgenstein deals with matters concerning the incorrect use of philosophical language and Kierkegaard focuses almost exclusively on answering the question 'how to become a Christian'. But this account belies deeper structural similarities between these men's important works. Thus, this paper suggests that their methods, rather than exclusively content, contain a strong parallel on which a natural and hopefully fruitful examination of their work can be based.

In Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling”, we are presented with the views of Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Hegel and Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, ‘Johannes de Silentio’, in regard to the story, “The Binding of Isaac” and how Abraham’s religious beliefs made him sacrifice his son, which went against the rules of the ethical at that moment in time. We must ask ourselves, is it ever justifiable to commit an act that goes against a universal set of ethical rules in order to pursue an individual relationship with God – a relationship that takes priority over the ethical?