Søren Kierkegaard writes this book under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, which translates into “John of the silence.” The book opens with a discussion about the state of modern society (for Kierkegaard, this would mean 19th-century Europe) and how so many people want to go beyond faith. However, as he points out, this implies that people must have had faith at some point, or else how could they go further than it? Faith in the modern age isn’t something a person devotes their whole life to, but something that people either go beyond or mistakenly believe they can achieve in a few weeks or months. The same goes for doubt—what used to take a lifetime to perfect, people now want to accomplish almost immediately. Kierkegaard explains that he is writing this book because writing is enjoyable, although he believes that the book will be either ignored or criticized.
In the “Attunement,” Kierkegaard shares the story of a man who first learned the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac when he was a child and has always loved it, but as he grew older, he understood Abraham less and less. The man considers four possible scenarios: one in which Abraham tells Isaac what is going to happen and then tries to scare Isaac by pretending to be a homicidal atheist so that Isaac will be mad at him, not God; one in which Abraham loses his faith after sacrificing the ram God sends before he can kill Isaac; one in which Abraham doesn’t bring Isaac up the mountain, but goes up alone to beg forgiveness for violating his sacred duty as a father to Isaac by being willing to kill him; and one in which Isaac loses his faith after Abraham unknowingly reveals his own anguish before raising the knife. Even considering all of these possibilities, the man is unable to understand Abraham.
Kierkegaard believes that Abraham was truly great and frequently refers to him as the “father of faith.” Abraham’s story begins when God asked him to leave his life behind and go out into the desert, which Abraham does because he has faith and believes God would never ask him to do anything without a reason. God also promises Abraham that he will have a son with his wife Sarah, and his descendants will spread all over the world. Abraham had faith in this promise even though both he and Sarah were very old, and his faith was justified when Sarah had Isaac. However, God tests Abraham one more time by asking him to sacrifice Isaac; fortunately, before Abraham takes the irrevocable step of killing Isaac, God intervenes. Kierkegaard believes that if Abraham had wavered in his faith then everything might have been different, but Abraham followed God’s instructions, spending three and a half grueling days traveling to Mount Moriah with Isaac even though it must have been distressing. Unfortunately, when people discuss Abraham’s story, they typically put too much emphasis on the fact that God intervened at the last minute instead of how much Abraham had to overcome before the moment of sacrifice. In Kierkegaard’s opinion, it’s the journey to Mount Moriah and the fact that Abraham had to violate universal ethics to do God’s will that proves Abraham’s greatness, not just the moment he raised the knife.
Kierkegaard discusses two important spiritual movements a person must make to have faith. The first includes infinite resignation during which a person must make an enormous sacrifice, and the second includes taking back what they sacrifice on the strength of the absurd. The absurd is something that seems impossible and flies in the face of all human understanding. In other words, people with faith believe that the impossible is possible through God. Kierkegaard illustrates these two concepts by telling a story about a young man who harbors an impossible love for a princess. His love for her is the entire substance of his life, it will never die out, but they can’t be married. After realizing that it’s impossible for them to be together, a knight of infinite resignation would renounce their love, experience the pain of that renunciation, and then reconcile themselves to the pain. Although his love would live on, he would have given up hope that they could be together in this life. A knight of faith, on the other hand, would follow the same steps, but at the moment of renunciation they would simultaneously say that they will still get to be with the princess in this life. In this way, they get back all that they sacrifice, and this is what makes faith so great and yet so difficult to understand by anyone who doesn’t have it themselves.
Kierkegaard frequently states that while he admires people who have faith, he doesn’t have the courage to take the final step into faith. In fact, he struggles to understand how anyone can, although he knows people do. He’s never met a knight of faith, but if he did then he would travel far and wide to meet them and learn to mimic their spiritual movements. Furthermore, Kierkegaard doesn’t understand how people can talk of going further than faith because surely anyone who has truly had faith would never give it up to go further. Returning to Abraham, Kierkegaard again points out that people focus too much on the end of the story, and not enough on what came before. For this reason, Kierkegaard believes the modern age ought to either forget Abraham entirely or try to understand the whole story. Kierkegaard proposes to examine the story through three problemata to illustrate the power and place of faith in the temporal world.
The first problema asks if there is a teleological suspense of the ethical. The ethical is the universal, and all individuals as the particular are expected to conform to the universal by abiding by the ethical. Faith, however, is a paradox by which the particular (the individual) rises above the universal, but they can only achieve this by being part of the universal and simultaneously setting themselves apart. Either Abraham’s actions are justified by faith—which can’t be expressed in universal terms because people won’t be able to understand it—or he’s a murderer. Kierkegaard analyzes the story through an ethical lens and brings up other cases of fathers killing their children, including the story of Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia to appease an angry goddess. Because Agamemnon and other tragic heroes act for the universal good, there is a suspension of ethics and they are praised as great. Abraham, however, seems to violate the universal for God’s sake and his own (so he could prove his faith). Because Abraham was reaching above the universal, people don’t sympathize with his pain.
Kierkegaard believes Abraham’s actions are justified through the paradox of faith, which states that the individual can transcend the universal through it. Others, however, look to the outcome of his story (or any hero’s story) to decide whether his actions were justified. However, this means they ignore the fact that all actions have a beginning, and it’s important to consider why people do things instead of only focusing on the end result. More importantly, people ignore the trauma and distress that great people experience during their trials. An example is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. People praise her for giving birth to Jesus, but they forget that before she gave birth, she had to deal with a pregnancy that she couldn’t properly explain to others because she was the only one the angel visited. Returning to Abraham, Kierkegaard concludes that there is either a teleological suspension of the ethical in Abraham’s story because of his faith, or else he was a murderer.
The second problema Kierkegaard addresses is whether there’s an absolute duty to God. Kierkegaard reiterates that the ethical is the universal, but this is associated with the divine. For this reason, all duty is duty to God even when it doesn’t directly involve God. Despite Hegelian philosophy’s assertion that the external is higher than the internal, faith is a paradox that says the individual (interior) is higher than the universal (exterior). Only the individual is able to create an absolute relationship with the absolute (God), which means there is an absolute duty to God that makes the ethical (or universal) relative. Duty is usually expressed externally, but duty to God is expressed internally. For this reason, it’s difficult for anyone to understand it in universal terms. This is also why Abraham couldn’t convey the meaning of his actions to anyone else—if he had tried to express them in the universal, he would have realized he was in a state of temptation. A knight of faith’s path is, therefore, isolating and scary. The knight of faith is in a constant state of tension, knowing they can jump back into the universal at every moment but knowing that the path of faith is higher. This is what makes the knight of faith’s journey so prolonged and painful, whereas a tragic hero becomes a tragic hero all in a moment, as soon as they make their sacrifice, and then they are able to rest in the universal and be praised by all. Through faith there is an absolute duty to God higher than duty to the ethical or universal, or else Abraham should be condemned.
In the final problema, Kierkegaard asks if it was right of Abraham not to tell Isaac, Sarah, or Eleazar about God’s command. Ethics demands disclosure, although aesthetics frequently demands concealment because it’s more interesting. For this reason, in drama concealment is used to create tension and disclosure is used to resolve it. Kierkegaard states that silence can be either demonic or divine, a concept he explores in several anecdotes. In one, a bridegroom resorts to silence after he cancels his wedding when an augur reveals that some misfortune will befall him if he marries. The man chooses silence because he thinks it will be better for his would-be bride. This is an example of a divine silence. In another story, the Merman tries to seduce Agnete and drag her into the ocean, but he falls in love with her and changes his mind when he realizes how innocent she is. In this case, the Merman can make Agnete hate him so she’ll fall out of love with him so that he can keep his secret and silently endure his punishment (being separated from Agnete). This is a demonic silence because the Merman is tempted into suffering. However, there are some cases in which silence is best: Abraham couldn’t speak intelligibly because faith is unintelligible. He stayed quiet as to not be misunderstood. This must be justifiable and there must be a paradox that sets the individual above the universal, or else Abraham should be condemned.
Kierkegaard asks if society has come so far that it must pretend it hasn’t come far enough just to have something to do. Every generation must start over when it comes to navigating passion. This is especially true of faith because it’s the highest of human passions. Not everyone will get as far as faith, but Kierkegaard leaves it to the reader to decide how many people in the modern age do get that far. What’s important to know is that even a life without faith offers plenty of tasks and trials to overcome, and arriving at faith doesn’t necessarily mean coming to a standstill. One can live their whole life in faith, just as they can in love.
