The Sacrifice of Silence: Fear and Trembling and the Secret of Faith

Podmore, Simon D. (2012) The Sacrifice of Silence: Fear and Trembling and the Secret of Faith. International Journal of Systematic Theology, 14 (1). pp. 70-90. ISSN 14631652

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Abstract

This article examines the important hermeneutical and theological relation between silence and sacrifice in Søren Kierkegaard's (1813–55) divisively enigmatic Fear and Trembling. I contend that this relation becomes clearest when the silence of Abraham is explicated in relation to his esoteric proclamation that ‘God himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering’. In Abraham's reply to Isaac, the secret of Abraham's faith is concomitantly revealed (as a trust in the notion that ‘with God all things are possible’) and concealed (as a paradoxically ‘impossible’ possibility which cannot be adequately conveyed to ‘the other’). This thereby proposes a qualitative distinction between Abraham's reverent silence before God and his aporetic silence before the other.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BS The Bible
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Susan Murray
Date Deposited:	10 Mar 2014 08:40
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2024 14:21
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/112

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