Fear and Trembling

work by Kierkegaard

Also known as: “Frygt og baeven”

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June 26, 2026

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Fear and Trembling is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard published in 1843. The book explores the biblical story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac as an act of faith. Kierkegaard uses this narrative to examine the concept of a "teleological suspension of the ethical," suggesting that true faith may require individuals to act against conventional morality based on a divine command.1

The work critiques abstract philosophical systems, emphasizing the importance of individual subjectivity and the personal, often paradoxical, nature of religious experience. Kierkegaard contrasts the ethical stage of existence, governed by universal rules, with the religious stage, where an individual's direct relationship with God may necessitate actions that appear ethically questionable to others. The book highlights the profound difficulty and isolation inherent in genuine faith.12

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Søren Kierkegaard
Stages on life’s way
In Fear and Trembling this ethical stage is teleologically suspended in the religious, which means not that it is abolished but that it is reduced to relative validity in relation to something absolute, which is its proper goal. For Plato (c. 428–c. 348 bc) and Kant,…
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In Fear and Trembling this ethical stage is teleologically suspended in the religious, which means not that it is abolished but that it is reduced to relative validity in relation to something absolute, which is its proper goal. For Plato (c. 428–c. 348 bc) and Kant,…
Read More

Western philosophy
Independent and irrationalist movements
…of three of Kierkegaard’s books—Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept of Dread (1844), and The Sickness unto Death (1849)—indicate his preoccupation with states of consciousness quite unlike cognition.
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…of three of Kierkegaard’s books—Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept of Dread (1844), and The Sickness unto Death (1849)—indicate his preoccupation with states of consciousness quite unlike cognition.
Read More