In this complicated philosophical work, existentialist Christian philosopher Kierkegaard wrestles with the nature of faith through the lens of the story of Abraham and his near sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. I read the Penguin Great Ideas edition of this book which was translated by Alastair Hannay. Real quick, yes, that is actually the cover of this book and talk about an existential crisis. That’s one of the worst book covers I’ve ever seen. Why would anyone design a book cover like that? Well, I’ll leave that question to the *ahem* philosophers.
Within those covers, however, is a dense, thought-provoking, challenging meditation on one of the great themes of philosophy and one of the great stories of ancient literature. The story of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice the thing he most loved on the earth has great resonances for people going through times of tragedy and sacrifice. Some say that Kierkegaard’s fascination with this story and the idea of persevering through faith stemmed from the end of his engagement to his fiancée, Regine Olsen, and his belief that God was calling him to celibacy. I mean, I’m sure they did, but viewing this book through a simple one-to-one critical lens like that is diminishing to everyone and everything concerned: Kierkegaard, the book, the concepts of faith & sacrifice and, ultimately, the reader. And, look, I’m not going to pretend that I understand everything about this book. It’s actually pretty short, but it’s a book to be read slowly and meditatively. I can’t say I followed every thought to its conclusion or understood everything, but on practically every page, there’s a striking thought beautifully expressed, even if you don’t quite understand how he got there. As a Christian, faith is a very important thing in my life and the philosophy of faith is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about over the years. Kierkegaard’s thoughts on faith don’t always align with mine, but they’re still compelling, thought provoking reading. 4 stars.
tl;dr – iconic philosopher wrestles with the idea of faith and the story of Abraham; dense, challenging, thought-provoking and often beautiful. 4 stars.