Fear and Trembling
Fear and Trembling (original Danish title: Frygt og Bæven) is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio (Latin for John of the Silence). The title is a reference to a line from Philippians 2:12, which says to “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” The Philippians verse is sometimes thought to reference Psalm 55:5, which says, “Fear and trembling came upon me.”
The work is an extended meditation on Genesis 22, also known as the binding of Isaac. Silentio attempts to understand Abraham’s internal psychological state during his three-and-a-half day journey to Moriah. The text attempts to demonstrate how it is difficult to understand Abraham’s actions through ethical categories like Sittlichkeit or the universal. Instead, Silentio posits that Abraham can only be understood through a new category called faith.