The original biblical story of Abraham is about a man who was not able to have a child for about eighty years. Therefore, God generously gives Abraham a son named Isaac. After about thirty years, the angel of God orders Abraham to kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice. All of a sudden God tells Abraham that he does not have to sacrifice his son after all. God told Abraham that he could just sacrifice a ram instead. In the book Fear and Trembling, written by Kierkegaard, it brings upon four different stories or view points of the story of Abraham. In the first story, Abraham is willing to kill Isaac to obey God’s command. He then tells Isaac that this was his decision and not God’s orders. We all know that, that is a lie, however, Abraham would rather have Isaac loose faith in him as a father rather than loosing faith in God. In the second story, Abraham takes the life of a ram instead of his son. God specifically told him that he could just kill the ram instead of having to sacrifice his own son, however, Abraham is still paranoid about the fact that God has changed his mind. In the third story, Abraham does not kill Isaac and prays to God for forgiveness for even thinking about killing his son. Last but not least, in the fourth story, Abraham was not able to kill his son Isaac. This lead to Isaac questioning his own faith in God because of Abraham disobeying God’s command. Throughout most of the story, Kierkegaard mainly focuses on Abraham and tries to interpret whether his actions where ethical or not. Kierkegaard proclaims that although killing his own son would be something hard to do, it would be religiously correct because it is what God had ordered. Ultimately, Kierkegaard believed that Abraham was going to kill his son because we are taught that one should always obey God, he was going to kill his son because he had such a strong faith in God. Kierkegaard knows that God would not order Abraham to do something that was justly wrong. Therefore, Abraham knew that killing his son would not be easy, but he strongly believed that God would eventually spare his son. I agree with Kierkegaard’s interpretation of the story of Abraham. I believe that although Abraham knew that killing his son would be fairly wrong, he knew that God, being as powerful and as noble as he is, would direct him in the most right and religious way. One’s faith in God is stronger than anything and everything else.
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