Reading Kierkegaard I: Fear and Trembling (Cascade Companions)

by Paul Martens

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2017

Overview

In his posthumously published Journals and Papers, Kierkegaard boldly claimed, “Oh, once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author. Then it will be read, translated into foreign languages as well. The reader will almost shrink from the frightful pathos in the book.” Certainly, Fear and Trembling has been translated into foreign languages, and its fame has ensured Kierkegaard’s place in the pantheon of Western philosophy. Today, however, most shrink from the book not because of its frightful pathos but because of its fearsome impenetrability. In this first volume of a Reading Kierkegaard miniseries, Martens carefully unfolds the form and content of Kierkegaard’s celebrated pseudonymous text, guiding and inviting the reader to embrace the challenge of wrestling with it to the end. Throughout, Martens demonstrates that Fear and Trembling is not merely a book that contains frightful pathos; it is also an entree into Kierkegaard’s vibrant and polyphonic corpus that is nearly as restless as the faith it commends.

Key Features

• Clarifies Kierkegaard’s elusive text.
• Distinguishes authentic faith from conformity to societal norms.
• Specifies the distinctive way in which biblical faith is ‘absurd’ or ‘paradoxical’.

Praise for the Print Edition

A brief overview and helpful introduction to what is probably Kierkegaard’s most read and most puzzling text. It wisely locates this telling of the Abraham story within Kierekgaard’s larger ‘attack upon Christendom,’ his critique of the Danish church for making faith too easy and the closely related Hegelian philosophy for making faith too ‘reasonable.’ It nicely specifies the distinctive way in which biblical faith is ‘absurd’ or ‘paradoxical’.

--Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Fordham University

Paul Martens’ volume performs a colossal feat: it simultaneously clarifies Kierkegaard’s elusive text while it preserves its unsettling passion and mystery. Reading Kierkegaard I both orients new readers to Kierkegaard's provocative understanding of faith, and offers novel insights to seasoned scholars. Most significantly, Martens shows how Fear and Trembling consistently distinguishes authentic faith from conformity to societal norms, and how faith paradoxically combines the resignation of earthly well-being and the joyful acceptance of earthly blessings.

--Lee C. Barrett, The Henry and Mary Stager Professor of Systematic Theology, Lancaster Theological Seminary

Fear and Trembling is often the first of Kierkegaard’s famous books a non-specialist reader encounters, but it is also famously daunting. Paul Martens proves himself a wise guide to Fear and Trembling, for he accomplishes what may seem impossible: removing intellectual obstacles to understanding the ‘internal logic’ of Kierkegaard’s reflection on Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, but at the same time never minimizing the book’s daunting challenge to the gift and task that is faith.

--David J. Gouwens, Brite Divinity School

Product Details

• Title: Reading Kierkegaard I: Fear and Trembling
• Author: Paul Martens
• Series: Cascade Companions
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Pages: 130
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• ISBNs: 9781620320198, 1620320193
• Resource ID: LLS:RDNGKRKGTRMBLNG
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-11-29T17:03:26Z

About Paul Martens

Paul Martens held a postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Notre Dame and currently teaches Christian Ethics at Baylor University. He has co-edited several works by John Howard Yoder, including Nonviolence: A Brief History and Revolutionary Christianity: The 1966 South American Lectures (Cascade Books, 2012).