Fear and Trembling: Dialectical Lyric by Johannes De Silentio

Kierkegaard's infamous and hugely influential philosophical work on faith, choice and sacrifice

In Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard, writing under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, expounds his personal view of religion through the scene in Genesis in which Abraham prepares to kill his son at God's command. Kierkegaard believed Abraham's unreserved obedience to be the essential leap of faith needed to make a full commitment to his religion. The conviction shown in this polemic - that an individual can have an exceptional mission in life - informed all his later writings, and was also hugely influential for both Protestant theology and the existentialist movement.

Translated with an Introduction by Alastair Hannay