Soren Kierkegaard: Frygt og baeven [Fear and Trembling]

Abstract

'Fear and Trembling' ['Frygt og Bæven'] was published on 16 October 1843 - the same day as Kierkegaard published 'Repetition' and 'Three Edifying Discourses'. It is published under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio (John of Silence) and has the subtitle "Dialectical Lyric". The text bears the following epigraph from J. G. Hamann: "What Tarquinius Superbus said in the garden by means of the poppies, the son understood but the messenger did not" ... The book is divided into sections: a preface; an exordium; a eulogy on Abraham; three problemata, which are preceded by a "preliminary expectoration"; and an epilogue.