The gift of faith: rethinking the ethics of sacrifice and decision in 'Fear and Trembling' and 'The Gift of Death'

Abstract

'Fear and Trembling' explores an exceptional faith that goes beyond the realm of human understanding, knowledge, and law. The Abraham story of Genesis serves as a narrative foundation through which Søren Kierkegaard examines the absurd ethics of a father's willingness to sacrifice his only child to an invisible God. Although scandalized and outraged by the story, he is nevertheless still inspired by a father who chooses to sacrifice public morality for an intangible, private ethics. In 'The Gift of Death', Jaques Derrida too trembles at the thought of Abraham's sacrifice and is also scandalized enough to contemplate the unconventional ethics of his decision. Derrida's interpretation of the story not only preserves the spirit of 'Fear and Trembling' but also takes it a step further in that the invisible is not bound to religious belief or the existence of God. Through making a comparative study of 'Fear and Trembling' and 'The Gift of Death' this essay will put into question the ethics and subjectivity of an absolute faith and decision that is so wholly other that it escapes from the earthly meditations of language, community, and the law.