TY - JOUR
T1 - What Neither Abraham nor Johannes de Silentio Could Say
AU - Lippitt, John
N1 - ("The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com") Copyright Aristotelian Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8349.2008.00163.x
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Though there are significant points of overlap between Michelle Kosch’s reading of Fear and Trembling and my own, this paper focuses primarily on a significant difference: the legitimacy or otherwise of looking to paradigmatic exemplars of faith in order to understand faith. I argue that Kosch’s reading threatens to underplay the importance of exemplarity in Kierkegaard’s thought, and that there is good reason to resist her use of Philosophical Fragments as the key to interpreting the ‘hidden message’ of Fear and Trembling. Key to both claims is the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. I also briefly sketch an alternative reading of the ‘hidden message’, one in which Kierkegaard’s Christian commitments play a notably different role.
AB - Though there are significant points of overlap between Michelle Kosch’s reading of Fear and Trembling and my own, this paper focuses primarily on a significant difference: the legitimacy or otherwise of looking to paradigmatic exemplars of faith in order to understand faith. I argue that Kosch’s reading threatens to underplay the importance of exemplarity in Kierkegaard’s thought, and that there is good reason to resist her use of Philosophical Fragments as the key to interpreting the ‘hidden message’ of Fear and Trembling. Key to both claims is the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. I also briefly sketch an alternative reading of the ‘hidden message’, one in which Kierkegaard’s Christian commitments play a notably different role.
KW - Kierkegaard
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-8349.2008.00163.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-8349.2008.00163.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0309-7013
VL - 82
SP - 79
EP - 99
JO - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume
JF - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume
IS - 1
ER -