In ‘Fear and Trembling’, Søren Kierkegaard discusses the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in the bible and tries to explain Abraham’s motives and the effect of this action which he believed was performing his duty to God. It was really useful for my Gothic essay which will focus on how religious bodies enact justice on their own accord and beyond judicial systems as they believe their individual moral standards can serve as a proprietor of justice. Ultimately Abraham steps beyond faith, which should ground him, and duty runs over ethical morality. Kierkegaard tries to lay out scenarios that would explain Abraham’s actions but ultimately falls short as the biblical source logically conforms to none of these, and therefore discusses three larger questions about the ethical stances of faith. It was a really interesting though dense work of philosophy, though is tricky in that it assumes the readers knowledge of other philosophical theories beforehand, such as those of Kant, Hegel and Descartes. I will however give it a lot of credit as it was surprisingly enjoyable and hopefully really useful for my essay! (It also has a very humorous title when observed out of context)