The Gift of Faith: Rethinking an Ethics of Sacrifice and Decision in Fear and Trembling and the Gift of Death
Philosophy Today › Vol. 53 Nbr. 2, July 2009
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Summary
First of all it will question the difficulty of Abraham's decision by suggesting that the free decision is foreclosed by the theistic world of the Genesis story. [...] the ethics of Abraham's decision will be put into question.
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Extract
The Gift of Faith: Rethinking an Ethics of Sacrifice and Decision in Fear and Trembling and the Gift of Death
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 S0ren 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, Jacques 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 mediations of language, community, and the law.
The Genesis StoryThe Abraham story of Genesis is an unadorned parable of faith that tells of a father's willingness to sacrifice his only legitimate son because God asked: 'Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah: and offer him there for a burnt offering."1 The Almighty's words are teasing and vindictive in their repetition and focus on the precious life of Isaac. Wordlessly showing obedience, Abraham rises early the next morning, takes Isaac to the mount of Moriah, prepares a woodpile, binds him and then raises his knife with the intention to kill. At this crucial moment in the story, an angel from the Lord intervenes and stops him from going through with the sacrifice...See the full content of this document
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