The first time I read Kierkegaard, I was honestly taken aback by the way he took such a profound Biblical story and questioned the Faith behind it all. Being raised in a church atmosphere and having attended Christian schools, I had questioned certain aspects of the Bible and my own religion, yet I felt guilty for doing this. Kierkegaard gave me some inspiration to look search beyond the surface value of the Biblical tales and truly search for what the story means to me in the modern day sense. These stories that had been taught to me since pre-school were so engrained in my mind that I did not see them for their true value.
In Kierkegaard’s story of Abraham, he identifies the absurdity within the tale that our God could ask something of such magnitude as well as a painfully sinful task of one of his true believers. The tale is suppose to resemble that through faith and trust in God, he will relieve you of your deepest fears. I feel that Kierkegaard points to the obvious in the situation that this story does not seem to resemble the type of faith in the God we believe in now. Throughout history, we have seen how different perceptions and types of relationships change. This can be seen even within the past century with women and civil rights, which have affected the way we connect or communicate with other people. These types of relationships would not have been known in the 19th century. To better understand the depth of the story and the type of faith conveyed, I feel we need to recognize that the way we perceive a relationship with God is different than it was during the these Biblical times. Without identifying that the relationships with God have changed, we cannot fully appreciate and grasp the depth of the type of faith that Abraham must have had with God.
I am not suggesting that the story resembles the ideal form of Faith with God. I am merely stating we cannot fully understand this direct connection with God, because in our modern day state the relationship has changed. Although the story seems completely absurd in our world, we must not omit the depth of the story through analyzing it in our modern lenses. To fully grasp this true sense of connection, this suspension of the ethical in its rarest form, we have to revert to a different time perception and appreciate the overarching theme of the story.
I think your post is very inline with the way that kierkegaard seems to understand the story of Abraham, with the exception of the exception of what u stated at the begging of the post. I don't see in the reading that kierkegaard questions the faith of Abraham, in fact he admits that the story confirms his extraordinary faith. And though you are correct that faith has changed in the modern era, Keirkegaard, would argue that todays faith is cheap, and that true faith is that of Abraham. Believing God, even when it requires a direct contradiction.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy that you start off by telling us that you are coming at this problem with the stories engrained in your head. [I am very much the same way] Yet I do find a question that seems to nag at me, we take for granted that the story is indeed true, and that Abraham wasn't mad, but couldn't this also just be another engraved fallacy taught to us from childhood on? Is this truly the type of relationship that God had with man, or was Abraham a crazed man who acted impulsively on dreams that were merely dreams?
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree that relationships change, but do the ways that relationships are created/enacted change so drastically, that one era God speaks directly to his creations, and the next he offers no such word?
Faith in this long lost era was having the courage to believe in the voice that came from the sky, but there was no doubt that there was a voice. Now we have the definition that Faith is believing that there is the possibility of a voice in the sky but we never hear it. Their Faith in God was much like having faith in another person's word, there was no doubt that the word had been said, the only thing to doubt was the intent behind the word, whereas now we have no reason to not doubt the word itself, as we are deaf to it.
In short, is it not possible that we are making excuses to justify the fairy tales pertaining to our religions psychotic 'father of faith'?
You bring up a very interesting point and I think I agree with you. Reading K. made me re-think about the story of Abraham, especially the version I learned as a child. For the youth, it seems to be the ultimate story of trust on two levels: parent and GOD. It seems that Abraham is painted as another beacon of God's word to Isaac, who should be obedient not only to his parent, but to his heavenly parent. I almost feel like the story of Abraham and Isaac sends a confusing message to adults because it seems to remind us that even those earthly things are not ours to keep and we should be willing to give them up to God at any time that he might ask. What's with all the sacrifice?!
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