Furcht und Zittern

'Fear and Trembling' was published on the same day as 'Repetition'. The pseudonym that Kierkegaard chose for this work is Johannes de Silentio. While Constantin Constantius aims to express the constancy of the 'Repetition' of the ethical-religious stage, Johannes de Silentio indicates that something must remain unspoken here. Once a person sees themselves placed within the categories of faith, they can no longer make themselves understood in the universally valid expressions of the ethical. In both writings, biblical figures, Job and Abraham, come into action and are explored in an ever-deepening examination of their situation, until the paradox of faith is gradually highlighted. Abraham believed without knowing the outcome; he could have become a murderer in obedience to God, who demanded the son of promise, the fulfillment of his old age, from him.