Kierkegaard's 'Fear and Trembling': A Reader's Guide

by Clare Carlisle

Søren Kierkegaard was without question one of the most important and influential thinkers of the nineteenth century. Fear and Trembling is a classic text in the history of both philosophical and religious thought that still challenges readers with its original philosophical perspective and idiosyncratic literary style.

Kierkegaard's 'Fear and Trembling': A Reader's Guide offers a concise and accessible introduction to this hugely important and notoriously demanding work. Written specifically to meet the needs of students coming to Kierkegaard for the first time, the book offers guidance

- Philosophical and historical context
- Key themes - Reading the text
- Reception and influence
- Further reading

Genres: Philosophy, Christianity, Theory, Theology

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

Clare Carlisle is a British philosopher and biographer. She is the author of books on Baruch Spinoza, Søren Kierkegaard, and George Eliot. She was born in Manchester in 1977. She studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge between 1995 and 2002. She is a professor at King's College London. In 2024 she gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, The Nation, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Reviews

[Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clarifying commentary!

[Aaron Xue]

i actually don’t care right now

[Karen Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in conjuction with the 1983 Hong/Hong translation. Very helpful for context: how SK's personal life may have influenced some of the ways he wrote the text, and some clarification of finer points he makes. Also helps define the structure of the original text, which was baffling to me at first.
See my blog post at A Just Recompense for further details about the experience of reading the text with a Catherine Project reading group.

[Jen Otte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, had a few "ah-hah" moments. Much of it, like the other books on F&T I've read, was just re-stating what Johannes already said in the text but in different words. Good book recommendations to be found in here.