Status Updates From Fear and Trembling and The ...

"The genuinely humane no generation learns from the [foregoing generation]. In this respect every generation begins primitively, has no different task from that of the previous... the highest passion in a man is faith, and here no generation begins at any other point than did the previous... There are perhaps many in every generation who do not even reach [faith], but no one gets further."

"The genuinely humane no generation learns from the [foregoing generation]. In this respect every generation begins primitively, has no different task from that of the previous... the highest passion in a man is faith, and here no generation begins at any other point than did the previous... There are perhaps many in every generation who do not even reach [faith], but no one gets further."

Problem III is a thoroughly confusing section, I think in part bc I need to review some of the myths he is referencing, but also partially bc I feel like he hasn’t defined his terms all that well in the specific senses in which he is using them. I’m telling you right now, I’m gonna have to reread this part after getting some better context. Annoying, since this is the final section.

Problem II was challenging... Kierkegaard's claim is that the believer is by necessity "incomprehensible" to others (in the way that Abraham was incomprehensible to others when he went to sacrifice Isaac). I'm still processing this but I think his argument holds up, and it's a scary thought.

Problem 1 was really interesting. I disagree with his categorizing Jephtha as a tragic hero along with Agamemnon because I think the point of Jephtha's story is that he made a vow he never should have made if he understood God's character, but I will give it to Kierkegaard that I didn't know how to understand that story for many many years. I really appreciated his discussion of Mary's dread and suffering.

Excited for this... already the opening pages of this compilation are such a better introduction to Kierkegaard than I got in college, and the mention of his later revisions has calmed me in reference to what some people claim are extreme views in his works... he did a lot of clarifying what he was NOT saying later, which is so relatable lol. I'll make more updates positive or negative as I do more research.

Uhhhhhhhhh I don’t remember the Bible very well and that might be an issue