Book · 1843
Fear and Trembling
by Søren Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard uses Abraham's knife at Isaac's throat to ask whether any act of faith can be explained to the person standing next to you.
What does Reddit think of Fear and Trembling?
Fear and Trembling pulls 58 mentions across 7 years, with r/askphilosophy owning 46 of them — the book is a philosophy classroom staple, not a casual pick. The ↑82 r/philosophy comment frames it cleanly: through Abraham and Isaac, Kierkegaard maps the anxiety of faith as a category that simply won't reduce to ethics. The ↑62 r/askphilosophy thread makes the real structural argument — aesthete, ethical man, knight of faith are not a ladder you climb but a set of incommensurable standpoints. Each finds the others incomprehensible. The contested read, surfaced in a ↑92 r/philosophy thread: the pseudonymous secular works, Fear and Trembling included, don't fully cohere unless you also read the religious writing — which almost nobody does. Kierkegaard's architecture requires the whole building.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · The teleological suspension of the ethical
- · The knight of faith vs. the tragic hero
- · Abraham and the paradox of religious obligation
- · Incommensurability of the aesthetic, ethical, and religious stages
- · Anxiety and the individual before God
- · Pseudonymity and philosophical persona (Johannes de Silentio)
Common praise
- + The knight of faith description gives you a concrete figure to argue with instead of an abstraction.
- + r/philosophy (↑47) credits the discourse on faith as exceptionally well-structured for a theistic philosopher.
- + The three-stage framework keeps showing up in r/askphilosophy undergraduate reading lists because it actually organizes how people think about choice.
- + Short enough to finish in a sitting; dense enough to argue about for a semester.
Common criticism
- − The ↑92 r/philosophy thread lands the real problem: it doesn't fully make sense unless you read the religious works, and almost no one does.
- − Kierkegaard writes under a pseudonym so the narrator's commitments are deliberately obscured, which frustrates readers who want a straight answer.
- − 11 mentions in r/philosophy over 7 years suggests it circulates mainly in academic contexts rather than broader philosophical discussion.
- − The year-on-year mention count dropped from 10 in 2019–2020 to 2 in 2023 before recovering — not a book that generates sustained Reddit momentum.
Who it's for
If you're already in an ethics or existentialism course and hit the Abraham problem, this is the text you need — r/askphilosophy returns to it constantly across 46 mentions precisely because it's the sharpest formulation of why religious obligation can't be translated into moral terms. Come to it cold with no Kierkegaard background and the pseudonymous narrator will feel like a trick rather than a device. Read Either/Or first, or at minimum know what the stages of existence are before you open it. Theologians and philosophy undergraduates get the most out of it. Someone who wants existentialism without the religious architecture should go to Sartre instead — the ↑128 r/askphilosophy comment makes exactly that case.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Fear and Trembling?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“His work overall is less systematic, developed, and, simply put, philosophically interesting than the likes of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, or Beauvoir from his contemporaries. To some extent, we might see his insights as failing to break free of the "ligaments" which tie Camus into intellectua…
“Either Or, and Fear and Trembling.
“I get why someone would suggest using a reader, and if you decide to go without that, I'd understand -- but to answer your question specifically: I would say that you don't need to read the Bible before *Fear and Trembling* but reading the very short Isaac and Abraham story in Genesis would go a lon…
“As I was watching this, I imagined objections that people might make, and noticed that one problem with Kierkegaard is that his "secular" works (the psuedonymous ones that built his reputation, like _Fear and Trembling_) don't fully make sense unless you also read his religious ones (which nobody do…
“I’m on mobile so I’m going to try to make this succinct - Kierkegaard was *not* a nihilist. While he did believe it is an extremely difficult undertaking to, for example, become an individual before God, he does believe it is possible. In fact, he thinks that every single person has been **commanded…
“Fear and Trembling is a book by Søren Kierkegaard written under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio. Kierkegaard is famous for having multiple pseudonyms. Through the biblical story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Kierkegaard, as a great explorer of human psychology, looks into the anxiety that must …
“Look at his description of a knight of faith in Fear and Trembling. That's probably the best place to go for a clear-ish description of what a D&D Kierkegaard character would look like. Name it something Latin. Johannes de Silentio, etc.
“Well, he's pretty much directly responsible for the concept that we choose our own path and are responsible for our own growth. Additionally, his discourse on faith in Fear and Trembling is, firstly beautiful, but also incredibly well structured. For a theistic philosopher, it's a staple of how such…
“I'd probably suggest you begin with Sartre, *Existentialism is a Humanism*, as well as his *Nausea* and Kierkegaard's *Fear and Trembling*. I know it's a bit dated, but Walter Kaufmann's *Existentialism* was my own introduction to it. De Beauvoir's *Ethics of Ambiguity* is a great discussion of exi…
“My phil 205 course on existentialism started with Kierkegaard. Really awesome stuff. Highly recommend fear and trembling.
“Definitely *Fear and Trembling*. I'd also recommend reading the works of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche back to back for the stark contrast it provides. Kierkegaard is unabashedly devout while Nietzsche is vehemently atheist, and yet, they arrive at many of the same conclusions. Also, if you're som…
“I made an absolutely terrible mistake in that the very first primary philosophical text that I decided to read was Kierkegaard's *Fear and Trembling*. It took me two months of continued effort to get through and I came away feeling I understood half of it at best. However, I remembered enough that a…
“For anyone interesting in reading Kierkegaard, I'd recommend getting Fear and Trembling with the Walter Lowrie annotations, I've found it to be a good introduction to his work
“You may be interested in Kierkegaard, you sound like me up until somewhat recently, you've got the existential dread. I can relay some very basic outlines of his perspective on the matter but you'd be far better off reading something like "Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death" or his othe…
“Here’s what I think will be consensus picks for all: Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling Derrida - Of Grammatology Foucault - Discipline and Punish Descartes - Meditations Kant - Critique of Pure Reason Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit Locke - Essay on Human Understanding Rousseau - Discour…
Convinced? Pick up Fear and Trembling
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Fear and Trembling — counted from the comments, not curated.
Guides featuring Fear and Trembling
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Fear and Trembling — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually think of Fear and Trembling?+
Respect over enthusiasm. r/askphilosophy accounts for 46 of 58 total mentions over 7 years, and the comments explain and contextualize rather than recommend. Nobody calls it life-changing. The ↑82 r/philosophy comment treats it as a clean philosophical achievement; the ↑92 thread flags that it doesn't fully cohere without the religious works. Academic regard, not popular love.
Is Fear and Trembling a good entry point into Kierkegaard?+
Depends on your tolerance for confusion. A ↑92 r/philosophy comment argues directly that the pseudonymous secular works — Fear and Trembling among them — don't fully make sense unless you also read the religious writing, which most people skip. If you want Kierkegaard's existentialism without the theological architecture, Either/Or is a more honest starting point.
Who is the knight of faith in Fear and Trembling?+
A ↑62 r/askphilosophy thread gives the clearest account: someone who makes the leap of faith while remaining fully in the world, incomprehensible to both the aesthete and the ethical man. Kierkegaard describes the figure concretely enough that a ↑49 r/askphilosophy commenter uses it as a template for building a Kierkegaard-inspired D&D character.
Should I read Fear and Trembling if I'm interested in existentialism but not religion?+
Probably not first. The ↑128 r/askphilosophy comment argues Kierkegaard's insights don't break free of theological constraints the way Sartre, Heidegger, or Beauvoir do. Fear and Trembling is specifically about the religious stage and faith's suspension of ethics. If the Abraham problem doesn't interest you on its own terms, the book won't convert you.