> Kierkegaard’s greatest illustration of this is his retelling of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Fear and Trembling (1843). Abraham is often held up as a paradigm of faith because he trusted God so much he was prepared to sacrifice his only son on his command. Kierkegaard makes us realize that Abraham acted on faith not because he obeyed a difficult order but because lifting the knife over his son defied all morality and reason. No reasonable man would have done what Abraham did. (...) So when Abraham took his leap of faith, he took leave of reason and morality.
I don't know if Kierkegaard actually said any of this, but it's wrong. Child sacrifice is as old as time. Many myths or actual rituals involved killing one's own children. It's found in most ancient cultures from the Middle East to the Americas.
It was therefore not "irrational" to do so, but, rather, quite reasonable and normal (if horrible), esp. in dire times.
The innovation found in some books of the Bible was just the opposite: to declare that child sacrifice is in fact bad and should be avoided.
And of course Jesus is that exact same myth of child sacrifice (with a twist: he dies but lives again).
I don't know if Kierkegaard actually said any of this, but it's wrong. Child sacrifice is as old as time. Many myths or actual rituals involved killing one's own children. It's found in most ancient cultures from the Middle East to the Americas.
It was therefore not "irrational" to do so, but, rather, quite reasonable and normal (if horrible), esp. in dire times.
The innovation found in some books of the Bible was just the opposite: to declare that child sacrifice is in fact bad and should be avoided.
And of course Jesus is that exact same myth of child sacrifice (with a twist: he dies but lives again).