Who Is Kierkegaard's Sacrifice?

In the exordium, the four scenarios are shown to be understandable reactions to Abraham’s situation. Nevertheless, they aren’t helpful in reaching beyond the ethical understanding of Abraham’s sacrifice. In a sense, the man in the story is unable to understand this story because of how he does not take into account the necessity of Abraham’s faith, which is beyond comprehension or rational thought. Kierkegaard was trying to attune himself in the story, wherein offering multiple perspectives summons a new understanding of Abraham’s experience and presents the emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual aspects that are manifested in taking on his experience. However, the accompanied analogy did provide some confusion for me. I think that child represents Isaac, the breast represents Abraham and the mother represents god, but I

I feel that this analogy may suggest the different outcomes of faith within the four scenarios, or acknowledges the essence of the sacrifice itself, in which Abraham is forgoing his earthy relationship with his son Isaac, in order for him to be closer to god. Faith remains an ever-present feature, as Kierkegaard present a story of faith, yet it is not of genuine faith, thus I felt that he was using Abraham’s story to guide the audience to a better understanding of what true faith is.

In the eulogy from Abraham, the symbolic relationship between the hero and the poet highlight the overcoming of the possibility of despair. This finds the poet preserving the memory of the hero through “recollection”. Both are striving to be immortalized by instilling a legacy of eternal posterity in order to prevent