Abraham

Genesis 22:1-14
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

“All the while Abraham had faith, believing that God would not demand Isaac of him, though ready all the while to sacrifice him, should it be demanded of him. He believed this on the strength of the absurd; for there was no question of human calculation any longer. And the absurdity consisted in God’s, who yet made this demand of him, recalling his demand the very next moment.” –Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

I spent a bit of time early in my life as a stringer for the Roanoke Times & World News in Christiansburg, VA. On the staff room bulletin board there was an article prominently displayed that had an attention-grabbing headline. It was called “First, Kill Your Babies.” It was not about homicide, but about writing. It was a variation on the quote often attributed to William Faulkner: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” Stephen King—an expert on killing one’s darlings—put it this way: “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even though it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill all your darlings.” The point, of course, is that often it’s the clever little touches, the ones we most enjoyed, that need to be brutally excised from an article or story in order for it to be a good article or story.

I thought of that as I reread Soren Kierkegaard’s striking interpretation of the story of Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice his son Isaac. It may seem at first an odd comparison. After all, Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac is not light-hearted writing advice but easily the most disturbing story of the Bible.Read More »God of the Absurd