Faith. From my current perspective it looks as if it is this which lies at the heart of my spiritual crises. And my approach to the problem has been rather analytical, a matter of sorting through mental and emotional associations to isolate the key issues -- if only I can find a definitive answer on "this" then I can walk forward, establishing myself in a framework of faith, and "life will then be good". Of course, I rarely admit to myself that I am quite so naïve, but at some level there is this child-like hope that if I can only have this one thing -- the answer to my question -- then all will be well. Call it "mental acquisitiveness".

Let's take a look at Abraham -- this time straight from Genesis 22:

I have been seeking for some little project, and in the process I have landed upon Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. In this book, Johannes de Silentio[1] is considering the Biblical story of the testing of Abraham.

I would like to quote two sections: the first is from the Preface, and has to do with the nature of faith, that it is a lifetime's work and not some small act like passing through a gate; the second is from the Preliminary Expectoration, and has to do with the real anxiety (or "dread") of the story.

Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken a wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for its own sake. What purports to be art begins to look like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalized action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in artistic creation the personality does not assert itself, it serves another, higher and communal idea. The artist is always a servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of our human calling....