Obeying God's order to kill his son made Abraham a hero, not a monster, Kierkegaard argued
God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and Abraham prepares to obey. By any ordinary ethical standard this is attempted murder, yet Kierkegaard calls Abraham the supreme 'knight of faith', someone who suspends ethics itself on the strength of a private, unprovable relationship with God. There is no rational way to justify the leap, which is exactly Kierkegaard's point: real faith only exists where reason has run out.
— Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling — 1843
Go deeper: get the book →