Structure

For the purposes of structural analysis, the book can be divided into two fairly equal parts that are bookended by a short preface and epilogue. This division is reflective of the overall order and progression of Kierkegaard’s argument. The first part contains the opening Exordium, the Eulogy on Abraham, and the Preliminary Expectoration. Each of these sections lay the conceptual groundwork for the analyses examined later in the text.

The second part of the book contains Problema I, Problema II, and Problema III. Other than the Prelminary Expectoration section, these chapters comprise the heart of the book and contain the author’s more in-depth analyses of Abraham, the tragic hero, and the knight of faith. Each section or Problema takes up and examines dialectical aspects that Kierkegaard’s de Silentio believes is implicit in Abraham’s story: whether there is a teleological suspension of the ethical...