ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the text which is the 'Attunement' section of Fear and Trembling, which comes as the second of four prefaces ('Preface', 'Attunement', 'Eulogy on Abraham', and 'Preliminary Expectoration' or 'Preamble from the Heart'). Johannes de Silentio's argument is that the founding story of the world's three monotheistic religions is not ethical, which is why it wounds our conscience and why it throws up more problems than can be solved by knowing Hebrew. Johannes is prepared to admit, and even develop, the idea that this story matters precisely because it has to do with sacrifice – a fact that we acknowledge when we call the story, without thinking, the story of the 'sacrifice of Isaac' rather than the 'near-sacrifice of Isaac', thus recognizing, in our very unthinkingness, what religious apologists and exegetes are at pains to deny. The Attunement section is four attempts by the certain man at a mental assault on Mount Moriah.
