John Lippitt, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and 'Fear and Trembling'

John Lippitt's Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and 'Fear and Trembling' begins with the claim that "Fear and Trembling is probably Kierkegaard's best-known and most commonly read work." Despite its popularity, however, Lippitt remains convinced that Fear and Trembling is "as likely to be greeted by puzzlement or downright exasperation as by admiration." John Lippitt, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and 'Fear and Trembling,' London and New York: Routledge 2003, p. 1. 2 Ibid, p. 2. 3 Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling": Critical Appraisals, ed. by Robert L. Perkins, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 1983. Certainly, Lippitt's extensive grasp of Kierkegaard's corpus is evident throughout, and his claim about Johannes de silentio displaying an "interested" or "subjective" life is just one natural outgrowth of this familiarity. One will have a most difficult time tracing how Kierkegaard develops and employs this claim beyond the pages of Fear and Trembling.