Abraham, Lazarus, and Returning to Life: Kierkegaard on Existential Faith

My aim in this chapter is to demonstrate, by an appeal to Kierkegaard's thought, what it means to possess an existential faith. I maintain that the existential believer sustains two, mutually dependent, sets of relationships: With God and with the world. I further posit that this kind of believer is motivated primarily by existential concerns regarding loss and suffering, and show how existential faith grounds a life-affirming position. Finally, I demonstrate how Kierkegaard's use of two biblical stories, Abraham's binding of Isaac and the resurrection of Lazarus, are crucial for his substantiation of this kind of faith.