Cult sacrifice
Kierkegaard brings forward the latent imagery of the Old Testament. Although today religion brings to mind imagery of churches and services, Kierkegaard's retelling of the Abraham story brings out the ancient assumptions about religion. In this story, Abraham tells his son that they are going to go to the top of the mountain to kill an animal for God, and his son complies. Then halfway up, the son asks, "Where's the animal for the sacrifice?" not knowing that he himself is the animal. Abraham has been told by Yahweh to sacrifice his only son on the altar. Notice that Abraham's son already understood the imagery of animal sacrifice. This imagery defined religion in before and during the Bronze Age. It was so common that it was taken for granted.
Fate as conquering desire
Kierkegaard reminds the reader that for Abraham, life was only about one thing; he wanted a big family, and he had been on a journey through which God was teaching him to trust. He didn't trust that his wife could become pregnant, so he has a child with someone else, but God teaches him to be faithful, and then finally, he gets the "promised son," through whom God had sworn to make the descendants of Abraham into a great nation. Now, only a few years after God finally delivered the "promised child," he tells Abraham to go to the top of a mountain and murder the boy as a sacrifice. Abraham, having learned to trust God, believes that God will not let the sacrifice stop the promise, and he overcomes his life's most passionate desire by accepting the call to murder his son.
Abraham and human nature
Right away, Kierkegaard notices that although Christian people are very familiar with this story and comfortable linking the story to its obvious narrative counterpart (the crucifixion of Jesus as "God sacrificing his only son"). However, he reminds his reader that Abraham's behavior in the story is a flat denial of his human nature. To portray the ways in which Abraham could have been more "human," he shows four responses that would be more typical. He also explains the journey that is implied through ethics; it is ethical goodness, not moral goodness, that makes Abraham great. One might argue that he is doing something immoral, contrary to the obvious laws of human nature.
Passion and suffering
The end of the book frames Abraham's ascent of the holy mountain to commit the 'holy atrocity,' so to speak. Although Moses's law strictly forbids killing another human, and although human sacrifice should be enough to make anyone's blood curdle, Abraham has enough passion (passion is Kierkegaard's word for describing this) to do his duty. He commits his fated duty, an act of killing his own family, he thinks, in silence. He doesn't run around conferring with his community to get their opinion or approval. He doesn't speak out in defense. He doesn't try to explain to anyone else why he is doing such a horrific thing; he just does it. This is true passion, says Kierkegaard, to know one's fate with such clarity and focus that there is nothing to be gained by community support. The son is ultimately spared, and a scapegoat is offered in his place, a teleological foreshadowing to the crucifixion of Jesus, "God's own son."
