Fear and Trembling

by Johannes de Silentio

In our time nobody is content to stop with faith but wants to go further.

"O Lord in heaven, I thank Thee. After all it is better for him to believe that I am a monster, rather than that he should lose faith in Thee."

For he who loved himself became great by himself, and he who loved other men became great by his selfless devotion, but he who loved God became greater than all. Everyone shall be remembered, but each became great in proportion to his expectation. One became great by expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal, but he who expected the impossible became greater than all.

It is human to sorrow, human to sorrow with them that sorrow, but it is greater to believe, more blessed to contemplate the believer.