View source for Søren Kierkegaard

{{Short description|Danish theologian and philosopher (1813–1855)}}
{{redirect|Kierkegaard|the surname|Kierkegaard (surname)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name              = Søren Kierkegaard
| image             = Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) - (cropped).jpg 
| alt               = A head-and-shoulders portrait sketch of a young man in his twenties that emphasizes his face, full hair, open and forward-looking eyes and a hint of a smile. He wears a formal necktie and lapel.
| caption           = {{longitem|Unfinished sketch of Kierkegaard by his cousin [[Niels Christian Kierkegaard]], [[Royal Library, Denmark|Royal Library]], Copenhagen, {{c.|1840}}}}
| birth_name        = Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1813|5|5|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Copenhagen]], [[Denmark]], [[Denmark–Norway]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1855|11|11|1813|5|5|df=y}}
| death_place       = Copenhagen, Denmark
| partner           = [[Regine Olsen]] (1840–1841)
| education         = [[University of Copenhagen]] (1841)
| signature         = Kierkegaard sig.png
| signature_alt     = A signature, in a forward-slanting cursive script, which reads "S. Kierkegaard."
| era               = [[19th-century philosophy]]
| region            = [[Western philosophy]]
| school_tradition  = {{ublist ||[[Existentialism]]|[[Continental philosophy]]|[[Christian existentialism]] |[[Existential psychology]]}}
| thesis_title      = {{lang|da|Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn til Socrates|italic=unset}} (On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates)
| thesis_url        = https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10047599
| thesis_year       = 1841
| main_interests    = {{ublist |[[Aesthetics]] |[[Epistemology]] |[[Ethics]]|[[Metaphysics]] |[[Christian philosophy|Philosophy of Christianity]] |[[Poetry]]|[[Psychology]]}}
| notable_ideas     = {{ublist |[[Absurdism|The Absurd]] |[[Angst]] |[[Authenticity (philosophy)|Authenticity]] |[[Existential despair]] |[[Existential philosophy]] | [[Infinite qualitative distinction]]|[[Knight of faith]] |[[Leap of faith]] |[[Present age]]}}
}}

'''Søren Aabye Kierkegaard''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɒr|ə|n|_|ˈ|k|ɪər|k|ə|ɡ|ɑːr|d}} {{respell|SORR|ən|_|KEER|kə|gard}}, {{IPAc-en|USalso|-|ɡ|ɔːr}} {{respell|-|gor}}; {{IPA|da|ˈsɶːɐn ˈɔˀˌpyˀ ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌkɒːˀ|lang|DA-Søren Kierkegaard.ogg}};{{sfn|Brink|Lund|Heger|Jørgensen|1991}} 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855<ref>{{Britannica|id=317503}}.</ref>) was a [[Danes|Danish]] theologian, [[philosopher]], poet, [[social critic]], and religious author who is widely considered to be the first [[existentialist]] philosopher.{{sfn|Rose|1983|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mxU_0D8gsnEC&pg=PR15 xv]}} He wrote critical texts on [[organized religion]], [[Christendom|Christianity]], [[morality]], [[ethics]], [[psychology]], [[love]], and the [[philosophy of religion]], displaying a fondness for metaphor, [[irony]], and [[parable]]s. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual",{{sfn|Gardiner|1969|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zsUcmgNWVV4C&pg=PA289 289]}} highlighting the importance of authenticity, personal choice and commitment, and the duty to love. Kierkegaard prioritized concrete human reality over [[abstract thinking]].

Kierkegaard's theological work focuses on Socratic [[Christian ethics]], the [[Christian Church|institution of the Church]], the differences among purely objective [[Christian apologetics|proofs of Christianity]], the [[infinite qualitative distinction]] between man and God, and the individual's subjective relationship to the God-Man Jesus [[Messiah|Christ]],<ref>''Point of View'' by Lowrie, p. 41; {{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1991|pp=233ff}}; Søren Kierkegaard 1847 ''Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits'', Hong pp. 225–226; ''Works of Love'' IIIA, pp. 91ff.</ref> which came through faith.{{sfn|Duncan|1976}}<ref>{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=15–17, 555–610}}; Either/Or Vol II, pp. 14, 58, 216–217, 250.</ref> Much of his work deals with [[Christian love]]. He was extremely critical of the doctrine and practice of Christianity as a state-controlled religion ([[Caesaropapism]]) like the [[Church of Denmark]]. His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices.{{sfn|Ostenfeld|McKinnon|1972}} Unlike [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and the [[atheistic existentialism]] paradigm, Kierkegaard focused on [[Christian existentialism]].

Kierkegaard's early work was written using pseudonyms to present distinctive viewpoints interacting in complex dialogue.{{sfn|Howland|2006}} He explored particularly complex problems from different viewpoints, each under a different pseudonym. He wrote ''Upbuilding Discourses'' under his own name and dedicated them to the "single individual" who might want to discover the meaning of his works. He wrote: "Science and [[Scholarly method|scholarship]] want to teach that becoming objective is the way. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject."<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', 1847 Hong 1995 p. 283.</ref>{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=131}} While scientists learn about the world by observation, Kierkegaard emphatically denied that observation alone could reveal the inner workings of the world of the spirit.<ref>''Philosophical Fragments'' and ''Concluding Postscript'' both deal with the impossibility of an objectively demonstrated Christianity, also Repetition, Lowrie 1941 pp. 114–115, Hong pp. 207–211.</ref>

Some of Kierkegaard's key ideas include the concept of "[[Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard#Subjectivity|subjective and objective truths]]", the [[knight of faith]], the [[Repetition (Kierkegaard)|recollection and repetition dichotomy]], [[angst]], the [[infinite qualitative distinction]], [[Theology of Søren Kierkegaard|faith as a passion]], and the [[Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard#Three stages of life|three stages on life's way]]. Kierkegaard wrote in [[Danish language|Danish]] and the reception of his work was initially limited to [[Scandinavia]], but by the turn of the 20th century his writings were translated into French, German, and other major European languages. By the middle of the 20th century, his thought exerted a substantial influence on philosophy,<ref>Stewart, Jon (ed.) ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy'', Volume 11, Tomes I–III. Ashgate, 2012.</ref> theology,<ref>Stewart, Jon (ed.) ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Theology'', Volume 10, Tomes I–III. Ashgate, 2012.</ref> and Western culture in general.<ref>Stewart, Jon (ed.) ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature and Criticism, Social Science, and Social-Political Thought'', Volumes 12–14. Ashgate, 2012.</ref>

==Early years (1813–1836)==
[[File:Tidsskriftet Bogvennen1895-p05-Kierkegaard1.jpg|thumb|Søren Kierkegaard.{{right|{{small|―Hand-drawn copy (1895) of a pencil drawing in the portraiture collection of the [[:en:Royal Library, Denmark|Royal Library]]}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Høffding |first=Harald  |author-link=Harald Høffding |chapter=Hidtil ukendte Billeder af Søren |title=Tidsskriftet Bogvennen  |location=København |publisher=Det Nordiske Forlag (Ernst Bojesen)|year=1895 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBExAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5 |pages=5–6}}</ref>}}]]
Kierkegaard was born to an affluent family in [[Copenhagen]] as the youngest of seven children. His mother, Ane Sørensdatter Lund Kierkegaard (1768–1834), had served as a maid in the household before marrying his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard (1756–1838).{{sfn|Jansen|2023|loc="Familie"}}{{sfn|Lowrie|1962|p=19}} She was an unassuming figure: quiet, and not formally educated.{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=6}} Her granddaughter, Henriette Lund, wrote that she "wielded her scepter with delight, cosseted them [Søren and his brother Peter], and protected them like a hen her chicks".{{sfn|Kirmmse|1996|p=153}} She also wielded influence on her children so that later [[Peter Christian Kierkegaard]] said that his brother preserved many of their mother's words in his writings.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Soren Kierkegaard and the Common Man|last=Bukdahl|first=Jorgen|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|year=2009|isbn=978-1-60608-466-3|location=Eugene, Oregon|page=46}}</ref> His father, on the other hand, was a well-to-do wool merchant from [[Jutland]].<ref name=":0" /> He was a "very stern man, to all appearances dry and prosaic, but under his 'rustic cloak' demeanor he concealed an active imagination which not even his great age could blunt".<ref>Johannes Climacus by Søren Kierkegaard, p. 17</ref> He was also interested in philosophy and often hosted intellectuals at his home.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Subjectivity and Religious Truth in the Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard|last=Gabriel|first=Merigala|publisher=Mercer University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-88146-170-1|location=Macon, Georgia|page=9}}</ref> He was devoted to the rationalist philosophy of [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Christian Wolff]],{{sfn|Dorrien|2012|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B8JJYOysH9EC&pg=PA262 13]}} and he eventually retired partly to pursue more of Wolff's writings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Ronald Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMqPc--Ywy4C&q=wolffian |title=Kierkegaard and Kant: The Hidden Debt |date=1992 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-1107-0 |page=2}}</ref> Kierkegaard, who followed his father's beliefs as a child, was heavily influenced by Michael's devotion to Wolffian rationalism. He also enjoyed the comedies of [[Ludvig Holberg]],{{sfn|Swenson|1920|pp=2, 13}} the writings of [[Johann Georg Hamann]],{{sfn|Smith|1960|pp=18–20}} [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]],<ref>''Either/Or Part I'' Swenson, 1944, 1959 pp. 1967ff; {{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=72ff}}</ref> [[Edward Young]],<ref>''Either/Or Part I'' title page, ''Stages on Life's Way'', pp. 150, 216, 339</ref> and [[Plato]]. The figure of [[Socrates]], whom Kierkegaard encountered in Plato's dialogues, would prove to be a phenomenal influence on the philosopher's later interest in [[irony]], as well as his frequent deployment of indirect communication.{{sfn|Petersen|Schierup|2015}}

Kierkegaard loved to walk along the crooked streets of 19th century Copenhagen, where carriages rarely went. In 1848, Kierkegaard wrote, "I had real Christian satisfaction in the thought that, if there were no other, there was definitely one man in Copenhagen whom every poor person could freely accost and converse with on the street; that, if there were no other, there was one man who, whatever the society he most commonly frequented, did not shun contact with the poor, but greeted every maidservant he was acquainted with, every manservant, every common laborer."<ref>''The Point of View of My Work as An Author'': ''A Report to History'' by Søren Kierkegaard, written in 1848, published in 1859 by his brother Peter Kierkegaard Translated with introduction and notes by Walter Lowrie, 1962, Harper Torchbooks, pp. 48–49</ref> [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Our Lady's Church]] was at one end of the city, where [[Jacob Peter Mynster|Bishop Mynster]] preached the Gospel. At the other end was the [[Royal Danish Theatre|Royal Theatre]] where [[Johanne Luise Heiberg|Fru Heiberg]] performed.<ref>{{cite book|title=Søren Kierkegaard|url=https://archive.org/details/srenkierkegaar00hohl|url-access=registration|first=Johannes|last=Hohlenberg|others=Translated by T.H. Croxall|publisher= Pantheon Books|year= 1954|oclc=53008941}}</ref>

[[File:Søren Kierkegaard's family2.jpg|thumb|When Michael (Mikael) Kierkegaard died on 9 August 1838 Søren had lost both his parents and all his brothers and sisters except for Peter who later became Bishop of Aalborg in the Danish State Lutheran Church.]] [[File:Kierkegaard influences.jpg|thumb|From left to right: [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Wolff]], [[Ludvig Holberg|Holberg]], [[Johann Georg Hamann|Hamann]], [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]], [[Plato]] and [[Socrates]]]]
Based on a speculative interpretation of anecdotes in Kierkegaard's unpublished journals, especially a rough draft of a story called "The Great Earthquake", some early Kierkegaard scholars argued that Michael believed he had earned God's wrath and that none of his children would outlive him. He is said to have believed that his personal sins, perhaps indiscretions such as cursing the name of God in his youth or impregnating Ane out of wedlock, necessitated this punishment.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=5, 131–138}} Though five of his seven children died before he did, both Søren and his brother Peter outlived him.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=136–138}} Peter, who was seven years older, later became bishop in [[Aalborg]].{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=808}} Julia Watkin thought Michael's early interest in the [[Moravian Church]] could have led him to a deep sense of the devastating effects of sin.{{sfn|Watkin|1997|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nEutAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 8–9]}}

From 1821 to 1830, Kierkegaard attended the School of Civic Virtue, Østre Borgerdyd Gymnasium when the school was situated in Klarebodeme, where Kierkegaard studied and learned [[Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]], and history, among other subjects.{{sfn|Jansen|2023}} During his time there he was described as "very conservative"; someone who would "honour the King, love the church and respect the police".<ref name="penguin classics" /> He frequently got into altercations with fellow students and was ambivalent towards his teachers.<ref name="penguin classics">{{cite book |last=Hannay |first=Alastair |date=7 March 1996 |title=Papers and Journals: A Selection |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |pages=4–5 |isbn=978-0-14-044589-3}}</ref> He went on to study theology at the [[University of Copenhagen]]. He had little interest in historical works, philosophy dissatisfied him, and he couldn't see "dedicating himself to Speculation".<ref>Johannes Climacus by Søren Kierkegaard, p. 29</ref> He said, "What I really need to do is to get clear about "[[Praxis (process)|what am I to do]]", not [[Knowledge|what I must know]]." He wanted to "lead a completely human life and not merely one of knowledge".<ref>Kierkegaard's Journals Gilleleie, 1 August 1835. Either/Or Vol II pp. 361–362</ref> Kierkegaard didn't want to be a philosopher in the traditional or [[Hegelian]] sense<ref>Johannes Climacus by Søren Kierkegaard, pp. 22–23, 29–30, 32–33, 67–70, 74–76</ref> and he didn't want to preach a Christianity that was an illusion.<ref>Point of View by Lowrie, pp. 28–30</ref> "But he had learned from his father that one can do what one wills, and his father's life had not discredited this theory."<ref>Johannes Climacus by Søren Kierkegaard, p. 23</ref>

One of the first physical descriptions of Kierkegaard comes from an attendee, Hans Brøchner, at his brother Peter's wedding party in 1836: "I found [his appearance] almost comical. He was then twenty-three years old; he had something quite irregular in his entire form and had a strange coiffure. His hair rose almost six inches above his forehead into a tousled crest that gave him a strange, bewildered look."{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=113}}{{sfn|Kirmmse|1996|p=225}} Another comes from Kierkegaard's niece, Henriette Lund (1829–1909), who recounts that as a little boy Søren was "of a slight and delicate appearance. He went around in a coat the color of red cabbage, and his father usually called him 'the Fork,' because of his precocious tendency to make satirical remarks. Even though there was a serious, almost strict tone in the Kierkegaard home, I still have the impression that there was room for youthful liveliness, though perhaps of a more sober, homemade sort than is usual today. In the same way the house was also open, with an old-fashioned kind of hospitality."{{sfn|Kirmmse|1996|p=151}} He was also described as "quaintly attired, slight and small".<ref name="penguin classics" />

Kierkegaard's mother "was a nice little woman with an even and happy disposition," according to a grandchild's description. She was never mentioned in Kierkegaard's works. Ane died on 31 July 1834, age 66, possibly from [[typhus]].<ref>''Kierkegaard'' by Josiah Thompson, Published by Alfred P. Knoff, inc, 1973 pp. 14–15, 43–44 {{ISBN|0-394-47092-3}}</ref> His father died on 8 August 1838, age 82. On 11 August, Kierkegaard wrote: "My father died on Wednesday (the 8th) at 2:00&nbsp;a.m. I so deeply desired that he might have lived a few years more... Right now I feel there is only one person (E. Boesen) with whom I can really talk about him. He was a 'faithful friend.{{' "}}<ref>''Journals & Papers of Søren Kierkegaard'' IIA 11 August 1838</ref> [[Troels Frederik Lund]], his nephew, was instrumental in providing biographers with much information regarding Søren Kierkegaard. Lund was a good friend of Georg Brandes and Julius Lange.<ref>Born at Copenhagen in 1840 Frederik Troels-Lund comes of a family distinguished in art and letters. The famous naturalist P. W. Lund was his uncle. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish Philosopher, exerted a great influence oved the young man, the first wife of Frederik's father having been the sister of Kierkegaard. The early environment was one almost entirely of men and women fond of literature and often writers of note. Among Troels-Lunds student contemporaries were Georg Brandes, Julius Lange and others who have won fame at home and abroad.  [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1915-11-14/ed-1/seq-40/#date1=1836&index=5&rows=20&words=Kierkegaard&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=kierkegaard&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 The Sun., 14 November 1915, Sixth Section, p. 4, Image 40]</ref> Here is an anecdote about his father from Kierkegaard's journals.

===Journals<!--linked from 'Template:Søren Kierkegaard'-->===
According to [[Hugo Bergmann|Samuel Hugo Bergmann]], "Kierkegaard's journals are one of the most important sources for an understanding of his philosophy".<ref>Hugo Bergmann [https://books.google.com/books?id=fNZqBNL9ewAC&dq=Dialogical+philosophy+from+Kierkegaard+to+Buber&pg=PR4 ''Dialogical Philosophy from Kierkegaard to Buber''] p. 2</ref> Kierkegaard wrote over 7,000 pages in his journals on events, musings, thoughts about his works and everyday remarks.<ref>Given the importance of the journals, references in the form of ''(Journals, XYZ)'' are referenced from Dru's 1938 Journals. When known, the exact date is given; otherwise, month and year, or just year is given.</ref> The entire collection of Danish journals (''{{lang|da|Journalen}}'') was edited and published in 13 volumes consisting of 25 separate bindings including indices. The first English edition of the journals was edited by Alexander Dru in 1938.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1938}} The style is "literary and poetic [in] manner".{{sfn|Conway|Gover|2002|p=25}}

Kierkegaard wanted to have Regine, his fiancée (see below), as his confidant but considered it an impossibility for that to happen so he left it to "''my reader'', that single individual" to become his confidant. His question was whether or not one can have a spiritual confidant. He wrote the following in his ''Concluding Postscript'': "With regard to the essential truth, a direct relation between spirit and spirit is unthinkable. If such a relation is assumed, it actually means that the party has ceased to be spirit."{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=247}}

Kierkegaard's journals were the source of many [[aphorism]]s credited to the philosopher. The following passage, from 1 August 1835, is perhaps his most oft-quoted aphorism and a key quote for existentialist studies:
{{blockquote|What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.}}

Although his journals clarify some aspects of his work and life, Kierkegaard took care not to reveal too much. Abrupt changes in thought, repetitive writing, and unusual turns of phrase are some among the many tactics he used to throw readers off track. Consequently, there are many varying interpretations of his journals. Kierkegaard did not doubt the importance his journals would have in the future. In December 1849, he wrote: "Were I to die now the effect of my life would be exceptional; much of what I have simply jotted down carelessly in the Journals would become of great importance and have a great effect; for then people would have grown reconciled to me and would be able to grant me what was, and is, my right."{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1938|p=354}}

===Regine Olsen and graduation (1837–1841)===
[[File:Regine Olsen (Emil Bærentzen).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Portrait of a young lady, over a black background. She is wearing a green dress, over a black coat. She is looking to the left, somewhat smiling.|Regine Olsen, a muse for Kierkegaard's writings]]
An important aspect of Kierkegaard's life – generally considered to have had a major influence on his work — was his broken engagement to [[Regine Olsen]] (1822–1904).

Kierkegaard and Olsen met on 8 May 1837 and were instantly attracted to each other.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=176–177}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|p=91}} In his journals, Kierkegaard wrote idealistically about his love for her.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=177–178}} After passing his theological examinations in July 1840, Kierkegaard formally proposed to Olsen on 8 September.{{sfn|Hannay|2001|pp=132–134}} He soon felt disillusioned about his prospects. He broke off the engagement on 11 August 1841, though it is generally believed that the two were deeply in love. In his journals, Kierkegaard mentions his belief that his "melancholy" made him unsuitable for marriage, but his precise motive for ending the engagement remains unclear.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=173–191}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|pp=133, 154–158}}

It was also during this period that Kierkegaard dedicated himself to authoring a [[dissertation]]. Upon submitting it in June 1841, a panel of faculty judged that his work demonstrated considerable intellect while criticizing its  informal tone; however, Kierkegaard was granted permission to proceed with its defense.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=196–197}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|pp=147–148}} He defended ''[[On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates]]'' over seven and a half hours on 29 September 1841.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=198–199}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|pp=148–149}} As the title suggests, the thesis dealt with [[irony]] and Socrates; the influence of Kierkegaard's friend [[Poul Martin Møller]], who had died in 1838, is evident in the subject matter.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=90, 94, 193}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|p=139}} Kierkegaard graduated from the University of Copenhagen on 20 October 1841 with a {{lang|la|[[Magister degree#Denmark and Norway|Magister]]}} degree in philosophy.{{sfn|Hannay|2001|p=149}}<ref>{{harvnb|Lippitt|Evans|2023|loc=sec. 1, "Life and Works"}}: "The Magister degree was the equivalent of a contemporary doctorate, the title being changed to “doctor” some years later."</ref> His inheritance of approximately 31,000 [[Danish rigsdaler|rigsdaler]] enabled him to fund his work and living expenses.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=147}}

==Authorship (1843–1846)==
Kierkegaard published some of his works using pseudonyms and for others he signed his own name as author. Whether being published under pseudonym or not, Kierkegaard's central writing on religion was ''[[Fear and Trembling]]'', and ''[[Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)|Either/Or]]'' is considered to be his magnum opus. Pseudonyms were used often in the early 19th century as a means of representing viewpoints other than the author's own. Kierkegaard employed the same technique as a way to provide examples of indirect communication. In writing under various pseudonyms to express sometimes contradictory positions, Kierkegaard is sometimes criticized for playing with various viewpoints without ever committing to one in particular. He has been described by those opposing his writings as indeterminate in his standpoint as a writer, though he himself has testified to all his work deriving from a service to Christianity.<ref name="Routledge">{{cite book|last1=Meister|first1=Chad|last2=Copan|first2=Paul|title=The Routledge companion to philosophy of religion|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, Oxon|isbn=978-0-415-78295-1|edition=2nd}}</ref> He wrote his first book under the pseudonym "Johannes Climacus" (after [[John Climacus]]) between 1841 and 1842. ''[[De omnibus dubitandum est]]'' (Latin: "Everything must be doubted") was not published until after his death.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dImaAAAAIAAJ ''Johannes Climacus, or, De omnibus dubitandum est, and A sermon'']. Translated, with an assessment by T. H. Croxall, Stanford University Press, 1958.</ref>

[[File:Kierkegaard's works.jpg|thumb|Kierkegaard's works]]
[[File:Frygt og Bæven.jpg|thumb|''Fear and Trembling'']]
Kierkegaard's magnum opus ''Either/Or'' was published 20 February 1843; it was mostly written during Kierkegaard's stay in Berlin, where he took notes on Schelling's ''Philosophy of Revelation''. ''Either/Or'' includes essays of literary and music criticism and a set of romantic-like aphorisms, as part of his larger theme of examining the reflective and philosophical structure of faith.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book|title=The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Religion|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-78295-1|page=183|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">Kierkegaard's notes on Schelling's work are included in Hong's 1989 translation of the Concept of Irony</ref> Edited by "Victor Eremita", the book contained the papers of an unknown "A" and "B" which the pseudonymous author claimed to have discovered in a secret drawer of his [[Secretary desk|secretary]].<ref>Either/Or Vol I Preface Swenson, pp. 3–6</ref> Eremita had a hard time putting the papers of "A" in order because they were not straightforward. "B{{" '}}s papers were arranged in an orderly fashion.<ref>Either/Or Vol I Preface Swenson, pp. 7–8</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=555ff}} for a relationship of Religiousness A to Religiousness B.</ref> Both of these characters are trying to become religious individuals.<ref>Either/Or Part I, Swenson trans., pp. 69–73, 143ff, Either/Or Part II, Hong trans., 30–36, 43–48</ref> Each approached the idea of first love from an aesthetic and an ethical point of view. The book is basically an argument about faith and marriage with a short discourse at the end telling them they should stop arguing. Eremita thinks "B", a judge, makes the most sense. Kierkegaard stressed the "how" of Christianity as well as the "how" of book reading in his works rather than the "what".<ref>''The Racine Daily Journal'', Saturday Afternoon, 11 November 1905, p. 7</ref>

Three months after the publication of ''Either/Or'', 16 May 1843, he published ''[[Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1843]]'' and continued to publish discourses along with his [[pseudonymous]] books. These discourses were published under Kierkegaard's own name and are available as ''[[Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses]]'' today. David F. Swenson first translated the works in the 1940s and titled them the ''Edifying Discourses''; however, in 1990, Howard V. and Edna H. Hong translated the works again but called them the ''Upbuilding Discourses''. The word "upbuilding" was more in line with Kierkegaard's thought after 1846, when he wrote Christian deliberations<ref>See Søren Kierkegaard, ''Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits'' 1847 for a more thorough discussion of what he meant by deliberating. Pages 306ff Hong translation</ref> about ''[[Works of Love]]''.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong 1995 trans., pp. 3, 210ff, 301–303</ref> An upbuilding discourse or edifying discourse isn't the same as a sermon because a sermon is preached to a congregation while a discourse can be carried on between several people or even with oneself. The discourse or conversation should be "upbuilding", which means one would build up the other person, or oneself, rather than tear down to build up. Kierkegaard said: "Although this little book (which is called 'discourses', not sermons, because its author does not have [[Sacred tradition|authority]] to ''preach'', 'upbuilding discourses', not discourses for upbuilding, because the speaker by no means claims to be a ''teacher'') wishes to be only what it is, a [[:wikt:superfluity|superfluity]], and desires only to remain in hiding".<ref>''Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses'', Søren Kierkegaard 1843–1844, 1990 by Howard V. Hong, Princeton University Press, p. 5</ref>

On 16 October 1843, Kierkegaard published three more books about love and faith and several more discourses. ''Fear and Trembling'' was published under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio. ''[[Repetition (Kierkegaard)|Repetition]]'' is about a Young Man (Søren Kierkegaard) who has anxiety and depression because he feels he has to sacrifice his love for a girl ([[Regine Olsen]]) to God. He tries to see if the new science of psychology can help him understand himself. Constantin Constantius, who is the pseudonymous author of that book, is the psychologist. At the same time, he published ''[[Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843]]'' under his own name, which dealt specifically with how love can be used to hide things from yourself or others.<ref>''Fear and Trembling'', Hong trans., 1983, Translator's introduction, p. xiv</ref> These three books, all published on the same day, are an example of Kierkegaard's method of indirect communication.

Kierkegaard questioned whether an individual can know if something is a good gift from God or not and concludes by saying, "it does not depend, then, merely upon what one sees, but what one sees depends upon ''how'' one sees; all observation is not just a receiving, a discovering, but also a bringing forth, and insofar as it is that, how the observer himself is constituted is indeed decisive."<ref>Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, pp. 59–60</ref> God's love is imparted indirectly just as our own sometimes is.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Stages on Life's Way'', pp. 122–123, ''Concluding Postscript'', pp. 242, 322–323; ''Works of Love'', Hong trans., p. 13.</ref>

During 1844, he published [[Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1844|two]], [[Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1844|three]], and [[Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844|four]] more [[Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses|upbuilding discourses]] just as he did in 1843, but here he discussed how an individual might come to know God. Theologians, philosophers and historians were all engaged in debating about the existence of God. This is direct communication and Kierkegaard thinks this might be useful for theologians, philosophers, and historians (associations) but not at all useful for the "single individual" who is interested in becoming a Christian. Kierkegaard always wrote for "that single individual whom I with joy and gratitude call ''my'' reader";<ref>''Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses'', Hong trans., p. 295</ref> the single individual must put what is understood to use or it will be lost. Reflection can take an individual only so far before the imagination begins to change the whole content of what was being thought about. Love is won by being exercised just as much as faith and patience are.

He also wrote several more pseudonymous books in 1844: ''[[Philosophical Fragments]]'', ''[[Prefaces]]'' and ''[[The Concept of Anxiety]]'' and finished the year up with ''[[Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844]]''. He used indirect communication in the first book and direct communication in the rest of them. He doesn't believe the question about God's existence should be an opinion held by one group and differently by another no matter how many demonstrations are made. He says it's up to the single individual to make the [[fruit of the Holy Spirit]] real because love and joy are always just possibilities. [[Christendom]] wanted to define [[Attributes of God in Christianity|God's attributes]] once and for all but Kierkegaard was against this. His love for Regine was a disaster but it helped him because of his point of view.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Stages on Life's Way'', Hong trans., pp. 363–368.</ref>

Kierkegaard believed "each generation has its own task and need not trouble itself unduly by being everything to previous and succeeding generations".<ref>''The Concept of Anxiety'', pp. 7, 20 and ''Either/Or Part II'', Hong trans., p. 342</ref> In an earlier book he had said, "to a certain degree every generation and every individual begins his life from the beginning",<ref>''Either/Or Part II'', Hong trans., p. 31</ref> and in another, "no generation has learned to love from another, no generation is able to begin at any other point than the beginning", "no generation learns the essentially human from a previous one."<ref>Fear and Trembling, pp. 121–123.</ref> And, finally, in 1850 he wrote, "those true Christians who in every generation live a life contemporaneous with that of Christ have nothing whatsoever to do with Christians of the preceding generation, but all the more with their contemporary, Christ. His life here on earth attends every generation, and every generation severally, as Sacred History..."<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, ''Preparation for a Christian Life'', pp. 209–210 (From ''Selections From The Writings of Soren Kierkegaard'', translated by Lee M. Holllander 1923)</ref> But in 1848, "The whole generation and every individual in the generation is a participant in one's having faith."<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, ''Christian Discourses'', 1848, Hong 1997 p. 116</ref>

He was against the [[Hegelian]] idea of [[Mediation (Marxist theory and media studies)|mediation]]<ref>{{harvnb|Hollander|1960|p=17}}: "Hegel's philosophic optimism maintained that the difficulties of Christianity had been completely 'reconciled' or 'mediated' in the supposedly higher synthesis of philosophy, by which process religion had been reduced to terms which might be grasped by the intellect. Kierkegaard, fully voicing the claim both of the intellect and of religion, erects the barrier of the paradox, impassable except by the act of faith."</ref><ref>''Either/Or Part II'', Hong trans., pp. 170–176; ''The Concept of Anxiety'', pp. 11–13 including note; {{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=33, 105, 198, 369, 400ff}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|p=419}}: "Mediation looks fairly good on paper. First one assumes the finite, then the infinite, and then says on paper: This must be mediated. An existing person has unquestionably found there the secure foothold outside existence where he can mediate—on paper."</ref> because it introduces a "third term"<ref>''Johannes Climacus'' by Søren Kierkegaard, Edited and Introduced by Jane Chamberlain, Translated by T. H. Croxall 2001, pp. 80–81, ''Either/Or II'', pp. 55–57, Repetition, pp. 202–203, Works of Love, 1847, Hong 1995, pp. 164–166, 332–339, Soren Kierkegaard, ''Christian Discourses'' 26 April 1848 Lowrie 1961 Oxford University Press p. 333ff</ref> that comes between the single individual and the object of desire. Kierkegaard wrote in 1844, 'If a person can be assured of the grace of God without needing temporal evidence as a middleman or as the dispensation advantageous to him as interpreter, then it is indeed obvious to him that the grace of God is the most glorious of all."<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, To Need God Is A Human Being's Highest Perfection 1844 p. 302 Hong</ref> He was against mediation and settled instead on the choice to be content with the grace of God or not. It's the choice between the possibility of the "temporal and the eternal", "mistrust and belief, and deception and truth",<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong 1995 pp. 227–228</ref> "subjective and objective".<ref>Hegel wrote of Schelling's use of subject and object according to the natural sciences <blockquote>In one of his earlier writings, the System of Transcendental Idealism; which we shall consider first of all, Schelling represented transcendental philosophy and natural philosophy as the two sides of scientific knowledge. Respecting the nature of the two, he expressly declared himself in this work, where he once more adopts a Fichtian starting-point: "All knowledge rests on the harmony of an objective with a subjective" In the common sense of the words this would be allowed; absolute unity, where the Notion and the reality are undistinguished in the perfected Idea, is the Absolute alone, or God; all else contains an element of discord between the objective and subjective. "We may give the name of nature to the entire objective content of our knowledge the entire subjective content, on the other hand, is called the ego or intelligence". They are in themselves identical and presupposed as identical. The relation of nature to intelligence is given by Schelling thus: "Now if all knowledge has two poles which mutually presuppose and demand one another, there must be two fundamental sciences, and it must be impossible to start from the one pole without being driven to the other". Thus nature is impelled to spirit, and spirit to nature; either may be given the first place, and both must come to pass. "If the objective is made the chief" we have the natural sciences as result, and; "the necessary tendency" the end, of all natural science thus is to pass from nature to intelligence. This is the meaning of the effort to connect natural phenomena with theory. The highest perfection of natural science would be the perfect spiritualization of all natural laws into laws of intuitive perception and thought." Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) [https://archive.org/stream/lectureshistoryp03hegeuoft#page/514/mode/2up  ''Lectures on the Philosophy of History Vol 3'' 1837 translated by ES Haldane and Francis H. Simson) first translated 1896 pp. 516–517]</blockquote></ref> These are the "magnitudes" of choice. He always stressed deliberation and choice in his writings and wrote against comparison.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, 1847, Hong pp. 306–308; Søren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong trans., pp. 160–161, 225ff, 301</ref>

===The Inwardness of Christianity===
Kierkegaard believed God comes to each individual mysteriously.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=243}}<ref>''Journals of Søren Kierkegaard'' VIII1A4</ref> He published ''[[Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions]]'' (first called ''Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life'', in David F. Swenson's 1941 translation) under his own name on 29 April, and ''[[Stages on Life's Way]]'' edited by Hilarius Bookbinder, 30 April 1845. The ''Stages'' is a sequel to ''Either/Or'' which Kierkegaard did not think had been adequately read by the public and in ''Stages'' he predicted "that two-thirds of the book's readers will quit before they are halfway through, out of boredom they will throw the book away."<ref>''Stages on Life's Way'', Hong trans., p. 398</ref> He knew he was writing books but had no idea who was reading them. His sales were meager and he had no publicist or editor. He was writing in the dark, so to speak.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Stages on Life's Way'', Hong trans., pp. 485–486.</ref> Many of his readers have been and continue to be in the dark about his intentions. He explained himself in his "Journal": "What I have understood as the task of the authorship has been done. It is one idea, this continuity from ''Either/Or'' to [[Practice in Christianity|Anti-Climacus]], the idea of religiousness in reflection. The task has occupied me totally, for it has occupied me religiously; I have understood the completion of this authorship as my duty, as a responsibility resting upon me." He advised his reader to read his books slowly and also to read them aloud since that might aid in understanding.<ref name="Søren Kierkegaard 1851">''Journals of Søren Kierkegaard'', 1 June 1851.</ref>

He used indirect communication in his writings by, for instance, referring to the religious person as the "knight of hidden inwardness" in which he's different from everyone else, even though he looks like everyone else, because everything is hidden within him.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=499}}

Kierkegaard was aware of the hidden depths inside of each single individual. The hidden inwardness is inventive in deceiving or evading others. Much of it is afraid of being seen and entirely disclosed.

Kierkegaard imagined hidden inwardness several ways in 1848. He was writing about the subjective inward nature of God's encounter with the individual in many of his books, and his goal was to get the single individual away from all the speculation that was going on about God and Christ. Speculation creates quantities of ways to find God and his Goods but finding faith in Christ and putting the understanding to use stops all speculation, because then one begins to actually exist as a Christian, or in an ethical/religious way. He was against an individual waiting until certain of God's love and salvation before beginning to try to become a Christian. He defined this as a "special type of religious conflict the Germans call ''Anfechtung''" (contesting or disputing).<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, Concluding Postscript, Swenson-Lowrie translation 1941 p. 410</ref><ref>[[Daniel Taylor (writer)|Daniel Taylor]], writing in ''The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment'' ({{ISBN|978-0-8308-2237-9}} 1986, 1992), says "human beings are explanation generators" and he agrees with Kierkegaard that it would be very strange if Christianity came into the world just to receive an explanation.</ref>

In Kierkegaard's view, the Church should not try to prove Christianity or even defend it. It should help the single individual to make a [[leap of faith]], the faith that God is love and has a task for that very same single individual.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|p=465}} Kierkegaard identified the leap of faith as the good resolution.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life'', (1845), Swenson trans., pp. 69–70.</ref> Kierkegaard discussed the [[knight of faith]] in ''Works of Love'', 1847 by using the story of [[Jesus healing the bleeding woman]] who showed the " originality of faith" by believing that if she touched Jesus' robe she would be healed. She kept that secret within herself.<ref>''Works of Love'', 1847, Hong 1995 pp. 28–29</ref>

[[File:Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments.jpg|thumb|Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments]]
Kierkegaard wrote his ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments'' in 1846 and here he tried to explain the intent of the first part of his authorship.<ref name="PtView">''The Point of View of My Work as An Author'': Lowrie, pp. 142–143</ref><ref>See {{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=251–300}} for more on the pseudonymous authorship.</ref> He said, "Christianity will not be content to be an evolution within the total category of human nature; an engagement such as that is too little to offer to a god. Neither does it even want to be the paradox for the believer, and then surreptitiously, little by little, provide him with understanding, because the martyrdom of faith (to crucify one's understanding) is not a martyrdom of the moment, but the martyrdom of continuance."{{sfnm|1a1=Kierkegaard|1y=1991|1p=91|2a1=Kierkegaard|2y=1992|2pp=496–497, 501–505, 510, 538–539, 556, 559}} The second part of his authorship was summed up in ''[[Practice in Christianity]]'':{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1991|p=91}}

Early Kierkegaardian scholars, such as [[Theodor W. Adorno]] and [[Thomas Henry Croxall]], argue that the entire authorship should be treated as Kierkegaard's own personal and religious views.{{sfn|Adorno|1989}} This view leads to confusions and contradictions which make Kierkegaard appear philosophically incoherent.{{sfn|Morgan|2003}} Later scholars, such as the [[post-structuralists]], interpreted Kierkegaard's work by attributing the pseudonymous texts to their respective authors.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lowrie|first1=W|title=Kierkegaard|date=1938|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London, New York}}</ref> [[Postmodern Christianity|Postmodern Christians]] present a different interpretation of Kierkegaard's works.{{sfn|Evans|1996}} Kierkegaard used the category of "The Individual" to stop the endless ''Either/Or''.<ref>''POV'' by Lowrie, pp. 74–75, 133–134; Either/Or, Vol I by Swenson, pp. 13–14; Søren Kierkegaard, ''Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits'', 1847, Hong pp. 310–311</ref>

===Pseudonyms===
Kierkegaard's most important pseudonyms,{{sfn|Malantschuk|Hong|Hong|2003}} in chronological order, were:
* Victor Eremita, editor of ''[[Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)|Either/Or]]''
* A, writer of many articles in ''Either/Or''
* Judge William, author of rebuttals to A in ''Either/Or''
* Johannes de Silentio, author of ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''
* Constantine Constantius, author of the first half of ''[[Repetition (Kierkegaard)|Repetition]]''
* Young Man, author of the second half of ''Repetition''
* Vigilius Haufniensis, author of ''[[The Concept of Anxiety]]''
* Nicolaus Notabene, author of ''[[Prefaces]]''
* Hilarius Bookbinder, editor of ''[[Stages on Life's Way]]''
* Johannes Climacus, author of ''[[Philosophical Fragments]]'' and ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments]]''
* Inter et Inter, author of ''[[The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress]]''
* H.H., author of ''[[Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays]]''
* Anti-Climacus, author of ''[[The Sickness unto Death]]'' and ''[[Practice in Christianity]]''

All of these writings analyze the concept of faith, on the supposition that if people are confused about faith, as Kierkegaard thought the inhabitants of Christendom were, they will not be in a position to develop the virtue. Faith is a matter of reflection in the sense that one cannot have the virtue unless one has the concept of virtue—or at any rate the concepts that govern faith's understanding of self, world, and God.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Religion|year= 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-78295-1|page=188|edition=2nd}}</ref>

===The ''Corsair'' affair<!--linked from 'Two Ages: A Literary Review'-->===
[[File:Søren Kierkegaard i Corsaren.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A caricature; the figure is standing facing left, with a top-hat, cane, formal attire. The caricature is overemphasizing his back, by making him appear as a hunchback.|A caricature of Kierkegaard published in ''[[Corsaren|The Corsair]]'', a satirical journal]]
On 22 December 1845, [[Peder Ludvig Møller]], who studied at the University of Copenhagen at the same time as Kierkegaard, published an article indirectly criticizing ''[[Stages on Life's Way]]''. The article complimented Kierkegaard for his wit and intellect, but questioned whether he would ever be able to master his talent and write coherent, complete works. Møller was also a contributor to and editor of ''[[Corsaren|The Corsair]]'', a Danish satirical paper that lampooned everyone of notable standing. Kierkegaard published a sarcastic response, charging that Møller's article was merely an attempt to impress Copenhagen's literary elite.

Kierkegaard wrote two small pieces in response to Møller, ''The Activity of a Traveling Esthetician'' and ''Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action''. The former focused on insulting Møller's integrity while the latter was a directed assault on ''The Corsair'', in which Kierkegaard, after criticizing the journalistic quality and reputation of the paper, openly asked ''The Corsair'' to satirize him.<ref>Kierkegaard, Søren. ''Dialectical Result of a Literary Police Action'' in ''Essential Kierkegaard''.</ref>

Kierkegaard's response earned him the ire of the paper and its second editor, also an intellectual of Kierkegaard's own age, [[Meïr Aron Goldschmidt]].{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=395–401}} Over the next few months, ''The Corsair'' took Kierkegaard up on his offer to "be abused", and unleashed a series of attacks making fun of Kierkegaard's appearance, voice and habits. For months, Kierkegaard perceived himself to be the victim of harassment on the streets of Denmark. In a journal entry dated 9 March 1846, Kierkegaard made a long, detailed explanation of his attack on Møller and ''The Corsair'', and also explained that this attack made him rethink his strategy of indirect communication.{{sfn|Garff|2005|pp=411–412}}

There had been much discussion in Denmark about the pseudonymous authors until the publication of ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments]]'', 27 February 1846, where he openly admitted to be the author of the books because people began wondering if he was, in fact, a Christian or not.<ref>Point of View pp. 20–24, 41–42</ref>{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=251ff}} Several Journal entries from that year shed some light on what Kierkegaard hoped to achieve.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Journals and papers VIII IA8'' 1847.</ref><ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Journals and Papers VIII IA165'' 1847.</ref><ref>''Journals and Papers of Kierkegaard'', Hannay, 1996, pp. 254, 264.</ref><ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong trans., p. 14 (1847).</ref> This book was published under an earlier pseudonym, Johannes Climacus. On 30 March 1846 he published ''[[Two Ages: A Literary Review]]'', under his own name. A critique of the novel ''Two Ages'' (in some translations ''Two Generations'') written by [[Thomasine Christine Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd]], Kierkegaard made several insightful observations on what he considered the nature of modernity and its passionless attitude towards life. Kierkegaard writes that "the present age is essentially a sensible age, devoid of passion ... The trend today is in the direction of mathematical equality, so that in all classes about so and so many uniformly make one individual".{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2001|p=86}} In this, Kierkegaard attacked the conformity and assimilation of individuals into "the crowd" which became the standard for truth, since it was the numerical.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2001}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} How can one love the neighbor if the neighbor is always regarded as the wealthy or the poor or the lame?<ref>Soren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong pp. 81–83</ref>

As part of his analysis of the "crowd", Kierkegaard accused newspapers of decay and decadence. Kierkegaard stated Christendom had "lost its way" by recognizing "the crowd", as the many who are moved by newspaper stories, as the court of last resort in relation to "the truth". Truth comes to a single individual, not all people at one and the same time. Just as truth comes to one individual at a time so does love. One doesn't love the crowd but does love their neighbor, who is a single individual. He says, "never have I read in the Holy Scriptures this command: You shall love the crowd; even less: You shall, ethico-religiously, recognize in the crowd the court of last resort in relation to 'the truth.{{' "}}<ref>''The Crowd is Untruth'' [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kierkegaard/untruth/files/untruth.html Ccel.org]</ref><ref>Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, 13 March 1847 by Søren Kierkegaard, Hong pp. 95–96, 127–129.</ref>

==Authorship (1847–1855)<!--linked from 'Template:Søren Kierkegaard'-->==
{{over-quotation|date=May 2019}}

Kierkegaard began to publish under his own name again in 1847: the three-part ''[[Edifying Discourses in Diverse Spirits]]''.{{sfn|Hannay|2001|p=337}} It included ''Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing'', ''What we Learn from the Lilies in the Field and from the Birds in the Air'', and ''The Gospel of Sufferings''. He asked, What does it mean to be a single individual who wants to do the good? What does it mean to be a human being? What does it mean to follow Christ? He now moves from "upbuilding (Edifying) discourses" to "Christian discourses", however, he still maintains that these are not "''sermons''".<ref>''Upbuilding (Edifying) Discourses in Various Spirits, Christian Discourses'' pp. 213ff</ref> A sermon is about struggle with oneself about the tasks life offers one and about repentance for not completing the tasks.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits'', Hong pp. 230–247, 248–288</ref> Later, in 1849, he wrote devotional discourses and Godly discourses.

''[[Works of Love]]''<ref>Kierkegaard wrote Works of Love in two series; just as he had his Either/Or and either/or category at the beginning of his writings so he kept to the same category throughout his writings. The first series, ending on page 204 Hong 1995 translation, is parallel to his first writings 1843–1846 and the second is his serious address to single individuals interested in striving to become a Christian. (1847–1855)</ref> followed these discourses on 29 September 1847. Both books were authored under his own name. It was written under the themes "Love covers a multitude of sins" and "Love builds up". ([[1 Peter]] 4:8 and [[1 Corinthians 8]]:1) Kierkegaard believed that "all human speech, even divine speech of Holy Scripture, about the spiritual is essentially metaphorical speech".<ref>''Works of Love'', Hong pp. 209ff</ref> "To build up" is a metaphorical expression. One can never be all human or all spirit, one must be both. Later, in the same book, Kierkegaard deals with the question of sin and forgiveness. He uses the same text he used earlier in ''[[Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843]]'', ''Love hides a multitude of sins''. ([[1 Peter]] 4:8). He asks if "one who tells his neighbors faults hides or increases the multitude of sins".<ref>Works of Love, Hong pp. 288ff</ref>

[[File:Meister des Lehrbuchs Kaiser Maximilians I. 001.jpg|thumb|Matthew 6]]
In 1848, he published ''[[Christian Discourses]]'' under his own name and ''[[The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress]]'' under the pseudonym Inter et Inter. ''[[Christian Discourses]]'' deals the same theme as ''[[The Concept of Anxiety]]'', [[angst]]. The text is the Gospel of [[Matthew 6]] verses 24–34. This was the same passage he had used in his ''What We Learn From the Lilies in the Field and From the Birds of the Air'' of 1847.

Kierkegaard tried to explain his prolific use of pseudonyms again in ''[[The Point of View of My Work as an Author]]'', his autobiographical explanation for his writing style. The book was finished in 1848, but not published until after his death by his brother [[Peter Christian Kierkegaard]]. [[Walter Lowrie (author)|Walter Lowrie]] mentioned Kierkegaard's "profound religious experience of Holy Week 1848" as a turning point from "indirect communication" to "direct communication" regarding Christianity.<ref>''Christian Discourses'', translated by Walter Lowrie 1940, 1961 Author's Preface, p. v and Point of View, Lowrie pp. 83–84</ref> However, Kierkegaard stated that he was a religious author throughout all of his writings and that his aim was to discuss "the problem 'of becoming a Christian', with a direct polemic against the monstrous illusion we call Christendom".<ref>POV pp. 5–6 Introduction Lowrie</ref> He expressed the illusion this way in his 1848 "Christian Address", ''Thoughts Which Wound From Behind – for Edification''.

He wrote three discourses under his own name and one pseudonymous book in 1849. He wrote ''[[The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air]]. Three Devotional Discourses'', ''Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays'' and ''Two Ethical–Religious Essays''. The first thing any child finds in life is the external world of nature. This is where God placed his natural teachers. He's been writing about confession and now openly writes about [[Holy Communion]] which is generally preceded by confession. This he began with the confessions of the esthete and the ethicist in ''[[Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)|Either/Or]]'' and the highest good peace in the discourse of that same book. His goal has always been to help people become religious but specifically Christian religious. He summed his position up earlier in his book, ''The Point of View of My Work as an Author'', but this book was not published until 1859.

[[File:The Sickness Unto Death.jpg|thumb|''The Sickness unto Death'']]
The second edition of ''Either/Or'' was published early in 1849. Later that year he published ''[[The Sickness unto Death]]'', under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus. He's against Johannes Climacus, who kept writing books about trying to understand Christianity. Here he says, "Let others admire and praise the person who pretends to comprehend Christianity. I regard it as a plain ethical task—perhaps requiring not a little self-denial in these speculative times, when all 'the others' are busy with comprehending—to admit that one is neither able nor supposed to comprehend it."<ref>''The Sickness unto Death'', by Anti-Climacus, Edited by Søren Kierkegaard, Copyright 1849 Translation with an Introduction and notes by Alastair Hannay 1989 p. 131</ref> Sickness unto death was a familiar phrase in Kierkegaard's earlier writings.<ref>Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, pp. 266–267, Stages on Life's Way, Hong, 122–125, 130, 283–284 Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong, pp. 339–340</ref> This sickness is despair and for Kierkegaard despair is a sin. Despair is the impossibility of possibility.<ref>''The Sickness unto Death'', Hannay pp. 65ff</ref>

In ''[[Practice in Christianity]]'', 25 September 1850, his last pseudonymous work, he stated, "In this book, originating in the year 1848, the requirement for being a Christian is forced up by the pseudonymous author to a supreme ideality."{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1991|p=7}} This work was called ''Training in Christianity'' when Walter Lowrie translated it in 1941.

He now pointedly referred to the acting single individual in his next three publications; ''[[For Self-Examination]]'', ''Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays'', and in 1852 ''[[Judge for Yourselves!]]''.{{sfn|Lowrie|1942|pp=6–9, 24, 30, 40, 49, 74–77, 89}}{{sfn|Lowrie|1968}} ''Judge for Yourselves''! was published posthumously in 1876.

In 1851 Kierkegaard wrote his ''Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays'' where he once more discussed sin, forgiveness, and authority using that same verse from 1 Peter 4:8 that he used twice in 1843 with his ''[[Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1843]]''.

Kierkegaard began his 1843 book ''Either/Or'' with a question: "Are passions, then, the pagans of the soul? Reason alone baptized?"<ref>Either/Or Part I Swenson title page</ref> He didn't want to devote himself to Thought or Speculation like Hegel did. Faith, hope, love, peace, patience, joy, self-control, vanity, kindness, humility, courage, cowardliness, pride, deceit, and selfishness. These are the inner passions that Thought knows little about. Hegel begins the process of education with Thought but Kierkegaard thinks we could begin with passion, or a balance between the two, a balance between Goethe and Hegel.<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''Works of Love'', Hong trans., pp. 95–96.</ref> He was against endless reflection with no passion involved. But at the same time he did not want to draw more attention to the external display of passion but the internal (hidden) passion of the single individual. Kierkegaard clarified this intention in his ''Journals''.<ref name="Søren Kierkegaard 1851"/>

Schelling put Nature first and Hegel put Reason first but Kierkegaard put the human being first and the choice first in his writings. He makes an argument against Nature here and points out that most single individuals begin life as spectators of the visible world and work toward knowledge of the invisible world.
[[File:Jacob Jordaens - The Good Samaritan (Podhorce).jpg|thumb|The [[Parable of the Good Samaritan]] described in works of love]] [[File:Parkin window, St Nicholas, Wallasey.jpg|thumb|Matthew 6:33]]

[[Nikolai Berdyaev]] makes a related argument against reason in his 1945 book ''The Divine and the Human''.<ref>''The Divine and the Human'', by Nicolai Berdyaev 1945 p. 30.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/divinehuman00berd#page/n35/mode/2up|title=Divine and the human|access-date=27 March 2015}}</ref>

===Attack upon the Lutheran State Church===
[[File:Rundetårn view 2 new version.jpg|thumb|"Vor Frue Kirke", the Lutheran cathedral in Copenhagen (completed 1829)]]

Kierkegaard's final years were taken up with a sustained, outright attack on the [[Church of Denmark]] by means of newspaper articles published in ''The Fatherland'' (''Fædrelandet'') and a series of self-published pamphlets called ''The Moment'' (''Øjeblikket''), also translated as ''The Instant''. These pamphlets are now included in Kierkegaard's ''Attack Upon Christendom''.<ref>''Attack Upon Christendom'' by Søren Kierkegaard, 1854–1855, translated by Walter Lowrie, 1944, 1968, Princeton University Press</ref> ''The Moment'' was translated into German and other European languages in 1861 and again in 1896.<ref>''Attack Upon Christendom'' Translated by Walter Lowrie 1944, 1968 introduction page xi</ref>

Kierkegaard first moved to action after Professor (soon Bishop) [[Hans Lassen Martensen]] gave a speech in church in which he called the recently deceased Bishop [[Jacob Peter Mynster]] a "truth-witness, one of the authentic truth-witnesses".{{sfn|Duncan|1976}} Kierkegaard explained, in his first article, that Mynster's death permitted him—at last—to be frank about his opinions. He later wrote that all his former output had been "preparations" for this attack, postponed for years waiting for two preconditions: 1) both his father and bishop Mynster should be dead before the attack, and 2) he should himself have acquired a name as a famous theologic writer.<ref>For instance in "Hvad Christus dømmer om officiel Christendom." 1855.</ref> Kierkegaard's father had been Mynster's close friend, but Søren had long come to see that Mynster's conception of Christianity was mistaken, demanding too little of its adherents. Kierkegaard strongly objected to the portrayal of Mynster as a 'truth-witness'.

Kierkegaard described the hope the witness to the truth has in 1847 and in his Journals.

Kierkegaard's pamphlets and polemical books, including ''The Moment'', criticized several aspects of church formalities and politics.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1998b}} According to Kierkegaard, the idea of congregations keeps individuals as children since Christians are disinclined from taking the initiative to take responsibility for their own relation to God. He stressed that "Christianity is the individual, here, the single individual".{{sfn|Kirmmse|2000}} Furthermore, since the Church was controlled by the State, Kierkegaard believed the State's bureaucratic mission was to increase membership and oversee the welfare of its members. More members would mean more power for the clergymen: a corrupt ideal.{{sfn|Walsh|2009}} This mission would seem at odds with Christianity's true doctrine, which, to Kierkegaard, is to stress the importance of the individual, not the whole.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1938}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} Thus, the state-church political structure is offensive and detrimental to individuals, since anyone can become "Christian" without knowing what it means to be Christian.{{sfn|Hannay|2001|pp=408–410}} It is also detrimental to the religion itself since it reduces Christianity to a mere fashionable tradition adhered to by unbelieving "believers", a "herd mentality" of the population, so to speak.<ref>Quoted in {{harvnb|Garff|2005|p=765}}</ref>{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2003|pp=23–24}} Kierkegaard always stressed the importance of the conscience and the use of it.<ref>''Journals of Søren Kierkegaard'', X6B 371 1853.</ref>

However, he showed marked elements of convergence with the medieval Catholicism.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Kierkegaard e il Cattolicesimo|author=Cornelio Fabro|jstor=45080449|journal=Divus Thomas|date=Jan–Mar 1956|volume=59|pages=67–70}}</ref><ref>Like [[Imitation of Christ]] and [[virginity]]: See {{cite news|url=https://www-iltimone-org.translate.goog/news-timone/kierkegaard-protestante-colse-in-pieno-il-valore-d/?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp|title=Kierkegaard, protestante, colse in pieno il valore del celibato sacerdotale. Un saggio di Cornelio Fabro|author=[[Cornelio Fabro]]|date=February 21, 2017|journal=Il Timone|language=it}}</ref> Nonetheless, Kierkegaard has been described as "profoundly [[Lutheran]]".<ref>Hampson, Daphne [https://books.google.com/books?id=kFX_DFs_lEQC&q=Kierkegaard%27s+Odyssey Christian Contradictions: The Structures of Lutheran and Catholic Thought]. Cambridge, 2004</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Søren Kierkegaard%27s grave in Assistens Kirkegård.jpg|thumb|upright 0.8|Søren Kierkegaard's grave in [[Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)|Assistens Kirkegård]]]]

Before the tenth issue of his periodical ''The Moment'' could be published, Kierkegaard collapsed on the street. He stayed in the hospital for over a month<ref>From Oct. 2nd to Nov. 11th 1855</ref> and refused communion. At that time he regarded pastors as mere political officials, a niche in society who were clearly not representative of the divine. He told Emil Boesen, a friend since childhood, who kept a record of his conversations with Kierkegaard, that his life had been one of immense suffering, which may have seemed like vanity to others, but he did not think it so.{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=788}}{{sfn|Hannay|2001|p=414}}<ref>Søren Kierkegaard ''Attack Upon "Christendom"'', 1854–1855, Lowrie 1944, pp. 6, 27–28 31, 37.</ref>

Kierkegaard died in [[Frederiks Hospital]] after over a month, possibly from complications from a fall from a tree in his youth.<ref>This was Kierkegaard's own assumption as a lay explanation of his humpback.</ref> It has been suggested by professor {{Ill|Kaare Weismann|da}} and philosopher {{Ill|Jens Staubrand|da}} that Kierkegaard died from [[Pott disease]], a form of tuberculosis.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Krasnik |first1=Benjamin |date=2013-09-17 |title=Kierkegaard døde formentlig af Potts sygdom |url=https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/danmark/kierkegaard-d%C3%B8de-formentlig-af-potts-sygdom |trans-title=Kierkegaard probably died of Pott's disease |website=Kristeligt Dagblad |language=da |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240927144228/https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/danmark/kierkegaard-d%C3%B8de-formentlig-af-potts-sygdom |archive-date=2024-09-27}}</ref> He was interred in the [[Assistens Cemetery (Copenhagen)|Assistens Kirkegård]] in the [[Nørrebro]] section of Copenhagen. At Kierkegaard's funeral, his nephew Henrik Lund caused a disturbance by protesting Kierkegaard's burial by the official church. Lund maintained that Kierkegaard would never have approved, had he been alive, as he had broken from and denounced the institution.{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=798}} Lund was later fined for his disruption of the funeral.{{sfn|Garff|2005|p=xix}}

==Reception==
{{Main|Influence and reception of Søren Kierkegaard}}

===19th-century reception===
[[Fredrika Bremer]] wrote of Kierkegaard in 1850: "While [[Hans Lassen Martensen|Martensen]] with his wealth of genius casts from his central position light upon every sphere of existence, upon all the phenomena of life, Søren Kierkegaard stands like another [[Simon Stylites]], upon his solitary column, with his eye unchangeably fixed upon one point."{{sfn|Bremer|1850|p=22}} In 1855, the Danish National Church published his obituary. Kierkegaard did have an impact there judging from the following quote from their article: "The fatal fruits which Dr. Kierkegaard show to arise from the union of Church and State, have strengthened the scruples of many of the believing laity, who now feel that they can remain no longer in the Church, because thereby they are in communion with unbelievers, for there is no ecclesiastical discipline."{{sfn|Vahl|1856|p=129}}

[[File:NFS Grundtvig 1820 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783–1872)]]
Changes did occur in the administration of the Church and these changes were linked to Kierkegaard's writings. The Church noted that dissent was "something foreign to the national mind". On 5 April 1855, the Church enacted new policies: "every member of a congregation is free to attend the ministry of any clergyman, and is not, as formerly, bound to the one whose parishioner he is". In March 1857, compulsory [[infant baptism]] was abolished. Debates sprang up over the King's position as the head of the Church and over whether to adopt a constitution. [[Grundtvig]] objected to having any written rules. Immediately following this announcement the "agitation occasioned by Kierkegaard" was mentioned. Kierkegaard was accused of [[Weigelianism]] and [[John Nelson Darby|Darbyism]], but the article continued to say, "One great truth has been made prominent, viz (namely): That there exists a worldly-minded clergy; that many things in the Church are rotten; that all need daily repentance; that one must never be contented with the existing state of either the Church or her pastors."{{sfn|Kalkar|1858|pp=269–270}}

Hans Lassen Martensen addressed Kierkegaard's ideas extensively in ''Christian Ethics'', published in 1871.{{sfn|Martensen|1871|pp=206–236}} Martensen accused Kierkegaard and [[Alexandre Vinet]] of not giving society its due, saying both of them put the individual above society, and in so doing, above the Church.{{sfn|Martensen|1871|pp=227–228}} Another early critic was [[Magnús Eiríksson]], who criticized Martensen and wanted Kierkegaard as his ally in his fight against speculative theology.
[[File:Portrait of August Strindberg by Richard Bergh 1905.jpg|thumb|left|upright|August Strindberg (1849–1912) from Sweden]]

[[August Strindberg]] was deeply affected by reading Kierkegaard while a student at [[Uppsala University]].{{sfn|Meyer|1985|pp=34–35}}<ref>Ingrid Basso in {{harvnb|Stewart|2013b|loc="August Strindberg: Along with Kierkegaard in a Dance of Death", [https://books.google.com/books?id=KLCHfK6_2NkC&pg=PA65 pp. 65–66]}}</ref> Edwin Björkman credited Kierkegaard, as well as [[Henry Thomas Buckle]] and [[Eduard von Hartmann]], with shaping Strindberg's artistic form "until he was strong enough to stand wholly on his own feet."<ref>Edwin Björkman in {{harvnb|Strindberg|1912|loc="Introduction", p. 7}}</ref> The dramatist [[Henrik Ibsen]] is said to have been interested in Kierkegaard, as well as the Norwegian national writer and poet [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]].<ref>Jon Stewart in {{harvnb|Stewart|2013a|loc="Preface", [https://books.google.com/books?id=lVCJtJDKOjAC&pg=PR12 p. xii]}}</ref>

[[Otto Pfleiderer]], in ''The Philosophy of Religion On the Basis of Its History'' (1887), claimed that Kierkegaard presented an anti-rational view of Christianity.{{sfn|Pfleiderer|1887|pp=209–213}} An entry on Kierkegaard from an 1889 dictionary of religion presents an idea of how he was regarded at that time, stating: "He was the most original thinker and theological philosopher the North ever produced. His fame has been steadily growing since his death, and he bids fair to become the leading religio-philosophical light of Germany. Not only his theological but also his aesthetic works have of late become the subject of universal study in Europe."{{sfn|Bjerregaard|1889|p=473}}

Although not cited by him explicitly, Kierkegaard's view of faith would influence Norwegian theologian [[Gisle Johnson|Gisle Christian Johnson]] (1822–1894). Johnson's system of [[dogmatic theology]] contained in his ''Grundrids af den Systematisk Theologi'' (published posthumously in 1897) differed starkly from those of his contemporaries in its integration of a threefold paradigm for viewing the essence of faith (''Troens Væsen'') as Egotistic, Legalist, and Christian, found in the first part of the work ("''Pistiks"''), which itself was cast in the Law/Gospel mold of confessional Lutheranism.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Gisle |title=Grundrids af den Systematisk Theologi |publisher=Jacob Dybwads |year=1897 |location=Kristiana |at=Første Del. Den christlige Pistik. |language=Norwegian |trans-title=Foundations of Systematic Theology}}</ref> The final stage is marked in terms of discontinuity and radical change, and thus requires a leap to faith similar to that of Kierkegaard, what Johnson styles an irrefutable claim (''uafviselig Fordring'') of higher existence correlate to True Being (''sande Væsen'').<ref name=":4" /> Likewise, the development of the [[infinite qualitative distinction]] from subjective faith by Gisle Johnson has distinct Kierkegaardian overtones. Johnson would have read Kierkegaard in the 1840s during his studies in continental Europe, developing his ''Pistiks'' in 1853 after his appointment to faculty at the University of Kristiana; as such, Svein Aage Christoffersen has designated Johnson to be the first Kierkegaardian in theology, fusing confessional, theological, and experiential categories of faith into a single dogmatic system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Skarsten |first=Trygve |title=Gisle Johnson: A Study of the Interaction of Confessionalism and Pietism |publisher=University of Chicago |year=1968 |location=Chicago, IL |pages=96 |type=Doctoral Dissertation}}</ref><ref>Svein Aage Christoffersen in {{harvnb|Stewart|2012a|loc="Gisle Christian Johnson: The First Kierkegaardian in Theology?"}} pp. 191-203</ref> Johnson's pietistic emphases merged with Kierkegaard's own emphases on genuineness of faith to produce a [[Christian revival|revivalist]] movement that swept across Norway, known as the Johnsonian Revivals.{{sfn|Nostbakken|1962|pp=226–227}}

===Early 20th-century reception===
[[File:Soren Kierkegaard by George Brandes 1879 German edition.jpg|thumb|1879 German edition of Brandes' biography about Søren Kierkegaard]]
The first academic to draw attention to Kierkegaard was fellow Dane [[Georg Brandes]], who published in German as well as Danish. Brandes gave the first formal lectures on Kierkegaard in Copenhagen and helped bring him to the attention of the European intellectual community.{{sfn|Hall|1983}} Brandes published the first book on Kierkegaard's philosophy and life, {{lang|de|Søren Kierkegaard, ein literarisches Charakterbild}} (1879)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/srenkierkegaard00brangoog |title=Sören Kierkegaard, ein literarisches Charakterbild |year=1879 |access-date=17 July 2013}}</ref> which Adolf Hult said was a "misconstruction" of Kierkegaard's work and "falls far short of the truth".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102683527|title=Soren Kierkegaard in his life and literature|first=Adolf|last=Hult|date=1 August 1906|publisher=[s.l.|via=Hathi Trust}}</ref> Brandes compared him to [[Hegel]] and [[Tycho Brahe]] in ''Reminiscences of my Childhood and Youth''<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesmy00brangoog#page/n110/mode/1up ''Reminiscences of my childhood and youth'' (1906)], pp. 98–108, 220</ref> (1906). Brandes also discussed the ''Corsair Affair'' in the same book.<ref>George Brandes, ''Recollections of My Childhood and Youth'' (1906) p. 214.</ref> Brandes opposed Kierkegaard's ideas in the 1911 edition of the ''Britannica''.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Kierkegaard, Sören Aaby}}</ref><ref>''Reminiscences of My Childhood and Youth'' by George Brandes, September 1906, p.&nbsp;108</ref> Brandes compared Kierkegaard to [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] as well.<ref>''Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche'' 1st ed. edited, with a preface by [[Oscar Levy]]; authorized translation by Anthony M. Ludovici Published 1921 by Doubleday, Page & Co {{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/selectedletterso00nietuoft#page/226/mode/2up/search/brandes |title=Selected letters of Friedrich Nietzsche |publisher=Garden City, N.Y.; Toronto : Doubleday, Page & Co |year=1921 }}</ref> He also mentioned Kierkegaard extensively in volume 2 of his 6 volume work, ''Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature'' (1872 in German and Danish, 1906 English).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/essaysonscandina00boye#page/202/mode/2up|title=Essays on Scandinavian literature|access-date=27 March 2015|year=1895}}</ref><ref>''Main Currents in Nineteenth, Century Literature Vol. 2'' Georg Brandes, 1906 Introduction p. 11.</ref>

Swedish author Waldemar Rudin published ''Sören Kierkegaards person och författarskap – ett försök'' in 1880.<ref>[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100432780 Waldemar Rudin ''Sören Kierkegaards person och författarskap: ett försök''] HathiTrust Digital Library</ref> During the 1890s, Japanese philosophers began disseminating the works of Kierkegaard.{{sfn|Masugata|1999}} [[Tetsuro Watsuji]] was one of the first philosophers outside of Scandinavia to write an introduction on his philosophy, in 1915.

[[File:William James in 1890s.jpg|thumb|upright|William James (1890s)]] [[Harald Høffding]]'s work was greatly influenced by Kierkegaard, having himself stated that Kierkegaard's thought "has pursued me from my youth, [and] determined the direction of my life."<ref>Quoted by Carl Henrik Koch in {{harvnb|Stewart|2012b|loc="Harald Høffding: The Respectful Critic", [https://books.google.com/books?id=XjV8EgfqBtsC&pg=PA267 p. 267]}}</ref> Høffding was a friend of the American philosopher [[William James]], and although James had not read Kierkegaard's works, as they were not yet translated into English, he attended the lectures about Kierkegaard by Høffding and agreed with much of those lectures. James' favorite quote from Kierkegaard came from Høffding: "We live forwards but we understand backwards".<ref>J. Michael Tilley in {{harvnb|Stewart|2012c|loc="William James: Living Forward and the Development of Radical Empiricism", [https://books.google.com/books?id=G52ZFoQav9MC&pg=PA87 p. 87]}}</ref>

[[Friedrich von Hügel]] wrote about Kierkegaard in 1913, saying: "Kierkegaard, the deep, melancholy, strenuous, utterly uncompromising Danish religionist, is a spiritual brother of the great Frenchman, [[Blaise Pascal]], and of the striking English [[Tractarian movement|Tractarian]], [[Hurrell Froude]], who died young and still full of crudity, yet left an abiding mark upon all who knew him well."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/eternallifestudy00hg |title=Eternal Life: a study of its implications and applications (1913), Friedrich von Hügel, pp. 260–261 |access-date=17 July 2013}}</ref>

[[John George Robertson]] wrote an article called Søren Kierkegaard in 1914: "Notwithstanding the fact that during the last quarter of a century, we have devoted considerable attention to the literatures of the North, the thinker and man of letters whose name stands at the head of the present article is but little known to the English-speaking world ... Kierkegaard, the writer who holds the indispensable key to the intellectual life of Scandinavia, to whom Denmark in particular looks up as her most original man of genius in the nineteenth century, we have wholly overlooked."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/modernlanguagere09modeuoft|title=The Modern language review|year=1905 |publisher=[Belfast, etc.] Modern Humanities Research Association [etc.]|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Robertson wrote previously in [[Cosmopolis: A Literary Review|''Cosmopolis'']] (1898) about Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175012025584;view=1up;seq=39|title=Cosmopolis. no.34.|website=HathiTrust|pages=12 v}}</ref> [[Theodor Haecker]], based in Munich, published an essay in 1913 titled ''Kierkegaard and the Philosophy of Inwardness'', and [[David F. Swenson]]'s treatment of Kierkegaard's life and works was published as an issue of [[Scandinavian Studies (journal)|''Scandinavian Studies and Notes'']] in 1920.<ref>Alexander Dru in {{harvnb|Haecker|1950|loc="Introduction", pp. xii–xiii}}</ref>{{sfn|Swenson|1920}} Swenson stated: "It would be interesting to speculate upon the reputation that Kierkegaard might have attained, and the extent of the influence he might have exerted, if he had written in one of the major European languages, instead of in the tongue of one of the smallest countries in the world."{{sfn|Swenson|1920|p=41}}

Austrian psychologist [[Wilhelm Stekel]] (1868–1940) referred to Kierkegaard as the "fanatical follower of Don Juan, himself the philosopher of [[Don Juanism]]" in his book ''Disguises of Love''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002965864;view=1up;seq=65|title=Disguises of love; psycho-analytical sketches. By W. Stekel. ... – Full View &#124; HathiTrust Digital Library &#124; HathiTrust Digital Library|year=1922|publisher=New York}}</ref> German psychiatrist and philosopher [[Karl Jaspers]] (1883–1969) stated he had been reading Kierkegaard since 1914 and compared Kierkegaard's writings with Hegel's ''[[Phenomenology of Mind]]'' and the writings of Nietzsche. Jaspers saw Kierkegaard as a champion of Christianity and Nietzsche as a champion for atheism.<ref>https://archive.org/details/philosophyofkarl0000schi_u8z5/mode/2up ''The Philosophy Of Karl Jaspers''] edited by [[Paul Arthur Schilpp]] 1957 p. 26</ref> Later, in 1935, Jaspers emphasized Kierkegaard's (and Nietzsche's) continuing importance for modern philosophy.{{sfn|Jaspers|1935}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

====German and English translators of Kierkegaard's works====
[[File:Heikki-Waris-Douglas-Steere.jpg|thumb|Douglas V. Steere (right) with the Finnish sociologist Heikki Waris in the 1950s]]
The first translation into German of Kierkegaard's work appeared in 1861, but it was Albert Bärthold who undertook the first substantial program of translating Kierkegaard into German, beginning in 1873.{{sfn|Lowrie|1962|p=4}}<ref>Heiko Schulz in {{harvnb|Stewart|2009|loc="Germany and Austria; A Modest Head Start: The German Reception of Kierkegaard", pp. 313–316}}</ref> Hermann Gottsche published Kierkegaard's Journals in 1905. It had taken academics 50 years to arrange his journals.<ref>Buch des Richters: Seine Tagebücher 1833–1855, (8 volumes) Hermann Gottsched (1905) the link is below in web</ref> Kierkegaard's main works were translated into German by [[Christoph Schrempf]] from 1909 onwards.{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=12}} [[Emmanuel Hirsch]] released a German edition of Kierkegaard's collected works from 1950 onwards.{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=12}} Both Harald Hoffding's and Schrempf's books about Kierkegaard were reviewed in 1892.<ref>''The Philosophical Review'', Volume I, Ginn and Company 1892 pp. 282–283</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/philosophicalrev08cornuoft#page/282/mode/1up |title=The Philosophical Review |access-date=17 July 2013|publisher=Ithaca [etc.] Cornell University Press [etc.] }}</ref>

[[Lee M. Hollander]], a scholar of [[Germanic philology]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]], published the first translation of Kierkegaard into English in 1923, though the publication received little attention.{{sfn|Schulz-Behrend|Lehmann|Miller|Willson|1976|p=2}} In the 1930s, further English translations by [[Douglas V. Steere]], [[David F. Swenson]], [[Walter Lowrie (author)|Walter Lowrie]], and Alexander Dru appeared, the last two translators working under the efforts of [[Oxford University Press]] editor [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]], one of the members of [[the Inklings]].{{sfn|Poole|1998|pp=57–58}}<ref>See Michael J. Paulus, Jr. From A Publisher's Point of View: Charles Williams's Role in Publishing Kierkegaard in English – online</ref> [[Thomas Henry Croxall]], another early translator, Lowrie, and Dru all hoped that people would not just read about Kierkegaard but would actually read his works.<ref>Kierkegaard studies, with special reference to (a) the Bible (b) our own age. Thomas Henry Croxall, 1948, pp. 16–18.</ref> From the 1960s to the 1990s, Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong translated his works more than once.<ref name=stolaf>[http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/kierkegaard/about/hongs.html "Howard and Edna Hong"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227232541/http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/kierkegaard/about/hongs.html |date=27 February 2012 }}. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library. St. Olaf College. Retrieved 11 March 2012.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.nlx.com/collections/73|title=Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers|isbn=978-1-57085-239-8|editor-last=Hong|editor-first=Howard V.|language=en|translator-last=Hong|url-access=subscription|editor-last2=Edna H.|editor-first2=Hong|translator-last2=Hong|via=Intelex Past Masters Online Catalogue}}</ref> The first volume of their first version of the ''Journals and Papers'' (Indiana, 1967–1978) won the 1968 [[National Book Award]] for [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Translation|Translation]].<ref name=stolaf/><ref name=nba1968>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1968 "National Book Awards – 1968"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 11 March 2012.</ref> They both dedicated their lives to the study of Søren Kierkegaard and his works, which are maintained at the [[Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library]].<ref>See this video about the mission and history of the [https://vimeo.com/674216 Søren Kierkegaard research library at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN]</ref> [[Alastair Hannay]] translated some of Kierkegaard's works for [[Penguin Classics]], starting in 1985 with ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''.{{sfn|Poole|1998|pp=65–66}}<ref>{{harvnb|Stewart|2015|p=3}}: "[Hannay's] popular translations of Kierkegaard's primary texts in the Penguin Classics series also opened up the Dane's thinking for generations of students."</ref>

====Kierkegaard's influence on Karl Barth's early theology====
[[File:Karl Barth Briefmarke.jpg|thumb|left|[[Karl Barth]] commemorative stamp]]

Kierkegaard's influence on [[Karl Barth]]'s early theology is evident in ''[[The Epistle to the Romans (Barth)|The Epistle to the Romans]]'' 1918, 1921, 1933.  Barth read at least three volumes of Kierkegaard's works: ''[[Practice in Christianity]]'', ''The Moment'', and an ''Anthology'' from his journals and diaries. Almost all key terms from Kierkegaard which had an important role in ''The Epistle to the Romans'' can be found in ''Practice in Christianity''. The concept of the indirect communication, the paradox, and the moment of ''Practice in Christianity'', in particular, confirmed and sharpened Barth's ideas on contemporary Christianity and the Christian life.

[[Wilhelm Pauck]] wrote in 1931 (''Karl Barth Prophet of a New Christianity'') that Kierkegaard's use of the Latin phrase ''Finitum Non Capax Infiniti'' (the finite does not (or cannot) comprehend the infinite) summed up Barth's system.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/karlbarthprophet012001mbp|title=Karl Barth Prophet of a New Christianity|work=Internet Archive|access-date=27 March 2015}}</ref> David G. Kingman and Adolph Keller each discussed Barth's relationship to Kierkegaard in their books, ''The Religious Educational Values in Karl Barth's Teachings'' (1934) and ''Karl Barth and Christian Unity'' (1933). Keller notes the splits that happen when a new teaching is introduced and some assume a higher knowledge from a higher source than others.
Students of Kierkegaard became a "group of dissatisfied, excited radicals" when under Barthianism. Eduard Geismar (1871–1939), who gave ''Lectures on Kierkegaard'' in March 1936, was not radical enough for them. Barthianism was opposed to the objective treatment of religious questions and to the sovereignty of man in the existential meeting with the transcendent God. But just as students of Hegel broke off into [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel#"Right" vs. "Left" Hegelianism|Right and Left]], so did the German followers of Barth.

Barth endorses the main theme from Kierkegaard but also reorganizes the scheme and transforms the details. He expands the theory of indirect communication to the field of Christian ethics; he applies the concept of unrecognizability to the Christian life. He coins the concept of the "paradox of faith" since the form of faith entails a contradictory encounter of God and human beings. He also portrayed the contemporaneity of the moment when in crisis a human being desperately perceives the contemporaneity of Christ. In regard to the concept of indirect communication, the paradox, and the moment, the Kierkegaard of the early Barth is a productive catalyst.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Woo | first=B. Hoon | title= Kierkegaard's Influence on Karl Barth's Early Theology | journal= Journal of Christian Philosophy | year=2014 | volume=18 | url=https://www.academia.edu/6894715 | pages=197–245}}</ref>

William Hubben compared Kierkegaard to Dostoevsky in his 1952 book ''Four Prophets of Our Destiny'', later titled ''Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka''.

[[John Daniel Wild]] noted as early as 1959 that Kierkegaard's works had been "translated into almost every important living language including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and it is now fair to say that his ideas are almost as widely known and as influential in the world as those of his great opponent Hegel, still the most potent of world philosophers."<ref>[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001399497 ''Human freedom and social order; an essay in Christian philosophy''.] 1959 p.133</ref>

In 1964 Life Magazine traced the history of existentialism from [[Heraclitus]] (500BC) and [[Parmenides]] over the argument over The Unchanging One as the real and the state of flux as the real. From there to the Old Testament Psalms and then to Jesus and later from [[Jacob Boehme]] (1575–1624) to [[René Descartes]] (1596–1650) and [[Blaise Pascal]] (1623–1662) and then on to Nietzsche and Paul Tillich. Dostoevsky and Camus are attempts to rewrite Descartes according to their own lights and Descartes is the forefather of Sartre through the fact that they both used a "literary style".

Kierkegaard's comparatively early and manifold philosophical and theological reception in Germany was one of the decisive factors of expanding his works' influence and readership throughout the world.{{sfn|Stewart|2009}}{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=13}} Important for the first phase of his reception in Germany was the establishment of the journal ''Zwischen den Zeiten'' (''Between the Ages'') in 1922 by a heterogeneous circle of Protestant theologians: [[Karl Barth]], [[Emil Brunner]], [[Rudolf Bultmann]] and [[Friedrich Gogarten]].{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=14}} Their thought would soon be referred to as [[dialectical theology]].{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=14}}
At roughly the same time, Kierkegaard was discovered by several proponents of the Jewish-Christian [[philosophy of dialogue]] in Germany, namely by [[Martin Buber]], [[Ferdinand Ebner]], and [[Franz Rosenzweig]].{{sfn|Bösl|1997|pp=16–17}} In addition to the philosophy of dialogue, [[existential philosophy]] has its point of origin in Kierkegaard and [[Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard#Individuality|his concept of individuality]].{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=17}} Martin Heidegger sparsely refers to Kierkegaard in ''[[Being and Time]]'' (1927),<ref>Heidegger, ''Sein und Zeit'', Notes to pp. 190, 235, 338.</ref> obscuring how much he owes to him.{{sfn|Bösl|1997|p=19}}{{sfn|Beck|1928}}{{sfn|Wyschogrod|1954}} [[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] discussed Sartre, Jaspers, and Heidegger in relation to Kierkegaard, and Kierkegaard in relation to the crisis of religion in the 1960s.<ref>Audio recordings of Kaufmann's lectures [https://archive.org/search.php?query=walter%20kaufmann Archive.org]</ref> Later, Kierkegaard's ''[[Fear and Trembling]]'' (Series Two) and ''[[The Sickness Unto Death]]'' (Series Three) were included in the [[Penguin Great Ideas]] Series (Two and Three).<ref>[http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/30869.Penguin_Great_Ideas Penguin Great Ideas] Goodreads</ref>

==Philosophy and theology==
{{Main|Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard|Theology of Søren Kierkegaard}}
Kierkegaard has been called a philosopher, a theologian,{{Sfn |Kangas|1998}} the "father of [[existentialism]]",{{sfn|McDonald|n.d.}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Grady |first1=Jane |date=8 April 2019 |title=Did Kierkegaard's heartbreak inspire his greatest writing? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/did-kierkegaards-heartbreak-inspire-greatest-writing/ |url-access=limited |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/did-kierkegaards-heartbreak-inspire-greatest-writing/ |archive-date=9 January 2022 |access-date=24 June 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{sfn|Leak|2011|p=585}} both [[atheist existentialism|atheistic]] and [[Christian existentialism|theistic]] variations,{{sfn|McGrath|1993|p=202}} a literary critic,{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2001}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} a social theorist,{{sfn|Westphal|1997}} a humorist,{{sfn|Oden|2004}} a psychologist,{{sfn|Ostenfeld|McKinnon|1972}} and a poet.{{sfn|Mackey|1971}} Two of his influential ideas are "subjectivity",{{efn|Kierkegaard is not an extreme subjectivist; he would not reject the importance of objective truths.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dorbolo |first1=Jon |year=2002 |title=Great Philosophers: Kierkegaard |url=https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Kierkegaard/kierkegaard_individuality.html |website=InterQuest |publisher=[[Oregon State University]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030920094704/https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Kierkegaard/kierkegaard_individuality.html |archive-date=20 September 2003 }}</ref>}} and the notion popularly referred to as "[[leap of faith]]".{{sfn|Hannay|Marino|1998}} However, the Danish equivalent to the English phrase "leap of faith" does not appear in the original Danish nor is the English phrase found in current English translations of Kierkegaard's works. Kierkegaard does mention the concepts of "faith" and "leap" together many times in his works.<ref>''Faith and the Kierkegaardian Leap'' in ''Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard''.</ref>

[[File:Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher.jpg|thumb|[[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] (after [[Franz Krüger]])]]
The leap of faith is his conception of how an individual would believe in God or how a person would act in love. Faith is not a decision based on evidence that, say, certain beliefs about God are true or a certain person is worthy of love. No such evidence could ever be enough to completely justify the kind of total commitment involved in true religious faith or romantic love. Faith involves making that commitment anyway. Kierkegaard thought that to have faith is at the same time to have doubt. So, for example, for one to truly have faith in God, one would also have to doubt one's beliefs about God; the doubt is the rational part of a person's thought involved in weighing evidence, without which the faith would have no real substance. Someone who does not realize that Christian doctrine is inherently doubtful and that there can be no objective certainty about its truth does not have faith but is merely credulous. For example, it takes no faith to believe that a pencil or a table exists, when one is looking at it and touching it. In the same way, to believe or have faith in God is to know that one has no perceptual or any other access to God, and yet still has faith in God.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=21–57}} Kierkegaard writes, "doubt is conquered by faith, just as it is faith which has brought doubt into the world".<ref>{{harvnb|Kierkegaard|1976|p=399}}{{Incomplete short citation|date=November 2024}}</ref>{{efn|Elsewhere, Kierkegaard uses the Faith/Offense dichotomy. In this dichotomy, doubt is the middle ground between faith and taking offense. Offense, in his terminology, describes the threat faith poses to the rational mind. He uses Jesus' words in Matthew 11:6: ''"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me"''. In ''[[Practice in Christianity]]'', Kierkegaard writes: "Just as the concept of "faith" is an altogether distinctively Christian term, so in turn is "offense" an altogether distinctively Christian term relating to faith. The possibility of offense is the crossroad, or it is like standing at the crossroad. From the possibility of offense, one turns either to offense or to faith, '''''but one never comes to faith except from the possibility of offense'''''".{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1991|p=80}}

In the footnote, he writes, "in the works of some pseudonymous writers it has been pointed out that in modern philosophy there is a confused discussion of doubt where the discussion should have been about despair. Therefore, one has been unable to control or govern doubt either in scholarship or in life. "Despair," however, promptly points in the right direction by placing the relation under the rubric of personality (the single individual) and the ethical. But just as there is a confused discussion of "doubt" instead of a discussion of "despair", So also the practice has been to use the category "doubt" where the discussion ought to be about "offense." '''''The relation, the relation of personality to Christianity, is not to doubt or to believe, but to be offended or to believe'''''. All modern philosophy, both ethically, and Christianly, is based upon frivolousness. Instead of deterring and calling people to order by speaking of being despairing and being offended, it has waved to them and invited them to become conceited by doubting and having doubted. Modern philosophy, being abstract, is floating in metaphysical indeterminateness. Instead of explaining this about itself and then directing people (individual persons) to the ethical, the religious, the existential, philosophy has given the appearance that people are able to speculate themselves out of their own skin, as they so very prosaically say, into pure appearance".{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1991|p=80}}

He writes that the person is either offended that Christ came as a man and that God is too high to be a lowly man who is actually capable of doing very little to resist. Or Jesus, a man, thought himself too high to consider himself God (blasphemy). Or the historical offence where God a lowly man comes into collision with an established order. Thus, this offensive paradox is highly resistant to rational thought.}}

Kierkegaard also stresses the importance of the self, and the self's relation to the world, as being grounded in self-reflection and introspection. He argued in ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments]]'' that "subjectivity is truth" and "truth is subjectivity." This has to do with a distinction between what is objectively true and an individual's subjective relation (such as indifference or commitment) to that truth. People who in ''some sense'' believe the same things may relate to those beliefs quite differently. Two individuals may both believe that many of those around them are poor and deserve help, but this knowledge may lead only one of them to decide to actually help the poor.{{sfn|Pattison|2005}} This is how Kierkegaard put it: "What a priceless invention statistics are, what a glorious fruit of culture, what a characteristic counterpart to the ''de te narratur fabula'' [the tale is told about you] of antiquity. [[Schleiermacher]] so enthusiastically declares that knowledge does not perturb religiousness, and that the religious person does not sit safeguarded by a lightning rod and scoff at God; yet with the help of statistical tables one laughs at all of life."<ref>Søren Kierkegaard, ''[[Stages on Life's Way]]'' (1845) pp. 479–480 and ''Either/Or Part I'', p. 5 Swenson.</ref>{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992|pp=231–232}} In other words, Kierkegaard says: "Who has the more difficult task: the teacher who lectures on earnest things a meteor's distance from everyday life—or the learner who should put it to use?"<ref>Kierkegaard, Søren. ''Works of Love''. Harper & Row, Publishers. New York. 1962. p. 62.</ref> This is how it was summed up in 1940:

Kierkegaard primarily discusses subjectivity with regard to religious matters. As already noted, he argues that doubt is an element of faith and that it is impossible to gain any objective certainty about religious doctrines such as the existence of God or the life of Christ. The most one could hope for would be the conclusion that it is probable that the Christian doctrines are true, but if a person were to believe such doctrines only to the degree they seemed ''likely'' to be true, he or she would not be genuinely religious at all. Faith consists in a subjective relation of absolute commitment to these doctrines.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1992}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

===Philosophical criticism===
[[File:Adorno.jpg|thumb|[[Theodor Adorno]] in 1964]]

Kierkegaard's famous philosophical 20th-century critics include [[Theodor Adorno]] and [[Emmanuel Levinas]]. Non-religious philosophers such as [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Martin Heidegger]] supported many aspects of Kierkegaard's philosophical views,<ref>A recent study touches specifically on the ontological aspects of ''angst'' from a Heideggerian standpoint in: [[Nader El-Bizri]], 'Variations ontologiques autour du concept d'angoisse chez Kierkegaard', in ''Kierkegaard notre contemporain paradoxal'', ed. N. Hatem (Beirut, 2013), pp. 83–95</ref> but rejected some of his religious views.{{sfn|Sartre|1946}}{{sfn|Dreyfus|1998}} One critic wrote that Adorno's book ''Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic'' is "the most irresponsible book ever written on Kierkegaard"{{sfn|Westphal|1996|p=9}} because Adorno takes Kierkegaard's pseudonyms literally and constructs a philosophy that makes him seem incoherent and unintelligible. Another reviewer says that "Adorno is [far away] from the more credible translations and interpretations of the Collected Works of Kierkegaard we have today."{{sfn|Morgan|2003}}

[[File:Emmanuel Levinas.jpg|thumb|left|[[Emmanuel Levinas]]]]
Levinas' main attack on Kierkegaard focused on his ethical and religious stages, especially in ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''. Levinas criticises the leap of faith by saying this suspension of the ethical and leap into the religious is a type of violence. He states: "Kierkegaardian violence begins when existence is forced to abandon the ethical stage in order to embark on the religious stage, the domain of belief. But belief no longer sought external justification. Even internally, it combined communication and isolation, and hence violence and passion. That is the origin of the relegation of ethical phenomena to secondary status and the contempt of the ethical foundation of being which has led, through Nietzsche, to the amoralism of recent philosophies."<ref>Emmanuel Levinas, ''Existence and Ethics'' (1963), as cited in {{harvnb|Lippitt|2003|p=136}}.</ref>

Levinas pointed to the [[Judeo-Christian]] belief that it was God who first commanded [[Abraham]] to sacrifice [[Isaac]] and that an angel commanded Abraham to stop. If Abraham were truly in the religious realm, he would not have listened to the angel's command and should have continued to kill Isaac. To Levinas, "transcending ethics" seems like a loophole to excuse would-be murderers from their crime and thus is unacceptable.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=64}} One interesting consequence of Levinas' critique is that it seemed to reveal that Levinas viewed God as a projection of inner ethical desire rather than an absolute moral agent.{{sfn|Hutchens|2004}} However, one of Kierkegaard's central points in ''Fear and Trembling'' was that the religious sphere ''entails'' the ethical sphere; Abraham had faith that God is always in one way or another ethically in the right, even when He commands someone to kill. Therefore, deep down, Abraham had faith that God, as an absolute moral authority, would never allow him in the end to do something as ethically heinous as murdering his own child, and so he passed the test of blind obedience versus moral choice. He was making the point that God as well as the God-Man Christ doesn't tell people everything when sending them out on a mission and reiterated this in ''Stages on Life's Way''.

[[File:Sartre 1967 crop.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Paul Sartre]] in 1967 ]]
Sartre objected to the [[existence of God]]: If existence precedes essence, it follows from the meaning of the term sentient that a sentient being cannot be complete or perfect. In ''[[Being and Nothingness]]'', Sartre's phrasing is that God would be a ''[[pour-soi]]'' (a being-for-itself; a consciousness) who is also an ''en-soi'' (a being-in-itself; a thing) which is a contradiction in terms.{{sfn|Sartre|1946}}{{sfn|Sartre|1969|p=430}} Critics of Sartre rebutted this objection by stating that it rests on a false dichotomy and a misunderstanding of the traditional Christian view of God.<ref>Swinburne Richard, The Coherence of Theism.</ref> Kierkegaard has Judge Vilhelm express the Christian hope this way in ''Either/Or'':

Sartre agreed with Kierkegaard's analysis of Abraham undergoing anxiety (Sartre calls it anguish), but claimed that God told Abraham to do it. In his lecture, ''[[Existentialism is a Humanism]]'', Sartre wondered whether Abraham ought to have doubted whether God actually spoke to him.{{sfn|Sartre|1946}} In Kierkegaard's view, Abraham's certainty had its origin in that "inner voice" which cannot be demonstrated or shown to another ("The problem comes as soon as Abraham wants to be understood").<ref>''[[Fear and Trembling]]'', 1843 – Søren Kierkegaard – Kierkegaard's Writings; 6 – 1983 – Howard V. Hong, pp. 13–14.</ref> To Kierkegaard, every external "proof" or justification is merely on the outside and external to the subject.{{sfn|Stern|1990}} Kierkegaard's proof for the immortality of the soul, for example, is rooted in the extent to which one wishes to live forever.{{sfn|Kosch|1996}}

[[File:Nb pinacoteca stieler friedrich wilhelm joseph von schelling.jpg|thumb|Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]]
Faith was something that Kierkegaard often wrestled with throughout his writing career; under both his real name and behind pseudonyms, he explored many different aspects of faith. These various aspects include faith as a spiritual goal, the historical orientation of faith (particularly toward Jesus Christ), faith being a gift from God, faith as dependency on a historical object, faith as a passion, and faith as a resolution to personal despair. Even so, it has been argued that Kierkegaard never offers a full, explicit and systematic account of what faith is.<ref name="Routledge"/> ''[[Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)|Either/Or]]'' was published 20 February 1843; it was mostly written during Kierkegaard's stay in Berlin, where he took notes on Schelling's ''Philosophy of Revelation''. According to the ''Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Religion'', Either/Or (vol. 1) consists of essays of literary and music criticism, a set of romantic-like-aphorisms, a whimsical essay on how to avoid boredom, a panegyric on the unhappiest possible human being, a diary recounting a supposed seduction, and (vol. II) two enormous didactic and hortatory ethical letters and a sermon.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/> This opinion is a reminder of the type of controversy Kierkegaard tried to encourage in many of his writings both for readers in his own generation and for subsequent generations as well.

==Political views==
{{Conservatism in Denmark|Intellectuals}}
[[File:Christianviiidenmark.jpg|thumb|upright|Christian VIII of Denmark]]
Throughout retrospective analyses Kierkegaard has been viewed as an apolitical philosopher.{{sfn|McDonald|1996}}<ref name="chigaco">{{cite book|url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo19125517.html|title=Kierkegaard and Political Theory|access-date=22 February 2020|archive-date=22 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222121801/https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo19125517.html}}</ref><ref name="UOTP">{{cite journal|title=The Ethical Necessity of Politics: Why Kierkegaard Needs Marx|last=Aroosi|first=jamie|journal=Toronto Journal of Theology|date=14 March 2019|volume=34|issue=2|pages=199–212|doi=10.3138/tjt.2018-0111|s2cid=150051403}}</ref> Despite this, Kierkegaard did publish works of a political nature; this includes his first published essay, criticizing the movement for "[[Woman's Liberation|women's liberation]]".<ref>{{harvnb|McDonald|1996}}, "His earliest published essay, for example, was a polemic against women’s liberation."</ref> Although Kierkegaard's earlier works might include some misogynist statements, a negative view of women is not found in his later works.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Sipe |first=Dera |date=2004 |title=Kierkegaard and Feminism: A Paradoxical Friendship |url=https://concept.journals.villanova.edu/index.php/concept/article/view/146 |journal=CONCEPT Journal |language=en |volume=27 |page=11}}</ref> In these later works, he expressed that men and women are equal before God, showed great respect for certain women, and believed that women are also capable of being faithful.<ref name=":3" />

He attacked [[Hegelianism]] via elaborate parody throughout his works from ''Either/Or'' to ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript''.{{sfn|McDonald|1996}} Despite his objections to Hegelianism, he expressed an admiration for Hegel personally and would even regard his system favourably if it was proposed as a thought experiment.{{sfn|McDonald|1996}}

Kierkegaard leaned towards conservatism,<ref name="UOTP" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hampson|first=Daphne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r78EAwAAQBAJ&q=%E2%80%9CKierkegaard+held+that+it+was+for+the+king+to+govern;+that+was+his+calling.+Thus+in+many+ways+politically+and+socially+conservative,+Kierkegaard+was+by+sentiment+adamantly+opposed+to+what+he+sarcastically+referred+to+as+government+by+the+numerical;+democracy%E2%80%9D+(Kierkegaard+Exposition+and+Critique,+209).&pg=PR13|title=Kierkegaard: Exposition & Critique|year=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-165401-5|location=Oxford University|page=209|language=en}}</ref> being a personal friend of Danish king [[Christian VIII]], whom he viewed as the moral superior of every Danish man, woman, and child. He argued against democracy, calling it "the most tyrannical form of government," arguing in favour of monarchy saying "Is it tyranny when one person wants to rule leaving the rest of us others out? No, but it is tyranny when all want to rule."<ref name="wsws">{{cite web|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/04/kier-a17.html|title=A closer look at Kierkegaard|website=[[World Socialist Web Site]]|last=Carter|first=Tom|date=17 April 2006|access-date=22 February 2020}}</ref> Kierkegaard held strong contempt for the media, describing it as "the most wretched, the most contemptible of all tyrannies".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Søren Kierkegaard versus the internet|url=https://www.abc.net.au/religion/kierkegaard-versus-the-internet/10427724|last=Stokes|first=Patrick|date=25 October 2018|website=ABC Religion & Ethics|language=en|access-date=16 May 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Veninga|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fVgXSxln0bUC&pg=PA278 278]}} He was critical of the Danish public at the time, labeling them as "the most dangerous of all powers and the most meaningless,"<ref name=":2" /> writing further in ''Two Ages: A Literary Review'' that:{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1978|p=136}}

Some interpret Kierkegaard's thought as implying that in regards to serving God, sexuality is irrelevant "before God not only for men and women, but also for homosexuals and heterosexuals".<ref name="Conway">{{Cite book|last1=W. Conway|first1=Daniel|last2=E. Gover|first2=K.|title=Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Volume 4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6f3gwMbvz-sC&q=S%C3%B8ren+Kierkegaard+homosexuality&pg=PA23|date=2002|publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-23590-7|access-date=16 April 2020}}</ref>{{efn|Kierkegaardian scholar Alastair McKinnon believed that Kierkegaard himself was gay and that his alleged homosexuality was central to his understanding of life and which he hid throughout his work intending for his readers to discover.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sites.utoronto.ca/kierkegaard/archive/upcoming%20Nov03.htm|title=Kierkegaard's Homosexuality: Opening up the Question|website=[[University of Toronto]]|last=McKinnon|first=Alistair|date=14 November 2003|access-date=16 April 2020}}</ref>}}

Kierkegaard's political philosophy has been likened to [[anti-establishment]] thought and has been described as "a starting point for contemporary political theories".<ref name="chigaco" />

==Legacy==
{{Main|Influence and reception of Søren Kierkegaard}}
[[File:Royal Library Garden - Søren Kierkegaard.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A statue. The figure is depicted as sitting and writing, with a book on his lap open. Trees and red tiled roof is in background. The statue itself is mostly green, with streaks of grey showing wear and tear. The statue's base is grey and reads "SØREN KIERKEGAARD"|The Søren Kierkegaard Statue in the [[Royal Library Garden, Copenhagen|Royal Library Garden]] in Copenhagen.]]
Many [[20th-century philosophy|20th-century philosophers]], both theistic and atheistic, and theologians drew concepts from Kierkegaard, including the notions of angst, despair, and the importance of the individual. His fame as a philosopher grew tremendously in the 1930s, in large part because the ascendant existentialist movement pointed to him as a precursor, although later writers celebrated him as a highly significant and influential thinker in his own right.{{sfn|Weston|1994}} [[University of Copenhagen]] historian of philosophy [[Jon Stewart (philosopher)|Jon Stewart]] has written extensively about Søren Kierkegaard's thought, and edited a "monumental series" of volumes on Kierkegaard's global reception and impact.{{sfn|Lippitt|Evans|2023|loc=sec. 4 "Trajectories in Kierkegaard Scholarship"}} Since Kierkegaard was raised as a [[Lutheran]],{{sfn|Hampson|2001}} he was commemorated as a teacher in the [[Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)|Calendar of Saints]] of the [[Lutheran Church]] on 11 November.

[[File:Ludwig Wittgenstein 1929.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] who once stated that Kierkegaard was "by far the most profound thinker of the [nineteenth] century. Kierkegaard was a saint."{{sfn|McDonald|1996}}]]
Philosophers and theologians influenced by Kierkegaard are numerous and include major twentieth century theologians and philosophers.<ref>Unamuno refers to Kierkegaard in his book ''The Tragic Sense of Life'', Part IV, In The Depths of the Abyss [https://archive.org/stream/thetragicsenseof00unamuoft#page/106/mode/1up Archive.org]</ref> [[Paul Feyerabend]]'s [[epistemological anarchism]] in the philosophy of science was inspired by Kierkegaard's idea of subjectivity as truth. [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] was immensely influenced and humbled by Kierkegaard, claiming that "Kierkegaard is far too deep for me, anyhow. He bewilders me without working the good effects which he would in deeper souls".{{sfn|Creegan|1989}} [[Karl Popper]] referred to Kierkegaard as "the great reformer of Christian ethics, who exposed the official Christian morality of his day as anti-Christian and anti-humanitarian hypocrisy".{{sfn|Popper|2002}}<ref>[[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] Introduction to ''The Present Age'', Søren Kierkegaard, Dru 1940, 1962 pp. 18–19.</ref>{{sfn|Matustik|Westphal|1995}}{{sfn|MacIntyre|2001}}{{sfn|Rorty|1989}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} [[Hilary Putnam]] admired Kierkegaard, "for his insistence on the priority of the question, 'How should I live?{{' "}}.{{sfn|Pyle|1999|pp=52–53}} By the early 1930s, [[Jacques Ellul]]'s three primary sources of inspiration were [[Karl Marx]], Søren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth. According to Ellul, Marx and Kierkegaard were his two greatest influences, and the only two authors of which he read all of their work.<ref>Goddard, Andrew (2002). ''Living the Word, Resisting the World: The Life and Thought of Jacques Ellul,''Paternoster Press, p. 16. {{ISBN|978-1-84227-053-0}}</ref> [[Herbert Read]] wrote in 1945 "Kierkegaard's life was in every sense that of a saint. He is perhaps the most real saint of modern times."<ref>A Coat Of Many Colours (1945) p. 255</ref>

Kierkegaard has also had a considerable influence on [[20th-century literature]]. Figures deeply influenced by his work include [[W. H. Auden]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Don DeLillo]], [[Hermann Hesse]], [[Franz Kafka]],{{sfn|McGee|2006}} [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]], [[Flannery O'Connor]], [[Walker Percy]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[J.D. Salinger]] and [[John Updike]].{{sfn|Updike|1997}} What George Henry Price wrote in his 1963 book ''The Narrow Pass'' regarding the "who" and the "what" of Kierkegaard still seems to hold true today: "Kierkegaard was the sanest man of his generation....Kierkegaard was a schizophrenic....Kierkegaard was the greatest Dane....the difficult Dane....the gloomy Dane...Kierkegaard was the greatest Christian of the century....Kierkegaard's aim was the destruction of the historic Christian faith....He did not attack philosophy as such....He negated reason....He was a voluntarist....Kierkegaard was the Knight of Faith....Kierkegaard never found faith....Kierkegaard possessed the truth....Kierkegaard was one of the damned."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/narrowpassstudyo0000pric/page/11 |url-access=registration |title='The Narrow Pass', A Study of Kierkegaard's Concept of Man|publisher=McGraw-Hill |author=Price, George|year=1963|page= 11}}</ref>

[[File:Erich Fromm, Viktor Frank, Rollo May.png|thumb|From left to right: Erich Fromm, Viktor Frankl and Rollo May]]
Kierkegaard had a profound influence on [[psychology]]. He is widely regarded as the founder of [[Christian psychology]] and of [[existential psychology]]<ref>H. Newton Malony (ed.), ''A Christian Existential Psychology: The Contributions of John G. Finch'', University Press of America, 1980, p. 168.</ref> and [[existential therapy|therapy]].{{sfn|Ostenfeld|McKinnon|1972}} Existentialist (often called "humanistic") psychologists and therapists include [[Ludwig Binswanger]], [[Viktor Frankl]], [[Erich Fromm]], [[Carl Rogers]], and [[Rollo May]]. May based his ''The Meaning of Anxiety'' on Kierkegaard's ''The Concept of Anxiety''. Kierkegaard's [[sociological]] work ''Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age'' critiques [[modernity]].{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2001}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} [[Ernest Becker]] based his 1974 [[Pulitzer Prize]] book ''[[The Denial of Death]]'' on the writings of Kierkegaard, [[Freud]] and [[Otto Rank]]. Kierkegaard is also seen as an important precursor of [[postmodernism]].{{sfn|Matustik|Westphal|1995}} Danish priest [[Johannes Møllehave]] has lectured about Kierkegaard. In popular culture, he was the subject of serious television and radio programmes; in 1984, a six-part documentary, ''[[Sea of Faith (TV series)|Sea of Faith]]'', presented by [[Don Cupitt]], featured an episode on Kierkegaard, while on [[Maundy Thursday]] in 2008, Kierkegaard was the subject of a discussion on the [[BBC Radio 4]] programme presented by [[Melvyn Bragg]], ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]'', during which it was suggested that Kierkegaard straddles the analytic/continental divide. Google honoured him with a [[Google Doodle]] on his 200th anniversary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Søren Kierkegaard's 200th Birthday Doodle |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/sren-kierkegaards-200th-birthday/ |website=Google Doodles |access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref>
The novel ''[[Therapy (Lodge novel)|Therapy]]'' by [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]] details a man experiencing a [[mid-life crisis]] and becoming obsessed with the works of Kierkegaard.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Stossel| first = Scott| title = Right, Here Goes| journal = The Atlantic| publisher = The Atlantic Monthly Group| date = April 1996| url = https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/04/right-here-goes/376573/| access-date = 10 July 2015 }}</ref>

Kierkegaard is considered by some modern theologians to be the "father of existentialism".<ref>{{cite web|last=Irvine|first=Andrew|title=Existentialism|url=http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm|work=Western Philosophy Courses Website|publisher=Boston University|access-date=13 April 2013}}</ref> Because of his influence (and in spite of it), others only consider either [[Martin Heidegger]] or [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] to be the actual "father of existentialism".{{sfn|Crowell|2004}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Paparella|first=Emanuel|title=Soren Kierkegaard as Father of Existentialism|url=http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/2869|work=Magazine|publisher=Ovi/Chameleon Project|access-date=13 April 2013}}</ref> Kierkegaard predicted his posthumous fame, and foresaw that his work would become the subject of intense study and research.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1938|p=224}}

==Selected bibliography==
{{For|a complete bibliography|Søren Kierkegaard bibliography}}
{{see also|List of works about Søren Kierkegaard}}
* (1841) ''[[On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates]]'' ({{lang|da|Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn til Socrates}}; [[dissertation]])
* (1843) ''[[Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)|Either/Or]]'' ({{lang|da|Enten-Eller}})
* (1843) ''[[Two Upbuilding Discourses (1843)|Two Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|To opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1843) ''[[Fear and Trembling]]'' ({{lang|da|Frygt og Bæven}})
* (1843) ''[[Three Upbuilding Discourses (1843)|Three Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|Tre opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1843) ''[[Repetition (Kierkegaard book)|Repetition]]'' ({{lang|da|Gjentagelsen}})
* (1843) ''[[Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1843|Four Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|Fire opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1844) ''[[Two Upbuilding Discourses (1844)|Two Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|To opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1844) ''[[Three Upbuilding Discourses, 1844|Three Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|Tre opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1844) ''[[Philosophical Fragments]]'' ({{lang|da|Philosophiske Smuler}})
* (1844) ''[[The Concept of Anxiety]]'' ({{lang|da|Begrebet Angest}})
* (1844) ''[[Four Upbuilding Discourses, 1844|Four Upbuilding Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|Fire opbyggelige Taler}})
* (1845) ''[[Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions]]'' ({{lang|da|Tre Taler ved tænkte Leiligheder}})
* (1845) ''[[Stages on Life's Way]]'' ({{lang|da|Stadier paa Livets Vei}})
* (1846) ''[[Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments]]'' ({{lang|da|Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift}})
* (1846) ''[[Two Ages: A Literary Review]]'' ({{lang|da|En literair Anmeldelse af S. Kierkegaard}})
* (1847) ''[[Edifying Discourses in Diverse Spirits]]'' ({{lang|da|Opbyggelige Taler i forskjellig Aand}})
* (1847) ''[[Works of Love]]'' ({{lang|da|Kjerlighedens Gjerninger}})
* (1848) ''[[Christian Discourses]]'' ({{lang|da|Christelige Taler}})
* (1848, published 1859) ''[[The Point of View of My Work as an Author]]'' "as good as finished" (IX A 293) ({{lang|da|Synspunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed. En ligefrem Meddelelse, Rapport til Historien}})
* (1849) ''[[The Sickness unto Death]]'' ({{lang|da|Sygdommen til Døden}})
* (1849) ''Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays'' ({{lang|da|"Ypperstepræsten" – "Tolderen" – "Synderinden", tre Taler ved Altergangen om Fredagen}})
* (1850) ''[[Practice in Christianity]]'' ({{lang|da|Indøvelse i Christendom}})

==Explanatory notes==
{{Notelist}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==Works cited==
===Works by Kierkegaard===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |year=1938 |others=Ed. and trans. by Alexander Dru |title=The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard: A Selection |url=https://archive.org/details/journalsselectio0000kier/ |url-access=registration |edition=Reprint |location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-date=1959 |oclc=1150101461}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong, assisted by Gregor Malantschuk |title=Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-18239-5}} 7 vols., 1967–1978.
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1978 |orig-date=1846 |title=Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age, A Literary Review |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=14 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2009-07-06 |doi=10.1515/9781400832286 |isbn=978-1-4008-3228-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1985 |orig-date=1842–1844 |title= Philosophical Fragments, or a Fragment of Philosophy/Johannes Climacus, or De omnibus dubitandum est |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=7 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2013-04-21 |doi=10.1515/9781400846962 |isbn=978-1-4008-4696-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1989 |orig-date=1841–1842 |title=The Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates/Notes of Schelling's Berlin Lectures |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=2 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2013-04-21 |doi=10.1515/9781400846924 |isbn=978-1-4008-4692-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1991 |orig-date=1850 |title=Practice in Christianity |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=20 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2013-04-21 |doi=10.1515/9781400847037 |isbn=978-1-4008-4703-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1992 |orig-date=1846 |title=Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=12/I: Text |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2013-04-21 |doi=10.1515/9781400846993 |isbn=978-1-4008-4699-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1998a |orig-date=1849/1851/1859 |title=The Point of View |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=22 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2009-07-06 |doi=10.1515/9781400832408 |isbn=978-1-4008-3240-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |others=Ed. and trans. by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong |year=1998b |orig-date=1854–1855 |title=The Moment and Late Writings |series=Kierkegaard's Writings |volume=23 |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2009-09-21 |doi=10.1515/9781400832415 |isbn=978-1-4008-3241-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |year=2001 |others=Trans. and annontated by [[Alastair Hannay]] |orig-date=1846 |title=A Literary Review |location=London |series=Penguin Classics |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-044801-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |year=2003 |editor-last=Moore |editor-first=Charles E. |orig-date=first published in 1999 |title=Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard |url=https://archive.org/details/provocationsspir0000kier/ |url-access=registration |location=Maryknoll |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-1-57075-513-2 |via=the Internet Archive}}
{{Refend}}

===Works by others===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
<!-- A -->
* {{cite book |last=Adorno |first=Theodor |author-link = Theodor Adorno |year=1989 |title = Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic |location=Minneapolis |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=0-8166-1186-6 }}
<!-- B -->
* {{cite book |last=Beck |first=M. |year=1928 |title=Referat und Kritik von M.Heidegger: Sein und Zeit |location=Indiana |publisher=Philosophische Hefte 17 |language=de }}
* {{cite book |last=Bergmann |first=Samuel Hugo |year=1991 |title=Dialogical philosophy from Kierkegaard to Buber |location=New York |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-0623-6 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bjerregaard |first=C. H. A. |editor-last=Jackson |editor-first=Samuel Macauley |editor-link=Samuel Macauley Jackson |year=1889 |title=Kierkegaard, Søren Aaby |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89094564523&seq=481 |encyclopedia=Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge |location=New York |publisher=The Christian Literature Company |oclc=609222608 |pages=473–475 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=HathiTrust }}
* {{cite book |last1=Bösl |first1=Anton |year=1997 |title=Unfreiheit und Selbstverfehlung: Søren Kierkegaards existenzdialektische Bestimmung von Schuld und Sünde |series=Freiburger theologische Studien |language=de |publication-place=Freiburg |publisher=Herder |isbn=978-3-451-26408-5 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Brandes |first=Georg |author-link=Georg Brandes |year=1906 |title=Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/maincurrentsinn08brangoog |access-date=24 September 2010 }}
* {{cite web |last=Brandes |first=Georg |title=Reminiscences of my Childhood and Youth, pp. 98–108 |url=https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesmy00brangoog#page/n110/mode/1up |access-date=21 August 2010 }}
* {{cite book |last=Bremer |first=Fredrika |author-link=Fredrika Bremer |translator-last=Howitt |translator-first=Mary |translator-link=Mary Howitt |year=1850 |orig-date=first published in ''[[Sartain's Magazine]]'' |chapter=Life in the North |title=An Easter Offering |url=https://archive.org/details/easteroffering00brem/ |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |pages=13–25 |oclc=1043015508 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brink |first1=Lars |last2=Lund |first2=Jørn |author-link2=Jørn Lund (linguist) |last3=Heger |first3=Steffen |last4=Jørgensen |first4=J. Normann |year=1991 |title=Den Store Danske Udtaleordbog |series=Munksgaards Ordbøger |language=da |location=Copenhagen |publisher=Munksgaard |isbn=978-87-16-06649-7}}
<!-- C -->
* {{cite book |last1=Conway |first1=Daniel W. |last2=Gover |first2=K. E. |year=2002 |title=Søren Kierkegaard: critical assessments of leading philosophers |location=London |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-23587-7 }}
* {{cite web |last=Creegan |first=Charles |year=1989 |title=Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard |work=Routledge |url=http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/ccreegan/wk/chapter1.html |access-date=1 March 2010 |archive-date=22 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822164001/http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/ccreegan/wk/chapter1.html }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Crowell |first=Steven |date=23 August 2004 |author-link=Steven Crowell |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |title=Existentialism |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/ |orig-date=substantive rev. 11 October 2010 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712044721/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/ |archive-date=2012-07-12 |url-status=deviated }}
<!-- D -->
* {{cite book |last=Dorrien |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Dorrien |year=2012 |title=Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit. The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology |edition=5th |location=Hoboken, NJ |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-67331-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Dreyfus |first=Hubert |author-link=Hubert Dreyfus |year=1998 |title=Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-54056-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Duncan |first=Elmer|year=1976 |title=Søren Kierkegaard: Maker of the Modern Theological Mind |publisher=Word Books |isbn=0-87680-463-6 }}
<!-- E -->
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=C. Stephen |author-link=C. Stephen Evans |year=1996 |chapter=Introduction |title=Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard, translated by C. Stephen Evans and Sylvia Walsh |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84810-7 }}
<!-- F -->
<!-- G -->
* {{cite book |last1=Gardiner |first1=Patrick L. |author-link1=Patrick Gardiner |editor-last1=Gardiner |editor-first1=Patrick L. |year=1969 |chapter=Kierkegaard |title=Nineteenth-Century Philosophy |url=https://archive.org/details/nineteenthcentur00gard/ |url-access=registration |series=Readings in the History of Philosophy |location=New York |publisher=The Free Press |pages=289–320 |isbn=978-0-02-911220-5 |access-date=2024-11-17 |via=the Internet Archive }} 
* {{cite book |last=Garff |first=Joakim |author-link=Joakim Garff |translator-last=Kirmmse |translator-first=Bruce H. |year=2005 |orig-date=first published in Danish in 2000 |title=Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography |edition=ebook |location=Princeton & Oxford |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2013-10-31 |doi=10.1515/9781400849604 |isbn=978-1-4008-4960-4 |jstor=j.ctt4cgbw9}}
* {{cite web |last=Gottsched |first=Hermann |year=1905 |title=Buch des Richters: Seine Tagebücher 1833–1855 |url=https://archive.org/details/buchdesrichters00gottgoog |access-date=26 September 2010 }}
<!-- H -->
* {{cite book |last=Haecker |first=Theodor |author-link=Theodor Haecker |translator-last=Dru |translator-first=Alexander |year=1950 |title=Journal in the Night |url=https://archive.org/details/journalinthenigh009030mbp/ |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |oclc=894441 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite book |last=Hall |first=Sharon K |year=1983 |title=Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism |location=Detroit |publisher=University of Michigan |isbn=978-0-8103-0221-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury10shar }}
* {{cite book |last=Hampson |first=Daphne |year=2001 |author-link=Daphne Hampson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFX_DFs_lEQC&q=Kierkegaard%27s+Odyssey |title=Christian Contradictions: The Structures of Lutheran and Catholic Thought |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-60435-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hannay |first=Alastair |author-link=Alastair Hannay |year=2001 |title=Kierkegaard: A Biography |location=Cambridge & New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511498152 |isbn=978-0-511-49815-2}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Hannay |editor-first1=Alastair |editor-last2=Marino |editor-first2=Gordon D. |year=1998 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard |series=[[Cambridge Companions]] |edition=ebook |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511498152 |isbn=978-0-511-49815-2 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hollander |first1=Lee M. |author-link1=Lee M. Hollander |year=1960 |orig-date=first published in 1923 |chapter=Introduction |title=Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard |url=https://archive.org/details/selectionsfromwr00kier/ |url-access=registration |translator-last1=Hollander |translator-first1=Lee M. |edition=rev. |publication-place=Garden City, NY |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Anchor Books]] |pages=1–33 |oclc=243317 |access-date=18 March 2025 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite book |last=Howland |first=Jacob |year=2006 |title=Kierkegaard and Socrates: A Study in Philosophy and Faith |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-86203-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hubben |first=William |year=1962 |title=Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka: Four Prophets of Our Destiny |url=https://archive.org/details/dostoevskykierke00hubb |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Collier Books }}
* {{cite book |last=Hutchens |first=Benjamin C|year=2004 |title=Levinas: a guide for the perplexed? |location=London |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8264-7282-3 }}
<!-- I -->
<!-- J -->
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Jansen |first1=F. J. Billeskov |date=23 April 2023 |orig-year=first published 1981 |title=Søren Kierkegaard |url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard |encyclopedia=[[Dansk Biografisk Leksikon]] |language=da |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009113052/https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard |archive-date=9 October 2024 |via=[[Lex.dk]] }}
* {{cite book |last=Jaspers |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Jaspers |year=1935 |title=Vernunft und Existenz. Fünf Vorlesungen |location=Groningen & Batavia [Jakarta] |publisher=J. B. Wolters |language=de }}
<!-- K -->
* {{cite journal |last=Kalkar |first=Christian Andreas Herman |date=August 1858 |title=Denmark. Remarks on the State of the Danish National Church |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433068199805&seq=761 |department=European Intelligence |journal=Evangelical Christendom: Its State and Prospects |location=London |publisher=[[Evangelical Alliance]] |volume=12 |pages=269–274 |oclc=656581214 |via=HathiTrust |access-date=2024-09-29 }}
* {{cite web |last=Kangas |first=David |year=1998 |title=Kierkegaard, the Apophatic Theologian, David Kangas, Yale University |work=Enrahonar No. 29, Departament de Filosofia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |url=http://ddd.uab.cat/pub/enrahonar/0211402Xn29p119.pdf |access-date=1 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718171946/http://ddd.uab.cat/pub/enrahonar/0211402Xn29p119.pdf |archive-date=18 July 2011 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Katz |first1=Claire Elise |year=2003 |title=The Voice of God and the Face of the Other |url=<!--former URL at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/tr/volume2/katz.html--> |journal=Journal of Textual Reasoning |volume=2 |doi=10.21220/s2-5e6v-2k39 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Kirmmse |editor-first=Bruce H. |translator-last1=Kirmmse |translator-first1=Bruce H. |translator-last2=Laursen |translator-first2=Virginia R. |year=1996 |title=Encounters with Kierkegaard: A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries |edition=ebook |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=2020-12-08 |doi=10.1515/9780691221885 |isbn=978-0-691-22188-5}}
* {{cite web |last=Kirmmse |first=Bruce |year=2000 |title=Review of Habib Malik, Receiving Søren Kierkegaard |work=Stolaf |url=http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/kierkegaard/newsletter/issue39/39002.htm |access-date=19 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520040010/http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/kierkegaard/newsletter/issue39/39002.htm |archive-date=20 May 2008 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kosch |first=Michelle|year=1996 |title=Freedom and reason in Kant, Schelling, and Kierkegaard|location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-928911-0 }}
<!-- L -->
* {{cite book |last1=Leak |first1=Andrew |year=2011 |chapter=Existentialism |editor-last1=Burgwinkle |editor-first1=William |editor-link1=Bill Burgwinkle |editor-last2=Hammond |editor-first2=Nicholas |editor-last3=Wilson |editor-first3=Emma |editor-link3=Emma Wilson |title=The Cambridge History of French Literature |edition=ebook |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=585–593 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521897860.067 |isbn=978-0-511-97632-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lippitt |first=John|year=2003 |title=Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-18047-4 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Lippitt |first1=John |last2=Evans |first2=C. Stephen |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |title=Søren Kierkegaard |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ |access-date=2024-09-22 |date=22 May 2023 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University }}
* {{cite book |last=Lowrie |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Lowrie (author) |year=1942 |title=A Short Life of Kierkegaard |location=Princeton |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] }}
* {{cite book |last=Lowrie |first=Walter |year=1962 |orig-date=first published in 1938 |title=Kierkegaard |url=https://archive.org/details/kierkegaard0001lowr/ |url-access=registration |volume=1 |edition=1st Harper Torchbook |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |oclc=602868 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite book |last=Lowrie |first=Walter |year=1968 |title=Kierkegaard's Attack Upon Christendom|location=Princeton |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] }}
<!-- M -->
* {{cite book |last=MacIntyre |first=Alasdair |author-link=Alasdair MacIntyre |year=2001 |chapter=Once More on Kierkegaard |title=Kierkegaard after MacIntyre |location=Chicago |publisher=Open Court Publishing |isbn=0-8126-9452-X }}
* {{cite book |last=Mackey |first=Louis |author-link=Louis H. Mackey |year=1971 |title=Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=0-8122-1042-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/kierkegaardkindo00mack }}
* {{cite book |last1=Malantschuk |first1=Gregor |first2=Howard |last2=Hong |first3=Edna |last3=Hong |year=2003 |title=Kierkegaard's concept of existence |location=Milwaukee |publisher=Marquette University Press |isbn=978-0-87462-658-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Martensen |first=Hans Lassen |author-link=Hans Lassen Martensen |translator-last=Spence |translator-first=C. |year=1871 |title=Christian Ethics (General Part) |url=https://archive.org/details/christianethicsg00mart/ |series=Clark's Foreign Theological Library, 3rd Series |volume=39 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark |oclc=866874021 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite web |last=Masugata |first=Kinya |date=9 July 1999 |title=Kierkegaard's Reception in Japan |work=Kinya Masugata |url=http://www.kierkegaard.jp/masugata/sk2eng.html |access-date=19 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611084936/http://www.kierkegaard.jp/masugata/sk2eng.html |archive-date=11 June 2007 }}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Matustik |editor1-first=Martin Joseph |editor2-first=Merold |editor2-last=Westphal |year=1995 |title=Kierkegaard in Post/Modernity |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20967-6 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=McDonald |first=William |encyclopedia=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |title=Søren Kierkegaard (1813—1855) |url=https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/ |access-date=2024-09-22 |date=n.d. |issn=2161-0002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240917070331/https://iep.utm.edu/kierkega/ |archive-date=2024-09-17 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=McDonald |first=William |date=3 December 1996 |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |title=Søren Kierkegaard |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/kierkegaard/ |orig-date=substantive rev. 10 November 2017 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190813003321/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ |archive-date=2019-08-13 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=McGee |first=Kyle |title=Fear and Trembling in the Penal Colony |work=Kafka Project |url=http://www.kafka.org/index.php?id=185,290,0,0,1,0 |access-date=26 April 2013 |ref={{sfnRef|McGee|2006}} |archive-date=28 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100628232215/http://www.kafka.org/index.php?id=185,290,0,0,1,0 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=McGrath |first=Alister E. |year=1993 |title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |isbn=0-631-19896-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Meyer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Meyer (translator) |year=1985 |title=Strindberg |url=https://archive.org/details/strindberg00meye/ |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-394-50442-1 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Marcia |date=September 2003 |title=Adorno's Reception of Kierkegaard: 1929–1933 |publisher=University of Potsdam |url=http://www.sorenkierkegaard.nl/artikelen/Engels/095.%20Adorno's%20reception%20of%20kierkegaard.pdf |access-date=19 January 2010 }}
<!-- N -->
* {{cite thesis |last=Nostbakken |first=Roger Wesley |year=1962 |title=The theology of Gisle Christian Johnson: an inquiry into its sources, its nature and its significance |degree=ThD |publisher=Princeton Theological Seminary |oclc=936470209}}
<!-- O -->
* {{cite book |last=Oden|first=Thomas C|year=2004 |title=The Humor of Kierkegaard: An Anthology |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-02085-X }}
* {{cite book |last1=Ostenfeld |first1=Ib |first2=Alastair |last2=McKinnon |year=1972 |title=Søren Kierkegaard's Psychology |location=Waterloo |publisher=Wilfrid Laurer University Press |isbn=0-88920-068-8 }}
<!-- P -->
* {{cite book |last=Pattison|first=George |year=2005 |title=The Philosophy of Kierkegaard |location=Montreal |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |isbn=978-0-7735-2987-8 }}
* {{cite web |editor-last1=Petersen |editor-first1=Nora M. |editor-last2=Schierup |editor-first2=Stine |year=2015 |title=Kierkegaard: In vino veritas |url=https://natmus.dk/museer-og-slotte/nationalmuseet/undervisning-paa-nationalmuseet/undervisningsmaterialer/ungdomsuddannelserne/antiksamlingen/vin-og-kaerlighed-det-graeske-symposion/symposion-som-litteraer-genre/kierkegaard-in-vino-veritas/ |website={{lang|da|Vin og kærlighed - Det græske symposion|italic=unset}} |trans-website=Wine and Love - The Greek Symposium |language=da |publisher=[[Nationalmuseet]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240927171113/https://natmus.dk/museer-og-slotte/nationalmuseet/undervisning-paa-nationalmuseet/undervisningsmaterialer/ungdomsuddannelserne/antiksamlingen/vin-og-kaerlighed-det-graeske-symposion/symposion-som-litteraer-genre/kierkegaard-in-vino-veritas/ |archive-date=27 September 2024 }}
* {{cite book |last=Pfleiderer |first=Otto |author-link=Otto Pfleiderer |translator-last=Menzies |translator-first=Allan |translator-link=Allan Menzies |year=1887 |orig-date=based on 2nd German edition published 1883–1884 |title=The Philosophy of Religion On the Basis of Its History: Schelling to the Present Day |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah4bnd |volume=2 |location=London & Edinburgh |publisher=Williams and Norgate |oclc=555200934 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=HathiTrust }}
* {{cite book |last1=Poole |first1=Roger |date=1998 |chapter=The unknown Kierkegaard: Twentieth-century receptions |editor-last1=Hannay |editor-first1=Alastair |editor-last2=Marino |editor-first2=Gordon D. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard |series=[[Cambridge Companions]] |edition=ebook |publisher=Cambridge University Press |publication-date=28 May 2006 |pages=48–75 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511498152 |isbn=978-0-511-49815-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Popper |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Popper |year=2002 |title=The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol 2: Hegel and Marx|location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-29063-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Pyle |first=Andrew|year=1999|title=Key philosophers in conversation: the Cogito interviews|location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-18036-8 }}
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* {{cite book |last=Rorty |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rorty |year=1989 |title=Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-36781-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/contingencyirony00rort_0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Swenson |first1=David F. |author-link1=David F. Swenson |year=1983 |contributor-last1=Rose |contributor-first1=Mary Carman |contribution=Foreword to the ROSE Edition |editor-last1=Swenson |editor-first1=Lillian Marvin |title=Something About Kierkegaard |url=https://archive.org/details/somethingaboutki0000unse/ |url-access=registration |edition=ROSE |publication-place=Macon, GA |publisher=Mercer University Press |pages=xiii–xxiv |isbn=978-0-86554-084-2 |access-date=17 March 2025 |via=the Internet Archive }}
<!-- S -->
* {{cite web |last=Sartre |first=Jean-Paul |author-link=Jean-Paul Sartre |year=1946 |title=Existentialism is a Humanism |work=World Publishing Company |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm |access-date=14 April 2007 }}
* {{cite book |last=Sartre |first=Jean-Paul |year=1969 |title=Being and nothingness: an essay on phenomenological ontology?|location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-04029-7 }}
* {{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics |volume=7 |year=1908 |pages=696–699 |chapter=Søren Kierkegaard |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr07hastuoft#page/696/mode/1up |access-date=21 September 2010 }}
* {{cite web |last1=Schulz-Behrend |first1=George |last2=Lehmann |first2=Winfred P. |author-link2=Winfred P. Lehmann |last3=Miller |first3=David L. |last4=Willson |first4=A. Leslie |date=7 May 1976 <!--Publication date provided in finding aid for the Lee Milton Hollander papers collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin, https://txarchives.org/utcah/finding_aids/03889.xml--> |title=In Memoriam: Lee M. Hollander |url=http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/SCANNED/hollander.pdf |website=University of Texas at Austin Faculty Council |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030709101827/http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/SCANNED/hollander.pdf |archive-date=9 July 2003 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Ronald Gregor |year=1960 |title=J. G. Hamann, 1730–1788: A Study in Christian Existence, with Selections From His Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/jghamann17301788013654mbp/ |publication-place=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |oclc=1234749 |access-date=17 March 2025 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite journal |last=Stern |first=Kenneth|year=1990 |title=Kierkegaard on Theistic Proof |journal=[[Religious Studies (journal)|Religious studies]] |location=Cambridge |volume=26 |issue=2|pages=219–226 |doi=10.1017/S0034412500020370|s2cid=170283075 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |editor-link1=Jon Stewart (philosopher) |year=2009 |title=Kierkegaard's International Reception: Northern and Western Europe |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=8, Tome 1 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-6496-3}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2012a |title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Theology: Anglophone and Scandinavian Protestant Theology |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=10, Tome 2 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-4479-4}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2012b |title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy: German and Scandinavian Philosophy |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=11, Tome 1 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-4285-1}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2012c |title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy: Anglophone Philosophy |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=11, Tome 3 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-4055-0}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2013a |title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art: The Germanophone World |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=12, Tome 1 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-5611-7}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2013b |title=Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art: Sweden and Norway |series=Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources |volume=12, Tome 3 |location=Farnham & Burlington |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-6513-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Stewart |first=Jon |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Jon |year=2015 |chapter=Editor's Introduction: Kierkegaard and the Rich Field of Kierkegaard Studies |title=A Companion to Kierkegaard |series=Blackwell Companions to Philosophy |location=Chichester & Malden |publisher=Wiley |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1002/9781118783795.ch0 |isbn=978-1-118-78379-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Strindberg |first=August |author-link=August Strindberg |translator-last=Björkman |translator-first=Edwin |year=1912 |title=Plays by August Strindberg: First Series |url=https://archive.org/details/playsbyauguststr00stri/ |location=New York |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |oclc=2579484 |access-date=2024-09-29 |via=the Internet Archive }}
* {{cite journal |last=Swenson |first=David F. |author-link=David F. Swenson |date=February 1920 |editor-last=Flom |editor-first=George T. |editor-link=George T. Flom |title=Sören Kierkegaard |url=https://archive.org/details/scandinavianstu06sociuoft/page/1/ |journal=Scandinavian Studies and Notes |publisher=[[Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study]] |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=1–41 |jstor=40915066 |jstor-access=free }}
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* {{cite book |last=Updike |first=John |author-link=John Updike|year=1997 |chapter=Foreword |title=The Seducer's Diary by Søren Kierkegaard |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-01737-9 }}
<!-- V -->
* {{cite journal |last=Vahl |first=Jens |date=April 1856 |orig-date=dated 23 January 1856 |title=Denmark. The Doctrines of Dr. Kierkegaard—Accusations Against the State Church—Independent Lutheran Church of Copenhagen |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433068199797&seq=567 |department=European Intelligence |journal=Evangelical Christendom: Its State and Prospects |location=London |publisher=[[Evangelical Alliance]] |volume=10 |pages=127–129 |oclc=656581214 |via=HathiTrust |access-date=2024-09-29 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Veninga |first1=Jennifer Elisa |editor-last1=Perkins |editor-first1=Robert L. |year=2009 |chapter=The Danish Cartoon Controversy as Viewed by Kierkegaard and Appadurai: The Social Imagination and the Numerical |title=The Moment and Late Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/momentlatewritin0000unse |url-access=registration |series=International Kierkegaard Commentary |volume=23 |location=Macon |publisher=Mercer University Press |pages=253–282 |isbn=978-0-88146-160-2 |access-date=2024-11-13 |via=the Internet Archive }}
<!-- W -->
* {{cite book |last=Walsh |first=Sylvia |year=2009 |title=Kierkegaard: Thinking Christianly in an Existential Mode?|location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-920836-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Watkin |first=Julia |year=1997 |title=Kierkegaard |edition=Reissue |location=London & New York |publisher=Continuum |publication-date=2000 |isbn=978-0-8264-5086-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Weston |first=Michael|year=1994 |title=Kierkegaard and Modern Continental Philosophy|location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-10120-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Westphal |first=Merold| author-link=Merold Westphal|year=1996 |title=Becoming a Self: A Reading of Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript |location=West Lafayette, Indiana |publisher=Purdue Press |isbn=978-1-55753-089-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Westphal |first=Merold |year=1997 |chapter=Kierkegaard and Hegel |title=The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-47719-0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wyschogrod |first=Michael |year=1954 |title=Kierkegaard and Heidegger. The Ontology of Existence |url=https://archive.org/details/kierkegaardheide0000wysc |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Routledge }}
<!-- X, Y, Z -->
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|wikt=no|n=no|b=Introduction_to_Philosophy/Existentialism|s=Author:Søren Kierkegaard|voy=no}}
* [https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard] at ''[[Den Store Danske]]'' (in [[Danish language|Danish]])
* [http://www.kb.dk/kultur/expo/sk-mss/ Manuscripts in the Søren Kierkegaard Archive in the Royal Library]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Søren Aabye Kierkegaard |sopt=w}}
* {{Librivox author |id=693}}
* [https://librivox.org/search?q=kierkegaard&search_form=advanced Kierkegaard] by or about Kierkegaard on LibriVox
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009fycc "Kierkegaard"], BBC Radio 4 discussion with Jonathan Rée, Clare Carlisle & John Lippitt (''In Our Time'', 20 March 2008)
* [https://www.audible.com/author/Soren-Kierkegaard/B000APODMG Kierkegaard from Audible] audio books
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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kierkegaard, Soren}}
[[Category:Søren Kierkegaard| ]]
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:1855 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Christian universalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century philosophers]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Christian ethicists]]
[[Category:Christian existentialists]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:Christian poets]]
[[Category:Protestant philosophers]]
[[Category:Continental philosophers]]
[[Category:Danish humanists]]
[[Category:Danish literary critics]]
[[Category:Danish philosophers]]
[[Category:Danish male poets]]
[[Category:Danish diarists]]
[[Category:Existentialist theologians]]
[[Category:Irony theorists]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:People from Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Philosophers of religion]]
[[Category:University of Copenhagen alumni]]
[[Category:Danish male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish poets]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous writers]]