SØREN AABYE KIERKEGAARD. — He is the greatest Danish writer and one of the most profound religious writers of all time. Born in Copenhagen on 5 May 1813, he died there on 11 November 1855.
He led a secluded life devoted solely to reflection on spiritual problems. The most notable events were his breaking off his engagement with Regina Olsen and his polemic with the humorous newspaper *Il Corsaro* and with the Bishop of Denmark, Mynster. In 1842 he attended Schelling’s lectures in Berlin but was not decisively influenced by them; instead, he held the philosopher-poet Poul Møller in deep admiration, who introduced him to an understanding of the Greeks and especially of the personality of Socrates.
Kierkegaard’s prolific literary activity can be divided into three groups: a) the pseudonymous works, b) the edifying discourses, c) the papers published after his death. The first group represents “indirect communication,” that is, the presentation of ideal situations of human existence: aesthetic, ethical, and religious. For this reason they are attributed to special pseudonyms, which must not be confused with the real author. The principal works in chronological order are: *Om Begrebet Ironi* (“On the Concept of Irony”), his 1841 doctoral thesis published the same year under his own name; *Enten-Eller* (“Either/Or”), in a fragment of life edited by Victor Eremita (1843), “consisting of two parts dealing respectively with aesthetic and ethical life with a final reflection of religious inspiration,” and the work that brought him the greatest success with his contemporaries; *Frygt og Bæven* (“Fear and Trembling”) by Johannes de silentio (1843); *Gjentagelsen* (“Repetition”) and an essay in experimental psychology by Constantin Constantius (1843); *Philosophiske Smuler* (“Philosophical Fragments”) by Johannes Climacus (1844), in which the problem of existential truth is first raised with the “absolute paradox” of Christ as God-Man; *Begrebet Angest* (“The Concept of Anxiety”) and a simple psychological reflection directed toward the dogmatic problem of original sin by Vigilius Haufniensis (1844); *Stadier paa Livets Vej* (“Stages on Life’s Way”) and its various data collected and edited by Hilarius Bookbinder (1845); *Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler* (“Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments”), a mimetic-pathos-dialectical composition, an existential essay by Johannes Climacus, and Kierkegaard’s principal theoretical work against Christendom; *Sygdommen til Døden* (“The Sickness Unto Death”), a development in Christian psychology for edification and awakening by Anti-Climacus (1849) (Anti-Climacus is the extraordinary Christian, whereas Johannes Climacus is not a Christian); *Indøvelse i Christendom* (“Training in Christianity”) by Anti-Climacus (1850); *Øjeblikket* (“The Moment”), a series of polemical pamphlets against the “established Christendom” of Danish Protestantism, signed by Kierkegaard and published, the first nine, from 24 May to 24 September 1855 (the tenth posthumously).
The second group of works forms the “direct communication” and was therefore published under Kierkegaard’s own name. The Edifying Discourses (*Opbyggelige Taler*) accompanied his entire literary activity and were intended to provide readers with the true orientation of the thought of the author of the pseudonymous works, an effect that Kierkegaard did not achieve with the public. The principal collections of Edifying Discourses are: *Kjerlighedens Gjerninger* (“Works of Love”) and some Christian reflections in the form of discourses by S. K. (1847), a vibrant commentary on the theology of St. Paul on love and the masterpiece of Kierkegaardian religiosity; *Lilien paa Marken og Fuglen under Himlen* (“The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air”), three devotional discourses by S. K. (1849), the second series of discourses on this favorite theme and the most successful; *Christelige Taler* (“Christian Discourses”) by S. K. (1847), presenting the other aspect of Christian life, that of struggle and suffering; *Presten-Synderinden* (“The Priest, the Taxgatherer, the Sinner”) and three discourses for Friday Communion (1849); *Guds Uforanderlighed* (“The Immutability of God”), a discourse by S. K. (1855, but delivered in 1851 and dedicated, like most of the edifying discourses, to the memory of his aged father).
The third group, the Papers (*Papirer*), includes the proper Diary (Group A), drafts of works, corrections, notes and reflections or unpublished articles (Group B), and finally reading notes (Group C). The following writings deserve mention: *Johannes Climacus* or “de omnibus est dubitandum” (“Autobiographical Fragment,” found in IV B 1); *Bog om Adler* (“Book on Adler”), complete but left unpublished and now in VII B 235, a strong polemic on the problem of authority in matters of faith against the pretended revelations of Pastor Adler; *Den ethiske og den ethisk-religiøse Meddelelses Dialektik* (“The Dialectic of Ethical and Ethical-Religious Communication”), an attempted theoretical essay, planned several times but left unfinished (found in VIII B 81). To direct communication also belongs the essay: *Synspunkt for min Forfatter-Virksomhed* (“The Point of View for My Work as an Author,” 1848), in which Kierkegaard vindicates the religious significance of his literary activity.
It is only on the basis of this complex production that an adequate interpretation of Kierkegaard’s thought can be oriented, but no form of existentialism (cf.) that more or less directly refers to him has yet done so, and this is probably the principal cause of the crisis in which contemporary existentialism is struggling. The keystones of the Kierkegaardian conception can be summarized in the following points:
1. A profession of realism: world, man, and God represent distinct spheres of being, and man can relate both to the finite (aesthetic life) and to the infinite (ethico-religious life), in opposition to the immanentist idealism, especially Hegelian.
2. A profession of spiritualism: man is a free subject who must decide his being as “spirit” and does so precisely through “choice”; but this choice is saved only in “faith” and with it in authentic transcendence, against every form of materialism, subjectivism, and even Socratic immanence.
3. A profession of Christianity: in the person of Christ as God-Man, time and eternity, the finite and the infinite meet, and thus Christ was able to save from sin through his life, passion, and death; but Christ is both grace and model, which means that the Christian, though saved by the grace of Christ, is also obliged to show his correspondence and gratitude to grace through the “imitation of Christ,” the moment of asceticism, in opposition to the “eudemonism of Protestant Christianity.” These three points also represent approximately the three principal phases of Kierkegaard’s existence, especially in his final struggle against the conception of Christianity held by Bishop Mynster, which cost him his life. Kierkegaard repeatedly affirmed the superiority of Catholic Christianity over Protestantism, but he did not arrive at an explicit acceptance of Catholicism, as many were led to do by the ardor and force of his writings.