Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was born on May 5, 1813 and died November 11, 1855. He lived a short life by our standards (42 years old). He lived in Copenhagen, Denmark and he traveled little outside Copenhagen.  He never became an ordained minister, professor, or as far as we know never really held any kind of job at all. People might describe his life being a somewhat morbid, religious life of an eccentric almost recluse at times.  Some might say that he was a very introspective, antisocial person and perhaps even mentally ill.  And others might say that he had a special genius that fostered or at least almost required such behavior. 

He spent much of his adult life protesting the established religion of his day—much like Martin Luther did against Roman Catholicism.

His writings dealt with the profound depths of the human psyche.  Because of this it is not easy to put him in a single category even though we know a lot about his inner thoughts; for much of what he wrote was biographical, especially in his journals, to some point.  At least much of it was revealed through his introspection. 

So it is very tempting to try to psychoanalyze him as some do, but we have to take into consideration that his use of pseudonymous authors makes it impossible to know where they begin and he leaves off.  And he was a man of keen humor and sarcasm which reveals his certain unique genius.  We don’t know how much he was playing with the reader who might be trying to see him through the many authorial disguises that he wore for we can see many parallels between what he writes and his personal life.

He was prone to melancholy, which is a term used for someone who has a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.  For this reason some have considered this a symptom of some mental disorder.

Although he may have even seen himself in these terms, I don’t believe that it shows itself as such.  He may have suffered depression at times, but there were causes for such depression: his odd family life as a child and his sense of loneliness in religious purpose.  I can’t help but to ask how someone who suffered from clinical depression would have been able to write so prolifically and profoundly weaving his stories, plots, and philosophy into such masterpieces.  Such writing requires extreme focus which depression doesn’t usually permit of the sufferer. He may certainly have suffered many bouts of depression, but his writings do not show that he was overcome by them.  On the other hand, they were problem more therapeutic than symptomatic. 

I may have had my own moments of depression and sadness as I’m sure that many have, but I didn’t let it get in the way of my performance and I don’t think it’s a clinical disability.  The distinction is that I use it to search deeper into my own psyche so that I might be able to empathize more with others.  How else can we feel the hurt of others if we do not allow ourselves to be hurt?

Kierkegaard’s writings are usually focused and influenced by his local circumstances in Denmark, specifically Copenhagen.  His religious views certainly seem centered upon the Lutheran church in Denmark at that time and the manner in which they presented themselves.

On the personal side, Kierkegaard’s parents were peasants who began in the Jutland area of Denmark.  His father, Michael, was poor as a child and had his own emotional problems that seem to begin with a story Soren relates to us about him watching sheep one day when he was overwhelmed by the feeling that God had forsaken him.  At this point he cursed God.  This incident haunted his father for the rest of his life.  Soren was raised under this shadow of despair.  His father told him that because of this curse he shouldn’t plan too far into the future because he would more than likely not live to be very old.  This is what Soren thought to be the family curse.  It was already true that some of his siblings had already fallen under that curse.  

When his family moved to Copenhagen his father worked for a wealthy uncle.  As a result he himself became successful and wealthy.  He was even able to retire at the age of 40.  His first wife died without having any children.  He then married his servant/housekeeper soon afterwards.  Five months after they were married she gave birth to their first child.

Soren had brothers and sisters of which he was the youngest.  His father was a self-educated man and enjoyed discussing theology and philosophy with anyone who would listen, especially the bishop of his local church, Bishop Mynster, who became a good friend of the family. 

His father was a little legalistic in his religious demands.  This drove Soren in many different directions.  He wanted to study theology and philosophy at the local university perhaps to satisfy his father’s desire for him to be a pastor which developed into his own passion for the subjects. Soren used his depression to produce brilliant writings that reflected the depth of insight into his own self.

What upset him most of all was how anemic the Christianity of Denmark had become.  It became a “nice” religion.  At that time everyone who was born in Denmark were considered Christians.  There was no real conversion that was necessary—only birth into the state.  Religion and state became one.

Soren was offended at this development and this was what was behind much of his polemical writings against what he called Christendom. 

His family were members of the Lutheran State church, but they also attended the Moravian services.  The Moravians were a pietistic group of Christians who tried to live pure, passionate, and enthusiastic lives in accord with their Christian beliefs. The Moravians were also responsible for inspiring John Wesley who would start the Methodist church movement.

Although Soren criticized the Lutheran church in Denmark, he didn’t leave the church for he believed that there were many good things about it such as their catechism, hymns, and liturgy.  So he lived in this tension of faith.  We see this theme of tension reflected in many of his writings.

His father had close ties to the local bishop, Mynster.  One of the problems Soren had with the bishop was that he saw worldly success tied into faith.  Today we might call this the “gospel of prosperity.”

Michael, Soren’s father, wanted him to become an ordained pastor in the church.  But Soren was having too much of a problem reconciling the church with the true gospel teachings.  His concern was that the church was accommodating reason with worldly progress and it was beginning to dilute the teachings of Christ.

Philosophy was trying to purge the faith of superstitions and miracles (demythologization).  In order to accomplish this faith would have to be reclassified in such a way that it would have to distort the gospel’s true teaching in order to make it fit.

Because of his father’s financial statue Soren did not need to have a job and at one point he lived the fancy life of going to operas, coffee houses, and ballets.  He began to develop a reputation for being a bit of a dilettante, man of the town, and a “bon vis bon.” 

He entered the University of Copenhagen in 1830 but wasn’t satisfied with what they taught him at the university though he still a voracious appetite for reading drama, poetry, and of course philosophy.

He was the kind of man who could have become whatever he wanted to be, but what he wanted was to do something worthy of life which he called something “to live or die for.”  He knew that he had literary talent and because of his youth he wanted to be accepted by the in-crowd. But there was also an independent side to him that wanted to be his own man.  It was this side of him that eventually won out and brought him to maturity. 

We could call Kierkegaard a man of contrast and paradox for his whole life was internally antagonistic.  He was able to somehow take this paradoxical life and maximize it to create his wonderful literary works.

Soren took the death of his father pretty hard in 1838, but it did disconfirm the idea that his children would all die before he did.  From that time on he lived off his father’s inheritance pursuing his intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual interests and concerns.

He now took his theological studies more seriously and received his degree in 1840.  His degree was at the magister level, which we would call a Master’s Degree, but I have it on good sources that his thesis was so good that they awarded him a full PhD.  The subject of his thesis was on the subject of Irony. 

What may have driven him as a writer and thinker was his reality of mortality.  He developed a style of writing which might be called “ironic.”  Through this style he was able to engage the reader not only through the subject matter, but the unique manner in which he wrote it.  I think that he truly discovered the power a writer has not only with words, but with how they are portrayed.  He did this through irony, story, and paradox, which was not done in those days.

He fell in love with Regina Olson who was 18 at the time.  After a short romance he proposed to her and she eventually accepted.  As soon as she accepted, he realized that he may have made a very big mistake.  No one knows for sure what the problem he had with marrying Regina.  It could have been that he knew that he could not emotionally provide for a wife because of his tendency towards depression.  Or he may have realized that Regina was too young and perhaps not mature enough to understand what his ambition was and might become more a burden than a partner.  We’ll never know for sure.  He quickly broke off the engagement, but so as not to embarrass her he tried to make himself look like the bad guy by running around town like a playboy.  Regina did not want to break off the relationship which is what forced him to play the villain.

Between the years of 1843 and 1846 he published many volumes of his works with a fanatical energy.  He published them in pairs: one being under a pseudonymous name and the other under his own name.  An example was “Either/Or” published under the name Victor Eramita and at the same time published his “Two Upbuilding Discourses” under his own name.  The work published under a pseudonymous name was more imaginative and draw the reader into the story without realizing the message that was aimed at him.  The work published under his real name had a more obvious religious message aimed more directly at the reader. During his lifetime the public was not too impressed by his work.  They didn’t fly off the shelf.  He certainly wasn’t able to make a living off his authorship, but this did not discourage him.

In his works there is evidence that he may have given Regina secret messages or clues about their relationship, but we can never really be sure.  Some think that his writings give evidence that he realized he may have made a mistake in breaking off his engagement with Regina and was secretly trying to win her back, but one might think that this is perfectly normal in that we all second guess ourselves, especially when it comes to our romantic decisions.  I’m sure that he must have felt very lonely some nights while writing some his darkest thoughts.  It would have been hard for anyone to do such in-depth self-examination as he did and have no one to comfort him.  I think he saw himself somehow related to the suffering Christ almost in a monk-like state secluding himself from many elements of enjoyment for the purpose of his writings.

In 1846 he thought that maybe he ought to enter into the pastorate.  But at this time he entered into a relationship with a newspaper called the Corsair.  It was a paper that was quite scandalous and filled with rumors and gossip about the lives of local famous people. 

The problem was that they never said anything negative about him.  He got the idea that they didn’t consider him perhaps worthwhile to slander.  He did not want people to think that he was in league with the paper or was in favor of what that did to others so he wrote an article calling them out for what they were doing. The editor responded by poking fun at him through cartoons exaggerating his deformities and eccentricities and even his relationship with Regina.  Because of this he became the object of social ridicule.  He could no longer take walks or even go to church without people poking fun at him.  Soren saw himself doing God’s will by devoting all his time to writing.  In a way he became a Christian martyr for the truth.   

Between 1850-1854 he didn’t publish very many books.  It wasn’t until Bishop Mynster, the Bishop of the local Lutheran church and good friend of the family, died that he began his final polemical writings against the established church in Denmark. 

The problem Kierkegaard had was that Mynster talked about the Christian life as being a witness for the truth and did so understanding that the true Christian would have to undergo suffering and perhaps even martyrdom.  But Soren didn’t see Mynster’s life as an example of such values as worth of the title Bishop.  Soren’s concern for the church was that he felt such hypocrisy was diluting the teachings of Christ and the New Testament when it came to discipleship. 

H.L. Martensen, Soren’s ex-tutor in theology, was made the new bishop.  He wrote an eulogy for Mynster’s funeral ceremony praising him and his service.  This aggravated Soren because he saw Mynster as a social climber trying to become famous and accepted by the world and certainly not self-sacrificing.  He wrote some pamphlets called “The Instant” to denounce the hypocrisy of the church.  It was not the true church he was against, but the Lutheran Church in Denmark.  He wanted to wake Christians up to reintroduce them to the original message of the gospel.  At this time people began to give him a little more attention. 

In September, 1855 Soren collapsed in the street and was brought to a hospital.  His brother tried to persuade him to recant some of the things that he said, but he refused and also refused to accept communion from the state church.  On November 11, 1855 he died.  He is said to have had Tuberculosis, but no one really knows.  At his funeral his nephew denounced the irony that he was being given this kind of a funeral as if nothing happened and Soren’s life made no real difference. 

So Soren Kierkegaard can be remembered as the Father of Existentialism, but I’m not sure that he would have accepted such a title.  His goal was certainly not to start a derivative philosophy, but to expose the diluted version of Christianity that had taken over his church not by threatening the church, but by showing individuals the weakness of their faith through his writings. 

“Are you really doing what you ought to be doing as a Christian?” was the question that he asks us all.