Soren
Kierkegaard, known as the “melancholy Dane” and as the founder of existentialism, was
born in Copenhagen, into a strict Danish Lutheran home. There he absorbed
Lutheran orthodoxy, laced with a strong pietistic influence.He inherited a
melancholy disposition from his father and suffered through an unhappy youth.
His frail and slightly twisted frame made him an object of mockery throughout
his life. Still, his father was sufficiently wealthy that he never had to keep
a job but was free to spend his life as a writer and philosopher.
Kierkegaard was
an extremely reflective person, who from an early age struggled with feelings
of guilt and depression. The causes for this seemed to stem in large measure
from his relationship with his father, who also struggled with guilt and what
was then termed “melancholy.” This was aggravated by a series of deaths in the
family: five of Søren’s brothers and sisters died within a relatively short
time.
He attended the
University of Copenhagen to prepare for the Lutheran ministry, but it took him
ten years to earn his degree, and he never was ordained. It was philosophy, not
theology, which captured his imagination.
He fell in love with a young lady, Regine Olsen. They became engaged,
but Kierkegaard had doubts and quickly broke off the engagement, though he
admitted he was still deeply in love.
His influence
was primarily locally, until Karl Barth publicized his works. In 1933, Barth
wrote: “If I have any system, it consists in this, that always as far as
possible I keep in mind what Kierkegaard spoke of as the infinite qualitative
difference between time and eternity … God is in heaven, you are on earth.”
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