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Brief Lives

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Daphne Hampson on the man many consider to be the father of existentialism.

Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish thinker the bicentenary of whose birth we celebrate this year, was suspended between two worlds. On the one hand in the face of the Enlightenment – with its devastating implications for classical Christianity, which had led others to try to adapt the faith – he would point to Christian claims. On the other hand he too was a child of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. In pursuit of the question as to what it would mean to be Christian within modernity Kierkegaard created a fascinating and far-flung body of work, employing a novel and flamboyant literary style which would affect twentieth century literature, theology and philosophy.

Life and Work

Born in 1813, Kierkegaard undertook the major part of his work during a mere seven years (1842-49) in his thirties.

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