

He was also interested in philosophy and often hosted intellectuals at his home. 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". His father, on the other hand, was a well-to-do wool merchant from Jutland. She also wielded influence on her children so that later Peter said that his brother preserved many of their mother's words in his writings. Her granddaughter, Henriette Lund, wrote that she "wielded the sceptre with joy and protected like a hen protecting her chicks". She was an unassuming figure: quiet, and not formally educated. His mother, Ane Sørensdatter Lund Kierkegaard, had served as a maid in the household before marrying his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard was born to an affluent family in Copenhagen. 5.2.2 Kierkegaard's influence on Karl Barth's early theology.5.2.1 German and English translators of Kierkegaard's works.3.1 Attack upon the Lutheran State Church.By the mid-20th century, his thought exerted a substantial influence on philosophy, theology, and Western culture.

Kierkegaard wrote in 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. Some of Kierkegaard's key ideas include the concept of " subjective and objective truths", the knight of faith, the recollection and repetition dichotomy, angst, the infinite qualitative distinction, faith as a passion, and the three stages on life's way. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject." While scientists can learn about the world by observation, Kierkegaard emphatically denied that observation alone could reveal the inner workings of the world of the spirit. Notably, he wrote: "Science and scholarship want to teach that becoming objective is the way. He wrote many Upbuilding Discourses under his own name and dedicated them to the "single individual" who might want to discover the meaning of his works. He explored particularly complex problems from different viewpoints, each under a different pseudonym. Kierkegaard's early work was written under the various pseudonyms to present distinctive viewpoints that interact in complex dialogue. His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices. He was extremely critical of the practice of Christianity as a state religion, primarily that of the Church of Denmark. Much of his work deals with Christian love. Kierkegaard's theological work focuses on Christian ethics, the institution of the Church, the differences between purely objective proofs of Christianity, the infinite qualitative distinction between man and God, and the individual's subjective relationship to the God-Man Jesus the Christ, which came through faith. He was against literary critics who defined idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, and thought that Swedenborg, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, and Hans Christian Andersen were all "understood" far too quickly by "scholars". Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( / ˈ s ɒr ə n ˈ k ɪər k ə ɡ ɑːr d/ SORR-ən KEER-kə-gard, US also /- ɡ ɔːr/ -gor, Danish: ( listen) – 11 November 1855 ) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.
