Soren Kierkegaard would have loved Regina Olsen until the last day of her life, however, her goal was to devote herself body and soul to the study of Christian philosophy and faith, this Danish theologian and philosopher has always dealt with the weight of this anguish. the suffering of not being able to free himself from his affections, however, thanks to this, he was able to capture his theoretical heritage.
Kierkegard’s work is based on the sense of faith, only through this dimension would it be possible to attain salvation and balance in times of despair, a perspective that was, at the same time, a reaction to Hegel’s idealism, an aspect that defined the famous Danish philosopher was also his critical voice towards religious institutions that , according to him, acted hypocritically.
- In his books Fear and Tremor.
- Philosophical Crumbs or Diary of a Seducer.
- We understand this dualism that has permeated all his life Love.
- Suffering and passion impossible in the face of the need to dedicate himself to theology have marked the convulsive daily life.
- Of one of the most relevant and interesting figures in philosophy.
Thus, while the Danish church proposed a rational God who rewarded good deeds, the God of Kierkegaard did not know devotions, he only responded to fear. His philosophy laid the foundations of 20th-century existentialism.
He defined human subjectivity and the individual as one to differentiate him from the masses, and also inspired thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietszche and Albert Camus.
“He who loses passion loses less than he who loses passion. “S. Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard was born into a wealthy Copenhagen family in 1813. He was the son of Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, a very religious pastor of Jutland with a very puritanical sense of existence. His mother was Anne Sorensdatter Lund Kierkegaard, a young maiden whom Michael Kierkegaard became pregnant, a fact that always weighed him as a sin.
The young Soren attended the School of Civic Virtue, then pursued his father’s goals: to study theology at the University of Copenhagen; However, it should be noted that he has always been more interested in philosophy and literature. of his youth was the meeting, at the age of 15, of Regina Olsen, with whom he committed himself at the end of his studies.
However, his father died in 1838, not without first promising Soren something very concrete: that he would become a shepherd, that he would dedicate his life to God and to studies, and the weight of this promise has thus become that anchor that he stopped. His emotional life broke his engagement to Regina, made him return the ring and then went to Berlin.
The next 10 years would be the most productive of this young theologian’s life. Creation, born at the time, was undoubtedly one of the most important in the history of literature.
In 1943, Soren published six books. One of them was Fear and Tremor, in which he immersed himself in a theme that would be recurring in most of his works: his love for Regina, in which he navigates guilt, pain and the pious sense of obedience to his religion. That same year, on her return to Copenhagen, she discovered that the young woman had just married Fritz Schegel.
This fact completely ends with any second chance. Something that he himself had prevented, now casts itself as an even harsher and immeasurable reality. The months following this fact were also very fruitful from a literary and philosophical point of view.
He highlights, for example, his work on the criticism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s theories. Books such as Philosophical Crumbs, The Concept of Angustia and Stages on the path of life address these emotional thoughts and realities felt by the person facing adversity, a topic of which he was a true specialist.
Soren Kierkegaard and his brother Peter gradually became the only survivors of a family marked by tragedy. The father always reminded them that they were cursed, that the shadow of sin lay upon them, and that, therefore, they would all leave this world before. this prophecy was fulfilled, because he himself would eventually die prematurely at the age of 42.
The cause of his death was never very clear, we know that he had a kind of fragility, that his health was never good, however, this did not prevent him from leaving us an intense and exceptional literary and philosophical legacy. , it is interesting to note a detail: Soren Kierkegaard included Regina in her will.
William James liked to quote very often one of Soren Kierkegaard’s best-known phrases: “We live forward, but we understand the other way around. “He was the Danish philosopher and theologian of subjectivity. So, and although it seems at first that everything that left us was imbued with some negativity and despair, it should be mentioned that it was not.
Soren taught us that living is knowing how to choose. It made us see that in every election our existence is formed to define who we are and what we leave behind, at the same time, I also wanted to try to make people understand the meaning of anguish and suffering, all this is part of life. , and the only way to relieve pain is, according to Kierkegaard, through faith.
Soren Kierkegaard has done much of his work under various pseudonyms such as Victor Eremita, Johannes de Silentio, Anti-Climacus, Hilarante Bookbinder or Vigilius Haufniensis. Acting in this way had a very specific objective: to represent different ways of thinking.
This strategy defines what he calls “indirect communication”. In this way, he could explore different points of view of his own and touch the reader in a richer and deeper way. At the same time, one of Kierkegaard’s goals was also to teach how a person could live his life, thus establishing three types of existence:
Personalities such as Albert Camus did not hesitate to define Soren Kierkegaard as the philosopher of autoironia, a theologian who defended faith above all but never hesitated to attack the Danish Church, he was a young man who rejected the love of his life, but never stopped loving the young woman who served as an absolute muse in most of his works.
At the same time that he has always extolled the need to cultivate the religious spirit, he has lived immersed in an aesthetic and ethical environment.
Another aspect that defined it was the concept that would mark the work of great later writers, such as Kafka, Unamuno or the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. We’re talking about anxiety. This state (Danish: begrebet angest) also defines an experience in which, suddenly, we realize that there are more options, that we are free to jump into the void or even take a step back and look for other paths.
There are always alternatives to suffering, but suffering also helps us grow, Soren Kierkegaard’s teachings, as we see, will always be present.