The Kierkegaard of popular imagination is such a caricature. Beginning already in his lifetime, Kierkegaard is the eccentric, the flaneur, the Don Quixote who voices a heroic Christianity whose day is long past.
What this caricature misses is that Kierkegaard was one of the great literary minds of the nineteenth century. In his writings he distinguishes between the Christian, who brings eternity into this world, and the genius of the imagination. I would argue that Kierkegaard is both genius and Christian. An analogy with a twentieth century author might help illustrate the power of Kierkegaard’s mind.
JRR Tolkien is often remembered as the author of the charming children’s story the Hobbit. Some may know that he also authored the Lord of the Rings. Fewer know that he invented many languages for his fictitious elves, orcs and men to speak. Only rarely is it recognized that the whole creation of Middle-Earth, with its histories, peoples, epic poems, legends and languages was all in the service of building a mythology that should serve as a propaedeutic for Christianity. Tolkien was not simply the author of a timeless children’s book. He was a genius to invent a world with the depth and believability of Middle Earth.
Kierkegaard chose a variation of this path. What he created were books by imaginary authors who spoke in their own voice, could comment on each others’ works and were selected from the different kinds of humanity.
Most writers struggle to write with a unique and authentic voice. Kierkegaard created many distinct and consistent voices. All of these, from the aesthete to the philosophical ironist to the hedonist were in the service of a greater project: Awakening his fellow Danes from conventional Christianity to an awareness of its true greatness and power.
Like all great writers, it’s worth reading Kierkegaard just to appreciate this genius. Add to this the fact that his works were concerned with the existential—what it means to be human—makes for writings with perennial pertinence.
One of Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authors says that he stood in awe of Abraham as the exemplar of faith. I stand in awe of the genius of Kierkegaard. Too bad that he has become more of a caricature and less and less recognized as one of the great minds of humanity.
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Book is misprinted and words are cut off
The book is misprinted. The words go to the absolute bottom of every page and the outside edge on both sides. There is not only no margin, many words are cut off on many pages due to the lack of margins.
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Top reviews from other countries
Sandeep Bhasin
Read the first sentence
Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023
Sandeep Bhasin
Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023
The first page is Introduction… and it is titled Introduction - II. Where’s the first intro, guys? Then you read the first sentence. Book is in English… I am sure these guys have used Google translator to translate Kierkegaard from Danish to English… and it’s bad… it’s sad…
Don’t even think of buying this book.
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Stuart A Collins
Difficult to understand
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2023