Kierkegaard Read online

  Stephen Backhouse has given us a wonderfully lively and sympathetic portrait of one of the greatest minds of the nineteenth century, sparing us nothing of Kierkegaard’s abrasive, contrarian personality, but also illuminating the extraordinary courage and spiritual depth of the man. We have waited a long time for such an accessible introduction, growing out of deep study of the abundant original sources and bringing them alive with a light and sure touch.

  Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College and former Archbishop of Canterbury

  Stephen Backhouse’s Kierkegaard: A Single Life is an extremely useful book that makes Kierkegaard accessible to those just beginning to know him. Backhouse’s account of Kierkegaard’s life is exemplary but particularly useful is his summary of Kierkegaard’s works.

  Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Emeritus Professor of Divinity and Law at Duke University

  Drawing on the wealth of new biographical material that has become available in the last twenty years, Backhouse’s life of Kierkegaard sets the Danish thinker in his time and place and does so with confidence and verve. Few books about this most subtle and elusive of figures could be described as page-turners, but Backhouse combines a fast-moving style with a strong grasp of the big issues that makes this a compelling read. For those who have not yet read Kierkegaard himself, this will leave them wanting to do so—which must be the best outcome for any work of this kind.

  George Pattison, Professor of Divinity, University of Glasgow

  This is an extraordinarily likeable book about a not-very-likeable, though fascinating, figure. This is not hagiography; Backhouse gives the full measure of Kierkegaard and loves him in all his weirdness. Backhouse is a great storyteller—witty, imaginative, and with an eye for irony and humor. This book fills a need for an introduction for the educated nonspecialist to Kierkegaard’s life and thought, which are inseparable. How lucky we are that this need has been filled with such flair.

  Dr. William T. Cavanaugh, Director, Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, DePaul University

  Almost every road in modern Christianity leads back, at some point, to Kierkegaard. Yet few appreciate this fact because we’ve lacked a knowledgeable and accessible guide. Finally, we have one in Stephen Backhouse. I’ve waited my whole life for this book. And so has the church.

  Dr. Richard Beck, Associate Professor of Psychology, Abilene Christian University

  Stephen Backhouse has written a lively, accessible, and expert introduction to an often misunderstood but hugely influential and prophetic thinker. This is an ideal place to start understanding Kierkegaard’s life and thought, which has much to say to the contemporary church and world.

  Graham Tomlin, Bishop of Kensington, President St Mellitus College

  Starting with the astonishing scenes at Kierkegaard’s funeral, Stephen Backhouse traces the life and impact of this extraordinary, elusive, passionate critic of passionless Christianity. Backhouse’s book is both learned and accessible, so that the issues that Kierkegaard wrestled with walk off the page to challenge us again today, while the man himself haunts us, calling us and hiding from us, as he did his contemporaries.

  Dr. Jane Williams, Assistant Dean and Lecturer in Systematic Theology, St Mellitus College

  Kierkegaard believed that to understand a historical figure, one must be able, imaginatively, to become the person’s contemporary. In this gripping biography, Stephen Backhouse helps us become contemporaries of Kierkegaard himself. In these pages the Danish thinker comes alive. This book gives us an extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary human being.

  C. Stephen Evans, University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Baylor University

  This book is a fascinating read about a fascinating person. Stephen has skillfully created a glimpse into the life and work of a perplexing and brilliant character.

  Luke Norsworthy, podcaster and pastor, Organization-Newsworthy with Norsworthy Podcast and Westover Hills Church

  Also by Stephen Backhouse

  Kierkegaard’s Critique of Christian Nationalism The Compact Guide to Christian History

  ZONDERVAN

  Kierkegaard

  Copyright © 2016 by Stephen Backhouse

  ePub Edition © June 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-52089-4

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Backhouse, Stephen, 1976-author.

  Title: Kierkegaard : a single life / Stephen Backhouse.

  Description: Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016008389 | ISBN 9780310520887 (hardcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Kierkegaard, Soren, 1813-1855. | Philosophers—Denmark—Biography.

  Classification: LCC B4376 .B33 2016 | DDC 198/.9 [B] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008389

  Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Jacket design: Tammy Johnson

  Illustration: © Red Hansen / Shannon Associates

  Interior design: Kait Lamphere

  16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 /DHV/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Norman and Vaila

  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

  Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

  Contents

  Preface

  Acknowledgements

  1. A Controversial Life

  2. School Life

  3. Family Life

  4. Public Life/Private Life

  5. Love Life

  6. Writing Life

  7. Pirate Life

  8. An Armed and Neutral Life

  9. A Life Concluded

  10. A Life Continued

  Afterword

  Overviews of the Works of Søren Kierkegaard

  Notes

  Abbreviations

  Bibliography

  Index

  Permissions and Credits

  Preface

  Once upon a time, my colleague Lincoln Harvey asked me for a book on the life and thought of Søren Kierkegaard he could read on holiday. I gave him what I had on the shelf. Upon his return, Harvey, an Anglican priest, teacher, and theologian of considerable insight, confessed he had not been able to get through the first chapter. The Kierkegaard he met seemed dense, distant, and unappealing. I knew then that if a disciple of Karl Barth and minister in the established church of England had thought Kierkegaard was irrelevant to him, then something indeed had gone spectacularly wrong. This was the spur for this book.

  Lincoln is not alone. It is not just theologians who find the influence of Kierkegaard hovering behind much of their work, only to find the life and thought of the man himself hard to get to know. Journalists, philosophers, artists, novelists, musicians, psychologists, pastors, politicians, playwrights, therapists, anthropologists, filmmakers, culture critics, historians, and teachers—or anyone affected by these professions—also occasionally stumble across this strange nineteenth-century Danish name (pronounced SOO-ren KEER-ka-gor) and wonder what’s up.

  To make matters more confusing, Kierkegaard’s influence
seems to transcend any one of the spheres in which he is encountered. Modernists are suspicious of this apparently postmodern thinker who never said anything directly and wrote mostly under pseudonyms. Postmodernists love the multiple voices but are suspicious of his stubborn adherence to revealed Truth with a capital T. Religious people hear Kierkegaard is the “father of existentialism” and suspect he is a secular atheist. Secular atheists steer clear when they hear Kierkegaard lies behind the popular idea of a “leap of faith.” Christian apologists love his attack on the idolatry of scientific rationality, but they are less keen on his attack on Christian apologetics. Liberals appreciate his love for the common man and his insights into the vapid nature of market-driven media and politics but don’t like his trenchant critique of social solutions to individual problems or the present age’s delusional belief in historical progress. Conservatives draw much from Kierkegaard’s highly Christian focus on the liberty of the individual but do not like that he finds the main enemies of this liberty to be Christian culture and much that is called traditional family values. Whatever your take on modern life, there are two true things that can be said about Kierkegaard: his influence on our various modes of thought is widespread, and the exact nature of this influence is difficult to articulate.

  There are a handful of biographies of Kierkegaard. The books by Walter Lowrie (1938), Josiah Thompson (1973), Alastair Hannay (2001), and Joakim Garff (Danish 2000; English translation 2005) are all excellent in their own right. Lowrie’s was the first. It was designed to introduce the Dane to an unknowing public and, as such, reprints large tracts of Kierkegaard’s own words, at that time found nowhere else. Besides being perhaps less engaging now than Lowrie intended then, the book also mines Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous material for biographical data in a way that is now questionable. Thompson’s highly readable biography is the most literary, but he is not a Kierkegaardian scholar, and he largely skates over the content of the authorship. Furthermore, his book, which set out to be a corrective of sorts to Lowrie’s hagiography, takes enormous strides into amateur psychology few Kierkegaardians now wish to follow. Hannay and Garff are meticulous in their detail and exhaustive in their dissection of Kierkegaard’s life and thought. Theirs are monumental, substantial, and indeed indispensable pieces of work for Kierkegaardian specialists.

  The world does not need another academic biography of Søren Kierkegaard. What it can use is something for educated nonspecialists who do not need to know, and do not care, about the depths of Kierkegaard’s intellectual development or the minutiae of his cultural context in Golden Age Denmark. Søren’s life had many dramatic, romantic, melancholic, and humorous twists and turns, well-known to experts but perhaps less well-known to normal readers. What is more, Kierkegaard stands as an influence on some of the most important, life-giving, and controversial developments in the modern age. As Charles Williams correctly predicted: “His sayings will be so moderated in our minds that they will soon become not his sayings but ours.” Kierkegaard has become part of our culture whether we acknowledge it or not. As it stands, only academics tend to know this. What a shame. What a waste! It is worth trying to redress the balance.

  Kierkegaard led an interesting life, but ultimately it was the life of a prolific author.

  Inevitably, any account of his life will involve a fair amount of writing about writing. Some of this material is highly technical, and I am well aware it has the potential to clog up the narrative. On the other hand, it is only because of his ideas we know of him at all, and some people care more about his books than his life. To that end I have largely separated biographical discussion from discussion of his works. The present volume contains short overviews of every one of Kierkegaard’s published books (both in his lifetime and posthumously). This material is clearly demarcated from the rest of the text and can be easily ignored (or accessed) as the reader prefers.

  A word of confession and warning: Kierkegaard himself was disdainful of the practice of overviews. He wrote specifically to avoid summarisation and is all the better for it. If you use these overviews to avoid engaging with the real thing, then it may be small comfort to know the only person Kierkegaard dislikes more than you is me. Kierkegaard can be hard work. My overviews are meant to help orient the biographical reader. They are invariably also my interpretation. You must read the originals and decide for yourself. Another warning: it might change your life. I know he changed mine.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to St. Mellitus College for providing the research leave during which I wrote this book. I love being with all the staff and students at St. Mellitus. It is a remarkable place. Special mention needs to go to Jane Williams, Lincoln Harvey, and Chris Tilling for personal support and practical advice. My busy colleagues Simone Odendaal and Hannah Kennedy read early versions of my opening chapter, and their feedback was much appreciated. I have been fortunate to study and sometimes teach Kierkegaard at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Oxford. I am grateful for the guidance, helpful opposition, and friendly support I received in these places, especially from George Pattison, Joel Rasmussen, Torrance Kirby, Douglas Farrow, Johannes Zachhuber, and Oliver O’Donovan. Elsbeth Wulf was my patient Danish language teacher and first window into Søren’s Copenhagen. Conversations with fellow Kierkegaardians Matthew Kirkpatrick and Christopher Barnett helped form my thinking, as did Luke Tarassenko’s timely reminder regarding Captain Kierk’s changing sense of his role as a poet. Gordon Marino, Eileen Shimota, and the library staff provided help and advice during my time at the excellent Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf’s College in Minnesota. Thanks are also due to Bruce Kirmmse, to Elizabeth Rowbottom and Tom Perridge at Oxford University Press, and to Jon Stewart, editor of C. A. Reitzel’s Danish Golden Age series and associate professor at Copenhagen University’s Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre. I have very much enjoyed working with my editors Katya Covrett, Bob Hudson, and the team at Zondervan. My wife, Clare, a historian of clothing and culture, was writing her book at the same time as I was mine. Her selfless sense of fun, patience, and interest during this time was a constant source of joy and a model for me to imitate. Thanks to my father, Norman, and my mother, Vaila. His enthusiasm has given me much encouragement, and her keen reader’s eye has provided invaluable editorial suggestions, and it is to them this book is dedicated.

  CHAPTER 1

  A Controversial Life

  The new bishop stands at the window, looking at the crowd milling in the courtyard below. He cranes his neck, trying to get a better view of the church door opposite, but it is difficult. He cannot see, but at the same time he does not want to be seen. That would never do. The bishop has pushed himself to the limits of his reputation to avoid any connection to the distasteful funeral going on across the way. Yet he knows, along with all of Copenhagen, that the events below are all anyone is talking about. They will be in all the papers tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. It is of paramount importance that these papers record that the newly minted Bishop of all Denmark, Hans L. Martensen, shepherd to the nation, was not present at the burial of his former student, now the scourge of all Christendom, Søren Kierkegaard.

  Martensen had good reason to expect heightened public interest. All of Denmark’s respectable papers, as well as her less respectable (but more popular) magazines had been providing a steady drip of comment on the events leading up to, and following, Søren’s passing. The details of his life, after all, were irresistible to any journalist worthy of the name.

  An enigmatic, brilliant loner with more than a whiff of scandal about him, Søren Kierkegaard had long enjoyed the reputation as something of a dangerous dandy about town. Every literate citizen, and more than a few who did not read at all, had an opinion. Sophisticated, artistic citizens recognized his talent, even if they did not actually understand his books. He was the kind of author who it was important either to be seen to be reading or to pointedly ignore. Morally upright citizens admitted he was a good writer, but was he a
good man? The constant trips to the theatre and the flagrant gallivanting about town with all sorts suggested an absence of moral fibre. And didn’t Søren despise his brother Peter Christian, and didn’t he refuse his brother to even attend at his deathbed? In any case, Peter, so earnest and plodding, almost certainly hated his brilliant and infamous younger sibling. Religious citizens remembered him as the promising theologian who spoke and wrote endlessly about Christianity and yet who did not become a pastor and now never even went to church. Romantic citizens vaguely suspected this stillborn church career was somehow connected to the scandal of his broken engagement years before. “Such a sweet young girl,” they would whisper to each other, “and taken off by her new husband to the West Indies! It’s almost like they were escaping something, or someone.” Older citizens of Copenhagen could shake their heads and say they always knew Søren would come to a bad end. There was something not quite right about his father, Michael. He was a miserable old miser. And the timing of Michael’s second marriage, to Søren’s mother, so soon after the death of his first wife was positively scandalous. And she was the maid! Younger citizens knew him from the caricatures and cartoons the satirical magazine the Corsair was always churning out. A magazine that they would hastily sneak a peek at when their more respectable elders were not looking. These respectable citizens knew him as the one the King of Denmark had marked out for special favour. Less respectable citizens either knew of Søren as the one who stopped to talk to them on his walks about town or as the one they threw stones at as he passed. Student citizens knew that his first name, when attached to a character in a comedy revue, would automatically get laughs. For the same reason pregnant citizens took this name off their list of potential baby names. The novelists of Denmark’s Golden Age, including Hans Christian Andersen, anticipated and yet dreaded Søren’s reviews of their latest works. Poets and playwrights admired the man who wrote provocative fiction. Philosophers read him for his statements on the nature of time, existence, and the meaning of life. Conservatives liked Søren for his opposition to democracy and revolution. Liberals liked Søren for his championing of the individual and the common man against the forces of inherited tradition. Atheists loved his attacks on the clergy and official religion of Christendom. Reformers, longing for a renewal of Christianity in the land, also loved his attacks on the clergy and official religion of Christendom. Clearly, this was a man of sharp contradictions and puzzling paradoxes. But all the citizens agreed that he was rich. Wasn’t he rich? He must be rich. To whom will he leave all his money?