Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher whose influence and reception varied widely and may be roughly divided into various chronological periods. Reactions were anything but uniform, and proponents of various ideologies attempted to appropriate his work quite early. Kierkegaard's reputation as a philosopher was first established in his native

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

with his work ''

Either/Or ''Either/Or'' ( Danish: ''Enten – Eller'') is the first published work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Appearing in two volumes in 1843 under the pseudonymous editorship of ''Victor Eremita'' (Latin for "victorious hermit"), it ...

''.Garff, Joakim. ''Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography''. Trans. Bruce H. Kirmmse. Princeton, 2005, 0-691-09165-X Henriette Wulff, in a letter to Hans Christian Andersen, wrote, "''Recently a book was published here with the title ''Either/Or''! It is supposed to be quite strange, the first part full of Don Juanism, skepticism, et cetera, and the second part toned down and conciliating, ending with a sermon that is said to be quite excellent. The whole book attracted much attention. It has not yet been discussed publicly by anyone, but it surely will be. It is actually supposed to be by a Kierkegaard who has adopted a pseudonym....''" Kierkegaard's fame in Denmark increased with each publication of his philosophical works, including ''

Fear and Trembling ''Fear and Trembling'' (original Danish title: ''Frygt og Bæven'') is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1843 under the pseudonym ''Johannes de silentio'' (Latin for ''John of the Silence''). The title is a reference to ...

'' and ''

Philosophical Fragments ''Philosophical Fragments'' ( Danish title: ) is a Christian philosophical work written by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in 1844. It was the second of three works written under the pseudonym ''Johannes Climacus''; the other two were ''De ...

'', and culminating in his

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, the ''

Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments'' ( da, Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler) is a major work by Søren Kierkegaard. The work is an attack against Hegelianism, the philosophy of He ...

''. However, Kierkegaard's attack upon

Christendom Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...

, represented by the

Danish National Church The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark ( da, Folkekirken, literally: "The People's Church" or unofficially da, Den danske folkekirke, literally: "The Danish People's Church"; kl, ...

near the end of his life, did not endear him to many in the clergy and theological circles. After his death, his original manuscripts were bequeathed by his one-time fiancée,

Regine Olsen Regine Schlegel (née Olsen; 23 January 1822 – 18 March 1904) was a Danish woman who was engaged to the philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard from September 1840 to October 1841. Olsen's relationship with Kierkegaard exerted a crucial i ...

for posterity. She later donated most of his writings to the

Danish Royal Library The Royal Library ( da, Det Kongelige Bibliotek) in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the university library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries ...

where they continue to be stored. Kierkegaard's thought gained a wider audience with the translation of his works into

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, French, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Kierkegaard and philosophy and theology

Many 20th-century philosophers, both theistic and atheistic, drew concepts from Kierkegaard, including the notions of angst, despair, and the importance of the individual. His fame as a philosopher grew tremendously in the 1930s, in large part because the ascendant

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

movement pointed to him as a precursor, although later writers celebrated him as a highly significant and influential thinker in his own right. Since Kierkegaard was raised as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

, he was commemorated as a teacher in the

Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

of the Lutheran Church on 11 November and in the

of the Episcopal Church with a feast day on 8 September. Philosophers and theologians influenced by Kierkegaard include

Hans Urs von Balthasar Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 – 26 June 1988) was a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest who is considered an important Catholic theologian of the 20th century. He was announced as his choice to become a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, b ...

, Karl Barth, Simone de Beauvoir,

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have ...

Emil Brunner Heinrich Emil Brunner (1889–1966) was a Swiss Reformed theologian. Along with Karl Barth, he is commonly associated with neo-orthodoxy or the dialectical theology movement. Biography Brunner was born on 23 December 1889 in Winterthur, in the ...

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

Rudolf Bultmann Rudolf Karl Bultmann (; 20 August 1884 – 30 July 1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of the New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early-20th-century biblical studies. A prominent criti ...

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...

Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...

Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspe ...

Gabriel Marcel Gabriel Honoré Marcel (7 December 1889 – 8 October 1973) was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Christian existentialist. The author of over a dozen books and at least thirty plays, Marcel's work focused on the mode ...

Maurice Merleau-Ponty Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty. (; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest an ...

Reinhold Niebuhr Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...

, Franz Rosenzweig,

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lit ...

, Joseph Soloveitchik, Paul Tillich,

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, in Essex). In ...

, Thomas Merton,

Miguel de Unamuno Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca. His major philosophical essa ...

.Unamuno refers to Kierkegaard in his book ''The Tragic Sense of Life'', Part IV
"In The Depths of the Abyss"
/ref>

Paul Feyerabend Paul Karl Feyerabend (; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (195 ...

epistemological anarchism Paul Karl Feyerabend (; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (1958 ...

in the philosophy of science was inspired by Kierkegaard's idea of subjectivity as truth.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

was immensely influenced and humbled by Kierkegaard, claiming that "Kierkegaard is far too deep for me, anyhow. He bewilders me without working the good effects which he would in deeper souls". Karl Popper referred to Kierkegaard as "the great reformer of Christian ethics, who exposed the official Christian morality of his day as anti-Christian and anti-humanitarian hypocrisy".

Kierkegaard and psychology

Kierkegaard had a profound influence on

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

. He is widely regarded as the founder of

Christian psychology Christian psychology is a merger of theology and psychology. It is an aspect of psychology adhering to the religion of Christianity and its teachings of Jesus Christ to explain the human mind and behavior. Christian psychology is a term typically ...

and of

existential psychology Existential psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy based on the model of human nature and experience developed by the existential tradition of European philosophy. It focuses on concepts that are universally applicable to human existence incl ...

and

therapy A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

. Existentialist (often called "humanistic") psychologists and therapists include

Ludwig Binswanger Ludwig Binswanger (; ; 13 April 1881 – 5 February 1966) was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). Robert's Ger ...

Viktor Frankl Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is pa ...

, Erich Fromm,

Carl Rogers Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach (and client-centered approach) in psychology. Rogers is widely considered one of the founding fathers of ps ...

, and

Rollo May Rollo Reece May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book '' Love and Will'' (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy, ...

. May based his ''The Meaning of Anxiety'' on Kierkegaard's ''The Concept of Anxiety''. Kierkegaard's

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

work ''Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age'' critiques

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reas ...

Ernest Becker Ernest Becker (September 27, 1924 – March 6, 1974) was an American cultural anthropologist and author of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, '' The Denial of Death''. Biography Early life Ernest Becker was born in Springfield, Massachuset ...

based his 1974 Pulitzer Prize book, ''

The Denial of Death ''The Denial of Death'' is a 1973 book by American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. The author builds on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Norman O. Brown, and Otto Rank to discuss the psychological and philosophical implicat ...

'', on the writings of Kierkegaard, Freud and

Otto Rank Otto Rank (; ; né Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, ...

. Kierkegaard is also seen as an important precursor of postmodernism.

Kierkegaard and literature

Kierkegaard influenced 19th-century literature writers as well as 20th-century literature.

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...

(1843-1912) found inspiration in Kierkegaard and the famous Norwegian dramatist and poet Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) clearly seems to have been inspired by the Dane in famous works such as ''Brand''. The other great Norwegian national writer and poet Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1832-1910) was also deeply inspired by Kierkegaard. Finally the celebrated Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) closely studied key concepts such as anxiety, and this influence is notable in some of his iconic paintings such as The Scream. Other figures deeply influenced by his work include

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, perf ...

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual's ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

, David Lodge,

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern literature, Southe ...

Walker Percy Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, '' The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...

, Rainer Maria Rilke,

J.D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...

and John Updike. Kierkegaard's work ''The Diary of a Seducer'' has been re-published several times, including Princeton University Press' translation with John Updike's foreword and

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Great Loves''.

Kierkegaard after World War I

Kierkegaard's present stature in the English-speaking world owes much to the exegetical writings and improved Kierkegaard translations by the American theologian Walter Lowrie, the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

philosopher David F. Swenson, and the Danish translators Howard and Edna Hong.

Anthony Rudd Anthony Rudd (c.1549 – 1615) was a Welsh bishop. Life He graduated B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1567, and M.A. in 1570. He became Dean of Gloucester in 1584, and Bishop of St. David's in 1594. In 1596 he preached a celebrated sermo ...

's book ''Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical'' and Alasdair MacIntyre's discussion of Kierkegaard in '' After Virtue'' and '' A Short History of Ethics'' did much to facilitate Kierkegaard's legacy in ethical thought in analytic philosophy. Kierkegaard's influence on continental philosophy increased dramatically after the First and Second World Wars, especially among the German existenz thinkers and French existentialists.

Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics t ...

, and Karl Barth all owe a heavy debt to Kierkegaard.

Paul Ricoeur Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

and Judith Butler wrote monographs drawing new attention to Kierkegaard's work, and a 1964

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

colloquium on Kierkegaard in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

ranks as one of the most important events for a generation's reception of Kierkegaard, which included a keynote speaker, Sartre who gave his lecture ''The Singular Universal'', which solidified Kierkegaard's influence over existentialism. In America, interest in Kierkegaard was revived from the 1980s onwards, particularly by the American philosopher and curator of the Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College Gordon Marino, who has devoted several books and essays to Kierkegaard. In Kierkegaard's native Denmark, the Danish people hosted his 200th anniversary of Kierkegaard's birth in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in May 2013. Kierkegaard has also influenced members of the

analytical philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...

tradition, most notably

, who considered Kierkegaard to be "the most profound thinker of the ineteenthcentury. Kierkegaard was a saint." To some degree, Kierkegaard can be seen as one of the few philosophers to whom the simple analytic/continental divide does not fully apply. Kierkegaard predicted his posthumous fame, and foresaw that his work would become the subject of intense study and research. In his journals, he wrote:

Kierkegaard and feminism

Kierkegaard's relationship to

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

is a troublesome one, Kierkegaard has been described as misogynistic, making "snide comments about woman’s nature, mocking with utmost irony her “great abilities” and sneering at the possibility of her emancipation" although Dera Sipe of

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Penns ...

states that viewing Kierkegaard as a "straight misogynist is highly problematic". In her paper Kierkegaard and Feminism: A Paradoxical Friendship, Sipe commends Kierkegaard for taking "a hammer to the cold foundations of traditional Western philosophy" and introducing existentialism which feminism has adopted and thrived in. She then states that due to Kierkegaard's rampant use of Pseudonyms one must separate Kierkegaard from his Pseudonyms. Sipe argues that it "would be of more benefit to feminism not to read Kierkegaard in search of his own personal stance on the woman question, but rather to read him in an exploratory manner as one who has exposed new avenues of thought, new ways of examining the woman question". Sipe, after examining his essay on the suffragette movement and the seducer's diary and their misogynistic content, then pivots towards Kierkegaard's view on the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus and Sarah, the young daughter of Raguel and Edna both of whom Kierkegaard considers to be knights of faith. She states that from these examples it is clear that Kierkegaard (or at least Johannes de Silentio) did hold great respect for women.

International reception

In France

Kierkegaard was first mentioned in a French publication in 1856 in ' () in an article detailing the state of Danish politics and culture which described his influence on the Danish church as having "bewildered many minds and troubled many weak or fearful consciences". The article also detailed the controversy around his funeral. The first translation of Kierkegaard into French was published in 1886 by Johannes Gøtzsche, with a preface by the theologian Hans-Peter Kofoed-Hansen. The work translated was '' Two Minor Ethical-Religious Essays'' (french: En quoi l'homme de génie diffère-t-il de l'apôtre? Traité éthique-religieux). Subsequent translations of Kierkegaard into French include those produced by Paul Petit, who produced a French translation of the ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript'' in 1941, as well as a translation of the ''Philosophical Fragments'', published posthumously in 1947.

In Germany

The earliest mentions of Kierkegaard's work in German publications were written by Andreas Frederik Beck, himself Danish and one of the attendees at Kierkegaard's oral dissertation defence. There was an anonymous German review of ''Philosophical Fragments'' published in 1845 which subsequent scholarship believes was written by Beck. Kierkegaard responded to Beck's criticisms in a footnote published in the followup to the ''Fragments'', the ''Concluding Unscientific Postscript''. Another early mention of Kierkegaard in German is from

Johann Georg Theodor Grässe Johann Georg Theodor Grässe (or Graesse) (31 January 1814 – 27 August 1885) was a German bibliographer and literary historian. He worked in Dresden at the Münzkabinett and also edited the journal ''Zeitschrift für Museologie und Antiquitäten ...

, who included Kierkegaard briefly in an 1848 review of European literature. In 1856, the Bavarian-born conservative politician and historian

Joseph Edmund Jörg Joseph Edmund Jörg (23 December 1819, Immenstadt, Bavaria – 18 November 1901, Landshut) was a Catholic historian and politician. The son of a subaltern, he first studied theology, then philology and history at Munich. He was a pupil of Ignaz ...

wrote an article discussing religious movements and events in Scandinavian history. The Catholic Jörg praised Kierkegaard's relentless attack on the Danish Lutheran Church, but suggests that Kierkegaard should perhaps have seen Catholicism as a final step in his religious development. Early translations of Kierkegaard into German were restricted to his post-1850 material (''The Moment'', the attack on the Lutheran Church) and appeared in the 1860s. The Tübingen-trained pastor, Albert Bärthold, studied Kierkegaard under

Johann Tobias Beck Johann Tobias Beck (22 February 1804 in Balingen, Württemberg – 28 December 1878 in Tübingen) was a German theologian. Biography Graduating from the University of Tübingen in 1826, he was ordained a minister, but later accepted an appoin ...

and published translations of a number of Kierkegaard's works.

Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen (23 September 1848 – 4 October 1895) was a Norwegian-American author and college professor. He is best remembered for his novel ''Gunnar: A Tale of Norse Life'', which is generally considered to have been the first novel ...

(1848-1895) recognized Georg Brandes article on Soren Kierkegaard, as well as ''The Corsair'' in his March, 1888 article ''Scandinavian Literature'' in ''The Chautauquan''. He notes that both ''Either/Or'' and ''Stages on the Path of Life'' had already been translated into German by that time.Hjalmer Hjorth Boyese
Scandinavian Literature
The Chautauquan: organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. March, 1888 volume 8 Number 6 p. 336-337 V 8 Oct 1887-Jul 1888 The most significant translation work was conducted by

Christoph Schrempf Christoph Schrempf (April 28, 1860 – February 13, 1944) was a German evangelical theologian and philosopher. Life Christoph Schrempf was a pastor and writer from Besigheim, Germany. He had a difficult childhood due to his father's alcoholis ...

, another student of J.T. Beck. Schrempf's first translations appeared in 1890 and by 1922, he had completed translations of the entire set of Kierkegaard's published writings. His translations have been criticised repeatedly as unreliable: Heiko Schulz referred to them as "repeatedly revised, highly idiosyncratic, and at times breathtakingly free renditions of the Kierkegaardian texts". Schrempf also spread a view of Kierkegaard significantly out-of-step from the mainstream, interpreting Kierkegaard's "subjectivity as truth" as a justification for his own religious disbelief.

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Influence And Reception Of Soren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard Kierkegaard Kierkegaard Kierkegaard Kierkegaard