Søren Kierkegaard was the seventh and last child of Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, a wealthy businessman, and Ane Sørensdatter Lund, a household maid whom he first impregnated and then married within a year of his first wife’s death. His father’s stern piety, deep melancholy, and profound sense of guilt greatly influenced Søren’s life and writings.
Who were Søren Kierkegaard’s parents?
Why is Søren Kierkegaard famous?
For his emphasis on individual existence—particularly religious existence—as a constant process of becoming and for his invocation of the associated concepts of authenticity, commitment, responsibility, anxiety, and dread, Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered the father of existentialism. His wide-ranging works had lasting influence in philosophy, Protestant theology, literature, and cultural criticism.