Editing Søren Kierkegaard (section)

==Legacy==
{{Main|Influence and reception of Søren Kierkegaard}}
[[File:Royal Library Garden - Søren Kierkegaard.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A statue. The figure is depicted as sitting and writing, with a book on his lap open. Trees and red tiled roof is in background. The statue itself is mostly green, with streaks of grey showing wear and tear. The statue's base is grey and reads "SØREN KIERKEGAARD"|The Søren Kierkegaard Statue in the [[Royal Library Garden, Copenhagen|Royal Library Garden]] in Copenhagen ]]
Many [[20th-century philosophy|20th-century philosophers]], both theistic and atheistic, and theologians 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 movement pointed to him as a precursor, although later writers celebrated him as a highly significant and influential thinker in his own right.{{sfn|Weston|1994}} [[University of Copenhagen]] historian of philosophy [[Jon Stewart (philosopher)|Jon Stewart]] has written extensively about Søren Kierkegaard's thought, and edited a "monumental series" of volumes on Kierkegaard's global reception and impact.{{sfn|Lippitt|Evans|2023|loc=sec. 4 "Trajectories in Kierkegaard Scholarship"}} Since Kierkegaard was raised as a [[Lutheran]],{{sfn|Hampson|2001}} he was commemorated as a teacher in the [[Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)|Calendar of Saints]] of the [[Lutheran Church]] on 11 November.

[[File:Ludwig Wittgenstein 1929.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] who once stated that Kierkegaard was "by far the most profound thinker of the [nineteenth] century. Kierkegaard was a saint."{{sfn|McDonald|1996}}]]
Philosophers and theologians influenced by Kierkegaard are numerous and include major twentieth century theologians and philosophers.<ref>Unamuno refers to Kierkegaard in his book ''The Tragic Sense of Life'', Part IV, In The Depths of the Abyss [https://archive.org/stream/thetragicsenseof00unamuoft#page/106/mode/1up Archive.org]</ref> [[Paul Feyerabend]]'s [[epistemological anarchism]] in the philosophy of science was inspired by Kierkegaard's idea of subjectivity as truth. [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] 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".{{sfn|Creegan|1989}} [[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".{{sfn|Popper|2002}}<ref>[[Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)|Walter Kaufmann]] Introduction to ''The Present Age'', Søren Kierkegaard, Dru 1940, 1962 pp. 18–19.</ref>{{sfn|Matustik|Westphal|1995}}{{sfn|MacIntyre|2001}}{{sfn|Rorty|1989}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} [[Hilary Putnam]] admired Kierkegaard, "for his insistence on the priority of the question, 'How should I live?{{' "}}.{{sfn|Pyle|1999|pp=52–53}} By the early 1930s, [[Jacques Ellul]]'s three primary sources of inspiration were [[Karl Marx]], Søren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth. According to Ellul, Marx and Kierkegaard were his two greatest influences, and the only two authors of which he read all of their work.<ref>Goddard, Andrew (2002). ''Living the Word, Resisting the World: The Life and Thought of Jacques Ellul,''Paternoster Press, p. 16. {{ISBN|978-1-84227-053-0}}</ref> [[Herbert Read]] wrote in 1945 "Kierkegaard's life was in every sense that of a saint. He is perhaps the most real saint of modern times."<ref>A Coat Of Many Colours (1945) p. 255</ref>

Kierkegaard has also had a considerable influence on [[20th-century literature]]. Figures deeply influenced by his work include [[W. H. Auden]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Don DeLillo]], [[Hermann Hesse]], [[Franz Kafka]],{{sfn|McGee|2006}} [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]], [[Flannery O'Connor]], [[Walker Percy]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[J.D. Salinger]] and [[John Updike]].{{sfn|Updike|1997}} What George Henry Price wrote in his 1963 book ''The Narrow Pass'' regarding the "who" and the "what" of Kierkegaard still seems to hold true today: "Kierkegaard was the sanest man of his generation....Kierkegaard was a schizophrenic....Kierkegaard was the greatest Dane....the difficult Dane....the gloomy Dane...Kierkegaard was the greatest Christian of the century....Kierkegaard's aim was the destruction of the historic Christian faith....He did not attack philosophy as such....He negated reason....He was a voluntarist....Kierkegaard was the Knight of Faith....Kierkegaard never found faith....Kierkegaard possessed the truth....Kierkegaard was one of the damned."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/narrowpassstudyo0000pric/page/11 |url-access=registration |title='The Narrow Pass', A Study of Kierkegaard's Concept of Man|publisher=McGraw-Hill |author=Price, George|year=1963|page= 11}}</ref>

[[File:Erich Fromm, Viktor Frank, Rollo May.png|thumb|From left to right: Erich Fromm, Viktor Frankl and Rollo May]]
Kierkegaard had a profound influence on [[psychology]]. He is widely regarded as the founder of [[Christian psychology]] and of [[existential psychology]]<ref>H. Newton Malony (ed.), ''A Christian Existential Psychology: The Contributions of John G. Finch'', University Press of America, 1980, p. 168.</ref> and [[existential therapy|therapy]].{{sfn|Ostenfeld|McKinnon|1972}} Existentialist (often called "humanistic") psychologists and therapists include [[Ludwig Binswanger]], [[Viktor Frankl]], [[Erich Fromm]], [[Carl Rogers]], and [[Rollo May]]. May based his ''The Meaning of Anxiety'' on Kierkegaard's ''The Concept of Anxiety''. Kierkegaard's [[sociological]] work ''Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age'' critiques [[modernity]].{{sfn|Kierkegaard|2001}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} [[Ernest Becker]] based his 1974 [[Pulitzer Prize]] book ''[[The Denial of Death]]'' on the writings of Kierkegaard, [[Freud]] and [[Otto Rank]]. Kierkegaard is also seen as an important precursor of [[postmodernism]].{{sfn|Matustik|Westphal|1995}} Danish priest [[Johannes Møllehave]] has lectured about Kierkegaard. In popular culture, he was the subject of serious television and radio programmes; in 1984, a six-part documentary, ''[[Sea of Faith (TV series)|Sea of Faith]]'', presented by [[Don Cupitt]], featured an episode on Kierkegaard, while on [[Maundy Thursday]] in 2008, Kierkegaard was the subject of a discussion on the [[BBC Radio 4]] programme presented by [[Melvyn Bragg]], ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]'', during which it was suggested that Kierkegaard straddles the analytic/continental divide. Google honoured him with a [[Google Doodle]] on his 200th anniversary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Søren Kierkegaard's 200th Birthday Doodle |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/sren-kierkegaards-200th-birthday/ |website=Google Doodles |access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref>
The novel ''[[Therapy (Lodge novel)|Therapy]]'' by [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]] details a man experiencing a [[mid-life crisis]] and becoming obsessed with the works of Kierkegaard.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Stossel| first = Scott| title = Right, Here Goes| journal = The Atlantic| publisher = The Atlantic Monthly Group| date = April 1996| url = https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/04/right-here-goes/376573/| access-date = 10 July 2015 }}</ref>

Kierkegaard is considered by some modern theologians to be the "father of existentialism".<ref>{{cite web|last=Irvine|first=Andrew|title=Existentialism|url=http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm|work=Western Philosophy Courses Website|publisher=Boston University|access-date=13 April 2013}}</ref> Because of his influence (and in spite of it), others only consider either [[Martin Heidegger]] or [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] to be the actual "father of existentialism".{{sfn|Crowell|2004}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Paparella|first=Emanuel|title=Soren Kierkegaard as Father of Existentialism|url=http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/2869|work=Magazine|publisher=Ovi/Chameleon Project|access-date=13 April 2013}}</ref> Kierkegaard predicted his posthumous fame, and foresaw that his work would become the subject of intense study and research.{{sfn|Kierkegaard|1938|p=224}}