Kierkegaard: A Single Life

Written by Stephen Backhouse

Narrated by Tom Parks

An accessible, expert introduction to one of the greatest minds of nineteenth century. Whether you're completely new to him, or if you're already familiar with his work, Kierkegaard: A Single Life presents a fresh understanding of his life and thought.

Kierkegaard was a brilliant and enigmatic loner whose ideas permeated culture, shaped modern Christianity, and influenced people as diverse as Franz Kafka and Martin Luther King Jr. Though few people today have read his work, that lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is changing with this biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse, who clearly presents the man's mind as well as the acute sensitivity behind Kierkegaard's books.

Drawing on biographical material that has newly come to light, Kierkegaard: A Single Life introduces his many guises—the thinker, the lover, the recluse, the writer, the controversialist—in prose as compelling and fluid as a novel and pursues clarity to long-standing questions about him:

• What made this Danish theologian so controversial and influential?
• Why were so many people drawn to his books, even if they didn't understand what they were reading?
• Can his complicated relationship with the Church and religion be untangled?
• Or, for that matter, what about his complicated—at times almost paradoxical—relationship with every sphere of life from politics to poetry?

To be considered everything from a great intellect to a dandy, from a martyr to a "false messiah" is no mean feat, and this biography sheds light on Søren Kierkegaard as he was with empathy and humor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Release date: Aug 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9780310530954

Stephen Backhouse

Stephen Backhouse (DPhil, Oxford) is the founder and director of Tent Theology, a venture that designs and delivers theology programmes to local churches. He is the Dean of Theology in the Local Church for Westminster Theological Centre and was formerly the Lecturer in Social and Political Theology at St Mellitus College. He is a historian of Christian thought, an expert on the work of Søren Kierkegaard and a recognised authority on the political theology of nations and nationalism. He is the author of many publications, including the award-winning popular biography Kierkegaard: A Single Life (Zondervan, 2016) and the Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History (Zondervan, 2019). He has lived in the United States, and makes his home in Britain and Canada.

Reviews for Kierkegaard

[Clarissa Corey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very leisure but informative listen. I was able to do other things like paint and house chores while still retaining the information. Happy to know more about the life of S.K as his life inevitably informed his philosophy

[G A McKee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Later chapter where author relates K’s ideas to modern social icons and celebrities

[PerceptiveOwl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good introduction to Kierkegaard's life and philosophy. Highly recommended if you are looking for philosophical history, background and context.

[chuff-155902 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a well-written overview of the life of someone I struggle and strain in vain to find interesting.

[skybalon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you want a relatively light-weight biography of Kierkegaard, this is not a bad place to start. It makes some weird--probably considered artsy-- choices along the way. For example, it starts with his funeral. It also clearly makes some assumptions that are based on the author's presumptions that might be accurate, but some feel like a bit of a reach. To me, there are 2 highlights in the book. First is a chapter that for me should have led off the whole book and that was all the people throughout history from Kierkegaard's death until today who have been influenced by his writings. The significance of this makes Kierkegaard's life and choices feel more important. The second is the list of his books coupled with a synopsis of each of his writings. Worth the read, but only if you are interested in Kierkgaard--at least on a casual level.

[garyseverance-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kierkegaard: A Single Life is an interesting biography of the Nineteenth Century philosopher and a summary of some of his writing. The book is written for a general reader audience, and no prior knowledge of the man or subject matter is needed to enjoy reading it. Usually, I do not believe that biographical information of authors is needed to understand their work. But, in this book, the connection between life experiences of Soren help the reader to appreciate his “single life” approach to deciding on the meaning of life.The work of Kierkegaard is not easy to summarize. After the major part of the book focusing on biography, Stephen Blackhouse presents an “overview” of Soren’s philosophy, something Kierkegaard resisted doing during his short life (42 years). Blackhouse admits the weakness of this short-cut presentation, clearly pointing out the philosopher’s challenge to an individual to work hard to understand his unique existence. I remember in high school the appeal of the complex writing that I thought would be something I could read and interpret for a lifetime. It did not work out that way, so reading Blackhouse’s book was an interesting sort of life review for me.Even in the 1960s, I realized that Kierkegaard was thinking of life as an individual challenge for self-examination. Most people go through a process of what Erik Erikson called “foreclosure,” accepting traditional teaching in schools, church, and society and foreclosing on your loan of freedom in life. It is easier and faster to do that than to do the hard work of self-determination of a life path. On this topic, Blackhouse provides an emotional quote of Kierkegaard himself that to me is a summary of the death of introspection and insight provided by today’s social media: “And man, this clever fellow, seems to have become sleepless in order to invent ever new instruments to increase noise, to spread noise and insignificance with the greatest possible haste and on the greatest possible scale.” (p. 258) Communication is fast and furious signifying nothing related to individual meaning. I think of this as a foreclosure of life, allowing others to determine your beliefs and actions without any serious critical analysis of assumptions, methods, hypotheses, data, and conclusions.I enjoyed this biography/summary of Soren Kierkegaard very much, especially as I evacuated form my beloved Low Country chased by Hurricane Matthew. I highly recommend that you read Blackhouse’s book and start reading and thinking about Soren’s work again (or for the first time) as I have done – it’s later than you think.