Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Zondervan (2016), Edition: Special edition, 304 pages
Description
Discover a new understanding of Kierkegaard's thought and his life, a story filled with romance, betrayal, humor, and riots. Kierkegaard, like Einstein and Freud, is one of those geniuses whose ideas permeate the culture and shape our world even when relatively few people have read their works. That lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is about to change. This lucid new biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse presents the genius as well as the acutely sensitive man behind the brilliant books. Scholarly and accessible, Kierkegaard: A Single Life introduces his many guises--the thinker, the lover, the recluse, the writer, the controversialist--in prose so compelling it reads like a novel. One chapter examines Kierkegaard's influence on our greatest cultural icons--Kafka, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Camus, and Martin Luther King Jr., to name only a few. A useful appendix presents an overview of each of Kierkegaard's works, for the scholar and lay reader alike.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member GarySeverance
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member Skybalon
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member chuff
It was a well-written overview of the life of someone I struggle and strain in vain to find interesting.
Awards
Christianity Today Book Awards (History/Biography — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
5.51 inches
ISBN
0310520908 / 9780310520900
UPC
025986520908