Verse of the day 30

Søren Kierkegaard, was a depressed and anguished realist who lived a solitary life. By the time he was 21, five of his six siblings had died. This had taught him the harsh realities of a cruel world. Despite being deeply in love with a beautiful and intelligent young woman, he had been struck with the crushing fear that passionate romance could not exist at the same time as domestic family life. Treasuring their love for each other, he had broken off his engagement, spiralling him into a dark depression. Two years later, as he sat alone in a Berlin apartment, he began pouring his dark thoughts into a work that would come to be known as Either/Or—a literary opus that would influence generations of philosophers and become the backbone of the philosophy of existentialism. He published the book on February 20, 1843.

Kierkegaard saw the world as unforgiving and senseless. Humanity was caught in a hopeless cycle in which all decisions were wrought with regret. The confusion of the world could never be understood through science or logic. Instead, one must strike out in emotional and passionate faith. Truth and meaning could only be reached when one was willing to live and die for an idea, it is then that one could become one’s true self. For Kierkegaard, Jesus was the only constant in a swirling and brooding world.

One cannot read Kierkegaard without thinking of the book of Ecclesiastes, in which Solomon broods over the emptiness and meaninglessness of life. Pursuing different avenues of purpose and philosophy, Solomon ends by concluding that following God is the only meaning in a topsy-turvy world.