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Soren Aabye Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and religious thinker, is regarded by many historians of philosophy as the first important existentialist philosopher. This is because many of the themes of contemporary existentialism were first expressed in his writings, most of which were influenced by life experiences and circumstances. The first major influence in his life was his father. Kierkegaard professed himself to have been, since childhood, under the sway of a prodigious melancholy and his grim outlook was made even gloomier by the confession of his father that he had sinned and even cursed God.¹ Consequently, his father gave him an oppressive religious upbringing in a vain attempt to spare the boy from similar miseries. But this curse and guilt haunted both father and son. Kierkegaard thus realized early that dread and despair were the central problems of his life and he learned that he could escape their grasp only through a passionate commitment of faith to God and the infinite. In his Journal, he wrote:

DOI: 10.1057/9781137472427_5

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