Kierkegaard: A Single Life by Stephen Backhouse

I have read Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard: A Single Life over Easter. This is arguably the best all-round Kierkegaard biography available for those wanting an introduction to his life and thought in around 300 pages. It was very enjoyable for me.

Backhouse is a Christian theologian who clearly loves Kierkegaard as a thinker, but who doesn’t try to hide his faults. The account of Kierkegaard’s life is largely chronological and clearly separated from an exposition of his works. These are individually summarised in 1-2 pages in an appendix.

Telling the story this way makes it different from Claire Carlisle’s Kierkegaard’s biography, which tells the story of his life from end to beginning – based on the famous Kierkegaard saying, “life must be understood backward. But … it must be lived forward.”

What makes Backhouse’s book accessible is that it’s straightforward. It doesn’t get bogged down in weighing different scholarly interpretations (although the author outlines his scholarly positions in the preface and an ‘afterword’). It also doesn’t have novelistic flourishes that make Carlisle’s biography distinctive. This is a carefully constructed account that triangulates Kierkegaard’s writings with contemporary sources and a good understanding of the intellectual, cultural and social life of Golden Age Copenhagen and Denmark.

The most fascinating chapter I found in the book was the one on Kierkegaard’s afterlife or reception history. I didn’t know of the influence of Kierkegaard on Cornel West, Arcade Fire or some staples of Japanese anime! This chapter shows Kierkegaard’s influence throughout 20th century thought, for example, how helped make the practice of psychology a more humane discipline and inform theories of totalitarianism.

I think Backhouse makes a sound assumption in not seeing the pseudonymous works of Kierkegaard or the thought experiments in his journal as reflections of his autobiography. For example, based on a thought experiment in his journals about a man getting drunk, waking up and realising he had slept with a prostitute, previous biographers have speculated Kierkegaard broke off his engagement Regina Olsen because of guilt. A better explanation was Kierkegaard feeling his experience of intense melancholy was incompatible with married life. I’m inclined to think Kierkegaard was a lifelong virgin, but he was able to create characters who were cads.

In my opinion, one person who does come out as heroic in the book is his brief fiancé, Regina Olsen. She comes across as spirited, smart and agentic, not as a passive individual, even though the way Kierkegaard broke off the engagement was awful.

After reading this biography, I now understand Terry Eagleton’s judgement of Kierkegaard in reviewing Carlisle’s biography:

He may have been a Christian, but he was not a nice person at all. Carlisle, however, is far too nice to drive the point home.

Backhouse seems ‘very nice’ too, but in places too he can’t but help note Kierkegaard’s tendency towards narcissism and be indirectly critical.

Although written by a Christian theologian, this book can be picked up and read by all who are interested in the life and thought of Kierkegaard. It’s not overtly religious. Backhouse is an accomplished Kierkegaard scholar. He has turned his specialisation into an accessible work for all who are interested in Kierkegaard’s life and work.