Author Description

"The Sickness Unto Death" is an excellent place to start reading Sören Kierkegaard. Though shorter than most of his works, it provides a good overview of his most important concepts. One such concept is man's intense desire to understand God. Because of our intense fear of death, we are constantly seeking ways to relieve our doubt concerning the immortality of the soul. Kierkegaard examines this death-drive with remarkable insight, stating that it is in some ways noble, but in other ways is a gross imposition upon God. Kierkegaard, who once admitted that he "gropes for the tragic in every direction" in a perverse and convoluted desire to "see" God, brings to light the dynamics of our strange tendencies to unearth the tragic in our desire to understand God. Kierkegaard is not judgmental in his treatment of these natural human drives towards knowledge; but tries to enlighten us on why we act as we do and what inner springs of our creativity and curiosity are.