378 - Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark

Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark

By Bruce H. Kirmmse

Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1990. 558 Pp. $35.00.

Bruce Kirmmse, professor of history at Connecticut College, has written an intellectual biography of Kierkegaard (1813-1855), placing his life and writings in the context of his political, social, and cultural milieu. Within the broader significance of this book as a valuable reference text, Kirmmse shows that the stereotype of Kierkegaard as an elitist political conservative with a vague reverence for the golden age of hierarchy and monarchy, is a fundamental misunderstanding. Citing especially the Danish revolution of 1848, which overthrew the absolute monarchy and transferred power from the cultural urbanite to the "common man," Kirmmse demonstrates that Kierkegaard was significantly influenced by the populist cause and eventually came to support the revolution. Although Kierkegaard's passion remained primarily theological and spiritual rather than political, he welcomed the age of the common man as the only alternative to the spiritual suffocation that the established culture of Christendom seemed to guarantee.

Notably, this discussion provides an illuminating and convincing context within which to view Kierkegaard's "attack on Christendom," which called for a dismantling of the

379 - Kierkegaard in Golden Age Denmark

ecclesiastical matrix within which the elitist conservatism of the prerevolutionary golden age had been nurtured. This richly researched and readable book supplies an important contribution to the widespread reappropriation of Kierkegaard's thought currently taking place.

James E. Loder, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.