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Kierkegaard and Religious Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard (kêr'kegôr) (1813-1855), of Copenhagen, was a theologian, poet, social critic, and has been described as the first existentialist philosopher. He had a masters degree in theology and rejected attempts by Christians in the third and fourth centuries to superimpose philosophical arguments and reasoning upon Christianity's belief in Jesus Christ as humanity's savior. He held that belief in Jesus was a matter of choice and passion. Certainty, he claimed, is found only in an unjustifiable "leap into faith." Truth as Subjectivity was the title of one of his books. He claimed that truth was in the mind that God and that people were responsible for their choices, not the Devil.

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