MixedThe Times (UK)Like most great philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard was something of a pain in the arse ... Even Clare Carlisle’s sympathetic new biography can’t make him seem particularly likeable ... Kierkegaard’s questions about existence were more interesting than his solutions, which, boringly, were very Christian ... Although it is usually readable and entertaining, many will find themselves becalmed in the sections that deal with the meaning of Christianity and the theological failings of various Danish bishops. I’m no Kierkegaard scholar and Carlisle, reader in philosophy and theology at King’s College London, very much is. I’m sure the picture of Kierkegaard she presents here is the accurate one. But amid all the theologising, I missed the crazily quiffed nihilist I once knew.
