SOREN KIERKEGAARD:

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is generally regarded as the father of existentialism. His concern with individual existence,choice and commitment profoundly influenced modern Western theology and philosophy.
Kierkegaard, a devoult christian, believed that religious truth is not innate within man and that man must therefore recieve this truth from God. But he thought that God would overawe us if He Himself came to teach. Therefore Kieekegaard said that God comes instead as His own servant in human form. For a christian, this teacher is Jesus Christ.
"Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become my devotee, offer obeisances to Me, and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me." This is God's demand. And if we carry it out we attain perfection.
Kierkegaard observed three basic stages in life: the aesthetic stage, the ethical stage and the religious stage. In the first stage -the aesthetic stage -a person may be either a hedonist in search of sensual pleasure or an intellectual intereasted in philosophical speculation. Kierkegaard says that both are uncommitted. Neither has any ultimate goal in life.
Kierkegaard says that people on this platform are not really philosophers but simply mental speculators. They become bored with themselves,and their lives become empty of meaning and full of despair. Despair is a result of impersonalism and voidism. Impersonalists and voidists must necessarily be overcome by despair, because they are always disgusted with their lives and because they do not know the goal of life. When one has no goal he becomes dissapointed, and that dissapointment is the cause of despair.
Kierkegaard sees this despair as the first stepping stone toward self-realization. Understanding that the aesthetic life ends in despair, in hopelessness, a person abandons this type of life for the next stage.
According to Kierkegaard, to attain self-realization we must confront certain choices -we must become aware that life is an "either/or" proposition. Realizing this,we advance to the second stage -the ethical stage. At this point we take an active part in dealing with life rather than aimlessly taking pleasure from life. We may act piously or attempt humanitarian deeds.
For Kierkegaard, the important thing is not so much what one chooses but that one makes the choice. Through choosing one discovers his own integrity.
Kierkegaard believed that if we begin to anticipate death, we will make the right decisions. In other words, we should act in such a way that we consider each act to be our last. In this way, he believed the truth will emerge. No one wants to die, but death overcomes everyone.
For Kierkegaard, faith in God developes when the soul is willing to stand transparent before God in his full integrity. Standing transparent before God means engaging in God's service. But to engage in God's servive we must understand that we are His parts and parcels. Just as each part of the body engages in the service of the entire body, so every living entity is meant to engage in the service of God. As soon as you engage in God's service, you are self realized.
Kierkegaard sees self-realization arising out of the expression of the will. He thought that the more self-realized a person is, the more powerful is his will and the better he is able to make proper decisions.
Concerning individuality,Kierkegaard wrote,"God is the origin and wellspring of all individuality. This individuality is the gift of God through which He permits me to be, and through which He permits everyone to be."
God is a living being, and we are also living beings. Just as He is eternal, we are also eternal. But the difference is that whereas qualitatively we are the same, quantitatively we are different.
God is infinite, and the living entities are infinitestimal. Therefore,all the living entities are being maintained by God. We are all individual and eternal parts of God,so our natural position is to serve Him and to love Him.
Our only business is to love God, and a first-class religious system teaches its followers to love God without ulterior motive. Such worship cannot be checked by material considerations. In any condition we can love God,and God will help us to love Him.