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Marino discusses 'Danish Doctor of Dread' in the 'Times'

By David Gonnerman '90
March 18, 2012

"Though he was a genius of the intellectual high wire, Kierkegaard was a philosopher who wrote from experience," writes St. Olaf Professor of Philosophy Gordon Marino about the 19th century Danish philosopher in "The Danish Doctor of Dread" in the New York Times. "And that experience included considerable acquaintance with the chronic, disquieting feeling that something not so good was about to happen."

"In one journal entry, he wrote, 'All existence makes me anxious, from the smallest fly to the mysteries of the Incarnation; the whole thing is inexplicable, I most of all; to me all existence is infected, I most of all. My distress is enormous, boundless; no one knows it except God in heaven, and he will not console me….'

"Is there any doubt that were he alive today he would be supplied with a refillable prescription for Xanax?" asks Marino, who also is curator of the Hong Kierkegaard Libary at St. Olaf.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.