Søren Kierkegaard in Korea

Pyo Jae-myeong

Professor Emeritus

Korea Univ. in Seoul

Ⅰ. Receiving Kierkegaard

1. During the Japanese Colonial Period

It is supposed to be around the end of 1920s or the early 1930s when Korean intellectuals were interested in Kierkegaard's thought and began to read his writings. It can be said that most of them were students who studied in Japan or at the department of philosophy of Keijo¯ Imperial University, which was established 1926 in Keijo¯(Seoul). A little earlier than that time, the waves of the first Kierkegaard Renaissance had spread throughout the Japanese reading world. It was in the 1910s that the German edition of Kierkegaard Writings, translated by Gottsched and Schrempf, were imported and read by some literary men.

Meanwhile, World War I broke out, and after the war there arose new currents of thought with the growing consciousness of crisis, for example, phenomenology by E. Husserl, philosophy of existence by M. Heidegger and K. Jaspers, theology of crisis or dialectical theology by K. Barth and E. Brunner. With these thoughts, writings of F. Nietzsche and of K. Marx, and a little ahead of them the literary works of R. M. Rilke and of F. Kafka were introduced. Associated with such a trend the interest in Kierkegaard was getting higher.

In such atmosphere of the 1930s, many Korean students went abroad to get higher education. Most of them went to Japan rather than Europe or America. Among them there were some students who studied theology, literature and philosophy. These and some students who studied western philosophy at Keijō Imperial University are thought to be the first Korean intellectuals who read Kierkegaard. The reason is that in the 1930s appeared the Japanese translations such as Either/Or(1930),[i] Selections from Kierkegaard's Writings in 3 Volumes(1935)[ii] and Høffding's monograph "S. Kierkegaard as a Philosopher"(1935),[iii] and they became very popular.

Just at that time, however, Japan began to strengthen its military dictatorship and severely oppress the Korean peninsular to construct the advance base for invasion upon Manchuria and Mainland China. The Imperial Japan claimed the oneness of nationality between Korean and Japanese, so that Japan schemed to get rid of Korean's national identity and to nullify their spiritual life. They regulated the use and spread of Korean and also oppressed the research on Korean as well, and finally from 1938 prohibited its use in public life at all. From 1935, authority forced Korean Christians to worship gods of Japanese Shintoism. From February 1940, all the Korean people had to have Japanese names instead of their ancestral family names. What did it mean to study philosophy in such a miserable historical situation? What was it to study literature, theology, etc.?

Park Jong-hong(1903-1976), one of the philosophers who studied western philosophy at Keijō Imperial University from the end of 1920s and led an active life in 1930s in the field of philosophy in Korea, wrote his starting point of 'philosophieren': the motive of our 'philosophieren' is not such a modest wonder (thaumazein), but the actual pains. The problem requires the solution through the practice. For him, thus to philsophieren earnestly is "to face up the reality of this age, society and land". That means to present the way to regain independence from Japan by criticizing and overcoming the reality of the colonized motherland.

Park Jong-hong studied philosophy in order to get a certain knowledge of reality, which would enable him to overcome the national grievous reality. As a college student, he devoted himself to Heidegger's philosophy of existence. What Park Jong-hong wanted to know from Heidegger's philosophy might be the New Being, existence, which was a philosophical concept expected to overcome the crisis of time and bring a new era in European culture which was about to collapse together with modern subjectivism. His expectation, however, did not seem to be satisfied. Graduating from the college in 1933, he wrote the graduation thesis entitled "On 'Sorge' by Heidegger". In this thesis he criticized Heidegger from a Kierkegaardian standpoint. And it is thought to be the first monograph in which a Korean mentioned Kierkegaard.[iv]

Park noticed that when Heidegger uses the term "die formal existenziale Ganzheit" to understand the complete ontological structure of Dasein, his "Sorge" is nothing but an ontological noun given to the formal totality or to the formula. For Park, constituents of concrete Dasein were not so simple as easily synthesized as in the formal structure of "Sorge". Here Park made a cynical remark on Heidegger's 'Sorge' quoting Kierkegaard's sarcastic comment on Hegel's system.[v] Park even sighed that he would be happy if he could say with Kierkegaard that "I for my part would rather say, I know that I am a human being, and I know that I have not understood the System."[vi]

Such criticism of Park against Heidegger could be applied to the case of Kierkegaard. For Park, the practice of actual being seemed to be more social than the one of a lonely ethical subject crouched before the abyss just like in the case of Kierkegaard. The concrete practice, which starts from such a severe agony triggered by miserable reality and has to break through the sparse limited situation, was neither a just rhetorical thought by reason nor a mere expression of sentimentalism. That belongs to the area of pathos rather than that of logos, and it has a kind of positive aspect as both an emotional and social practice. At this point, we see Park's consistent philosophical system, which criticized Kierkegaard who seemed to claim the importance of being introspect and definable subjectivity and his seemingly followers of existentialism and sought after the unity of dialectical logic overcoming Kierkegaard and others.

From the 1920s through the early 1930s there was a poet Park Yong-cheol(1904-1938) who was studying in Japan and came to know Kierkegaard. The reinforcement of fascist dictatorship by Japan starting from the early 1930s eradicated the political and ideological from all kinds of cultural movements such as literary movement, journalistic activity, labor activity, and educational movement. It was at this time that the 'Hangul(Korean Alphabet) Movement' started with a view to preserving the Korean language containing the tradition, customs, emotion, thought and spirit of the Korean people. In this atmosphere did emerge a literary movement led by a coterie of 'Poetical Literature' School, which declared 'pure literature'. The 'Poetical Literature' School, unlike the ideologically slanted KAPF(Korea Artista Proletaria Federatio) or the School of 'National Literature' which tried to revive three-stanza Korean poems called 'sijo' under the slogan of nation or national consciousness, sought for pure lyricism and showed a particular interest in language as a medium of expression.

The School published the poetry magazine Simunhak(Poetical Literature) for the first time in the history of new poetry in Korea in March, 1930, and it was Park Yong-cheol who played a key role in it. Park was not only actively involved in the translation and introduction of foreign literature, but enthusiastic about understanding foreign poetry and literature on a theoretical level. Among the field of his interest were Kierkegaard and his works as well. He wrote an essay titled 'Verschiedene' in January 1934 in the professional literary magazine Literature issued under his leadership, and quoted several passages concerning poetry and poets from Either/Or.

What is a poet? An unhappy man who in his heart harbors a deep anguish, but whose lips are so fashioned that the moans and cries which pass over them are transformed into ravishing music. His fate is like that of the unfortunate victims whom the tyrant Phalaris imprisoned in a brazen bull, and slowly tortured over a steady fire; their cries could not reach the tyrant’s ears so as to strike terror into his heart; when they reached his ears they sounded like sweet music.[vii]

It is not clear when and how Park Yong-cheol came to know Kierkegaard. We can only guess that as Kim graduated from Aoyama Gakuin and entered Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan, the country's intellectual milieu at the time may have made him come into contact with Kierkegaard's works and introductory books and attract his interest in them.

What is characteristic about Park is that he did not show any concern with nation or society. He only expressed the dark inner side of human beings such as the feelings of solitude, skepticism, melancholy, as represented in a poet who had to live in the gloomy situation of a colony. This is evident in his major poems such as 'Sailing by Boat', 'After you left on a Night Train', 'Cold-blooded Forehead'.

For Park, the atmosphere arising from Kierkegaard's aesthetic existence may have been very attractive. It had some bearing upon the bitter paradox in life that the more we sought after pleasure, the more we were obsessed with melancholy, boredom, doubt and despair. From this time on, some people in Korea started to read Kierkegaard, whose painful poetic existence arising from a divided self, along with his elegant and brilliant writing style, seemed to attract the young Korean intellectuals and give some comfort to them.

Around the end of the 1930s when Park established his literary career actively, Yun Dong-ju(1917-1945) was an unknown young man aspiring to be a poet without any notable literary activities. Later after the independence of Korea, Yun took a prominent place in the history of Korean modern literature or poetry of the late Japanese colonial period, with the publication of a posthumous anthology, Heaven, Wind, Stars and Poems, in January 1948.[viii] Afterwards he was remembered as a resistant poet who wrote his poems against the dark age of Japanese colonialism.

As is well known, Korean people had to wander around Manchuria (Jilian Province in Northeast China today) and the northeastern continent, since they had lost their sovereignty and had been deprived of their places of living under the Japanese colonial government. Some of them were arrested for participating in the activities of regaining sovereignty and even lost their lives in prison. Yun's life and death were closely connected with such miserable situations of Korean people. Yun was born in 1917 in Myeongdong village of Bukkando(the north region of the Tumen River), Manchuria, beyond the Tumen River and died in a prison of Fukuoka in Japan in February, 1945. In fact, he was neither a fighter for national independence nor a militant activist. Rather he was a 'quiet and introverted person' of humane and sweet character - he used to enjoy a walk and company, and absorb himself in deep thought quietly. Why was it that this kind of person took his place among resistant poets?

Yun was extremely an unaffected and decent person. His ever pure and clean mind is seen as emanating from his conscience, which was an existential awakening acquired from his constant self-reflection and an existential concern with his self-perfection for actualizing the possibilities of life in his individual life. One can easily identify his serious attitude towards life in the 'Seosi(Prelude)' of Haneulgwa Baramgwa Byeolgwa Si(Heaven, Wind, Stars and Poems):

Let me have no shame

Looking up to the sky till I die.

Even winds among the foliage

Pained my heart.

With a heart that sings of the stars,

I'll love all dying things.

And I must fare forth on my way

That's been assigned to me.

Tonight also the stars go through the wind.     (November 20, 1941)

How comparable it is with Kierkegaard's 'single individual before God'! It is said that by the time Yun graduated from Yonhee College in Seoul (Yonsei University today), he was so engrossed with Kierkegaard that he talked about him to several people including his younger brother. According to his brother, his library contained the works of such writers as Andre Gide, Dostoevski, Valery, Kierkegaard. However, it is not known which works he actually read among Kierkegaard's. Among the Japanese versions of Kierkegaard's writings at the time were Tungsindets Filosofi(1930)-an excerpt of Either/Or, Diary of the Seducer(1938), Postscript to Philosophical Fragments(1938),[ix] The Sickness Unto Death(1939), The Concept of Anxiety(1940), Practice in Christianity(1940), Of the Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle(1941).[x] We only guess that he may have read some of them or all of them. Also, we found it difficult to say in detail what he was attracted to in Kierkegaard's thought. We may only draw some inferences about the relation between Yun and Kierkegaard from his life and works of the time.

In the early 1940s Yun was planning to study in Japan, but there was nothing clear. The circumstances of the age were getting worse and worse, with the impending danger of the war and the conscription of young men. Beyond the strengthened censorship, the Japanese imperial government forced the two Korean newspapers, Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo, to discontinue issuing in 1939, and the business of maintaining some national identity at the time could be a lethal danger. In this situations, Yun yearned for his self's inner development, that is, its ethical consummation, conflicting between the gloomy reality and the ideal he sought for. At this point Yun may have seen Kierkegaard who had made a hard and solitary journey before him in order to find a genuine self. Perhaps Yun may have seen the image of himself in Kierkegaard who had found himself in the distressful condition of melancholy and despair.

Meanwhile, we see that a 'shame' or 'guilt' follows his thorough self-reflection or self-examination. He felt ashamed of or guilty of the picture of himself in a reality uncapable of reaching his ideal, suffering from the division between his inner and outer self. And he found his undivided will to live without any slightest shame, although he was shattered by the reality of the colony. In 1942 when he went to Japan to study, he composed 'Swipke ssuieojin si(A Poem Written Easily)', listening to a night rain outside the window in his room with six tatami mats. The poem contains his isolation as a subject of a colonized country and his resistance to the governing country, and also his tragic self-reflection on himself as a poet of a sad fate. He felt ashamed of himself, as he found himself heading for a class with the envelope containing his tuition filled with 'the smell of his parents' sweat and affection', and realized the fact that he could not do anything but to write a poem.

Yun Dong-ju's 'shame' or 'guilt' is closely connected with his compassion for the suffering Korean people. Although it is a success from a personal point of view that he was attending the college, reading books and writing poems, he thought it as being shameful. When he saw himself, he realized that the 'I' under the colonized system was none other than all people around him who were abused and suppressed, and that they were living in miserable conditions in contradistinction with his temporal success. He felt that it was contradictory, and he felt ashamed of himself under such circumstances. It was only a dedicated resistance that he could overcome this feeling of shame or guilt. But it is unthinkable to attempt such a resistance in the gloomy circumstances of the late Japanese colonial period without the ultimate sacrifice, whatever it may be. By the time Japan was strengthening its policy of oppression and Korea was facing its last destiny, he was conscious of his death and asked God which way he should go in front of a cross.

We don't need to think, however, that Yun Dong-ju's cross meant an immediate political action. It is mainly due to the fact that a driving force in his life lied in the consummation of his aesthetic and ethical self accompanied by his sensitivity and pure conscience. Confronted with the urgent situations of the outer world, Yun revealed his will to a vigorous action in his poems. It was certain that he was determined to do some actions as a way of overcoming this miserable situation, which was not permitted in his day. Rather his day made him a tragic sufferer and left his self's inner and ethical consummation as well as his poetry writing unfinished.

Around the same period as Yun was in Japan, there were Kim Hyeong-seok(1920-), Ahn Byeong-uk(1920-), and Ahn Byeong-mu(1922-1996) studying in Tokyo. Their contact with Kierkegaard provided an occasion to renew their awareness of themselves in the same mental circumstances as Yun faced. Their growth in thought and activities, however, bloomed in Korea liberated after the war. In the meantime, before them were Kim Jae-jun(1901-1987) studying in a divinity school in Japan, Jeon Gyeong-yeon(1916-), Kim Cheol-son(1917-2003), Mun Dong-hwan(1921-) and Mun Ik-hwan(1918-1994), who were already reading Kierkegaard's writings in connection with modern theology whose prominent scholars were Barth, Bruner and Gogarten. And in Seoul men of letters including Jo Yeon-hyeon(1920-1981) interested in literary review were reading K. Löwith's Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, along with Kierkegaard's works.

There is nothing known about the relationship between Kim Jae-jun and Kierkegaard. But if we consider that he is a precursor of what is called the new theology movement in Korea, it is natural that he would read Kierkegaard, together with his interest in Barth's second edition of The Epistle to the Romans(1922). Kim Jae-jun went to America to study after he finished the divinity school of Aoyama Gakuin, and then he got a teaching job in a divinity school in Korea after he came back home. At that time he introduced the higher criticism on the Bible and Barth's theology for the first time in Korean churches. And he is said to mention Kierkegaard occasionally in his classes.

As is seen in the case of Yun Dong-ju, the period between 1943 and 1945 was that of a series of ordeals and hardships in all levels. In particular, most of young students including students in Japan and Korea were worried about the pressing problems of enlisting as student soldiers instead of pursuing their lofty aspirations. Jeon Gyeong-yeon graduated from a high school and then he went to Tokyo in 1940 to study at Nippon Seminary(Tokyo Seminary today). For him, Kierkegaard, along with Dostoevski, provided a strong base beyond description in studying theology. He read whatever he could lay hands on, such books as The Sickness Unto Death, Fear and Trembling, Philosophical Fragments, Of the Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle and Practice in Christianity as well as Dostoevski's The Records of the House of Death in the gloom blacked out in American military's bombing raid on Tokyo. He did not become the so-called Kierkegaard scholar; he finally became a leading scholar on Barth in Korea after he had read Kierkegaard and struggled with Barth. Kim Cheol-son, Jeon Gyeong-yeon's junior in school, followed Jeon to Japan, but he stopped studying and came back home one year later in order to avoid serving as a student soldier and a bombing raid. After the war, he continued studying at the department of religion belonging to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Seoul National University(former Keijō Imperial University).

Kim Hyeong-seok, Yun Dong-ju's fellow student in middle school, and Ahn Byeong-uk came to know Kierkegaard while they were studying philosophy, each in Jōchi(Sophia) University and Waseda University. In Kim Hyeong-seok's view, a study on Kierkegaard was carried out as part of an interest in the individual existence and the inner world of human beings and as a support to an understanding of Nietzsche and Heidegger. Kim Hyeong-seok was immerged in the works of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Dostoevski, and started to read through the major works of great philosophers ranging from Plato to modern philosophers. His concern, however, was always revolving around Kierkegaard on its axis.

Kim Hyeong-seok, a Christian from his mother's womb, felt strongly the necessity of making a link between Christian belief and Christian life on a philosophical ground. This is why he became an ardent admirer of Kierkegaard's thought. Of course, Kierkegaard's understanding of Christianity and his interpretation of the Bible had an inevitably ambivalent relationship with the established institution of the church. It was at this point that Kim considered Kierkegaard's thought as crucial in comprehending the conflicts between Christian ideal and the church of the secular world. The course of times, however, did not allow him time and freedom to read or contemplate. Therefore, Kim stopped studying and returned home, only to see Korea's independence at the age of 25.

In the meantime, Ahn Byeong-uk had national consciousness early on and was strongly influenced by Ahn Chang-ho(1878-1938) and Lee Gwang-su(1982-1950). He was fascinated by Kierkegaard, as he came into contact with the problem of subjectivity of existentialism concerned with the subject of action, not with the subject of knowledge. Kierkegaard's questions in Gilleleje were the same as Ahn Byeong-uk's: What am I? How do I have to live? What is the truth by which I can live and die? Is it meaningful to die in this war? Ahn Byeong-uk was also avid for knowledge: he was not only enthusiastic about reading Kierkegaard's writings but steeped himself in the works of Nietzsche, Gandhi, Tolstoy, Dostoevski and John Dewey. In 1943, Ahn graduated from college and then came back home, and finally the war was also over.

Ahn Byeong-mu, who went to Kando(the north region of the Tumen River, a refugee for Koreans) from his hometown, carried by her mother in her back, did not have an opportunity for proper education. He went to Japan without any preparation and got an admission for a three-year course in an unfamous college, where he was absorbed in reading. He was attracted to Kierkegaard and Dostoevski; he also read Barth's writings but was not strongly influenced by them. In his life, he was aware of the impact of appearance, academic background, major, job, family, hometown and nation upon the individual's self-consciousness and character formation. He also experienced others' judgment of him by these standards and its effect on his own self-consciousness through the others' eyes and on the loss of his self-esteem. It was Kierkegaard who made him free from the 'others' eyes'. Ahn liked Kierkegaard’s  concept of the single individual before God and, in particular, the proposition "The masses is the untruth". He was fascinated by Kierkegaard. In 1941 when the Pacific War broke out, he finished only the preparatory course but returned home in order to avoid being enlisted as a student soldier. During the period he was in hiding, working as a teacher of the Korean religious pioneers who were at the time in the border between Russia and Manchuria. And he returned to Kando his mother lived, where he saw Korea's independence.

Rim Chun-gap, who was brought up in Pyeongyang, came into contact with Kierkegaard when he was around 20 years old. At the time, Rim expected a conscription order, but the young man interested in literature had finished reading the collected works of world literature published by Shinchosha and his concern was moving on from literature to philosophy and the history of the countries to the west of China. It is said that he could not forget a thumping of his heart when he found The Sickness Unto Death in a bookstore. The book played the role of a turning point in his life. At that time, he could not but confront death if he was forced to go to the war, whether he liked it or not; and he had an element of doubt about religion and Christianity in particular, though he had been brought up in a devout Christian family. Looking through the table of contents of the book, he felt that it would throw a light on his life. But his expectations were shattered, for he could not comprehend it at all. It was Rim's first contact with Kierkegaard's writings, and from that time his lifelong struggle with The Sickness Unto Death started.

2. The period from the Independence of 1945 to the Korean War and after

2-1. The period from the Independence of 1945 to the Korean War

On August 15, 1945, 'the independence came like a thief'. Suffering and sadness in the Japanese colonial period were changed into joy, and Koreans were overjoyed at the sudden freedom. The nation, however, was divided into the north and the south, witnessing fierce ideological conflicts. The independence brought freedom, but intellectuals found it difficult to come into contact with foreign affairs and cultural trends in the post-war chaos and the political turbulence surrounding the founding of the country for a long time. In the midst of this atmosphere, the thought of America's pragmatism started to spread rapidly and Christianity recovered its dynamic from oppression. And the introduction of Sartre's and Camus' existential literature attracted intellectuals' interests. In 1947, former Keijō Imperial University was changed to Keijō University and again to Seoul National University.

Kim Cheol-son and Ahn Byeong-mu, who returned home from Japan, continued studying in this newly born Seoul National University. In 1948, Kim Cheol-son graduated with the thesis entitled ‘Søren Kierkegaard's understanding of Christianity', which is presumably the first thesis on Kierkegaard written in Korean. Afterwards he studied Methodist theology and went to Swiss in order to do more research on Calvin and John Wesley. He kept Kierkegaard in his heart so passionately that he placed flowers on the tomb of Kierkegaard in Copenhagen on his way home after he had finished his study. Kim Cheol-son talked about Kierkegaard at every opportunity, and endeavored to make his thought known, writing about him in several magazines including Sasanggae(The World of Thought) and daily newspapers. Ahn Byeong-mu majored in sociology, as he had a desire to make a new Christian community different from existing churches. He graduated from the university in 1950, dreaming that he would create a new Christian community based on the New Testament. Rim Chun-gap finished a preparatory course in 1946 and majored philosophy, while he was struggling with The Sickness Unto Death.

In 1948, the literary professional magazine Sincheonji(The New World)(vol. 3, no. 9) introduced Sartre, Camus and Marlaux in a 'special issue of existentialism'. In 1950, scholars in French literature Kim Bung-gu and Jeong Myeong-hwan discussed Sartre and Camus, but didn't mention Kierkegaard. In 1949, professors Park Jong-hong and Go Hyeong-gon(1906-2004) introduced Kierkegaard as a precursor of existentialism, each in a 'modern philosophy' course focused on Jaspers's Reason and Existence and in a 'existential philosophy' course focused on Heidegger's Being and Time.

In 1949, Kim Jae-jun introduced Kierkegaard, together with Barth and Brunner, as leading figures in a new theological movement, when he gave a public lecture titled 'The change in the trend of theological thought before and after the World War' in the first Presbyterian national convention for youth held in the Seoul Citizens' Hall. This may have been the first Kierkegaard mentioned in public in the religious circle. Kim Jae-jun introduced Kierkegaard as follows:

The Danish theologian Kierkegaard was a great thinker and a predecessor of K. Barth in all fields of aesthetics, ethics, philosophy and theology. Opposed to Hegel's thought on reason, he declared the bankruptcy of reason in religion. He asserted that there is 'an absolute difference in quality' between God and man, eternity and time, and the supernatural and nature', which should not be seen as a monistic continuity as argued by liberalists or Thomists. To be a Christian means neither a belief in a certain theological system nor keeping an ethical lesson in mind. He argued that it would be possible through entering personal contemporaneity with Christ.[xi]

In general, it can be said that there was no full-scale discussion or research on existentialism or existential philosophy, not to mention of Kierkegaard in the realm of ideas in Korea. The Korean War which broke out in June 1950 deprived Koreans and Korean society of all at a stroke, turning all into nothing.

2-2. From the post-war era to the end of the 1950s

Busan, the provisional capital located in the southern part of Korea, was full of the atmosphere of despair mixed with anxiety, irritation, fear, solitude and so on. Now existentialism to Koreans was a daily life itself. In the battle front with death at hand young people, who had already seen 'the end of ends' or 'the pit of despair', gathered in the classrooms of a temporary settlement for college education built like a refugee camp at the foot of Gudeok Mountain and coffee shops nearby. Where they discussed Sartre and Camus, read Jaspers and Heidegger, recited the poems of Rilke, Eliot and Baudelaire and talked about criticisms of their poems. There were lectures on Being and Nothingness as well as on Sartre's literary works in the classrooms of the university. Hence, 'existence' and 'existentialism' became terms referring to those of Sartre. There were a lot of attempts to read Kierkegaard, too. But it was only an introduction into a discussion of Sartre or Heidegger. It were only a few Christians who tried to read Kierkegaard himself. In that situation there was Go Seok-gyu(1932-1958), a young man interested in literature, who admired Kierkegaard.

He was born in Hamheung, went south by himself when he was a middle school boy, and lived in Busan. When the Korean War broke out, he volunteered for the military service. After he retired from the military service being wounded, he majored in Korean Literature at Busan University and then played an active part in literary circles as a poet as well as a critic. He accepted Kierkegaard's point of view that our limited situation of existence is in itself paradoxical. If Kierkegaard tried to overcome this paradoxical situation through thinking and religion, Go Seok-gyu tried to solve the same problem through versification and literary criticism. For the latter, the writer's existence as a person could be identified with literary paradox, and thus the evaluation of the writer depends on how intricately his/her problem of existence corresponds to the paradox revealed in the literary text. Go Seok-gyu paid attention to Kierkegaard's concept of irony as the opposite to the limitless as well as the view that the human being as a spirit means one's own relationship to oneself. He also accepted Kierkegaard's theory of stages of life as a movement of self-realization of existence and took this as a starting point of his literary criticism. Although he died very young when he was 27 years old, his excellent essays such as "Existence of the Blank," "Anxiety and Existentialism," "A Spiritual Sketch of Yun Dong-ju," "A Paradox of the Poet" show that he as an existential literary critic left a great mark in the post-war literary history.

Along with the return of the government to Seoul in 1953, the Korean society recovered its peaceful everyday life. Since colleges also returned from their places of refuge, the academic camp became spirited again. The Korean Organization of Philosophy, an academic organization of college professors, started and Sasanggae, a general magazine, came out and played an important role as a center of intelligence on the basis of hot expectation and love from the intellects and students. The availability of foreign books except Japanese and Marxist books allowed the intellects like professors and students to encounter the recent thoughts and studies of Europe, and to burn with the desire for learning despite the post-war poverty and difficulties. Above all, there were, beneath the desire for learning, serious questions of what I have to do, and of how I should live. While existentialism, which had spread like a fever in the place of refuge, still remained influential to the intellects, various kinds of academic books about the English and American Pragmatism, Utilitarianism, Logical Positivism, Scientific Philosophy, Aesthetics stimulated academic discourses in every part of society as well as in academic camp. From this point of time, the full-scale academic theses started to be published through various media, and it was around this time that some introductions and academic papers about Kierkegaard came out.

Jo Yo-han(1926-) graduated in philosophy from Seoul National University in 1953 with his thesis titled "Søren Kierkegaard's Concept of Existence" and the next year Lee Gyo-sang graduated in philosophy from the same school with his thesis titled "A Study on Kierkegaard - Delight of Aesthetic Life and Beatitude of Religious Life." The thesis of the latter, appeared in the newspaper of the university, attracted public attention from outside and inside the university. Rim Chun-gap's "Kierkegaard's Idea of Sin" in 1957, Pyo Jae-myeong(1933-)'s "Kierkegaard's Concept of Paradox" in 1958, and Kang Hak-cheol(1934)'s "Kierkegaard's Theory of Pathos" in 1959 were submitted to the same school.

When primary introductions and researches of Kierkegaard started around 1954, Sasanggae mentioned above and Christian Thought published as a monthly magazine by the Korea Christian Literature Society made great contributions to it. With the start of Lee Gyo-sang's "A Phase of Modern Philosophy and Literature - Immorality and Faith," Sasanggae had afterward carried a lot of essays about Kierkegaard. Several translated books such as H. R. Mackintosh's Types of Modern Theology(by Kim Jae-jun)[xii] in 1956, H. Johnson's Kierkegaard's Existential Philosophy(by Rim Chun-gap)[xiii] in 1958, Walter Lowrie's A Short Life of Kierkegaard(by Rim Chun-gap)[xiv] in 1959, K. Löwith's Knowledge, Faith, and Skepsis (by Rim Chun-gap)[xv] in 1961 played important roles as introductory texts for ordinary readers.

Here we need to mention Park Jong-hong again. Park, who had experienced the horrible Korean War, published in 1954 An Introduction to Philosophy, which can be seen as the accumulation of his thoughts of philosophy. In this book, quoting Jaspers‘s statement that "insincere philosophy gets us escaped from reality, but real philosophy leads us to reality," he argues that philosophy means understanding of reality. For Park, the process of grasping reality is in itself philosophy. His idea of philosophy as the grasp of reality became the logic of construction and creation, which contributed to rebuilding the country exhausted by the division of the land and the consequent war.

Hinted from K. Jung's idea, which distinguishes Introversionstypus from Extraversionstypus in the psychological types of human being, Park Jong-hong divides philosophical thought into the two types, that is, the introvert grasp of reality and the extrovert grasp of reality. Park provides us with the examples of the introvert grasp of reality such as ethics in the later period of the ancient Greek, the German mysticism in the early modern period. The German and French existentialism in the modern period; the examples of the extrovert grasp of reality are the sophist ideas of the Greek, the ideas of the Renaissance in the early modern period, pragmatism and dialectic materialism in the modern period. According to Park, the introvert grasp of reality gets dominant when the country declines and the society becomes insecure, whereas the extrovert grasp of reality appears when the country flourishes and the society is in time of peace.

Park Jong-hong divides existential thought as a modern type of the introvert grasp of reality into two categories, theistic existentialism and atheistic one. Park thinks that philosophers like Kierkegaard, Jaspers, G. Marcel belong to the first category, particularly defining Kierkegaard as "a solitary existence." On the basis of Kierkegaard's idea of "subjectivity=truth", Park describes a desperate situation of existence as the single individual before God, who is forced to decide either downfall or salvation. He tries to prove this existence leading to the "qualitative dialectic" that makes it possible to escape oneself from despair, to make a qualitative leap, and thus to reach the salvation by renouncing one's personal self by virtue of repentance, choosing one's permanent and intrinsic self, and accepting the paradox of God=man. Arguing that Kierkegaardian existence of single individual before God becomes related to the history of every individual through the medium of God, and in doing so, opens up for a new history of mankind within the self, he states that this viewpoint hints at a clue about how our solitary and introvert existence is related to the extrovert world.

We can see Park's consistent effort to define the relationship between the introvert existence and the outside world in his posthumous work, The Dialectic Logic, published in 1977.[xvi] In particular, the sixth chapter entitled "Modern Philosophy and Dialectic," attached by its subtitle "Kierkegaard : Qualitative Dialectic," is an important part in relation to his point of view. Nonetheless, this work, unfortunately, remains as a form of a short memorandum without taking a finished version due to his chronic disease and pressure of work which dominated his last few years, while revealing its limitation of the conventional understanding of Kierkegaard through Heidegger. It does not have substantial development of arguments except mentioning that the paradoxical confrontation of dialectic, deeply rooted in the inner life of existence, opens up for a new method of the qualitative dialectic, which lays the foundation of the existential dialectic and, later, of the dialectic theology. His understanding of Kierkegaard since 1930s leads to his evaluation that although this existential dialectic, which is the logic of stimulating awakening of a sincere mind and spirit, has some introvert characteristic originated from existence of the solitary individual, it does not reach either the logic of a specific act or the logic of construction and creation. Consequently, Park did see neither Kierkegaard's deep concern with politics and social issues revealed in his journals and later works nor his longing for a new community based on the practice of Christian love of neighbors. We can notice here that there existed some limitations in the study and understanding of Kierkegaard of that time to regard him as a precursor of existentialism.

Kim Hyeong-seok, a professor of Yonsei University, published a translation of The Sickness Unto Death in 1956.[xvii] This was a very meaningful incident in the study of Kierkegaard in Korea, along with Ahn Byeong-uk's enlightening work, Thought of Kierkegaard, on the grounds that it was the first translation of the original text in Korean. Kim Hyeong-seok could get more preoccupied with his study of Kierkegaard after he became a professor. His concern with Kierkegaard was not oriented to the existential theology as seen in Barth's texts, but to the existential humanism. He also wanted to have some positive and productive influences on self-reflection of the Koreans of the day, rather than being interested in passively receiving thoughts of Kierkegaard. At that time, Korean scholars were highly interested in the thought of Heidegger, while superficial understanding of existentialism was widely spread among public readers as well as scholars. Despite the fact that existential philosophy was quite popular, however, the full-scale introduction of Kierkegaard to the Korean public was not accomplished yet by anyone.

Kim Hyeong-seok, who studied philosophy as a Christian, considered it as his mission and task to study thoughts of Kierkegaard and thus to lead the Korean public, particularly Christians, to his thoughts. At that time, Kim, who was leading a circle of reading the Bible in a church, attracted hot public attention by discussing not only the Bible but also Pascal's thought, and by making some lectures about Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death. At the time when the Koreans were not fully recovered from the wounds of the war, his lectures provided a lot of people some consolation and courage to live a new life. He kept making efforts to study and spread thoughts of Kierkegaard and finally became a forerunner in the study of Kierkegaard through his lectures and writings such as "A Practical Structure of Time," "Dialectic of Despair," "The Birth of Modern Philosophy and the Question of Subjectivity," "An Eschatological Structure of Time," and books like Philosophy of the Modern People and A World View for the Modern People.

Ahn Byeong-uk, who became a professor of Soongsil University, contributed his essay "The Genealogy of Existentialism - Kierkegaard, A Theistic Existentialist" to Sasanggae in 1955 and published in 1957 Thought of Kierkegaard,[xviii] the first academic work of Kierkegaard written in Korean. This book made a phenomenal success and made him become a celebrity in the camp of philosophy. How many young men, who read this book, came to recognize a new meaning of life and enter the way of philosophy! Ahn Byeong-uk made consistent efforts to introduce Kierkegaard to the Korean public through a lot of writings, lectures, and teachings.

3. From the end of the 1950s to the 1980s

3-1. Another Translation of The Sickness Unto Death

Another translation of The Sickness Unto Death by Rim Chun-gap came out in May, 1957.[xix] Whereas Kim Hyeong-seok's translation of the same book published in the previous year was based on Schrempf's German text, Rim Chun-gap's translation was based on E. Hirsch's German text, newly translated after the Second World War, and Walter Lowrie's English text. Rim could translate The Sickness Unto Death in 14 years after he had encountered with this book for the first time, whose main reason is that he could not find a publisher to publish the book. He could not but publish the book with his own money, but an unexpected thing like a miracle happened. Although it was not sure whether it was either because it has a good title or because the circumstance under the dictatorship of the Liberal Party depressed people and brought about a lot of anxiety and depression, the book made a phenomenal hit in its sale and kept being reprinted. Through this unrivalled success of the book, Rim Chun-gap realized incalculable Devine Providence of God and decided to keep translating every work of Kierkegaard in Korean as long as he can. From this moment to 1982, he had published for 25 years, sometime with his money and sometimes through publishers, Kierkegaard's fourteen major works from Either/Or to The Moment. We cannot appreciate him too much for the achievement that Rim Chun-gap as a translator of Kierkegaard made for ordinary readers and Kierkegaard scholars.

3-2. From the 1960s to the end of 1970s

In the 1960s, Korea had entered the industrial age with the moment of the 5.16 military coup d'état and established economic progress very fast, which is called "the Miracle of the Han River." Although this economic progress entailed the limits of human rights and freedom of the people, Korean people were so fascinated with their economic growth that they felt as if Korea immediately entered the level of the developed country. Recovering confidence with the success of the Saemaul Movement(New Community Movement) with the slogan of "Let's live well" and the success of the First Economic Progress Policy, the Korean government and industrialists were getting busier than before, and the Korean society was caught in the worship of materials, which put the economy the very first. Churches in Korea could not escape from this social atmosphere. In particular, churches in the urban area were getting gigantic by absorbing the urban population being increased along with the acceleration of industrialization, and thus transformed into churches following secular gratification, where they taught their followers as if the mundane success of Christians could be identified with the bliss of God. It was not long before small churches located in rural areas followed the same road.

During the time that the Korean churches are getting secularized, Korea participated in the Vietnam War, built up the foundation of economic growth by virtue of a boom of construction greatly demanded in Saudi Arabia, and finally became one of four flying dragons of Asia. From the 1960s to 1970s, just as people followed economic growth, some yearning for satisfying spiritual and cultural desire was also strong. There came out a lot of introductory books and professional academic books. Various kinds of series of the great books of the world and also series of general education were published. And works of Kierkegaard almost always appeared among these series.

During this time appeared Byeon Seon-hwan(1927-1995),[xx] Pyo Jae-myeong, Kang Hak-cheol, Hwang Pil-ho(1937-), Hong Sun-myeong, Chae Gyu-cheol and so on. These scholars, who encountered Kierkegaard for the first time in the 1950s, either came from the northern part of Korea or had a common experience to have volunteered for the Korean War. They also had the same religious background as Christians; although they all read Kierkegaard for the purpose of establishing their own identity and faith, they also aimed to urge the Korean people, who were getting obsessed with material and outer life, to recover a genuine self as inwardness, that is, a spirit. Kang Hak-cheol pursued existential humanism. Hong Sun-myeong and Chae Gyu-cheol were attracted to Kierkegaard's spiritual purity. Although Hong was a leader of Korean non-church movement, it is quite surprising that while Japanese leaders of its movement received Kierkegaard quite early, he finally contacted with Kierkegaard in the 1960s. Chae Gyu-cheol studied in Denmark at the end of the 1960s and found the starting point of Kierkegaard's life and thought in Sædding. By reading the original texts of Kierkegaard (the third edition by R. Rodhe), he became the first Korean to read Kierkegaard in Danish. In 1979, Pyo Jae-myeong brought the second edition of Samlede Værker af Kierkegaard into Korea for the first time after he finished studying in Kierkegaard Institute of Copenhagen University. By paying attention to Kierkegaard's concern with politics and society, Pyo opened up for the possibility to approach Kierkegaard from the socio-philosophical point of view. Most translations of Kierkegaard's works that we can read now in Korean were done by Rim Chun-gap, Kang Hak-cheol, and Pyo Jae-myeong. Now the name of Kierkegaard, along with his idea of "subjectivity=truth" and his theory of three stages of life, appears in the text of ethics of the high school as well as in most introductory books of philosophy. Of course, Kierkegaard has been mentioned very often in the lectures of the churches.

On the other side of the dazzling economic growth there existed the dark side of modern industrialization. In particular, the lives of urban workers were very horrible to see. In October 1970, a shocking incident happened. A young man named Jeon Tae-il(1948-1970), who was a sewer at that time, burned himself to death. Following Jeon, many students and workers made sacrifice of themselves. It is not right to define their death as suicide; it is right to say that they were murdered. Afterwards, Park Jong-cheol and Lee Han-yeol died. Ahn Byeong-mu, who said "I did not get anything" in returning from Germany after having spent 10 years in the department of theology of Heidelberg in search of "Historical Christ," saw the rebirth of the crucified Christ from students' and workers' successive deaths, their funerals, and the masses in the struggle for democracy. He finally found the answer to his lifelong question. He encountered the people in agony by being imprisoned by the military government. Eventually, getting out of the European frame of theology, he re-read the Bible and met another kind of Christ who he have never experienced.

On the basis of his idea of the masses, influenced from Kierkegaard (and also from the sociological theory of the masses), Ahn distinguished "the masses as untruth" from "the people as a group in suffering(Minjung)." He regarded the suffering of the people as a collective suffering, not as an individual one. Even in the case that an individual was in affliction, Ahn thought that this person took the burden of suffering on behalf of the people. He thought everyone under the dictatorship of the military government was the people, and felt heartbroken about the suffering that the people had to endure. Relating this suffering of the people to 'Han(恨, the very grief, a typical emotion of Korean race)', or the grief of the people, he found the origin of the relationship between the twos in the Gospel of Mark of the New Testament.[xxi]

The people in its etymology consists of two words, that is, ochlos and laos; laos, who can be identified with the current use of the word of the people, have some rights to be protected within the circle of some group, whereas ochlos are the people who can not enjoy such rights because they are outside the circle. Mark called people, who followed and relied on Christ, ochlos. They were co-workers who participated in the Mission of Christ as well as followers(Nachfolge). They also were the imitators of Christ(imitatio Christi) and witnesses of Christ(martyr). For Ahn, the single individual of Kierkegaard was none other than the people in suffering, and to stand by oneself before God meant to come into contact with Christ existing among the people in suffering. He therefore thought that the church on earth had to be transformed into the community of living where the people become subjects and the community of equality where the people follow the sacred mission(missio Dei). His crying out, which appealed to Seo Nam-dong(1918-1984), Kim Yong-bok, Seo Gwang-seon, came to develop into the Minjung Theology(People's Theology) and greatly contributed to the human rights movement and the democratic movement of Korea in the 1970s. This also served to awaken the slumber of the established churches.

4. From the 1980s to the 1990s and over the 1990s

The struggle for democracy in Korea was getting fierce in the 1980s, and the movement for the unification of two political power in the Korean peninsular centering around college students was also getting intense. The size of economy continued to grow every year, and the Korean society came to have characteristics of a late industrial society. People became interested in the quality of life, not in survival, and enjoyed their life of leisure. The massive spread of motorcars facilitated to the new life style. People made money to enjoy their life and avoided hard works. With the spread of color television, people did not read serious books any more. Students knew the name of Kierkegaard, but they even confused his name with Cicero. Even student political activists who were interested in social issues like democratization and unification, did not read classics about Marxism and other philosophies. What they read was the brochures seemed to be useful to democratization and unification or was the guide books, the codes of conducts related to the strategies and tactics for the social movement, or was 'the Juche idea(i.e. the idea of self-direction, self-reliance, independence) of the North Korea'.

In May, 1977, the time when the thorough sterility of inwardness was going on as stated above, people who were interested in the thought of Kierkegaard made "Korea Kierkegaard Association" in order to learn his thoughts and to introduce them to other people. From that time, the Association used to give a monthly open class, and also provide public lecture tours in many areas of the country including Seoul, while having special seminars for 3 days in the summer and winter vacation. They were active as above, then the gatherings used to end successfully. But in the 1980s when the social, cultural conditions changed suddenly, the activities of the Association began to be daunted. People got to forgetting Kierkegaard rapidly in the Korean society and cultural area generally including university, and only a few people took an interest in that.

Nevertheless people who studied in foreign countries began to return to Korea. A so-called Kierkegaard experts came to appear in this country. Kim Madeleine was the first doctor of philosophy with her thesis titled "Der Einzelne und das Allgemeine"[xxii] at Vienna University in 1980. The second person was Sa Mi-ja with the thesis titled "A Kierkegaardian Perspective on Suffering"[xxiii] at Drew University in 1983. The third one was Kim Ha-ja with the thesis titled "A Study on Kierkegaard's Theory of Education" at Korea University in 1984. The fourth one was Jeon Jae-gyeong with the thesis titled "The Relation to Education of Guilt and Conscience in the Philosophy of S. Kierkegaard and M. Heidegger"[xxiv] at Columbia University in 1985. The fifth one was Pyo Jae-myeong with the thesis titled "Kierkegaard's Concept of the Single Individual" at Korea University in 1986. There are other followers: Go Gwang-pil: The Grammar of the Self(Drew Univ., 1990), Lee Seung-gu: The Relationship between Ethical Sphere and Christianity in the Thought of S. Kierkegaard(St. Andrew Univ., 1990), Rim Gyu-jeong: Kierkegaard's Dialectic of the Self(Korea Univ., 1991), Kim Yong-il: Existentielle Bewegung und existentielles Verstehen bei S. Kierkegaard(Tübingen, 1991), Rim Byeong-deok: Kierkegaard's Indirect Communica-

tion(Seoul National Univ., 1992), Song Eun-jae: A Study on Kierkegaard's Paradox (Korea Univ., 1997), Lee Yong-seok: Existenzdialektik als Wissenschaft des Selbst- tverstehens bei Kierkegaard(Keimyung Univ., 1999),  Lee Min-ho : Socrate dans l'œuvre de Kierkegaard. L'examen de la conception kierkegaardienne de Socrate dans la these universitaire et l'œuvre pseudonyme de Kierkegaard(1st Paris Univ., 2001), Choe Seung-il: A Study on the Religiousness of Kierkegaard(Korea Univ., 2003).

Around this time, although ordinary people did not pay attention to Kierkegaard any more, it seems that these academic products are results of sincere dialogues and confrontations with Kierkegaard by the individuals who are deeply concerned with the destiny of the age and the human existence.

In May, 1992, "Korea Kierkegaard Association" was born again by the name of "Korea Kierkegaard Academy". The Academy changed the membership of the general citizen into the membership of the university/college graduates and the equivalent. And also they changed their activities such as public lectures for academic studies and presentations. They have academic meetings 8 times a year and issue an academic journal annually at the present time. The International Kierkegaard Conference with "Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre in Japan" held twice in the meantime were noteworthy activities of the Academy. The first conference was held in Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan from 11/27/2000 to 11/28/2000(participant scholars: 7 Koreans, 26 Japanese), and the second was held in Korea University in Korea from 11/14/2003 to 11/15/2003(participant scholars: 12 Japanese, 20 Koreans). In 2004, the current executives are Dr. Hwang Pil-ho(philosophy of religion) as the 7th president and Dr. Lee Min-ho(philosophy) as the general director. The previous presidents are as follows: Pyo Jae-myeong(philosophy), Kang Hak-cheol(philosophy), Lee Il-su(philosophy), Kim Ha-ja(philosophy of education), Sa mi-ja(psychology of religion), Lee Sang-hun(theology) and Hwang Pil-ho(Religion).

The human beings living in the 21th century become so externalized and non-spiritualized that it is hard to compare the modern people with those of the time Kierkegaard had lived. The progress of up-to-date science and techniques, particularly the breakthrough of life science/techniques and information science/

techniques maximizes the externalization and non-spiritualization by having people get more obsessed with limited limitlessness, and more confined in a virtual space. But I think that now is the time for us to read Kierkegaard and thus learn from him about our questions and problems of here and now.

Ⅱ. Kierkegaard literature in Korea

1. Kierkegaard’s Writings in Korean Translation

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from German Translation],

tr. by Kim Hyeong-seok, Seoul, Gyeongjisa, 1956.

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from German Translation],

tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Changrimsa, 1957.

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from English Translation],

tr. by Kim Byeong-ok, Seoul, Daeyang Chulpansa, 1970.

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from German Translation],

tr. by Park Hwan-deok, Seoul, Hwimun Chulpansa, 1972.

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from German Translation],

tr. by Son Jae-jun, Seoul, Samseong Chulpansa, 1975.

Chugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Døden : from German Translation],

tr. by Kang Seong-wi, Seoul, Dongseo Munhwasa, 1956.

Yuhokjaui Ilgi [Forførerens Dagbog-fra Enten/Eller : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Changrimsa, 1960.

Yuhokjaui Ilgi [Forførerens Dagbog-fra Enten/Eller : from German Translation],

           tr. by Kang Seong-wi, Seoul, Dongseo Munhwasa, 1975.

Yuhokjaui Ilgi [Forførerens Dagbog-fra Enten/Eller],

           tr. by Rim Gyu-jeong & Yeon Hui-won, Seoul, Hangilsa, 2001.

Igeosinya/Jeogeosinya [Uddrag af Enten/Eller : from English Translation],

 tr. by Kim Yeong-cheol, Seoul, Hwimun Chulpansa, 1962.

Igeosinya/Jeogeosinya [Uddrag af Enten/Eller : from English Translation] in 4 vols,

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1982.

I Areumdaun Godok [Gjentagelsen : From German Translation],

           tr. by Song Yeong-taek, Seoul, Sinjo Munhwasa, 1966.

Banbok [Gjentagelsen : From English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1973.

Banbok [Gjentagelsen : From German Translation],

           tr. by Son Jae-jun, Seoul, Samseong Chulpansa, 1975.

Duryeoumgwa Tteollim [Frygt og Bæven : from German Translation],

           tr. by Kang Hak-cheol, Seoul, Hwimun Chulpansa, 1966.

           rev. Seoul, Joyang Munhwasa, 1973.

Gongpowa Jeonyul [Frygt og Bæven : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1973.

Gongpowa Jeonyul [Frygt og Bæven : from German Translation],

           tr. by Son Jae-jun, Seoul, Samseong Chulpansa, 1975.

Buranui Gaenyeom [Begrebet Angest : from English Translation],

           tr. by Kim Byeong-ok, Seoul, Daeyang Chulpansa, 1970.

Buranui Gaenyeom [Begrebet Angest : from German Translation],

           tr. by Park Hwan-deok, Seoul, Hwimun Chulpansa, 1972.

Buranui Gaenyeom [Begrebet Angest : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1974.

Buranui Gaenyeom [Begrebet Angest],

           tr. by Rim Gyu-jeong, Seoul, Hangilsa, 1999.

Cheolhakjeok Danpyeon [Philosophiske Smuler : from German Translation],

           tr. by Pyo Jae-myeong, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1973.

Cheolhakjeok Danpyeon [Philosophiske Smuler : from German Translation],

           tr. by Son Jae-jun, Seoul, Samseong Chulpansa, 1975.

Cheolhakjeok Jogakdeul ttoneun Han Jogagui Cheolhak [Philosophiske Smuler :

 from English Translation], tr. by Hwang Pil-ho, Seoul, Jipmundang,

 1998.

Geuriseudogyoui Hullyeon [Indøvelse i Christendom : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1978.

Sun-gan [Øijblikket : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1979.

Sarang-ui Yeoksa [Kjerlighedens Gjeringer : from English Translation] in 2 vols,

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1979.

Gwanjeom [Synspunkte for min Forfatter-Virksomhed : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1980.

Hyeondae Bipan [En literair Anmeldese : from English Translation],

           tr. by Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1980.

Deurui Baekhap · Gongjung-ui Sae [Lillienpaa Marken og Fuglen under Himlen +

 Ypperstepræsten, Tolderen, Synderinden : from German Translation],

 tr. by Pyo Jae-myeong, Seoul, Jongno Seojeok, 1980.

2. Books on Kierkegaard

1) Written by Korean in Korean Language

Ahn Byeong-uk : Kiereukegoreu Sasang [Thought of Kierkegaard]. Seoul,

 Sasanggaesa, 1957.

Kang Hak-cheol : Dosang-ui Siljon [Existence on the Way]. Seoul,

 Daehan Gidokkyo Seohoe, 1977.

Pyo Jae-myeong : Kiereukegoaui Dandokja Gaenyeom [Kierkegaard's

 Concept of the Single Individual], Seoul, Seogwangsa, 1992.

Pyo Jae-myeong : Kiereukegoa Yeon-gu [A Study on Kierkegaard], Seoul,

 Jiseong-ui Saem, 1995.

Rim Byeong-deok : Kiereukegoreuui Ganjeopjeondal [The Indirect Communication

 by Kierkegaard], Seoul, Gyoyukgwahaksa, 1998.

Lee Yang-ho : Choworui Haengbo [Step for Transcendence], Seoul,

 Damronsa, 1998.

Kang Hak-cheol : Muuimirobuteoui Jayu [Freedom from Meaninglessness,

 Kierkegaard's Paradoxical Anthropology], Seoul, Dongmyeongsa, 1999.

Kim Jong-du : Siljonsasanggwa Hyeondaeinui Jaaihae [Existence-Philosophy and

 Modern Man's Self-Understanding], Seoul, M-Ad, 2002.

Hanguk Kiereukegoa Hakhoe ed. : Dasi ingneun Kiereukegoa [Kierkegaard-reread],

 Seoul, Cheolhakkwa Hyeonsilsa, 2003.

Kim Ha-ja : Kiereukegoreuwa Gyoyuk [Kierkegaard and Education], Seoul,

 Sungshin Women's Univ. Press, 2004.

Hwang Pil-ho : Yeokseorui Jonggyo [Religion of Paradox], Seoul, Jipmundang,

 1996.

2) Written by Korean in Foreign Language

Kim Madeleine : Der Einzelne und das Allgemeine. Zur Selbstverwirklichung des

 Menschen bei S. Kierkegaard. Oldenbourg, Wien/Müchen, 1980.

Sa Mi-ja : A Kierkegaardian Perspective on Suffering, Phd. Thesis, Drew Univ.,

 1983.

Kim Yong-il : Existentielle Bewegung und existentielles Verstehen

 bei S. Kierkegaard, Tübingen, 1991.

3) Translations

Kim Jae-jun : Hyeondae Sinhagui Jehyeong [H. R. Mackintosh : Types of Modern

 Theology, 1937], Seoul, Ministry of Education, 1956.

Rim Chun-gap : Kiereukegoreuui Siljoncheolhak [H. A. Johnson : Key for

 Kierkegaard Understanding, 1953], Hyeongseol Chulpansa, 1958.

Rim Chun-gap : Kiereukegoreuui Saeng-aewa Sasang [W. Lowrie : A Short Life of

 Kierkegaard, 1942], Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1959.

Hong Dong-geun : Kelkegorui Jonggyo Sasang [H. V. Martin : Kierkegaard,

 the Melancholy Dane, 1950], Seoul, Seong-am Munhwasa, 1960.

Rim Chun-gap : Jisik, Sinang, Hoeui [K. Löwith : Wissen, Glauben, Skepsis], Seoul,

 Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1961.

Kang Hui-yeong : Yeeonjeok Sasangga [W. Higg : Religiöser Denker-Kierkegaard,

 1952], Seoul, Bundo Chulpansa, 1974.

Kang Hak-cheol : Hegelseo Nichero [K. Löwith : Von Hegel zu Nietzsche, 1949],

 Seoul, Mineumsa, 1974.

Lee Chang-u : Kiereukegoreu [S. U. Zuidema : Kierkegaard, 1960], Seoul,

 Jongno Seojeok, 1983.

Pyeonjippu : Naui Seong! Geu Jeolmang-ui Kkeutekkaji [J. Thomson : Kierkegaard,

 1973], Seoul, Yeonghansa, 1984.

Mun Seok-ho : Siljon-gwa Sinang [Ch. Evans : Subjectivity and Religious Belief,

 1990], Seoul, Seonggwang Munhwasa, 1990.

Rim Gyu-jeong : Kiereukegreu [P. Gardiner : Kierkegaard, 1988], Seoul, Sigongsa,

 2001.

Rim Gyu-jeong : Kiereukegoreu, Kopenhagenui Godokhan Yeonghon [P. Rohde :

S. Kierkegaard in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Rohwolt,

1959], Seoul, Hangilsa, 2003.

Lee Hong-u & Rim Byeong-deok:Kierukegoreuui Gyoyukiron[R.J. Manheimer:

Kierkegaard as Educator, Univ. of California Press,1977] , Seoul,

Gyoyukgwahaksa, 2003.

Lee Chang-seung : Kiereukegoreuui Gido [F. D. Lefevre tr. & ed. : The Prayers of

 Kierkegaard with a new interpretation of his life and thought, 1963],

 Seoul, Gidokkyo Yeonhapsinmunsa, 2004.

Lee Chang-sil : Kiereukegoreu [Charles Le Blanc : Kierkegaard], Seoul,

 Dongmunseon, 2004.

Footnote:

 1 Yushu no tetsuri [Tungsindets Filosofi-uddrag af Enten-Eller], overs. af  Miyahara

   Koichiro , Tokyo:Shunjyusha, 1930. 

 2 Kierukrgoru Senshu  [Soren Kierkegaard Skrifter i Udvalg], red. af Miki Kiyoshi,

       Tokyo:Kaizosha, 1935.  

1. Bd. <1.> Fuan no gainen [Begrebet Angest]

       <2.> Gendai no hihan [Udbytte for Iagttagelsen af detvende     

            Tidsaldere - fra En literair Anmeldelse]

       <3.> Shini itaru yamai [Sygdommen til D?en]

2. Bd. <1.> Kirisutokyo ni okeru kunren [Ind?else i Christendom]

      <2.> Osore to ononoki [Frygt og B?en]

      <3.> Y waksha no nikki [Forforers Dagbog - fra Enten-Eller]

3. Bd. <1.> Aironi no gainen [Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt Hensyn

 til  Sokrates]

      <2.> Hanpuk [Gjentagelsen]

      <3.> Shunkan [?eblikket]

 3 Hefdeingu [Harald Hoffding] : Tetsugakusha to shite no Kierukegoru (Overs. af      

Kierkegaard als Philosoph), overs. af Torii Hiroo, Tokyo : Daiichshob , 1935.

 4 Park Jong-hong : Park Jong-hongs jeonjip [Park Jong-hongs samlede vaerker] Bd. I,

Seoul: Mineumsa, 1982, p. 330; pp. 161-205; p. 164 footnote 2); p. 195,          

footnote 6); p. 199.

 5 ibid., p. 195. GW 1 16 II S. 6.

 6 ibid., GW 1 16 II S. 12.

 7 Park Yong-cheol : Park Yong-cheols jeonjip [samlede vaerker] Bd II, Seoul: Donggwangdang,

1939, pp. 186-188. GW1 1 S. 19. Quoted from Walter Lowrie's translation

([Either/Or], vol. 1, Princeton Univ. Press, 1972, p. 19.)

 8 Yun Dong-ju : Prelude to "Sky, Wind, Stars and Poems", Seoul: Jeongeumsa, 1948.

9 Tetsugakteki danpen k sho [Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler], overs. af Kito Eiichi, Tokyo: Mikasashobo, 1938.

10 Shito to tensai tono sai ni tsuite [Om Forskjellen mellem et Genie og en Apostel], overs. af Hashimoto Kagami, Tokyo: Nagasakishoten, 1941.

11 Kim Jae-jun: Kim Jae-juns jeonjip [samlede vaerker] Bd. I, Seoul: Hangook Theological College, 1992, pp. 377-379.

12 H.R. Mackintosh : Hyeondae Sinhagui Jehyeong [Types of Modern Theology], tr. by Kim Jae-jun, Ministry of Education, 1956.

13 H. Johnson : Kierkegoreuui Siljoncheolhak [Kierkegoru rikaino kagi (noegler til       

Kierkegaard-forstaaelse, 1952] overs. af Rim Chun-gap, Hyeongseol Munhwasa,         1958.

14 W. Lowrie : Kiereukegoreuui Saengaewa Sasang [A Short Life of Kierkegaard, 1942] overs. af Rim Chun-gap, Seoul: Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1959.

15 K. Lowith: Jisik·Sinang·Hoeui [Wissen·Glauben·Skepsis, 1956], overs. af Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Pyeonghwa Chulpansa, 1961.

16    ark Jong-hong: Byeonjeungbeopjeok Nolli [Dialectic Logic], Seoul, Pagyeongsa, 1977,

            pp. 249-256.

17 Jugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til D?en, overs. af Chr. Schrempf] overs. af Kim Hyeong-seok, Seoul, Kyeongjisa, 1956.

18 Ahn Byeong-uk: Kiereukegoreu Sasang [Kierkegaard's Thought], Seoul,       

   Sasanggesa, 1957.

19 Jugeume ireuneun Byeong [Sygdommen til Doden, overs. af E. Hirsch], overs. af

 Rim Chun-gap, Seoul, Changrimsa, 1957.

20 Byeon Seon-hwan : The Possibilities of Corelation of S. Kierkegaard and Barth

  based on Der Romerbrief 2. Auflage, MA. Dissertation, Drew Univ. 1967.

21 Ahn Byeong-mu : Ahn Byeong-mus jeonjip [samlede vaerker] Bd. II, pp. 175-177. 254 f. Bd. II p. 199, pp. 206-212. Seoul: Hanguk Theology Institute, 1996.

22 Kim Madeleine : Der Einzelne und das Allgemeine, Wien/Muenchen:R.Oldenbourg

  Verlag, 1980.

23 Sa MI-ja: Kierkegaardian Perspective on Suffering, Phd. Thesis, Drew Univ. 1983. 

24 Jeon Jae-gyeong: The Relation to Education of Guilt and Consciens in the Philo-sophy of S. Kierkegaard and M. Heidegger, Phd. Thesis, Columbia Univ. 1985.