It is this classic of Existentialism that introduced the notion of “Angst” (anxiety) in philosophy. If Kierkegaard had written nothing else, The Concept of Anxiety alone would have cemented him as one of the most important thinkers since antiquity. Nowhere else can one find an account of the concept of anxiety that comes close in importance to the one Kierkegaard gives in the present work.

Using the Fall in the Garden of Eden as the foundation of the analysis, he succeeds in describing what no-one has been able to before or since. “Long before modern psychology had entered puberty, Kierkegaard unfurled advanced psychological concepts that in many senses were Freudian before Freud was around. In his primary psychological work, The Concept of Anxiety, he presents his detailed analyses of the relationship of anxiety to phenomena such as freedom, sexuality, original sin, and history.” (The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre).

Being one of his most important and influential philosophical works, The Concept of Anxiety is essential to all later existentialist writers. It was arguably this work that more than any other influenced Existentialism.

The work bears a printed dedication to his beloved Poul Martin Møller, one of the most beautiful and moving dedications in a philosophical work. Poul Martin Møller was his philosophy professor, but more than that he was a moral mentor and one of a few people that Kierkegaard truly admired and cared for. Poul Martin Møller died in 1838, leaving almost no published works behind; he is the only person outside of Kierkegaard’s immediate family (here including Regine), who had been honoured with a printed dedication in any of his books.

Apart from the title Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses (the amputated Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses – without the two that were quickly sold out), The Concept of Anxiety is by far the scarcest of Kierkegaard’s works – “The Concept of Anxiety was only printed in 250 copies!” (Textspejle, p. 58, translated from Danish), which is ca half of most of the other works.

It is, interestingly, the only one of the pseudonymous writings from the period that was reprinted, despite the poor sales numbers of the first issue. In the summer of 1847, when Reitzel buys the remainders of the first issue, a mere 165 copies of what is arguably now considered Kierkegaard’s most important work had been sold.

At the beginning of the summer of 1855, the last 85 copies had finally been sold, and amid the tumultuous time of the “Church Fight”, Kierkegaard had agreed with Reitzel to a reprint of the work, now in an issue of 500 copies. The Concept of Anxiety is one of the only interesting reprints of a work by Kierkegaard, not least due to the timing of its appearance.

The printers, Bianco Lunos, had finished the printing of the second issue on August 16, 1855, and the book appeared on August 20th, a mere two and a half months before Kierkegaard died. From the age of 37 till ca 41 (1850-54), Kierkegaard did not publish any substantial books. He seems to have focused on writing his journals and only published a few smaller pieces, mostly discourses. In other words, he is not very publicly visible during this period. That is, until he begins publishing his famously controversial periodical The Moment. Along with articles in the paper The Fatherland, this becomes the beginning of his fight against the established Church, the so-called “Church fight”.

After Martensen in his eulogy over his predecessor Bishop Mynster had called Mynster a testament of truth for Christianity and a “martyr” (in Danish “Blodvidne”), Kierkegaard cannot hold his tongue and embarks on a fierce attack upon the Danish Church. With his newspaper-piece on December 1854, he declares war, and his merciless siege fire lasts for almost a year, right up until his death in November 1855. Beginning with a showdown with Bishop Martensen and that which Myster represented, Kierkegaard’s attack quickly transforms into a hateful war upon priesthood and the established Danish Church in general. A war from which the Danish Church would late recover. It is amid this very public fight that the second issue of The Concept of Anxiety appears, in twice as large a number as the famously scarce first issue.

Himmelstrup 62.