ABSTRACT
Kierkegaard’s decision not to marry Regine Olsen had a profound impact on his life and writing.4 He pens in his 1843 journal, “If I had had faith, I would have stayed with Regine.”5 On the tenth anniversary of their engagement, he reflects that she could not have first priority in his life because God had first priority: “My engagement [Forlovelse] to her and breaking the engagement are actually my relationship to God, are…my engagement to God [Forlovelse med Gud].”6 The authorship reflects this tension about marriage, depicting it both as a religious and ethical requirement and as a lesser life one ought to sacrifice for absolute fidelity to the divine.
