His father, on the other hand, was a well-to-do wool merchant from Jutland. She also wielded influence on her children so that later Peter said that his brother preserved many of their mother's words in his writings. Her granddaughter, Henriette Lund, wrote that she "wielded the sceptre with joy and protected like a hen protecting her chicks". She was an unassuming figure: quiet, and not formally educated.
His mother, Ane Sørensdatter Lund Kierkegaard, had served as a maid in the household before marrying his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard was born to an affluent family in Copenhagen.
His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices. He was extremely critical of the doctrine and practice of Christianity as a state-controlled religion like the Church of Denmark.
Much of his work deals with Christian love. Kierkegaard's theological work focuses on Christian ethics, the institution of the Church, the differences between purely objective proofs of Christianity, the infinite qualitative distinction between man and God, and the individual's subjective relationship to the God-Man Jesus the Christ, which came through faith. He was against literary critics who defined idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, and thought that Swedenborg, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, and Hans Christian Andersen were all "understood" far too quickly by "scholars". Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( / ˈ s ɒr ə n ˈ k ɪər k ə ɡ ɑːr d/ SORR-ən KEER-kə-gard, US also /- ɡ ɔːr/ -gor, Danish: ( listen) – 11 November 1855 ) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.