Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61
Authors: Christensen Bent 
Published: September 2020

Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61[Church and Congregation in Grundtvig’s Theology and Church Politics 1806-61]By Bent ChristensenFrom his 1806 work “Om Religion og Liturgie” (On Religion and Liturgy) and forthe rest of his life, N. F. S. Grundtvig was preoccupied with the substance andthe conditions of the church. In this paper, however, the latest text consideredis the final chapter of his book Den christelige Børnelærdom (Christian Childhood Teachings) (1861).The paper presents and analyses a number of statements showing whatGrundtvig understood by the terms “church” and “congregation” through threemain periods: 1. 1806-25 when Grundtvig by criticizing tried to clear the StateChurch of the Danish absolute monarchy of the current heterodox teachings andpractices. - 2. 1825-32 when Grundtvig had to admit that the battle was lost and that he himself was close to ending up as a separatist - 3. The years after 1832 when Grundtvig developed a freedom strategy based on the right of eachparishioner to choose another vicar or minister than the official incumbent ofthe parish (the so-called “sognebåndsløsning”).“On Religion and Liturgy” (written 1806 and printed 1807) was conceivedunder the State Church of the Danish absolute monarchy, a situation in whichit was not feasible to distinguish between the state and the church, nor betweenpeople and congregation. Grundtvig in his harsh criticism of contemporary clergy, however, was moving in the specific Christian dimension. He strove to change the state of things by criticizing them. In a poem dated 1811 he described in a strongly pentecostal and Apostolic perspective how he experienced his recent ordination and his future clerical calling.In his treatise “Om Kirke, Stat og Skole” (On Church, State and School)(1818-19), Grundtvig endeavoured to define the word and the conception of“church” and to examine the relationship between the church and the state. Heused the word “church” in a very broad sense, whereas he defined the Christian“kirkesamfund” (i.e. the community of Christians within the church) quiteprecisely.In his great poem Nyaars-Morgen (New Year’s Morn) (1824), Grundtvigfor the last time expressed his daring dream of a joint Christian and popular revival in Denmark, and in 1825 in the pamphlet Kirkens Gienmæle (The Church’s Retort) he used his “mageløse opdagelse” (i.e. his “matchless discovery”, as he termed it, that the confession of the Apostles’ Creed at the baptism is the only true basis for the authentic Church) for an attack on a heterodox professor of divinity. Grundtvig’s experiment to enforce true Christianity in this way was a failure. He lost the ensuing libel action brought against him by his victim, thus automatically, according to the Freedom of the Press Act of 1799, incurring life-long censorship.“Skal den Lutherske Reformation virkelig fortsættes?” (Should the LutheranReformation Really Continue?) (1830-31) represents Grundtvig’s last attemptto preserve the state church as a Christian community. From the autumn of 1831 until February 1832 he and his revivalist friends approached a separatist solution. However, the outcome was that on 1 March 1832 Grundtvig was granted permission to officiate in a Copenhagen church as a free preacher.From then on Grundtvig took on a radical freedom strategy. The state churchwas to be preserved as an institution embracing heterodox as well as orthodoxbelievers. This would be possible if the parish-defined obligations were abolished(the possibility of “sognebåndsløsning”) so that those Christians who did not feelconfident with the incumbent of their parish might choose to avail themselvesof the services of another vicar. This model was presented in two papers: OmDaabs-Pagten (On the Baptismal Covenant) (1832) and Den Danske Stats-Kirke upartisk betragtet (An Impartial View of the Danish State Church) (1834).Grundtvig could now, at one and the same time, be an orthodox Christianamong his co-orthodox supporters and engage in realizing the cultural programme presented in the comprehensive Introduction to his Nordens Mythologi (Norse Mythology) (1832). From around 1835 he was seized by strong optimism.In 1861 the final part of Den christelige Børnelærdom was published, subtitled“The Eternal Word of Life from the very Mouth of our Lord to his Congregation”.In it, Grundtvig took as a supposition the most radical version of a freechurch, i.e. one with a congregation of perhaps only a few thousand members.Above all, however, this was meant to legitimate that Grundtvig and his friendsremained in what was now, pursuant to the new Danish democratic constitutionfrom 1849, labeled the Danish People’s Church. With the possibility of secessionfrom the People’s Church, and after the passing in 1855 of the law legalizing“sognebåndsløsning”, there actually might be several good reasons to stay.Grundtvig now viewed the People’s Church as a state institution withroom for anything which could in any way be defined as Christianity, and indeedfor the true congregation of orthodox believers. Things never went so far,however. The 1849 Constitution states that the Evangelical-Lutheran Church is the Danish People’s Church. In practice, however—and to a high degree thanks to Grundtvig—there is a great liberality in the People’s Church, and those who desire so may break their ties to their parish and attach themselves to a minister they trust or even form their own elective congregation within the People’s Church.