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Authors: Thaning Kaj 
Published: September 2020

The Origin of the “Incomparable Discovery”By Kaj ThaningWhat has been called Grundtvig’s “ incomparable discovery” was that it is not the Bible but the Apostolic Creed which expresses true Christianity.In 1824 Grundtvig saw it as his task to answer two questions that must be kept separate:1) What is true Christianity, and 2) Is Christianity credible? The first question is historical, and must be answered by the apostles and the early Christians. The second will always be a matter o f conscience. In 1825 he says, “None but God knows how many or how few will come to possess the Christian faith, but we shall find out when its voice becomes clear and we cannot help but hear it, but not before” . (Theologisk Maanedsskrift, Theological Monthly I p. 33). In the first three parts of the dissertation On True Christianity in the same journal he defends Luther’s faith and his Little Catechism as the expression of true Christianity, in contrast to the false Christianity o f Grundtvig’s own times. He speaks o f “God’s Word in Holy Writ” and distinguishes between the “ general creed” o f the Lutheran fathers, which is “ particularly evangelical” , and the “Confessio Augustana” , which accords with the New Testament, but is intended for “ teachers” . But in the 4th Part of On True Christianity the Apostolic Creed appears by way o f answer to the question as to the nature of true Christianity, an answer that the ordinary man can grasp and believe. This “ incomparable” discovery (the expression is not Grundtvig’s own) is not proclaimed publicly until the sermon for the 9th Sunday in Trinity on July 31st 1825. But in his study Grundtvig has solved the problem during his work on the essay O m the Credibility of Christianity. A number o f drafts for this are to be found in Fasc. 97, the last two o f which were written after the discovery. Before these, however, we find Fasc. 106, published in Danish Church Times (Dansk Kirketidende) 1876 under the heading “True and False Christianity” . It is here that he makes his discovery. But it is remarkable that he does so while at work on proving Christianity’s credibility. However, as he himself says, one must first know what Christianity is before one can prove its credibility.These drafts are so closely linked that they must have been written in close connection with one another. And they must have been written after July 24th, for in his sermon on that date he maintains several times that “diligent reading o f God’s Word” is the only means by which false teachers can be repudiated. The discovery was therefore made between July 24th and 31st. But in two stages. The actual discovery of the Apostolic Creed as the criterion for Christianity presupposes a prior discovery that did not necessarily involve the second. He discovers that the church came before the book. His starting-point is that the history of Christianity proves what the church must profess. Christianity is a “ recognisable” faith - or it wouldn’t be distinguishable from Judaism, Paganism and Islam. One must therefore follow the Bible’s teaching. Grundtvig is moving on to the Christianity “which is believed in the world and has the proof o f experience” , and he rejects the “new” Christianity, rationalism. Rationalism, on the other side, claims that the Christian’s Creed conflicts with the Bible and must therefore be false.This claim by the enemy sets Grundtvig o ff on a new track: if his opponents were right, then the faith that the first Christians professed must be the true Christianity! It is not the letter of the Bible but the spirit o f faith that has been at work in the world, and it has been passed on “by word of mouth” . Grundtvig draws this conclusion: “The greater the difference to be found between the Bible and Christianity, the more sharply we must distinguish them from one another” . And he insists that it is only a denial o f the original creed that brings exclusion from the Christian community, not the denial of the Bible, even though the apostles wrote as they spoke. In contrast, Christianity cannot be destroyed so long as there is a single person left “who openly dares to profess (deleted: the second article of faith) the three articles of faith” . It is natural that at first he should name the second article of faith, since it is still the content o f that article that he uses to oppose the “new” faith. But then via a correction the whole of the creed appears - without him realising what he has discovered! As yet he does not call the creed “ apostolic” . But as a result of the first discovery - that the Church came before the Bible - Grundtvig’s previous scripture-based apologetic begins to crumble, and he produces a powerful document o f self-knowledge (F) in which he attacks the injustices he may have committed as an apologist with the Bible in his hand. He will now strive to emulate Irenaeus, Augustine and Luther in their belief that the spirit is o f Christ, and the Word is the guardian o f the spirit in the Church. He has recognised “ the links in the altar-chain” , the oral continuity in the Church from the apostles onwards. Later he places Polycarp between Irenaeus and John - the oral chain is closed. He regrets his former blindness to the fact that it was the spirit and not written words that made us Christians: he forgot that it was to the Church that he owed the spirit he received at baptism together with the bond that through the eucharist united him with the body o f Christ, his Church and Himself. He had been striving in vain to “ speak according to his mother’s heart” . He has previously discussed baptism and communion, but not until now does he perceive their meaning.Grundtvig wishes to remain an apologist, but no longer on the old foundations o f the Bible. Now it is the Church’s word he will bear witness to, but he also wishes to defend “ the rights o f the heart” against rationalism’s cultivation o f reason - precisely as he has done in the essay On Nature and Revelation (Th. M.) that he has just finished.In a new draft (G), where the feeling o f relief in Grundtvig comes across very clearly, the tone is playful, and lines appear from Ludvig Holberg’s poetry. At the same time the expression “ common sense” has begun to play a role (as it did in On Nature and Revelation, where feeling and intellect are contrasted with “ reason” ). Both leave their mark on the two following drafts, written in dialogue form as a debate between “ common sense” and “ theology” : the “ intellect” a cheeky servant-girl (Holberg’s Pernille) and her former mistress, who represents rationalism, the “new” faith or the “ true” protestantism.The dialogue is in fact a veiled attack on the young professor H. N. Clausen, whose major work on Catholicism and protestantism Grundtvig had subscribed to. It appeared in August, to be met by Grundtvig’s bull of excommunication The Church’s Reply (Kirkens Gienmæle), a work that builds on the triumphant discovery of the Apostolicum as the criterion for Christianity. The discovery takes place between the two dialogues mentioned. There is a strange disparity between the broad, Holbergian comic style and the central question that Grundtvig is discussing. In the first dialogue he goes no further than demonstrating that the “new” Christianity is different from the old. On the last page of the draft the writing is tired and careless. Does he want to sleep after his futile work?An account has been handed down of Grundtvig working away in the desperate hope o f finding the final weapon against his opponents and dreaming one night that he is playing a game of chess that he is about to lose. He looks up at his opponent and sees that it is the devil. But a bright figure is standing by Grundtvig’s side making a move for him, so he wins the game. He has told a friend that it was this that made him realise that he should look to the baptismal creed.At any rate, he begins a new dialogue and the writing is far more single-minded. The beginning corresponds to the start o f the first dialogue, but gradually the intellect – the servant-girl - starts to raise her voice, and when she talks about “ the Christianity of old times and I know where to find it” , the theologian - her mistress - grows suspicious and suggests a compromise, which is rejected. Finally the hallmark of “ the Christian religion” is revealed: the Apostolic Creed and its means of grace: baptism and Holy Communion.In Grundtvig Studies 1957 Kaj Baagø demonstrated that Grundtvig’s discovery of the creed took place after a discussion on the need for symbols in the Church had been going on in Copenhagen for some time. Rudelbach (who took Grundtvig on to the staff of Th. M.) was particularly active. He knew the Berlin theologians Marheinicke and Neander personally and almost certainly gave Grundtvig the latter’s book Antignostikus. Geist des Tertullianus for review. We must assume that Grundtvig read the 525 pages before his great discovery, even though the review did not appear until December 1825. This may be why in the various drafts mentioned above Grundtvig begins to place the New Testament and the history o f the Church side by side as witnesses to true Christianity. And what he gradually clarifies for himself as he is writing can all be found in Neander’s book - with the exception o f the connection between the creed and baptism, which Grundtvig immediately emphasizes. Neander may well be the inspiration for both discoveries - even though Grundtvig surrenders only very slowly. Nor does he lay any particular claim to originality in his review. He refers the people who refuse to believe him to the Berlin professors.The two discoveries had two completely different consequences for Grundtvig. From the first sprang his hymns - without it they would simply not have been possible. But they would have been all the better without the second discovery, as would his preaching of baptism and communion and “the Word from the Lord’s own mouth” . His discovery o f the creed as the criterion for Christianity and “ the Word o f Faith” served to narrow Grundtvig’s thought and cloud his other discoveries. But it must be added that looking back later in life Grundtvig declared that a lifetime ago he had expected wonders o f the discovery o f the division between true Christianity and Christianity’s truth, but that had proved itself o f no use. For its “ authenticity and truth stand and fall with each other” .