Christian Bartholdy: En frygtløs vækker med humoristisk sans og en sikker streg

Resumé

On January 31, 2015 at the University of Aarhus Kurt E. Larsen defended his doctoral thesis on the Danish theologian, Christian Bartholdy (1889-1976). Bartholdy was a significant figure in his contemporary church and society. From 1934-1959 he was a powerful chairman of The Inner Mission. Larsen shows Bartholdy’s Christianity as centered on revival and conversion. He has investigated a large and hitherto unexamined source material, dispensing chronology in order to identify Bartholdy’s position. This opponent questions if the method is apt to the work and source material left by Bartholdy, or if the manner of the author by mistake draws an incorrectly static and sometimes even incoherent picture of a coherent but contextual and non-systematic theologian. We then turn attention to Bartholdy’s use of the term revival and his relation to Luther. Finally the opposition draws forth a material from Bartholdy’s youth, that may help shed light on his qualities.