Et af Grundtvig på tysk skrevet tilbageblik på sig selv fra vinteren 1813-1814

Resumé

A survey of his past life written by Grundtvig in German and dating from the winter of 1813-14. With an introduction and notes.

By Steen Johansen.

In January, 1812, German theologians had an opportunity of reading in the periodical “ Theologische Annalen” an article containing information about the young Dane N. F. S. Grundtvig and his fight for a kind of Christianity different from the old rationalistic type. The article first came to Grundtvig’s notice in the winter 1813-14, and he then immediately wrote in German the rough draft of an answer. His draft (which never became anything more) is reproduced here (p. 74 ff.) . Grundtvig begins by justifying certain statements about himself in the German article, but his draft soon grew to be a survey of his own life on a large scale, an account of his conception of Christianity and his plans for the immediate future. He admits that he himself was for a time a rationalist, then that Schiller and Fichte awakened him to a critical consideration of the form of Christianity wrhich then prevailed. After this followed three years during which Grundtvig lived chiefly with the ancient North and its gods and heroes. However, the study of history led him to rethink his position once again, and he realised that his task was to speak to the present generation, not to dream of reviving the past. Grundtvig then describes his spiritual crisis in 1810-11, which gave him the desire to become a clergyman, and he now found the truth in Biblical Christianity. As regards a renewal of the hymn-singing of the Danish Church, Grundtvig for a time thought only of wakening older hymn-writers up from oblivion. In conclusion he declares that he would be glad to see a new Luther arise in Denmark (in the German article he had been called Denmark’s new Luther), but adds that we must not pass our time in waiting for a new Luther, but must ourselves work and fight for the honour of the Crusified One.