P. G. Lindhardt: Konfrontation. Grundtvigs prædikener i kirkeåret 1854-55 på baggrund af Kierkegaards angreb på den danske kirke og den »officielle« kristendom. Akademisk forlag. 1974

Abstract

P. G. Lindhardt: Confrontation. Grundtvig’s Sermons for the Church Year 1854-55 in the light o f Kierkegaard’s attack on the Danish Church and »Official« Christianity. (Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen, 1974).

Reviewed by William Michelsen.

In 1961, when Lindhardt published Kierkegaard’s The Moment, he attempted in the Preface to show the »point« at which he found Kierkegaard’s attack not only meaningful but also necessary. A corresponding preface is not required for this book, which can be read independently, as Lindhardt describes in a commentary and an epilogue the confrontation with Kierkegaard which he rightly finds in the previously unpublished sermons of Grundtvig. If Grundtvig had had the opportunity to re-edit them, they would most likely have lost their present freshness as well as their value as documents. Of course they are not all good; but they are all real - as a preacher’s response to the gospel in a particular situation. They are what a sermon should always be, and as such these sermons are, from a non-theological point o f view, as they should be.

It may be that Grundtvig did not read or understand all that Kierkegaard wrote. But he knew the situation in which he wrote, though from another viewpoint since he belonged to an older generation. This situation has now changed, inasmuch as the Danish Church has become more accomodating and at the same time more shapeless. To regard the Danish people as Christian was for Kierkegaard an illusion that he considered scandalous. But it is only scandalous if w e allow ourselves to be deluded by it. That is hardly the case today. At that time it was normal to go to church; it is not so today. And yet people want their children christened and called Christian. It is just as difficult now as then to infer anything from outward conduct.

Lindhardt emphasizes that in his sermons Grundtvig made the admission that Kierkegaard demanded; but even so he does not think that Grundtvig understood Kierkegaard. It is reasonable to ask whether Lindhardt has understood Grundtvig. Lindhardt stresses quite rightly that whereas Kierkegaard wished to hold people to their time (or moment), Grundtvig referred always to the future, which alone could decide the dispute over Christianity. This future, according to Grundtvig, will not come until the end of all time. But is such a faith in the future identical with nineteenth century theology?

However, Grundtvig had another concept of »development«, different from contemporary theologians. He did not subject his Christian outlook on life to an idealist philosophy, such as Protestant theologians after Kant considered it necessary to maintain as modem people. But it was exactly this idealist way of thinking that was the startingpoint for Kierkegaard’s philosophy.

The man who refers to the future risks more than the man who holds himselt and others to what they believe at the moment. For Kierkegaard (as for Nietzsche) history was reduced to an existential, irrelevant past. To take up a religious committal to the future is from a Christian point of view to believe that the Christianity of the New Testament will remain the truth - not just for me at the moment (and in a possible, transcendental world) but also after my death in this world. This was what Grundtvig - troubled perhaps but unshakable - believed and preached in this welcome publication of his sermons.