Verdenssyn og menneskesyn i Grundtvigs salmedigtning

Resumé

The World Picture and the View of Man in Grundtvig’s Hymns.

By Peter Balslev-Clausen

This lecture for the Degree in Divinity at the Faculty of Theology in Copenhagen is a summary of the writer’s studies in the hymns, written by Grundtvig over the years from 1810 to 1872, with a view to determining the overall view of human life and Christianity that constitutes their background. The lecture discusses central concepts in these hymns, taking the point of departure in the word, i.e., speech as expressing the fact that man was created in God’s image. Hymn-singing is seen as man’s reply to God’s address, partly in the church service, partly in the daily prayers, as it is evidenced by the hymn "Congregation of God, Sing Secret Songs of Praise to Our Creator" (Guds menighed, syng for vor skaber i l.n (1847)). This hymn was composed during Grundtvig’s work on a collection of popular ballads, and is modelled on the ballad about hr. Villemand, who, by playing his harp, forces the merman of the river to give his bride back to him.

The lecture concentrates on the Mosaic-Christian view of the world and of man, considered, consciously, by Grundtvig to be the contrast to the scientific picture of the world and idea of man of his own age. It is claimed that the new world-picture as Grundtvig saw it, made impossible any notion of a connection between God and man, heaven and earth, creation and consummation, and that without this connection man would lose his identity and his companionship with others. Grundtvig, accordingly, retained the Biblical calendar.

Especially after meeting his second wife, Marie Toft, in 1845, and the breakthrough for congregational singing of his hymns in Vartov Church on Christmas Day the same year, Grundtvig came to think of the woman and the human heart as the essence of human nature, in contrast to the rationalistic concept of man, which Grundtvig regarded as a product of Antichrist.

Grundtvig was aware that his picture of the world and his view of man was not acceptable to the majority, at least not in the academic world. But he considered it necessary to maintain it, both for the sake of the Mosaic-Christian way of thinking and the Christian faith.

The first five years after the meeting with Marie Toft were a turbulent time of regeneration in Grundtvig’s personal life, as it is reflected for example in the hymn "The Clouds Are Turning Grey, and the Leaves Are Falling" (Skyerne gråner og løvet falder). The crisis resolved itself in a new sense of wholeness in life, which is expressed in the series of adaptations of older hymns which did not acquire their final form until the 1850s, such as "O, Christian Faith" (O Kristelighed), "The Sun Now Shines in All its Splendour" (I al sin glans nu stråler solen) and "The Lord Has Visited His People" (Herren, han har besøgt sit folk).

Since even today Grundtvig’s hymns are used as existential expressions of the lives of the congregation, the question arises whether they can still be used when his presuppositions no longer apply. Precisely by his strangeness, Grundtvig insists that his reader and participant in the hymn-singing is entirely responsible for acquiring an existential experience of a hymn, on the basis of the assumptions that belong to each individual and are determined by the time he or she lives in.