Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61

Resumé

Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61

[Church and Congregation in Grundtvig’s Theology and Church Politics 1806-61]

By Bent Christensen

From his 1806 work “Om Religion og Liturgie” (On Religion and Liturgy) and for
the rest of his life, N. F. S. Grundtvig was preoccupied with the substance and
the conditions of the church. In this paper, however, the latest text considered
is the final chapter of his book Den christelige Børnelærdom (Christian Childhood Teachings) (1861).

The paper presents and analyses a number of statements showing what
Grundtvig understood by the terms “church” and “congregation” through three
main periods: 1. 1806-25 when Grundtvig by criticizing tried to clear the State
Church of the Danish absolute monarchy of the current heterodox teachings and
practices. - 2. 1825-32 when Grundtvig had to admit that the battle was lost and that he himself was close to ending up as a separatist - 3. The years after 1832 when Grundtvig developed a freedom strategy based on the right of each
parishioner to choose another vicar or minister than the official incumbent of
the parish (the so-called “sognebåndsløsning”).

“On Religion and Liturgy” (written 1806 and printed 1807) was conceived
under the State Church of the Danish absolute monarchy, a situation in which
it was not feasible to distinguish between the state and the church, nor between
people and congregation. Grundtvig in his harsh criticism of contemporary clergy, however, was moving in the specific Christian dimension. He strove to change the state of things by criticizing them. In a poem dated 1811 he described in a strongly pentecostal and Apostolic perspective how he experienced his recent ordination and his future clerical calling.

In his treatise “Om Kirke, Stat og Skole” (On Church, State and School)
(1818-19), Grundtvig endeavoured to define the word and the conception of
“church” and to examine the relationship between the church and the state. He
used the word “church” in a very broad sense, whereas he defined the Christian
“kirkesamfund” (i.e. the community of Christians within the church) quite
precisely.

In his great poem Nyaars-Morgen (New Year’s Morn) (1824), Grundtvig
for the last time expressed his daring dream of a joint Christian and popular revival in Denmark, and in 1825 in the pamphlet Kirkens Gienmæle (The Church’s Retort) he used his “mageløse opdagelse” (i.e. his “matchless discovery”, as he termed it, that the confession of the Apostles’ Creed at the baptism is the only true basis for the authentic Church) for an attack on a heterodox professor of divinity. Grundtvig’s experiment to enforce true Christianity in this way was a failure. He lost the ensuing libel action brought against him by his victim, thus automatically, according to the Freedom of the Press Act of 1799, incurring life-long censorship.

“Skal den Lutherske Reformation virkelig fortsættes?” (Should the Lutheran
Reformation Really Continue?) (1830-31) represents Grundtvig’s last attempt
to preserve the state church as a Christian community. From the autumn of 1831 until February 1832 he and his revivalist friends approached a separatist solution. However, the outcome was that on 1 March 1832 Grundtvig was granted permission to officiate in a Copenhagen church as a free preacher.

From then on Grundtvig took on a radical freedom strategy. The state church
was to be preserved as an institution embracing heterodox as well as orthodox
believers. This would be possible if the parish-defined obligations were abolished
(the possibility of “sognebåndsløsning”) so that those Christians who did not feel
confident with the incumbent of their parish might choose to avail themselves
of the services of another vicar. This model was presented in two papers: Om
Daabs-Pagten (On the Baptismal Covenant) (1832) and Den Danske Stats-
Kirke upartisk betragtet (An Impartial View of the Danish State Church) (1834).

Grundtvig could now, at one and the same time, be an orthodox Christian
among his co-orthodox supporters and engage in realizing the cultural programme presented in the comprehensive Introduction to his Nordens Mythologi (Norse Mythology) (1832). From around 1835 he was seized by strong optimism.

In 1861 the final part of Den christelige Børnelærdom was published, subtitled
“The Eternal Word of Life from the very Mouth of our Lord to his Congregation”.
In it, Grundtvig took as a supposition the most radical version of a free
church, i.e. one with a congregation of perhaps only a few thousand members.
Above all, however, this was meant to legitimate that Grundtvig and his friends
remained in what was now, pursuant to the new Danish democratic constitution
from 1849, labeled the Danish People’s Church. With the possibility of secession
from the People’s Church, and after the passing in 1855 of the law legalizing
“sognebåndsløsning”, there actually might be several good reasons to stay.

Grundtvig now viewed the People’s Church as a state institution with
room for anything which could in any way be defined as Christianity, and indeed
for the true congregation of orthodox believers. Things never went so far,
however. The 1849 Constitution states that the Evangelical-Lutheran Church is the Danish People’s Church. In practice, however—and to a high degree thanks to Grundtvig—there is a great liberality in the People’s Church, and those who desire so may break their ties to their parish and attach themselves to a minister they trust or even form their own elective congregation within the People’s Church.