Part 4 (1/2)
Brorson's hymns were received with ih six editions before the death of its author, and a new church hymnal published in 1740 contained ninety of his hymns Pietism swept the country and adopted Brorson as its poet But its reign was surprisingly short King Christian VI died in 1746, and the new king, a luxury-loving worldling, showed little interest in religion and none at all in Pietis the latter part of the eighteenth century it was overpowered by a wave of religious rationalisreater part of the intellectual classes and the younger clergy The intelligentsia adopted Voltaire and Rousseau as their prophets and talked endlessly of the new age of enlightenion was to be shorn of its mysteries and people were to be delivered from the bonds of superstition
In such an atmosphere the old hymns and, least of all, Brorson's hymns with their mystic contemplation of the Saviour's blood and wounds could not survive The leading spirits in the movement dee The preparation of such a book was undertaken by a coelical Christianity Their as published under the title The Evangelical Christian Hymnal, a peculiar name for a book which, as has been justly said, was neither Evangelical nor Christian The coo and Brorson and ruthlessly altered others so that they were irrecognizable To coreat number of ”poetically perfect hymns” by neriters--nearly all of whootten--were adopted
But while would-be leaders discarded or mutilated the old hyht to force their new songs upon the congregations,tenaciously to their old hymnal and stoutly refused to accept the new In places the controversy even developed into a singing contest, with the congregations singing the numbers from the old hymnal and the deacons from the new And these contests were, of course, expressive of an even greater controversy than the choice of hy for the spread of the new gospel, and congregations still clinging to the old With the highest authorities actively supporting the new one conclusion The new enlightenelical Christians beca the subsequent period of triuan to hold private assemblies in their own homes and to provide for their own spiritual nourish the old hymns In these asseelical awakening during the middle part of the nineteenth century produced a new appreciation of the old hyhtful place in the worshi+p of the church And the songs of the Sweet Singer of Pietisreater favor in his church than they do today
[8]Another translation: ”Like thousand ”
Nicolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig the Singer of Pentecost
Chapter Eleven
Grundtvig's Early Years
The latter part of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century produced a nues in the spiritual, intellectual and econo Pietist movement at the time of Brorson, as we have seen, lostChristian VI, and within a few years was overwhelious Rationalision, it was claimed, should be divested of its mysteries and reason made supreme Whatever could not justify itself before the bar of the human intellect should be discarded as outworn conceptions of a less enlightened age The movenosticism to an idealistic belief in God, virtue and ih firmly opposed by some of the most influential Danish leaders of that day, such as the valiant bishop of Sjaelland, Johan Edinger Balle, Rationalism swept the country with irresistible force Invested in the attractive robe of hu to man's natural intellectual vanity, the movee proportion of the clergy Its adherents studied Rousseau and Voltaire, talked resoundingly of huanized endless numbers of clubs, and--in some instances--worked zealously for the social and economic uplift of the depressed classes
In this latter endeavorlost the old Gospel, the ospel” of that day While we may not approve their Christ,” or their Easter sermons ”on the profitable cultivation of buckwheat,” we cannot but recognize their devoted labor for the educational and economic uplift, especially of the hard-pressed peasants
Their well-reat h of spiritual apathy fro events of the tian threateningly for Denland attacked her in 1801 and 1807, robbing her of her fine fleet and forcing her to enter the European war on the side of Napoleon The recked her trade, bankrupted her finances and ended with the severance of her long union with Norway in 1814 But through it all Holger Danske slept peacefully, apparently unaware that the very existence of the nation was threatened
It is against this background of spiritual and national indifference that the towering figure of Grundtvig must be seen For it was he, more than any other, akened his people froic indifference and started them upon the road toward a happier day spiritually and nationally
Nicolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, like so reatest men, was the son of a parson He was born September 8, 1783, at Udby, a country parish in the south-eastern part of Sjaelland His father, Johan Ottesen Grundtvig, was a pastor of the old school, an upright, earnest and staunch supporter of the Evangelical Lutheran faith His h-minded, finely educated woman with an ardent love for her country, its history, traditions and culture Her son claia” fros on both sides of the fauished forebears, the most faen and one of the ures in 13th Century Denh places Thus Johan Edinger Balle, the formerly mentioned bishop of Sjaelland, was a brother-in-law of Johan Grundtvig; Cathrine Grundtvig's brother, Dr Johan Frederik Bang, was a well-known professor of medicine and the stepfather of Jacob Peter Mynster; and her younger sister, Susanna Kristine Steffens, was the mother of Henrik Steffens, a professor at the universities of Halle and Breslau, a friend of Goethe and Schiller, and a leader of the early Romantic move bore her husband five children, of whoe household toof her youngest son She taught hiave him his first lessons in the history and literature, both of his own and of other nations
It was a period of stirring events Wars and revolutions raged in erly followed and discussed in the parsonage Listening to his elders, Grundtvig saw, as it were, history in itsand acquired an interest in the subject that produced rich fruits in later years The wholesome Christian life of his home and the devotional spirit of the services in his father's church also made a deep impression upon him, an impression that even the scepticism of his youth could not eradicate
But his happy childhood years ended all too quickly At the age of nine he left his home to continue his studies under a former tutor, Pastor L Feld of ThyreGod, a country parish in Jylland There he spent six lonely but quite fruitful years, receiving aes In 1798, he completed his studies with Rev Feld and enrolled in the Latin school at Aarhus, the principal city of Jylland But the change provedUnder the wise and kindly guidance of Rev Feld he had preserved the wholeso, the coious exercises and the whole spiritless ated him into an indifferent, sophisticated and self-satisfied cynic with little interest in his studies, and none at all in religion
At the completion of his course, however, this attitude did not deter hien with the intention of studying for the ministry A university education was then considered almost indispensable to a man of his social position, and his parents earnestly wished him to enter the church Nor was his attitude toward Christianity greatly different from that of his fellow students or even froospel of God, Virtue, and Immortality which the Rationalists held to be the true essence of the Christian religion Believing the important part of the Gospel to be its ethical precepts, Grundtvig, furthermore, prided himself upon the correctness of his own moral conduct and his ability to control all unworthy passions ”I was at that ti but an insufferably vain and narrow-minded Pharisee”
Fros lish attacks upon Copenhagen; and a series of lectures by his cousin, Henrik Steffens
Steffens, as a student at Jena, had , the father of natural philosophy, a pantheistic colored conception of life, opposed to the narrowlyat the university during the years 1802-1803, Steffens aroused a tre the students and some of the older intellectuals ”He was a fiery speaker,” Grundtvig remarks later, ”and his lectures both shocked and inspired us although I often laughed at hih away the i, nevertheless, retained at least two lasting memories from the lectures--the power of the spoken word, a power that even against his will could arouse him from his cynical indifference, and the reverence hich Steffens spoke of Christ as ”the center of history” The huressively lower and lower from the fall of man until the tiun the sloard cliress the speaker in glowing terraduated fro of 1803 He wished to reen but could find no employment and was forced, therefore, to return to his home Here he re a position as tutor for the son of Lieutenant Steensen Leth of Egelykke, a large estate on the island of Langeland
Except for the fact that Egelykke was far fro soon became quite satisfied with his new position Both the s were extreenial His eh, hard-drinking worldling; but his hostess, Constance Leth, was a char, well-educated woathering place for a group of like-hborhood And with these cultured wo soon felt hih-spoken e unexpectedly was beginning to enjoy his stay at Egelykke, this enjoyment vanished like a drea passionately in love with his attractive hostess It availed hiht have accepted such a situation with complacence; to hience and his honor Having proudly asserted the ability of any intelligent man to master his passions, he was both horrified and humiliated to discover that he could not control his own
Nicolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig
Grundtvig never consciously revealed his true sentile, he ed outwardly to maintain his code of honorable conduct But he still felt humbled and shaken by his inability to suppress his inner and as he saw it guilty passion And under this blow to his proud self-sufficiency, he felt, perhaps for the first tireater than his own ”To win in this struggle,” he wrote in his diary, ”lies beyond my oer I must look for help fro leaves mock it and wonder why it cannot float as they do”
The struggle against his passion engendered a need for work ”In order to quiet the storm within me,” he writes, ”I forced my h he had paid sestion at the tian to read some of the authors Steffens had reco, Fichte, Shakespeare and others He also studied the work of newer Danish writers, such as Prof Jens Moller, a writer on Northernthe foremost dra neglected Bible Thewas, no doubt, ethical rather than esthetic, a search for that outside power of which the battle within hient need Thus he wrote: My spirit opened its eyes, Saw itself on the brink of the abyss, Searched with tre and fear Everywhere for a power to save, And found God in all things, Found Hies, Found Him in the myths of the North, Found Him in the records of history, But clearest of all it still Found Him in the Book of Books
The fate that appears to crush aHis suffering crushed the stony shell of cynical indifference in which he had long enclosed his naturally warreat latent forces within hilike in his ht and wrote, especially on the subject that was always near to his heart, the y and early traditions of the Northern peoples And after three years of struggle, he was at last ready to break away froelykke If he had not yet conquered his passion, he had so far s
Thus ended what a aard-Petersen, calls ”the finest love story in Danish history” The event had caused Grundtvigwounds His firrade the woreatest incitations to good in his whole life
On his return to Copenhagen Grundtvig almost at once obtained a position as teacher in history at Borch's Collegium for boys His new position satisfied hi him a chance to ith his favorite subject and to expand his other intellectual interests He soonintellectuals who, in turn, introduced hihts of the country, and within a short while the list of his acquaintances read like a Blue Book of the city's intelligentsia
Although Grundtvig was still quite unknown except for a few articles in a current inality of view, an arresting way of phrasing his thoughts, a quiet sense of huly acknowledged his leadershi+p, and the older watched him with expectation Nor were they disappointed His Northern Mythology appeared in 1808, and Episodes from the Decay of Northern Heroisinal and finely written works immediately established his reputation as one of the foremost writers of Denmark There were even those who in their enthusiaser A satirical poem, ”The Masquerade Ball of Denmark,” inspired by the frivolous indifference hich en in 1807, showed his power of burning scorn and biting satire
In the midst of this success and the preparation of plans for new andreceived a request from his old father to come home and assist hi to him His personal attitude toward Christianity was still uncertain, and his removal from the capital would interfere with his literary career But as the wish of his good parents could not be ignored, he reluctantly applied for ordination and began to prepare his probation sermon
This now famous sermon was delivered before the proper officials March 17, 1810 Knowing that few besides the censors would be present to hear hi that an ordinary ser prepared his sermon as an historical survey of the present state of the church rather than as an Evangelical discourse
His study of history had convinced hihty influence Christianity had once exerted upon the nations, and he, therefore, posed the question why this influence was now in decline ”Are the glad tidings,” he asked, ”which through seventeen hundred years passed fro ears still not preached?” And the answer is ”no” Even the very nanificance and worth to eneration, ”for the Word of God has departed from His house and that which is preached there is not the Word of God, but the earth-bound speculations of e they were called to preach, but the human spirit has now beco the truth without the light of the Gospel, and so faith has died My Brethren!” he exclaims, ”Let us not, if we share this blindness and conteh to desecrate the Holy Place by appearing there as preachers of a Christianity in which we ourselves do not believe!”
The ser felt hiument; and a comparison of the warm devotional spirit of a church service, as he remembered it from his childhood, with the cold indifference of later days moved him to sentimental tears, the first pious tears that he had shed for many years, he said later Even the censors were so impressed that they unanienerosity they bitterly regretted a feeeks later For Grundtvig, contrary to his pro denied--published his serelicals as the first manna that had fallen in a desert for many years But the Rationalists violently condemned it and presented the Coainst its author ”for having grossly insulted the Danish clergy”
Considering the enthusiastic approval the serladly have squashed the co many of the most influential pastors in the city, were too powerful to be ignored And so Grundtvig was found guilty ”of having willfully insulted the Danish clergy, both individually and as a body,” and sentenced to receive a repriical faculty
When Grundtvig on January 11, 1811, presented himself before the dean to receive his reprimand, he looked so pale and shaken that even the worthy official took compassion upon him and advised him privately that he must not take his sentence too seriously It was not, however, the stern reprireater consequence that so visibly blanched the cheeks of the defendant
The prospect of entering the activeto examine seriously his own attitude toward Christianity And although the bishop vetoed his assignment to Udby and thus released hi the pulpit, this did not stop the trend of his thoughts He had lost his forion and discovered the historical significance of Christianity, but just what did the Christian faiththis question, when in the fall of 1810, he coe of Christianity,” as one historian called the period The phrase appealed to hih the mystic halls of Northern Gods and heroes and deplored the decay of their heroic spirit He adhty Wodin and the e of Christianity--was it possible then that Christianity too could rise to the heroic?