The government, which introduced the Protestant Reformation in 1536–1537, decided that the theological basis for Danish Protestantism was to be a combination of the theology of Luther and PHILIPP MELANCHTHON. A few theologians held opinions about religious education that were close to those of CALVINISM, whereas other Protestant opinions were prohibited. The government came down firmly, also dismissing the traditional Lutheran Formula of Concord (Konkordieformel) of 1574 because it feared internal religious upheaval and worried about foreign policy issues. During the orthodoxy of the seventeenth century a penitential movement spread, and a CHURCH DISCIPLINE inspired by Calvinism was introduced.
Jesper Brochmand presented the theological basis for this movement in his dogmatic handbook Systema Universce Theologice (1633), which was partly the Lutheran theology based on the aforementioned confession writings and partly a ferocious attack on all other Protestant beliefs as well as on Catholicism. Johann Gerhard was a particularly great influence when the book was written, and English devotional writings were also translated into Danish at that time. A huge number of hymns written by Thomas Kingo reflected Lutheran orthodoxy, and these hymns are still frequently sung (see HYMNS AND HYMNALS). Conditions in Germany and the pietistic movement influenced Danish theological development. Bishop H.A. Brorson wrote poetic hymns, which people still sing and appreciate, concerning the need for repentance, CONVERSION, and becoming a believer. The theologians of the Enlightenment, such as N.E.Balle and Fr. Münter, who were both bishops, were also very influenced by the German spiritual movements of the time.
A major turning point came at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the first popular revival movements based on both the Lutheran doctrine and Pietism from HALLE. The Ecclesiastical Association of the Home Mission in Denmark (Kirkelig Forening for den Indre Mission i Danmark) pursued this, becoming a tightly knit organization, which ran a number of schools and social institutions and whose members gathered in hundreds of mission houses. Emphasis was placed on personal conversion and a pious life, where one distanced oneself from worldly pleasures and emphasized the gap between believer and disbeliever. A number of priests joined this movement, and so it became ecclesiastical and sacramental. The organization is still very active. The influence of the American and English revival and conversion movements around the end of the nineteenth century also led to a significant religious activism, especially among the laity.
The theologian Nicolaj Frederick Grundtvig inspired the other large religious movement (Grundtvigianismen) in Denmark. Grundtvig had moved from rationalism to biblical Christianity, which again was replaced by a critical stand toward the Bible and the conviction that one found the true core of Christianity through the profession of faith and by BAPTISM. This “Living Word” existed before the Bible and was orally handed down in the congregations up until the present. Grundtvig also added a new dimension to Protestantism in Denmark when it came to the relationship between church and state. He was of the opinion that all points of view should be represented within the framework of the official church, that priests should be able to preach freely and freely conduct their rituals, and that the laity should freely be able to choose the priest they preferred. The last point of view was the only one that was realized and remains in effect. Furthermore, it was important to sharply distinguish between Christian belief and social upbringing, which was the domain of the school. Grundtvig became one of the founding fathers of hundreds of folk high schools that were established, some of which still exist. As a composer of hymns, Grundtvig was unsurpassed. His hymns make up about one third of the current Danish book of hymns. Grundtvig’s movement, which is still very active, is much more open toward contemporary art, literary CULTURE, and politics than the Home Mission (Indre Mission).
Søren Kierkegaard was the other great philosopher and theologian who in the nineteenth century added a new dimension to Protestantism in Denmark and elsewhere. In his early writing he described how humans were presented with possibilities in life. He dissociated himself from philosophers such as GEORG W.F. HEGEL from Germany and H.L.Martensen from Denmark, who thought that the truth of Christianity could be proved objectively. For Kierkegaard, Christianity existed once the individual passionately embraced the “paradox” of faith. God was not a feeling within a human being, but came from the outside through Jesus, who encouraged either faith or indignation. Kierkegaard challenged people to follow Christ’s imitation in suffering. Using very acerbic language he fought the official church during the last months of his life because he believed that it had abandoned the ideal of the New Testament. Few listened to him, and except for a few pious and anticlerical groups, nobody paid much attention to him at the time, although he became one of the founding philosophical fathers of existentialism and was behind the renewal of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.
H.L.Martensen (1808–1854), a professor who later became bishop, was very influential at the end of the nineteenth century. He in turn was influenced by Hegel’s holistic view of the world, and Martensen was a great inspiration for what became the third influential ecclesiastical faction, Kirkeligt Centrum, which still exists. This ecclesiastical faction fell between the Indre Mission and Grundtvig’s movement. It has a certain shared spiritual community with Indre Mission, and yet by being critically open to art and culture, it also resembles the school of thought that Grundtvig established.
Protestantism was in a deep crisis at the end of the nineteenth century. Philosophers launched heavy attacks on Martensen’s harmonious way of thinking. At the same time the followers of Grundtvig launched serious accusations against the theological faculty because it did not hire their people. The fundamentalist members of Indre Mission rejected the criticism of the Bible, which the faculty taught. Georg Brandes, a man of letters, and other atheists and free thinkers mercilessly rejected the entire Christian faith and notion of culture. They demanded that the country be purged of all religion, which would be replaced by secular humanism. A few theologians from the university did try to defend Christianity by using a theology based on experience, which came from Germany. Another form of Protestant activism unfolded within the realm of a Christian-social movement, which was based on English CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM. That, however, was dissolved again in 1948.
At the beginning of the twentieth century a liberal theology became popular, which was also influenced by the situation in Germany. Liberal theologians respected Bible criticism but were of the opinion that the Christian faith should be a personal experience. Jesus was to serve as the model for imitation and as a Christian, one should live morally and without straying. The American and English youth organizations were a great influence, and extensive work was initiated among Christian young people, which generated a great following. In the 1930s another movement, the Oxford Group Movement, also became popular among the previously mentioned groups. However, a group of theologians who were connected to the magazine Tidehverv launched fierce and personal attacks on so-called religious idealism. Using Luther, Kierkegaard, KARL BARTH, and RUDOLF BULTMANN as their basis, they emphasized the great distance between God and human, who in himself/herself has nothing on which to base his/her life. Humans are solely subject to the mercy of God. Any Christian morality and all forms of Christian activism were rejected. The movement, which is modest in size, has recently attacked the view of human nature, which it feels is the basis for the welfare state and it has emphasized a close connection between the national sentiment and the Christian sentiment.
K.E.Løgstrup (1905–1981) has had a tremendous influence through his writing, which is focused on philosophy and cultural criticism. However, one cannot point out any common denominators in his work and the current Protestant theology. One can be of the opinion that a form of Barthianism takes a leading place, apart from the fact that the research of Søren Kierkegaard is also very significant.
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