Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Side 112

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LE NORD
poetic form. While on the whole his writings, including historical,
theological and philosophical works, are only with difficulty
accessible to modern readers, he especially survives in his hymns,
which take up more than half of the Danish hymn-book. There
is hardly any Danish divine service at which the congregation
does not sing at least one hymn by Grundtvig.
The Christianity first met by Grundtvig bore the rationalistic
stamp of the Age of Enlightenment. But he was soon carried
away by the surge of Romanticism and became enthusiastic about
ancient Scandinavia. His thorough studies on Old Norse my-
thology later induced him to publish large works on this subject.
He did not, however, stop at the obscurity of Romanticism, but
through several crises was led to a more realistic Christianity.
This had its starting-point in the sacrament of Baptism, in
which man is admitted to the community of the church. At
Baptism the Apostles’ Creed is pronounced as a comprehensive
expression of the faith of the congregation. And it was Grundt-
vig’s firm conviction that this Creed had come from Christ’s
own mouth. As a “living word,” to use a favourite word of
Grundtvig’s, it had later held together the Christian church. To
Grundtvig it meant a “marvellous discovery” that the Church
was based on the Creed and not on the Bible, which undoubtedly
contained both more and less valuable parts and could always be
exposed to criticism of a literary or historical character.
By the side of Baptism the Holy Communion to Grundtvig
was the act in the life of the Church in which Christ spoke to
his confessors in the most living way. On the combined founda-
tion of Baptism and Eucharist, however, great freedom might
develop both in respect of ideas and forms. Not least during some
stays in England about 1830 Grundtvig was greatly impressed by
the ideas of liberty of the time. He became a preacher of liberty
in all spheres of life, but above all in the spiritual sphere. Good
and evil should be allowed to grow together unimpeded till the
end of time. The Church should not be allowed to use any coer-
cion neither on its congregations nor on its clergymen. These far-
reaching ideals of liberty were not accepted in total, but much
took a practical form. Thus Denmark has the arrangement unique
to an established church that a congregation may form with its
own minister and may still remain in the established church along-
side of the ordinary congregations.
The Church was to be a home, and Grundtvig often charac-