Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Page 125

SWEDISH AND DANISH CHRISTIANITY
ii 9
both countries today that Sweden has had no Kierkegaard and
no Brandes and a really radical Brandesianism which in the same
violent way attacked Christianity and Church. On the whole
Denmark has been more inclined for radical adoption of stand-
points than Sweden. A contributing reason for this may be the
fact that Denmark is a smaller country and has its cultural life
highly concentrated in Copenhagen. Hence it follows that new
ideas have been able to prevail more quickly and completely,
while in Sweden old opinions and forms of belief could more
easily survive, independently of the agitated life of a large town.
Denmark is also situated nearer to the Continent and has been
more quickly influenced from there. From Feuerbach Brandes
got anti-Christian impulses, and thus Denmark has more quickly
than Sweden joined in the dissolution of the old synthesis between
Christianity and culture which has taken place on the Continent.
Continental theologians have been speaking about “the end of
the Christian era,” meaning that the time is over when Chris-
tianity had a direct and decisive influence on cultural and social
life. Such an “end” has not yet been reached in Sweden or Den-
mark, but it seems to be farther on its way in Denmark than in
Sweden. Whether the development is to continue in the same
direction and Sweden is to follow in the footsteps of the Con-
tinent and Denmark, or whether it is to turn in the direction
of a new Christian cultural synthesis, to which the Swedish legacy
might be a guide, times will show.
Denmark’s propensity towards radical ideas and her suscepti-
bility to impulses from the Continent during these decades have
made themselves felt not least as regards Karl Barth’s influence,
facilitated also by the direct connexion of the latter with Kierke-
gaard. Without having got any direct pupils among modern
Danish theologians, he has still exercised very great influence on
many of them, while in Sweden we can hardly speak of any
influence at all on his part.
The fact that the influence of Karl Barth is so considerable
in Denmark seems to indicate that the confessional fidelity is
not very strong. The Danish church is Futheran, but Barth is
a Calvinist. On the whole the heritage from Luther is emphasized
less in Denmark than in Sweden, thus A. Norgaard, the Grundt-
vigian, is of the opinion that Grundtvig has established a new
Reformation, through which Protestantism has been left behind.
Lack of feeling for the Lutheran heritage is in Denmark also seen