Abstract
Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig lived from 1783 to 1872, a crucial period in Danish history as the country lost much of its earlier power and territory while simultaneously transitioning from autocracy to democracy and undergoing urbanization and industrialization – not perhaps as traumatically as in some other countries, but nevertheless dramatically and with far-reaching consequences. He lived through Denmark’s Golden Age in arts and letters and saw the beginnings of the modernist breakthrough. These were remarkable times – but he himself was no less remarkable. He was a theologian, a poet, a historian, a politician and an innovative educationalist, whose influence echoes on in contemporary Danish life. He has been called ‘Denmark’s greatest son’ and politicians of different wings still jostle to be recognized as the authentic inheritors of the Grundtvigian tradition.
All that being said, he remains only sporadically known outside Denmark, and, in the English-speaking world, perhaps chiefly as the butt of some of Kierkegaard’s more sarcastic jibes. Anders Holm’s new book attempts to introduce those who know nothing of him to this extraordinarily protean figure and to do justice to the range of his achievements. He tracks Grundtvig’s career as ‘Romantic’, ‘Mythologist’, ‘Pastor’, ‘Historian’, ‘Educator’, ‘Hymn-writer’, ‘Politician’ and ‘Dane’ – nationalism being a major theme running through the entirety of Grundtvig’s life and work. Two final chapters survey his continuing heritage in Denmark and globally. Among other surprising elements of his legacy was the vision for Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, whose students would include Pete Seeger and Rosa Parks (pp. 219–24).
Key to the unity of Grundtvig’s vision is his unique combination of Christianity and nationalism. As a Christian leader, Grundtvig combined elements of Evangelicalism with High Church tendencies (he wanted bishops from Sweden to be involved in the consecration of Danish bishops to restore apostolic succession), while bringing about a greater internal pluralism in the national Church. His theology was world- and life-affirming. More emotional and colourful than that of the Copenhagen elite and steering away from the rigour of the narrowly evangelical Inner Mission, his spirituality was informed by Romantic themes of love of nature, the national past (including its pre-Christian mythology), and Christian history (he translated many patristic and medieval hymns). His nationalism, though sometimes vociferous, also stressed the humble and ordinary qualities of Danish life. He spoke of Denmark as a country in which ‘few are too rich, and fewer still too poor’ (p. 167) – virtually the opposite, alas, of today’s Britain. And, in another hymn, ‘Whether low or high connected, children, women are respected; down below or up above, Danish is for ever love’ (p. 173).
Holm’s nicely laid-out and well-illustrated book does as good a job as is possible of ‘introducing’ a figure who cannot easily be contained within any conventional boundaries, let alone summarized. While A. M. Allchin’s 1997 monograph offers a more extensive ‘introduction’, Holm gives us an essential flavour of the man and his work and helps us see why we might be interested in finding out more.