One of the potent factors determining religious and theological education in the Middle West was Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783–1872). Justly famous as hymn writer, archaeologist, educationist, and theologian, Grundtvig strove to build a new Germanic culture in Denmark to replace the “Latin culture” which he believed had been destroyed by the French Revolution. This new culture he hoped to found on Christian principles backed by the “living word” so thoroughly accepted by the earlier Germanic mysticism, which in turn came via Neo-Platonism from Plato himself. Hans Denck taught that the Scriptures apart from the inner living word were nothing, and Calvin, Herder, and Fichte seemed to support this teaching. It is likely that Fichte's influence in this direction was most keenly felt by Grundtvig, although he found the same idea in the old Germanic-Scandinavian theology and mythology which he sought successfully to revive. The Scandinavian Thuler, which may be translated seer or prophet, represented by the “living word” the human incarnation of Odin. Saxo calls the Thuler the Uggerus vates; and Caesar records the fact that the Druids who were certainly akin to the old Scandinavians forbade that their teachings about God and the immortality of the soul be put into written form, since such subjects could be understood only in the “living word.” All this Grundtvig adopted and taught. Likewise he held that the ten commandments should be considered “living words” handed down from mouth to mouth in order that they might carry the needed inspiration to make them effective in life. This idea he carried over immediately into his theory of education.
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Dec 1, 1997
Carol Gold + 1
