the desperation overthe supposed sinfulness of everything,the disgust with
the endless meting out of punishments in his father’s house and with the
notion of the hereafter, of bliss, as a region to which admission is reserved
solely for tidy castrati in confirmation suits.Underground Copenhagen
Kierkegaard was not alone in turning violently away fro mso mber pietis m
and dead orthodoxy. A somewhat similar reaction could be found in many
places as a part of the period’s various godly awakening movements, which
were in turn connected with phenomena as various as the Danish peasant
reforms, the ideals of equality and freedom that stemmed from the French
Revolution, and the romantic era’s notion of a person’s inalienable right of
self-determination. Composed of roughly equal portions of reaction (back
to true Lutheranism) and revolution (down with the power of the clergy as
a ruling class in society), the godly awakenings were a threat to the State
Church. So attempts were made to stifle the movement by imposing fines
and imprisonment, but this only served to strengthen its solidarity. Viewed
politically,thegodlyawakeningswerethusnotunimportantinthedevelop-
ment of modern democracy.
When the spiritcame upon common workers like OleSvane or Rasmus
Klink,orwhenitseizedholdoffarmerslikeKristenMadsenorPederLarsen
Skræppenborg,theauthoritieshadthemeanstorepressthereligiousmove-
ment.Itwasmuchmoredifficulttostopthecharismaticandfearlesspolemi-
cist Jakob Christian Lindberg, who was one of Denmark’s most learned
men, fantastically diligent,famous throughout Europe as anorientalist with
expertise in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic but also in possession of
suchvariedcredentialsasadegreeintheology,amagisterdegreeinPhoeni-
cianepigraphy,acknowledgedtalentsasanumismatist,andanadjunctposi-
tion at the Metropolitan School, and was a Bible translator, in later years a
member of Parliament, and last (but not least) an ardent Grundtvigian—
indeed,almostmoreGrundtvigianthanGrundtvighimself,whosometimes
had to put a damper on his zealous disciple. Pietists, old-fashioned Luther-
ans,membersoftheJutlandrevivalmovement,followersoftheNorwegian
revivalist Hauge, and members of many other lay religious movements
soughtcounsel andsupport fromLindberg,who traveledaround thecoun-
try protecting the mfro mscorn and persecution. The sa me H. N. Clausen
whomGrundtvighadattackedwasalsotargetedbyLindberg,andthiscould
havelegalconsequences,aswasthecasein1829,whenLindbergpublisheda
pamphlettitledIsDr.H.N.Clausen,ProfessorofTheology,anHonestChristian32 {1813–1834}