because that concern was without doubt a fundamental and persistent mo-
tive for merchant Kierkegaard’s religious moves. To beforGrundtvig (not
to mention to beforLindberg) was synonymous with beingagainstMynster,
who as the royal confessor and as a member of the supervisory board of the
university had an awful lot to say about the placement of theological gradu-
ates. Peter Christian also seems to have moderated his Grundtvigian sympa-
thies, but only for a time. Then he published an article in theScandinavian
Church Times, edited by Lindberg. Mynster got wind of Peter Christian’s
relapse and gave him an earful because the article was too Grundtvigian in
tone. Nonetheless, Peter Christian maintained his affiliation with the hereti-
cal group and set to work on a scholarly dissertation on Grundtvigian theol-
ogy,De theologia vere christiana[Latin: “On truly Christian theology”], with
which he ultimately (albeit after indescribable torment) earned the degree
of licentiat in theology in 1836. In a letter to his brother, dated February
23, 1836, Peter Rørdam wrote that Peter Christian’s dissertation “was just
barely accepted” for defense, but that on the other hand, when it came to
the oral arguments, which lasted “from ten in the morning until nine in the
evening,” Peter Christian showed that he had been “able to hold his
own”—indeed, that he had actually played “toss-in-a-blanket with the fac-
ulty.” The defense, which apparently drew quite a crowd, took place in the
chapel of Regensen College, located in the wing of Regensen that faces
the Round Tower. In a letter dated February 2, 1836, to Pastor Gunni
Busck, Grundtvig expressed his delight that the learned men in “Regensen
Church,” which was “packed from morning till evening,” were not only
compelled to accept “a dissertation about building the whole of theology
upon the [Grundtvigian theory of the] Ecclesiastical Word,” but they had
had to look on while Grundtvig’s anathematized workThe Church’s Rejoin-
derwas cited. Peter Christian made history that day, but we must search his
diary all the way up to 1840 before we encounter his final breakthrough as
a Grundtvigian, and it almost sounds like a sigh: “May 28, Ascension Day,
Communion in Vartov.”
There is no evidence that Søren Aabye ever heard Lindberg preach, but
it is hardly daring to assume that Peter Christian—who according to the
Rudelbach sisters has been “present at ‘[Little] Serenity’ at the sermon by
Lindberg that I mentioned”—discussed the sermon and related theological
issues with his little brother, whose own enthusiasm for Grundtvig seems
to have begun to cool down quite early. The Grundtvigian pastor Vilhelm
Birkedal recounted that during his university years he met Søren Aabye
when he had called upon Peter Christian, who was serving as his private
tutor in moral philosophy. “He [Søren Aabye] liked to sit in the next room
and read,” wrote Birkedal, who also recalled having taken an impromptu
{1813–1834} 35