Soren Kierkegaard

“There are still more crises in store, because the corruption and the spread
of amorality that is now under way cannot come to a halt. I expect it will get
worse!” And in this, Martensen’s expectations would be more than fulfilled.
Martensen’s consecration too kplace at Pentecost, the feast of the Holy
Spirit. A while earlier, Kierkegaard had reflected on the matter of deriving
temporal advantage from Christianity, and found it disgusting, just as vile
as eating “oily fish with syrup on it.” And now he was on the verge of
vomiting: “Oh, how genuinely disgusting this is, these millions of people
playing at Christianity, celebrating Pentecost—and now we are going to
have a bishop consecrated on the day after Pentecost. And believe me, there
will be orations about ‘the Spirit’; how disgusting it is, how abominable.”
Kierkegaard could certainly have published his protest after Martensen’s
appointment had been announced, but he still hesitated, among other rea-
sons because there had been debate about the appointment in the press, and
Kierkegaard did not want his protest connected with that. Neither did he
want to stand in the way of a public campaign—initiated by a group of
doughty clerics the very day after Mynster’s burial—to raise funds for the
erection of a statue of the late bishop. But Kierkegaard also had other quite
unrelated reasons for postponing his own campaign. A. S. Ørsted was not
only prime minister; in the period from April 1853 until December 1854
he also served as cultus minister, in charge of the church and of cultural
affairs, and if Kierkegaard had initiated his protest under those circum-
stances, he could have counted on being named in a libel case. It was there-
fore best to wait a little longer, all the more so because a strong opposition
faction was attempting to put together a liberal ministry. This became a
reality on December 12, 1854, with P. G. Bang as Prime Minister and
C. C. Hall as Cultus Minister. The changed situation was absolutely not to
the conservative Martensen’s liking, and three days after the formation of the
new government he wrote as much to Gude: “Yes, we have a new ministry,
and they are even talking about having a torchlight parade to the king to
mar kthe occasion. This is the most frightful thing we have experienced thus
far, and royal dignity has now attained the pinnacle of prostitution.”
In addition to these strategic and political considerations, there was also
a personal circumstance that has often been overlooked. Mynster’sCommu-
nications concerning My Lifehad been published in mid-April 1854. Mynster’s
eldest son, Frederi kJoachim, had arranged for its publication, and in a ges-
ture of friendship he sent a copy to Kierkegaard. In an undated note Kier-
kegaard expressed his thanks for the letter that had accompanied the package
containing the book; he wished to retain the letter from Mynster’s son, but
he felt compelled to return the boo kitself. “My relation to your late father
was of a very special kind,” he explained in his reply, pointing out that,