dissertation for the licentiat degree,The Autonomy of Human Self-Conscious-
ness in Contemporary Dogmatic Theology. On April 21, 1838, Martensen,
scarcely thirty years old, was appointed an assistant professor on the theology
faculty. Thus began his career as an unusually popular lecturer, which with
his never-failing self-esteem he subsequently described as follows: “Without
exaggeration, the effect of my lectures can be described as great and extraor-
dinary.” Indeed, he continues, among those “who became my adherents at
that time,” could be numbered “many” of those who are today “the most
excellent men in the Danish Church.”
In 1838 Kierkegaard was still a theological student, and his comments on
Martensen’s review of Heiberg were uttered through the clenched teeth of
someone who has been passed over: “Martensen’s essay in theMonthlyis
quite peculiar. After having leapfrogged over all his predecessors he has
gone forward into an indeterminate infinity.” Kierkegaard’s own position
was no less indeterminate than Martensen’s, but in any event his attempt to
come u pwith a general theory of the Faust idea was a flo p. This was his
first academic setback and it helped lay the foundation of a hatred of the
Heiberg clique, a sentiment that would in time grow to almost monstrous
proportions.
So it was the shi pca ptain’s son Martensen and not the hosier’s son Kier-
kegaard who was awarded the laurels by Heiberg, and for the defeated the
pain was great and—in the best Faustian fashion—something to despair
over! It was truly infuriating, indeed enough to make one’s blood boil, that
Martensen and all the other cultivated models of virtue who studied and
worshipped Faust had of course never personally doubted or despaired over
anything much, but had speculated and lectured and promulgated their
freshly laundered and pressed thoughts in academic dissertations that they
presented to one another with the sole aim of ascending through the ranks.
Unlike Kierkegaard, they were never existentially touched by their frightful
Faustian insights. They merely stood around over there in the apartment at
number 3 Brogade, drilling good taste and nice manners into themselves
and one another, so that they ended u pforgetting that they, too, were a
part of nature, made of instinct, mortality, and dust.
The Battle between the Old and the
New Soap-CellarsThe worst thing about Martensen was that he was so capable, not only as a
scholar but also in his tactical moves. On his study tour, which included
lengthy stays in Berlin, Heidelberg, Munich, Vienna, and Paris, he had