much offense as this Lindberg,” wrote the aging Bishop Mynster, who had
witnessed an ungodly number of troublemakers during his term of office.
Grundtvig condemned the persecution of the adherents of the godly
awakening movement, and as an opponent of rationalism he himself also
wished to break free of the State Church and for mhis own congregation.
As time went by, not a few of those who had earlier attended the meetings
of the Moravian Congregation on Stormgade went over to Grundtvig’s
vespers services at Frederik’s German Church and subsequently became
members of Grundtvig’s congregation at Vartov Church. For a time, the
merchant Kierkegaard felt tempted to move in this direction, and he sub-
scribedtotheTheologicalMonthly,inwhichtheGrundtvigianssetforththeir
critique ofrationalism. Hans Brøchner isprobably correct inhis conviction
that it was his “inner experience of religiouslife” that prompted the elder
Kierkegaard (“whose religious persuasion was pretty much old-fashioned
pietism”) to sympathize with Grundtvig and Lindberg.
Mynster was something close to the epitome of the State Church and
pulled in the opposite direction, so in the course of the spring of 1831 the
conflict came to a head: Grundtvig had collected the signatures of eighty
male heads of households, and when he had collected one hundred he was
going to go to the king and request permission to withdraw from the State
Church and for man independent congregation. Kierkegaard, a wealthy
merchant, was asked to add his name to the list but he hesitated and finally
refused. A while earlier he had given a similar refusal to a group of zealots
who had been taking up a collection on behalf of Lindberg, who became
involved in one costly legal case after another, had been fired fro mthe
MetropolitanSchoolin1830,andthereforehadscarcelyacenttohisname.
The elder Kierkegaard’s refusal to support the antirationalist cause on two
separateoccasionscouldnotpassunnoticed,andJulianeRudelbach,adyed-
in-the-wool Lindbergian and a tattletale, sent in her report directly from
Copenhagengroundzero:“Ithasamazedmeandanumberofotherpeople
that old Kierkegaard has totally refused to lend public support to this con-
gregation, claiming that he cannot or does not dare to do so, because he
hastwosonswhoareuniversitystudents,whomustobtainpositions[inthe
StateChurch].LindbergbelievesthattheKierkegaardsarecertainlynotun-
Christian people, but that they are among those who come to the Lord
at night. He also believes this about young Kierkegaard [Peter Christian],
particularlyinviewofthefact thathehasn’tresumedhisacquaintancewith
Grundtvig,... nor does he come to see Lindberg.”
As always, Juliane Rudelbach was well-informed, but she was mistaken
when she assumed that the elder Kierkegaard cited his concerns about his
two sons’ ecclesiastical or academic careers as only a pretext for his refusal,34 {1813–1834}