I am on my way home from a two-day conference in Stockholm on the subject Scandinavian creation theology (SCT) for a post-secular age. The ”founding fathers” of this theological school are NFS Grundtvig, KE Løgstrup, Regin Prenter and Gustaf Wingren, three Danes and a Swede.
I was at the conference, thanks to a good colleague working on a ph.d. in practical theology. We share the field of practical theology, although my interest is mainly hymns and liturgy. I was hoping for new thoughts on NFS Grundtvig, since I recently wrote a paper on his hymns in the Swedish hymn book.
However, not much was said about Grundtvig. Actually, I was not surprised, more astonished that not even brilliant systematic theologians have actually read or reflected on Grundtvig and his hymns, if they are not Danes.
It appears, if the information at the conference was correct, that although Gustaf Wingren follows in the footsteps of creation theology, not even he read Grundtvig.
We returned over and over again to the Grundtvigian phrase: ”Human first, Christian next”, but Grundtvig is much more.
It seems that the theologian Grundtvig, at the very heart of the Danish soul, is mostly unknown outside Denmark. This leaves the rest of the world without understanding of Danish culture as well as the Danish church, which became obvious in a panel conversation between three Nordic bishops. The Norwegian bishop Kari Veiteberg asked whether the phrase is now: Danish first, Christian next. I thought that was a brilliant way of highlighting a common way of interpreting Grundtvig, to prove the nationalistic side of Grundtvig. But NFS Grundtvig, in his long life and plentiful production, has so many more sides. I believe he would strongly disagree with the rephrasing, since he himself looked back in church history, as well as to contemporary Christianity both in and out of Denmark. I wish that the nationalistic interpretation of Grundtvig will not be the only one. Out of his rich production, we could find so many other things to highlight through creation theology, but I believe it needs to come from a reading and understanding of Grundtvig that comes from outside Denmark.
The conference started with the singing of a modern hymn from the Danish supplement to the official hymn book 100 salmer, by the Danish hymn writer Iben Krogsdal, Vi finder fred i kirken, although we sang a English translation by Edward Broadbridge. He has translated both hymns and other theology from Danish to English, including a large amount of Grundtvigs work.
The hymn was beautiful. However, I would have liked it, if we had also sung Krogdals modern take on Grundtvigs famous ecclesiological hymn Kirken, den er er gammelt hus (her version: Kirken, den er er salmebrus, from the other supplement Kirkesangbogen).
At the Grundtvig experience in the cathedral of Stockholm, Storkyrkan, we were given a short introduction to the life of NFS Grundtvig. From a hymnological perspective I would like to make some small additions.
Grundtvig wrote his first hymn in 1810. But it was not until the difficult years of his life, when he was under censorship and had difficulties finding a pastors position in Copenhagen, that he, thanks to encouragement and economic support of his friend Gunni Busck in 1835, produced most of his hymns. During a year, he produced hundreds of hymns for the first volume of his Sangværk, that eventually became five volumes in total. It is amazing, considering he did not sing himself.
His hymns were appreciated and sung, although it was not allowed as they were not a part of the official hymn book. At his congregation of Vartov, a hospital, though central in Copenhagen, not a regular congregation and church, his hymns were central in the services and they spread. Eventually, the hymns reached the court, and the Queen made sure he got rid of the censorship. In the Danish hymn book from 1855, 68 of his hymns were now official.
Grundtvig had a great critic in his own time, Søren Kierkegaard. The relationship between them is extensively elaborated in To samtidige by Anders Holm.
At the experience, we sang a few of Grundtvigs hymns (he wrote around 1600!), mostly in Swedish and not easily recognisable to the Danes as the were both in translation, as well as with unknown melodies. The Swedish hymn book from 1986 has nine hymns by NFS Grundtvig, compared with the Danish hymn book from 2002 that has 163 original hymns and another 90 that Grundtvig adapted and translated.
Out of the nine Grundtvig hymns in the Swedish hymn book, only three have melodies used in Denmark to that specific hymn. As the Danes discovered yesterday, the spring hymn Verdens igenfødelse in its Swedish version Världen som nu föds på nytt, has a melody in Denmark known as the advent hymn Blomstre som en rosengård.
Many hymns are of course an intertwined combination of lyrics and melody, which is particularly studied in hymns by Grundtvig by Lea Wierød in her dissertation Formens funktion i salmesang, Melopoetisk metode i sanganalysen med særligt henblik på salmer med tekst af N. F. S. Grundtvig. Therefore I find it especially unfortunate that the Grundtvig hymns have other melodies in the Swedish hymn book.
This is, however, a result of the hymn and choral committees decisions in 1937 when the first Swedish hymn book, after Grundtvigs production of hymns, was compiled. At that time, only six Grundtvig hymns made the cut. The choral book, ready a few months after the hymn book, premiered Swedish melodies, often written by members of the committee themselves, thus the now ongoing confusion of Danes singing Grundtvig in Swedish in unfamiliar melodies. The Swedish hymn book from 1986 did not rectify the former mistakes, by adding the Danish sung melodies as alternative in the Swedish hymn book. I hope we will add them in the upcoming revision of the hymn book that the Synod has already decided on.

I hope we will also sing more of Grundtvigs hymns in Swedish, I have several favourites. I choose now to say only one, a hymn for Lent: Hil dig Frelser og Forsoner, in a Swedish translation by Andreas Holmberg: Du som kom att oss försona.
Most of all, I hope for new perspectives and modern interpretations on Grundtvig and his hymns, perhaps even from Sweden.