ABSTRACT

The final chapter takes the reader back in time to influential Danish theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig (b. 1783). The author explores how Grundtvig’s emphasis on the growth of faith is central for his understanding of Christianity in theology and poetry, and how this might connect to contemporary striving for spiritual self-realisation and development, and for the vision of a fulfilled afterlife. Is it “only in resurrection” that we can fully turn “into what we already are”?

Drawing on a detailed interpretation of Grundtvig’s poetry, especially in his hymns, the chapter presents a new attempt to define the Christian concept of enlightenment by With Grundtvig, growth corresponds to the idea of enlightenment. According to him, human life as a Christ-life is a partial “deification” of human beings through their Christian faith.

The author discusses how the Christian concept of subjectivity in its future-oriented openness can actually surpass a modernist one. Emphasising bodily resurrection, vividly portrayed by the Apostolic Creed in the term “resurrection of the flesh”, classical and contemporary theology of creation turns into both a defence of the goodness of the earth as God’s creation, and an appreciation of its value in the path to salvation.