Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/264

246 tion. The same applies to his prose works. His words usually come with power and warmth from the heart, and usually, also, touch the heart; but they rarely make the impression of having been put into the purifying crucible of reflection. Few writers have accordingly been to a greater degree the object of parody, though the latter was not directed so much against the genial master himself as against the swarm of imitators who flocked around him and imitated most scrupulously his weaker sides without possessing the faculty of causing these weaknesses to be overlooked and offset by grand excellences.

Grundtvig concentrated his efforts on treating Christianity, the idea of a union of the North, and the cause of the people as the chief problems of the times, and on pushing these problems one step nearer to their solution. This effort of his was crowned with success, and his influence was felt throughout the whole North. This appears most clearly and forcibly in the attitude he assumed toward Christianity. A large religious party, "The Grundtvigians" do homage to "the joyful Christianity," preached by Grundtvig, who, instead of the Bible, regarded "the oral works of Christ in the institution of baptism and of the Lord's Supper, and the oral confession of faith by the whole Christian community, particularly in connection with baptism, as the only really valid, express and living testimony, by which the Christian faith and the spirit of Christ can be communicated and propagated." The Grundtvigian watchword "the living word"—in the field of religion; "the Lord's own word" as against the apostolic and post-apostolic writings—characterizes the fundamental idea of Grundtvig's views, and indeed not only in his religious works where personal "faith" is strongly emphasized in opposition to "doctrine," but also in all other fields of activity, particularly in the historical, where he with less science than poetry makes Christ the central figure in the world's development.

No one has contributed more with tongue and pen toward