# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1864_S145
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Grundtvig. 145

there just as in the German church, with an alteration of the renunciation
questions and of the creed. But how the words were then squeezed! Lindberg
indeed went so far as to declare baptism defective if one said, "I believe in
God the Father, almighty Creator, etc.," instead of, "in God the Father, the
Almighty (παντοκράτορα), Creator of heaven and earth," or if one spoke, "in
the holy Ghost" instead of, "in the Holy Ghost." Faced with such a procedure,
criticism of course has an easy game of it. What is one to answer it when it
asks how many of his followers Grundtvig can be certain were "rightly"
baptized, had entered into the true, valid baptismal covenant, at a time when
in this respect the greatest arbitrariness demonstrably prevailed? Could even
one in ten furnish full proof of it? Would he not, for the sake of certainty,
actually have to require of everyone who cannot furnish it that he submit to a
repeated, proper baptism? and since he neither can nor will do that, must he
not receive the members of his congregation on good faith? — And is it not
striking all experience in the face to deny the living and life-begetting
efficacy of the written and read Word? Have not Grundtvig's own hymns kindled
fire, even in those who only read them? and should the word of the Holy
Ghost in Scripture not enter the heart just as well through the eye as
through the ear, and work divine life in it?

The subordination of Scripture beneath tradition, which has proved so
disastrous for the system of Grundtvigianism, stands in close connection with
a practical need. Men despaired of the corrupted state church; they wished at
any price to save the integrity of the congregation, the true communion of
faith. Hence first the insistence on unblemished observance of the liturgy,
and when that could not be attained, repeated attempts to form a free
congregation, and finally, when permission for this was refused, the demand
that no one should be bound to his assigned pastor. This last demand, which
was actually put forward in the interest of the believing members of the
church but of course had to be granted to all, was satisfied by the
already-mentioned dissolution of the parish bond.

This brings us at last to the position which Grundtvig took toward the state
church at various times. For in this respect we meet with very considerable
fluctuations in him. In the first and larger half of his life he stood
altogether hostile toward it. No Baptist can despise the Babel of the state
church more thoroughly or abhor it more deeply. As often as the grievous
ills of church life oppressed him and he sought in vain to remove them, he
threatened withdrawal, he and his numerous party with him. But he wished to
be released from the state-church body in due form and with legal
warrant, and this he could never obtain. And so he remained after all, and
gradually he seems to have resigned himself to the oppressive
circumstances, yet not