Enlightened Preaching Brill’S Series in Church History
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Enlightened Preaching Brill’s Series in Church History Edited by Wim Janse, Amsterdam In cooperation with Jan Wim Buisman, Leiden Theo Clemens, Utrecht/Antwerp Paul van Geest, Amsterdam/Tilburg Alastair Hamilton, London R. Ward Holder, Manchester, NH Scott Mandelbrote, Cambridge, UK Andrew Pettegree, St. Andrews VOLUME 62 Religious History and Culture Series Edited by Joris van Eijnatten, Utrecht Fred van Lieburg, Amsterdam VOLUME 8 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsch Enlightened Preaching Balthasar Münter’s Authorship 1772–1793 By Merethe Roos LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Balthasar Münter. Portrait by Johann Martin Preisler, Copenhagen 1775. Courtesy Royal Library Copenhagen. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1572-4107 ISBN 978-90-04-24883-0 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-24989-9 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... vii Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Why Balthasar Münter? ............................................................................ 1 Textual Sources and Theoretical Perspectives .................................. 15 1. Balthasar Münter—His Life and Work in Copenhagen ................. 21 Who Was Balthasar Münter? .................................................................. 21 Münter’s Writings ....................................................................................... 32 Saint-Petri Church ...................................................................................... 36 2. Münter during the Høegh-Guldberg Government, 1772–84. Texts and Contexts .................................................................................... 41 The Context of Church Policy: Høegh-Guldberg’s Understanding of the Bible as a Normative Text ...................................................... 44 The Theological Context .......................................................................... 51 The Context of Eighteenth Century Church Service ....................... 57 Sermon Ideals in Denmark-Norway ..................................................... 64 Balthasar Münter’s Texts .................................................................. 70 Geistliche Lieder 1772–74 ...................................................................... 70 Predigten über die gewöhnliche Sonntagsevangelien, 1778–84 ................................................................................................. 80 Anleitung zur Erkenntniss und Ausübung des christlichen Glaubens ............................................................................................... 105 3. Analysis: Balthasar Münter and Contemporary Theological and Cultural Movements, 1772–84 ........................................................ 113 Münter’s Goal: Devotion .......................................................................... 114 Münter’s Neological Inheritance ........................................................... 118 The Legacy of Copenhagen’s Circle of Poets: The Function of Hymns in the Church Service ............................................................ 130 Münter Versus Bastholm: The Sermon as Rhetoric ......................... 139 Summary: Balthasar Münter’s Preaching from 1772–84 ................. 144 vi contents 4. Münter during the Bernstorff Government, 1785–93: Texts and Contexts .................................................................................... 151 The Political and Societal Frame: A New Government— A New Society ......................................................................................... 151 The Frame of Church Policy: Changes in the Relationship between the State and the Church .................................................. 158 The Social Context: German Elite Culture in Copenhagen— The Salons of the German Aristocracy and their Esoteric Interests .................................................................................................... 161 Balthasar Münter’s Texts .................................................................. 169 Oeffentliche Vorträge, 1785–93 ............................................................ 170 5. Analysis: Balthasar Münter and Contemporary Theological and Cultural Movements, 1785–93 ........................................................ 197 Comparative Perspectives on Münter’s Development: 1772–84 and 1785–93 ............................................................................................. 198 Münter during the Bernstorff Era: Four Aspects of Theology, Social Life, and Literature ................................................................... 210 6. Enlightened Preaching—Balthasar Münter 1772–93 ......................... 239 Münter’s Intention in Writing ................................................................ 244 Contributing to the Enlightenment ...................................................... 247 Appendix 1. Pericopes in Predigten über die gewöhnlichen Sonntagsevangelien in Verbindung mit anderen Schriften .............. 257 Appendix 2. Pericopes in Oeffentliche Vorträge über die Reden und Begebenheiten Jesu .............................................................................. 263 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 267 Index .................................................................................................................... 277 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is a revised and translated version of my doctoral thesis, defended at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, April 2010. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge my sincere thanks to MF and to rector Vidar L. Haanes, for providing a four year PhD scholarship making this research work possible. I am particularly grateful to Prof. Haanes and Prof. Arne Bugge Amundsen, University of Oslo, for supervising the thesis with insight and enthusiasm. I would also like to thank Prof. Kjell Lars Berge, University of Oslo, lecturer Anna Cullhed, Uppsala University and Prof. Gunnar Heiene, MF Norwegian School of Theology for their stimulat- ing oppositions during the doctoral defence in April 2010. I owe a substan- tial debt to Prof. Berge for ending his opposition by inviting me into his research group Text and Rhetorics at the Institute for Linguistic and Scan- dinavian Studies, University of Oslo. The comments from and discussions among these very competent scholars have refined my understanding of textual-oriented approaches to historical sources. At Østfold University College, my present home institution, Dean Eystein Arntzen is especially deserving of thanks for providing facilities and support for the translation of the book into English. I also wish to thank Arlyne Moi for her great work with translating this text, and the Germanists at Østfold University College, particularly Prof. Sigmund Kvam and Prof. Peter Langemeyer, for providing assistance when Münter’s original thoughts and words seemed syntactically untranslatable into another language than German. The friendly librarians at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, University of Oslo (Library for Humanities and Social Sciences), The Royal Library in Copenhagen and at Østfold University College should not be forgotten either. Joris van Eijnatten originally invited me to contribute this volume to the RHCS series, for which he, with Fred van Lieburg, serve as editors. I learned much from their comments on the draft version of this manuscript, and I am grateful to them for including this book in the series. The anony- mous peer reviewers, of whom all I know is that they are German, made a great job with helping me putting the draft manuscript on a better—and much more interesting—track. Last, but not least, Ivo Romein and Gera van Bedaf at Brill deserves thanks for their help with all kinds of practical matters. INTRODUCTION Why Balthasar Münter? The German theologian and pastor Balthasar Münter (1735–93) is known primarily for being the spiritual advisor of Johann Friedrich Struensee (1735–72) at the time when Struensee was sentenced to death for his ille- gitimate leadership of Denmark-Norway in 1772. Struensee came to power in 1770 and rapidly introduced radical reforms and liberal attitudes that were based on the principles of Voltaire and Rousseau. These attitudes provoked the public at large, and on the night of 16 January 1772, and into the early morning