"Optegnelser om mit Levneds og min Tids Historie" (Memoranda from the history of my life and of my time). It furnishes valuable information not only concerning the political life in which the author took a prominent part, but also in regard to the religious and ecclesiastical movement in Denmark. His works contain many valuable facts for a thorough understanding of the intellectual movements of his time.
Hans Lassen Martensen (born 1808), bishop of Zealand, has attained a celebrity extending far beyond the limits of Denmark by his very important works "Den christelige Dogmatik" and "Den christelige Ethik." His work on ethics contains not only a wealth of great theological learning in a form intelligible even to the layman, but also the results of mature reflections concerning all the relations of life viewed from a Christian standpoint.[1]
In the works of these three authors there is a marked philosophical element, but still they are decidedly theologians. But Sören Aaby Kjérkegaard (1813-1855), the greatest thinker Denmark ever produced, must be looked upon as the connecting link between theology and philosophy. Religion was almost exclusively the object of his researches, yet it was not the dogmatic details, but the fundamental principles of Christianity, on which he wrote, and which he conceived in a most striking and original manner. The religious view which he advocates in his numerous works, form a decided contrast to that presented in the religious works of other authors. According to strictly logical methods he sets forth the absolutely ideal claims of Christianity, and in this respect he is a most remarkable parallel to Feuerbach. But while the tenets of the latter lead the reader away from Christian-
- ↑ J. P. Mynster: Kleine theologische Schriften, Copenhagen, 1825. Betragtninger over de christelige Troslærdomme, I-II, Copenhagen, 1833. H. N. Clausen: Katholicismens og Protestantismens Kirkeforfatning, Copenhagen, 1825. Optegnelser om mit Levneds og min Tids Historie, Copenhagen, 1877. H. L. Martensen: Den christelige Dogmatik, Copenhagen, 1849. Den christelige Ethik, I-III, Copenhagen, 1871-1878.
