Mennesket som Mikrokosmos. Grundtvigs digt om »Menneske-Livet«

The Human Being as a Microcosm: Grundtvig's Great Poem on Human Life’By Niels Henrik GregersenAll of Grundtvig’s hymns are about human existence but only one hymn is actually entitled ‘Human Life’ (Sang- Værk IV, 173). This long poem from 1847, widely neglected in Grundtvig scholarship, describes the human potential for growth and transformation, and does so with a consistent use of five symbols of nature: Nature as star, rock, ocean, bird and flower. Through the lens of these five natural symbols (all of which have strong Biblical allusions) Grundtvig describes seven steps of human self-transformation in the image and likeness of God.The egotistic human heart is, first, likened to the coldness of the heavenly stars. In a second step, the superiority of humanity over nature is described in terms of the human capacity to discern life’s meaning (the eye is greater than the star) and to express it in terms of language (the word is even greater than the eye). In a third step, the human being is described as comprising nature in its fullness (the star is in the eye as well as behind the brow). In a fourth step, the human being is described in its painful lack of eternity, despite its fullness compared with other created beings. In a fifth step, a Christology of longing is presented, according to which Christ comprises what the human being does not comprise: time and eternity in one person. Thus, the high star of Bethlehem leads the human mind to the low crib of the poor child, in whom nature and spirit, time and eternity were united; by contrast, human existence is temporal but is longing for eternity. In a sixth step, humanity is transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. This process finally leads, in the seventh step, to a new song, a praising of God which takes up and yet renews Psalm 8 of the Old Testament.It is argued that Grundtvig understands the human being after the model of Christ. The notion of imago dei is portrayed in similitudine Christi. According to Col 1,15 f, Christ comprises both the ...