The assertion written on the Great Stone of Jelling is that it was Harold (Bluetooth) who converted the Danes to Christianity in c.965. In this comprehensive survey, Martin Schwarz Lausten charts the fortunes of the church in Denmark from its very beginnings to the present day. Starting with the pagan society of the Vikings, Lausten describes how the Danes were introduced to the new religion prior to Harald's enthronement through their contact with Christian traders and missionaries, and in the encounters of the Viking raiders with Christian culture in France and England. Drawing on a wealth of manuscript, printed and pictorial sources, the book details how Church and Royal power transformed an ancient peasant society into a typical medieval state. Following chapters examine the impact of Luther and the Reformation on Danish society, and the shift in the struggles for authority between the Church and the State. The influence of the Humanist movement and the European Enlightenment are also examined in full, together with the issues they raised such as how the Church was to speak to the modern man who no longer took at face value the authority of the Bible. Lausten brings his survey right up to current times with an overview of the nineteenth-century revivalist movements, the Danish Church's response to the Jewish question during the German occupation, through to the present day establishment of the People's Church.

When Martin Luther's protest began making an impact in Scandinavia in the 1520s, this region belonged to the religious and political periphery of Europe. A century later the Nordic countries had become of paramount importance to European Protestantism, and it was the intervention of Lutheran Scandinavia in the Thirty Years' War which helped secure the survival of European Protestantism. This volume describes how the Nordic countries came to be solidly Lutheran states by the early seventeenth century; how the evangelical movements differed and succeeded, and the different pace of reform and its institutionalisation. It offers a revisionist view of the role of the Catholic Church in Scandinavia, and its attempts to halt the reformation, and demonstrates the difficulties facing the new Lutheran churches trying to convert a conservative, peasant population to Protestantism.

One of the largest states in Europe and the greatest of the Protestant powers, Denmark in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was at the height of its influence. Embracing Norway, Iceland, portions of southern Sweden and northern Germany, the Danish monarchy dominated the vital Baltic trade. However, its geopolitical importance far exceeded its modest resources. Paul Douglas Lockhart examines the short and perhaps unlikely career of Denmark as the major power of northern Europe, exploring its rise to the forefront of European affairs and its subsequent decline in fortunes following its disastrous involvement in the Thirty Years' War. Using the latest research from Danish and other Scandinavian scholars Lockhart focuses on key issues, from the dynamic role of the Oldenburg monarchy in bringing about Denmark's 'European integration', to the impact of the Protestant Reformation on Danish culture. The multi-national character of the Danish monarchy is explored in-depth, in particular how the Oldenburg kings of Denmark sought to establish their authority over their sizable-and oftentimes contentious-Norwegian, Icelandic, and German minorities. Denmark's participation in international politics and commerce is also investigated, along with the power struggle between Denmark and its rival Sweden over Baltic dominion, and the Danes' unique approach to internal governance.

Introduction -- Uncoupling Danish national identity from Lutheranism : the advent of religious difference in Denmark -- A tale of two Kierkegaards : responses to Mormonism by Denmark's cultural elites -- Mormons, Mormons! : provocative portrayals of Mormonism in Danish popular culture -- The price of conversion : cultural identity negotiations among early Danish Mormons -- Conclusion.