Lutheran Theology and the Shaping of Society: The Danish Monarchy As Example : The Danish Monarchy As Example

Gutmann visited our researchgroup and we are very gratefulfor their cooperative attitude. We also thank PhD Candace Kohli, who visited the group for two months, both for her participation in the group'swork and for her help with the language revision of the texts. The research group grew rapidly and became an intra-facultary network called LUMEN (Lutheran Mentality and the North Nordic). We deeply appreciate the strategic pool of the rectorate at Aarhus University for generously providing substantial funding to support the network. This funding made it possible to work on the book duringatwoday seminar in Norsminde, Denmark. We are very pleased that our Swedish colleagues Karin Hassan Jansson, Urban Claesson, and Kajsa Brilkmann accepted our invitation to respond to preliminary versions of the chapters at the Norsminde seminar. Aarhus University Research Foundation has generously provided financial support for the publication, for which we would like to express our sincerest thanks. PhD-students Mattias Skat Sommer and Leonora Lottrup Rasmussen helped us in the hectic weeks of completing the manuscript for the publisher. Finalizing abook manuscript in 2017 wasachallenge. We are grateful to Kasper Lynge Tipsmark for making the indices, and to Dr. Bernhard Kirchmeiero f Va ndenhoeck & Ruprecht for supporting the finishing of the book. Finally we would like to thank Director Prof. Dr. HermanSelderhuis and the editorial board of Refo500 Academic Studies for accepting the book in the series. From different perspectives this book studies the role of Reformation theology in the shaping of Danish society and the social dimensions of Lutheran confessional culture. The book develops an approach making it possible to draw strong conclusion about the social teaching of Luther and its impact on the development of the Danish society. It works on a conceptual level by analyzing the social dimensions of key Lutheran concepts and their translation into the doctrine of the three estates (church, household, and state), and on the level of lived experience of life within these three orders, not at least within the household forming the ideal form also for church and state. Thus the chapters in the book endeavor to connect the social ideas inherent in the Lutheran confession with the social formation of the Danish state from the Reformation into the period of Absolutism. A long mono-confessional situation within the Danish Monarchy makes it possible to study the impact of Lutheranism and the development of a confessional culture within a uniquely long timeframe. The focus is on basic mediums for the translation of Lutheran ideas into social practice: law, primarily connected to marriage and family; and the role of household, both as primary social relations and as basic social and political model. In this way the book offers important insights for theologians, historians, sociologists, and academically anyone interested in the relation between theology and sociality, confession and culture. This volume offers new answers and perspectives to the difficult investigation of the impact of Lutheranism upon society, culture, and mentality by focusing on: 1) how core ideas in Lutheran theology implicate a kind of social teaching; 2) to what extent this social teaching forms the background for law and social institutions, especially the family household, in the formative period between the Reformation and 1800. By combining historical and theological perspectives this project offers new insights into the formative potential of Lutheranism using the Danish Monarchy as example The Contributions investigate the impact of Lutheranism upon society, culture, and mentality focusing how social imaginaries of Lutheran theology play a role in the formation of society, especially the family household ***Angaben zur beteiligten Person Gutmann: Dr. Hans-Martin Gutmann ist Professor für Praktische Theologie und Universitätsprediger in Hamburg