The Reverend Dr. Peter Christian Kierkegaard's "About and Against Mormonism" (1855)

Authors

Julie K. Allen
David L. Paulsen

Keywords

Mormon studies, Peter Christian Kierkegaard, Christianity

Abstract

Born on July 6, 1805, the Danish Lutheran priest Peter Christian Kierkegaard, brother of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, was an exact contemporary of Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both men devoted their lives to the refinement and advancement of their religious beliefs, albeit within very different sociohistorical contexts, and both had profound impacts on the shape of the religious landscape in their home countries. While Peter Christian Kierkegaard, as the most eloquent and influential advocate of the views of the controversial nineteenth-century Danish religious reformer N. F. S. Grundtvig, concentrated on bringing about the shift from state-controlled to populist Protestant Christianity in Denmark, Joseph Smith professed to have restored the original church of Jesus Christ on the earth and set in motion a groundswell of worldwide missionary efforts designed to bring the news of this restoration to the four corners of the earth. Although Smith never set foot in Denmark, nor Kierkegaard in America, their ideological paths did cross in the late summer of 1854, slightly more than four years after the first emissaries of the LDS Church arrived in Denmark. Kierkegaard discovered that the Mormon missionaries had begun preaching in his parish, which encompassed the towns of Pedersborg and Kindertofte, near Sorø on the main Danish island of Zealand, and took it upon himself to combat their influence on his parishioners.

Recommended Citation

Allen, Julie K. and Paulsen, David L. (2007) "The Reverend Dr. Peter Christian Kierkegaard's "About and Against Mormonism" (1855)," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 46: Iss. 3, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol46/iss3/6