[i: Bo Stråth (ed.): Language and the Construction of Class Identities. The Struggle for Discursive Power in Social Organisation: Scandinavia and Germany after 1800, Gothenburg 1990, s.55-94, (40 pages). ISBN 91-971234-1-2.]
by Sidsel Eriksen
The Early Temperance Movement in Sweden
The Early Temperance Movement in Denmark
The Later Temperance Movement in Sweden
Following the World Conference of Christian Youth Associations in Stockholm in l888, one of the Danish participants wrote a small article in Den Indre Mission Tidende, newspaper of the Danish pietist (Inner Mission) movement. He focused on the difference in attitude toward alcohol in the two countries:
'We Danes certainly have the sorrowful Reputation of being the most drunken People in Europe; now it is well-nigh impossible that we the Holy ones [i.e., members of the Inner Mission movement] can be drunk, but being born and raised among a drunken Folk, we nevertheless tend to allow strong Drink to have a much too well-deserved and prominent Place at our Meals as Something unobjectionable if only we ourselves did not get drunk : The Schnaps bottle and lager beer belong to the normal Furnishings even in the Homes of the Holy ones; if a Priest, a Missionary or some other believer still drinks his Schnaps, perhaps even two, and his pint of Beer at each Meal, Nobody raises their eyebrows. In Denmark this is all just fine. In Stockholm all the Participants at the Meeting ate together for Breakfast, Dinner and Supper, and Everything was arranged beautiful, with fine, real good Food...but we never drank anything other than Water...we Holy ones from Denmark could surely benefit by making our Meals less potent and more watered down, and pushing the Schnaps bottle and the pints of Beer a bit more away, especially since we live in a Country where Drinking is such a great national Evil as in Denmark.'
The surprised and perhaps also somewhat impressed Danish
participant in the World Conference of Christian Youth
Associations was none other than Vilhelm Beck, the absolute
leader of the pietist Inner Mission, Denmark's largest revivalist
movement during the latter half of the l9th century. Yet the same
Vilhelm Beck became a bitter opponent when discussion came to
creating temperance associations, despite his presumably being
aware that it was the work of just such associations which had
altered the view of alcohol in Sweden. Regarding the abstinence
associations which had been founded since the early l880's around
Denmark in the attempt to relieve the rather serious alcohol
problems there, Beck's attitude was unmistakable: 'The
Abstinence cause, with its ridiculous Promises, is for me a
Nuissance. I cannot understand how religious believers could have
anything to do with it. [The Abstinence cause] is
Quackery of the disbelieving World, which will not use the great
Doctor [i.e., God], who heals all illnesses of Sin.'(1)
Beck's statements from l888 reveal quite clearly the difference,
which has been maintained to the present, of the myth of the
repressed and self-controlled Swede versus the freer and more
relaxed Dane. One hundred years after Beck's comments, in l988,
the Danish journalist Ulrik Høy wrote sarcastically of the
Swedes' restrictive and condemnatory attitude toward alcohol: 'In
their self-righteous way, they believe, by God, that self-control
and cultivated behaviour is so desirable that Swedes ought to
deviate from this code only when they go to remote places, in
other countries, preferably in the neighboring country" [i e
Denmark]. Those Swedes who nevertheless dare to buy spirits in
the State Liquor Monopoly stores remain suppressed by an eternal
paternalism and puerile fear that someone will discover it.'(2) The l00-year time interval bears
witness to the fact that the myth of fun-loving, drinking Danes
versus sober, repressed Swedes is not just of recent vintage, but
apparently more deeply rooted in what could be called a 'national
folk culture'.
The study of 'national folk culture' is a relatively new
research area which has arisen in connection with the more
traditional ethnological studies of cultural variation.
Ethnologist Orvar Löfgren believes that the national culture
consists of the collective consciousness which is shared by
fellow members of the nation. The content of this cultural
community consists of common codes, mutually agreed upon
understandings and a common fund of knowledge. These jointly
shared traditions, associations and attitudes are often
unarticulated and tend to be observed more clearly by foreigners,
who remark that there is much that they do not understand:
References to internal conditions collective memory and humor. We
ourselves are reminded of these cultural artifacts when we cross
national borders on the way home and suddenly feel at home. A
national folk culture is thus the common frame of reference, the
set of values, norms, ways of thinking and behaviour held in
common by most of the population of a nation state. Elements of
this national folk culture are often invisible to those within
the culture, but as we saw with Vilhelm Beck in l888, they become
visible when seen at a distance.(3)
This difference in the Swedish and Danish national folk cultures
can also be confirmed by the quite different impact of the
temperance movements in the two countries. As early as the l830's
and l840's, there emerged in Sweden the Swedish Temperance
Society, (Svenska Nykterhetssallskäpet) with a very
large membership. After a pause around the l850's the Swedish
movement again made headway in the l870's, especially in the l880's
with the formation of the IOGT (International Organisation of
Good Templars), which has left its imprint on the present
movement. Parallel with the Swedish developments, Denmark also
had two temperance societies in the l840's: the Moderation
Society (Maadeholdsforeningen) and the Teatotalers'
Society (Totalafholdsselskabet). Yet neither
organisation was able to win support among broad sections of the
public. The Danish temperance movement got a solid foothold,
however, in the l880's, and attained quite a sizable membership.
Yet the size of the Danish temperance movement was (relative to
the population) between one-half and two-thirds of its Swedish
counterpart. The Danish movement failed to achieve the influence
of the Swedish, and after World War I slowly died out.
[Picture missing in the HTM-version]
Numerical development of the large temperance Organizations in
Denmark and Sweden 1830-1930.SOURCE: Summary charts of the large
temperance movements' membership changes in Denmark and Sweden
are derived partly from Sven Lundkvist, Folkrörelserna i det
svenska samhället, l850-l920 (Popular Movements in Swedish
Society, l850-l920). Sober, Stockholm l977 p 69, and partly from
my own dissertation research.
It would be fitting to first investigate whether recent
research on the development of the temperance movements in the
two countries contain elements which can explain their
differential impact. Most studies naturally see an association
between the rise of the temperance movement as a reaction to
large consumption of spirits, and in the same fashion view their
decline as an indication that the problem is solved. That the
Swedish Temperance Society ceased its activity in the mid l800's,
for example, is often linked with the more strict alcohol
legislation in l855. The nature of the case is that the
correlation can not be rejected out of hand. Nevertheless it
implies that Denmark's absent or weak temperance movement is
alone explained by Denmark having a rate of alcohol consumption
which was significantly less than Sweden. There is nothing, not
even in Beck's statements from l888, which indicates this.(4)
The high degree of alcohol consumption is not the only cause of
the rise of the temperance movement, however. The ambitious
Swedish research project on popular movements explains the
subsequent growth of the temperance movement in a broader
context, namely as a result of the evolution of modern industrial
society and as a clear parallel to Sweden's two other popular
movements: the free church movement and the labour movement. That
these movements recruited their members from among, respectively,
the middle and lower social orders has been interpreted by the
project's leader, Sven Lundkvist, as an indication that the
movements were channels for popular protest against society's
traditional authorities, and a means by which these groups
struggled for influence in the modern society. While the free
church protest was clearly aimed against the State church and the
workers' protests against capitalists, Lundkvist showed that the
temperance movements also should be seen as a political protest
movement of the middle classes: 'The problem with alcohol created
another collective goal for protest and brought with it the
creation of the temperance movement.'(5)
Another researcher associated with the project, Ingrid Åberg,
however, does not believe that the rise of the temperance
movement could be explained solely by its political protest
activities. While the temperance movement certainly may have met
the need for new paths of communication, it also constituted an
important means of social control, the need for which was spawned
by the liberalised access to distilling and selling of spirits.
The activity of the temperance movement, Åberg maintains, helped
to increase people's adaptation by channeling communication
within more tightly bound social relations. It thus functioned as
a form of protection of the individual against external pressure.(6) In yet another approach, the
historian Björn Horgby has recently asserted that the temperance
movement should be seen as expressing the struggle of industrial
society to discipline the workers.(7)
Common for these explanations, however, is that the movement is
viewed as a reaction to societal developments.
Explanations for the emergence of the Danish temperance movement
have paralleled the Swedish, albeit somewhat more sporadic, which
is symptomatic for Danish research interest in this phenomenon.
The historian Poul E Porskær Poulsen argues that the temperance
movement was an instrument for disciplining the workers to the
demands of modern industrial society; old social conventions had
to be eliminated so that production could be made more efficient.(8) In contradiction to this,
research by Inge Bundsgaard and the present author has shown that
the movement should instead be interpreted as an expression of
the workers' wish to discipline themselves, so that they could
survive in modern industrial society, where drinking was both the
greatest threat to a decent existence and an easy avenue of
escape when the industrial society became too inhuman.(9) Not independently of this, the
sociologist Peter Gundelach, in a new study of social movements,
considers the temperance movement's emergence as a sign of the
transition from one societal type to another.(10)
These explanations fail to resolve our initial problem, however.
Was not social change much more acute in Denmark? Should the
temperance movement not have been stronger in Denmark? We are
unable to explain why the difference between the developments in
Sweden and Denmark was already so marked at the time of the
initial emergence of the temperance movements in the first half
of the l9th century, long before the rise of industrialism.
In a critique of the Swedish Popular Movements Research Project,
the Danish historian Vagn Wåhlin has also expressed reservations
regarding Lundqvist's view that the temperance movement was a
product of the social changes caused by industrialization and
urbanization. Such an explanation could not account for why the
temperance movement, in the form of the Swedish Temperance
Society appeared so much earlier and grew so strong in Sweden. Wåhlin
points instead to the fact that there had already existed
developed capitalist relations of production in the countryside,
and that these relations created the conditions for the rise of
the movements. Changes in the material existence create,
according to Wåhlin, a need for an adjustment at the ideological
level in the form of the creation of new coherent systems of
interpretation: in this instance in the form of the Swedish
Temperance Society.(11)
The historian Torkel Jansson, however, presents another and more
'elitist' explanation for the early rise of the Swedish
temperance movement. According to Jansson the early Swedish
temperance movement was an example of a unique type of l9th
century form of organisation, the 'association', which fulfilled
a function which Jansson calls an 'explosive vacuum', a vacuum
between the tasks carried out by the private sphere and the ever-growing
functions of the capitalist state. The solution to society's
alcohol problems was no longer a private matter but a problem
which had to be solved in the new public sphere. The early
temperance movements, established on the initiative of the
authorities or the priest, thus constituted communal institutions
in the community. The temperance association became a community
organ often headed by the priest, and according to Jansson, an
instrument by which the priest controlled the lives of his
parishioners. However, Jansson sees the priests' temperance
activities as part of a larger system. It was 'the state's
persons in authority who sought to force people into the form of
the association' in order to make them abstinent.(12)
Neither Jansson's nor Wåhlin's explanations of the early Swedish
temperance movement's emergence, however, help us to understand
the absence of a strong temperance movement in Denmark. That the
religious movements were simply reactions to the social change
taking place in Denmark during the first half of the l9th century
seems not to have posed any problem for Wåhlin. The reaction
must, according to Wåhlin, in the first place be turned against
the ruling world view, i e the State Church. Wåhlin is unclear
about whether this religion-based reaction was valid only for
Denmark, or whether Danish religious movements came to fulfill
the same function as did the early temperance movement in Sweden.
Nevertheless, being greatly inspired by the church historian P G
Lindhardt, Wåhlin maintains that the two Danish revivalist
movements, Inner Mission and Grundtvigianism, each had their
respective functions: Grundtvigianism appealed to the farmers
with a bright vision of Christianity, while Inner Mission, with
its distancing from 'the world', tended to appeal to rural
craftsmen, cottagers and fishermen, by providing them the
asceticism they needed.(13)
In the same fashion, one can be puzzled as to whether there is
not, as Jansson showed for Sweden, a similar 'explosive vacuum'
in Denmark during the first half of the l800's; would this not
also provide the conditions for a temperance movement? Niels
Clemmensen, who has carried out an investigation of Danish
associations parallel to that of Torkel Jansson in Sweden, in
fact supports the notion of such a vacuum in Denmark, but
Clemmensen don't explain why such a vacuum never generated a
temperance movement.(14)
Concering the manifestly weak character of Denmark's early
temperance movement, Sven Frøkær-Jensen nevertheless shows that
the two early Danish temperance organisations attempted to
imitate the successful Swedish movements of their time. However,
as explanation for the fact that the movement never seriously
obtained importance, Frøkær-Jensen points to a potpourri of
explanations: internal conflicts, the death of one of the
leaders, failure to involve the priests, poor support from the
administration, but most of all an unexplained 'lack of interest
from the major portion of the population.'(15)
We have thus no unequivocal explanation of why the movement was
so much weaker in Denmark than in Sweden, and no explanation at
all for why this difference continued throughout the entire
period in spite of the fact that there was apparently, as
mentioned, no organisational connection between the early and
later temperance movements in each of the two countries. Perhaps
we can examine the temperance movements' divergent development in
terms of another, more profound factor: the presence of a
particular ethical or religious world view.
Religion, or more specifically the way in which religious
belief affects people's actions, seems to have been an overlooked
explanatory factor when compared to the economic and politically
rational models which historians have often utilised. This is
despite the fact that no one can doubt that Christianity and
Islam, for example, have had major significance for Danish and
Iranian national folk cultures. Here I would like to follow the
suggestion of Vilhelm Beck, who in l888 remarked on the Swedes'
'peculiar Christianity', and propose in this paper that the
development of the national folk culture can at the most basic
level be associated with the kind of Christian world view which
made itself deeply felt among the majority of the national
state's inhabitants during the l9th century. I would suggest that
whereas l9th century Swedish religious revivalist movements
greatly resembled the Anglo-American revivalism, the
Danish revivalist movements of the same period were characterized
by a German Lutheran influence.
Lutheran teachings of 'salvation through faith alone' implied
that people were fundamentally sinners, but that the individual
through faith in God--because of Christ's expiation on the cross--could
obtain forgiveness for his sins and thereby achieve salvation. It
was important that an individual could do nothing to achieve
salvation; faith was not a human prestation, but something given
to the individual via baptism or when it pleased God. This faith,
afirmed by Holy Communion, brought such a peaceful state of mind
that the individual imperceptibly changed for the better, and
this showed itself in the daily life. It was only via the
internal change which followed with renewed faith that the
individual could achieve genuine liberation from his or her vices.
To attempt to better oneself via concrete action showed a lack of
faith, and it could easily lead to self-righteousness.
Associations which sought to help the individual with a single
vice--as did the temperance groups--were therefore in conflict
with accepted Lutheran theology.
In contrast to Lutheranism, the Anglo-American Christian world
view (which played a significant role in Swedish revivalism) was
more fixated on active struggle against human vices. Only a well
adjusted member of society could be sure of his or her own
salvation in the Hereafter. On the Day of Judgement, the
individual had to stand before God and account for his or her
life. Anglo-American revivalist Christianity thus emphasized
active struggle against sin and vice, so that the individual
could grow in love and holiness and achieve a level of perfection
which could assure salvation. Inasmuch as drunkenness was
considered to be one of the more serious vices, temperance
naturally came to be demanded. In terms of the beliefs of Anglo-American
revivalism, the Lutheran view that all active striving for
personal improvement must almost unavoidably lead to self-righteousness
was considered to be virtually heretical; it was a notion which
would lead only to religious passivity. Since part of the work of
bettering oneself also included active love of one's fellow man,
Anglo-American revivalist movements laid stress on efforts to
help others overcome their vices and improve their lives. Working
for temperance therefore became a normal part of the Anglo-American
church work. (Anglo-American revivalist Christianity is used
below as an all-purpose designation for the various revivalist
movements emanating from England and America, especially
Methodism and Baptism).
That religious revival movements functioned as effective cultural
creators should hardly be cause for surprise. On a purely
psychological level, a revival must be considered as a profound
experience or knowledge of a fundamental life truth, a knowledge
which affects the individual's view of good and evil, right and
wrong, at the most basic level. Consciously or unconconsiously,
such knowledge must have left its mark in daily life, in the way
in which the individual conducted his or her daily existence,
interacted with others, and in the kind of life strategies
formulated. In fact, the ethnologist Margaretha Balle-Petersen,
has shown how the religious revival movements of the l9th century
functioned precisely as cultural creators. In the communities
which arose around the revivalist Christians, there arose new
kinds of fundamental values about the meaning and conduct of life.(16)
Religious explanations are difficult to deal with if one works
only within a single national framework. Via comparison, via the
systematic juxtaposition of developmental trends, essential
similarities and differences can be made more visible. As the
brief review of research has already shown, however, we are also
confronted with the usual problem of comparative research: that
one cannot compare historical realities directly, but only the
results of research carried out within different national
research traditions. It is therefore necessary to systematically
examine the explanatory power of our religious hypothesis and
apply it to the concrete developments in the two countries.
Hence, in the remainder of this article I will further elaborate
the association between the rise of the Anglo-American and
Lutheran revivalist movements and their differing impact on the
temperance movements in, respectively, Sweden and Denmark.(17)
The Swedes acquaintance with Anglo-American revivalist
Christianity began in l807 when two Scots, John Paterson and
Ebenezer Henderson, came to Sweden from Denmark. They had been
sent by two prominent English missionary societies, the Religious
Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, which
had arisen in conjunction with England's international economic
expansion. These societies had the charitable goal of spreading
Christianity among the unenlightened heathens whom the English
encountered in the New World. The two Englishmen had come to
Denmark in order to prepare large-scale missionary activity in
the Danish colonies. However, the Danish-English war, which made
life somewhat unsafe for Englishmen in Denmark, compelled them to
move their activities to Sweden. They clearly viewed Sweden as an
eminently suitable territory for missionary work, similar to the
Danish colonies. Immediately after their arrival, Paterson
formulated a plan to 'awaken' the Swedish population to a more
fervent and conscious faith via the distribution of Bibles and
religious tracts.(18) For this
purpose they formed, in l809, the Evangelical Society (Evangeliska
Sällskapet), whose charter was even affirmed by the King,
thus giving it the 'official seal' needed in order to begin its
work. In l8l5 the Swedish Bible Society separated from its parent
association and became an autonomous organisation.
Paterson and Henderson did not begin their missionary work from
scratch, however. The Swedish State Church had operated since the
Reformation on a Lutheran confessional foundation, but in the
course of the l700's the German-inspired pietism and Herrnhutism
had gained a foothold within the church, with a comprehensive
preaching activity and the consequent diffusion of religious
devotional literature to the lay public. Luther, Arndt, Schriver,
Nohrborg and Pontoppidan helped advance the development of local
revivalist movements centered around charismatic revivalist
leaders. Their revivalist missionary activity was considerably
reduced in l726, when a new law forbid laymen to conduct
religious meetings outside the Swedish State Church.
Apparently, the associations established by Paterson and
Henderson thus arose precisely at a time where there existed
among the Swedish population a repressed wish, a wish partially
stimulated by the two Englishmen, to achieve a more personal and
involved Christianity than that offered by the Lutheran Swedish
Church. The Evangelical Society's tracts could fulfill this need.
In accordance with the Anglo-American revivalist tradition, many
of the tracts contained variations on the theme, 'What must I do
in order to achieve salvation?'. God is depicted as an almighty
ruler and righteous judge, who on Judgement Day will condemn the
unrepentant sinner to eternal perdition. The aggressive and
emotional style of the religious tracts helped awaken feelings of
repentance among the reader that he or she would work to achieve
salvation.(19) This notion
appears clearly in tract number 53: 'Some Words to Revival and a
Warning to Those Who Have Fallen into Drunkenness'. Using many
long biblical passages, drunkenness is shown to be a violation of
God's law, and this violation was sinful. Such a sin as seen as
proof that the drunkard had made a pact with the Devil, 'for
drinking is precisely one of his strongest devices'. This turned
the drunkard into a criminal in the eyes of God, and could only
lead to his eternal punishment in hell. He was to be the abysmal
victim in eternity. Yet there was hope, even for the drunkard. He
could see the light. The choice to be saved is up to the
individual will. The tract indicated that the decision to repent
could, however, come too late for the individual to achieve
salvation. If the drunkard 'awoke' and was genuinely able to
renounce the bottle, the tract promised eternal bliss.(20) It is interesting to note that
it is just this treatise on drunkenness which in the period l820-l839
was known to have been printed in 70,000 copies, or about one
copy for every tenth Swedish household (a household had an
average of 5 persons).
Although the Swedish missionary work was supported financially by
the Religious Tract Society in London, it was still necessary to
gain additional funds. Henderson and Paterson thus not only
sought and received support in revivalist circles, but also
worked actively to contact influential Swedes in order to assure
the Society an adequate financial base. The large number of
priests and bishops who became core members of the Society bears
witness to the fact that it had succeeded in obtaining a solid
foothold within the Swedish Church, especially among Stockholm's
small but influential Herrnhutist congregation, which also
functioned as a link to other revivalist circles around the
country.
Through its simple language and clear content, the tracts became
a kind of religious popular literature which soon had their
effect. As the tracts reached more people there arose new
religious revivals, and apparently many of the Tract Society's
core members acted as local revivalist leaders. Even though the
Evangelical Society had gained support in influential circles in
the Church and State, the Society's work was nevertheless
considered to be a powerful challenge to these circles. Although
it was ostensibly in the interest of the Swedish Church to spread
Christianity, the very American style of the tracts also
generated some suspicions, especially among the bishops. This led
to the Swedish Evangelical Society breaking off contact with the
English Societies, and partially stopping its activities in the l820's.
The Swedish Bible Society also languished, due to resistance of
leading circles within the Church against the Apocrypha not
receiving a place in the Bible, as was the Anglo-American
practice.(21)
Anglo-American revivalist Christianity first achieved its
decisive breakthrough in Sweden in the l830's with the
involvement of Methodist pastor George Scott. Characteristically
enough, Scott had been brought to Stockholm in l830 by the
English industrialist Samuel Owen in order to establish a
Methodist congregation for Owen and his large group of imported
English workers. Around Scott's congregational work there
developed not only a temperance society but several enterprises
of religious and social character, creating attention far beyond
the narrow framework of the congregation. Due partly to contacts
with Stockholm's Herrnhutist parish, Scott's Methodism came to
occupy a prominent role in Stockholm's religious and cultural
life. Scott rapidly became involved in the Evangelical Society.
He himself began the task of translating the new English tracts,
and he re-established connections to the Religious Tract Society.
In a thorough analysis of Scott's activities, the theologist
Gunnar Westin has shown how Scott, without openly coming forward
himself, also became the driving force and inspiration in the
creation of two new societies: the Swedish Missionary Society (Missionssällskapet)
in l835 and Svenska the Swedish Temperance Society (Furthermore,
Scott succeeded in obtaining the Svenska Nykterhetssällskapet)
in l837. sanctions of both the Church and the King for these. The
final impulse toward the creation of the Swedish Temperance
Society, however, came with the visit to Sweden of the
Presbyterian temperance preacher Robert Baird, in l836. Baird
succeeded in getting the King to subsidize the publication of a
book on the activities of temperance associations in the United
States. He then sent a copy to each parish in the entire kingdom
as an example to be imitated.(22)
Westin is convinced that this was Scott's doing. The intent of
Scott's involvement was, in fact, to spread Methodist
Christianity to greater parts of Sweden via the Swedish Mission
Society and the Swedish Temperance Society. Indeed, we also know
that Scott, aside from his priestly duties in Stockholm, also had
the status of missionary in The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary
Society.(23)
The Swedish Temperance Society now helped to diffuse the
revivalist appeal which we saw developed in Tract no. 53 on the
vice of drunkenness. That the temperance associations were
intended as an important part of missionary work was openly
proclaimed at the Society's founding.temperance associations came
to function (24) Considerable
evidence indicates that the as an Anglo-American revivalist
missionary campaign among 'pagans', albeit on the home front; i e
among people for whom drinking had taken power and prevented them
from living a harmonious and good life in accord with God. Hence,
the task was to help the fallen back onto the right path to God
so that they could begin a new life. In fact, the decision to
join a temperance association has often been described as a kind
of rebirth in which the individual, by signing a pledge of
temperance, decides to begin the task of personal improvement
within the religious framework provided by the association. Many
examples from the temperance literature indicate that the
temperance associations' activities consisted of provoking a
religious conversion.(25) It is
also significant that this activity was naturally linked together
with the local associations of the Swedish Mission Society, which
certainly did not make the revivalist content any less. Where the
priest was not included, the missionary and temperance campaigns
could perhaps be considered conscious or unconscious disguises
for religious meeting activity unauthorised by the church. The
revivalist activity of the temperance movements became especially
visible toward the mid l800's, when the temperance activity is
increasingly referred to as genuine 'inner mission'.(26) This is confirmed in l846, when
the Swedish Temperance Society hired a real temperance preacher
and when the mission preacher Fjellsted, widely known within the
Swedish Missionary Society, preached at meetings of the
Temperance Society.(27)
That the Swedish Temperance Society's local groups constituted a
direct religious threat to Lutheran Christianity, is further
shown by a theological debate carried out between two of the
leading churchmen of the time, the theologists Henrik Thomander
and Henrik Reuterdahl from Lund; the debate occurred in l838,
just a year after the formation of the Swedish Temperance Society.
Reuterdahl, especially, was sceptical about the Society's mixing
of Christianity and temperance. He maintained that they had
nothing to do with each other. According to Lutheran teachings,
only a healthy belief and spiritual strength could improve an
individual from within. Based on this view, Reuterdahl therefore
considered it to be false religiosity when the temperance
movements not only based themselves on biblical passages, but
also argued for temperance based on the Bible, despite the fact
that the Bible, according to Reuterdahl, never stipulates
temperance. For the unenlightened, temperance activity could
easily be mistaken for a religious revival meeting. Were
temperance to be considered a Christian duty, it could become a
doubtful way to distinguish believers from unbelievers.
Ultimately, it could lead to a dangerous arrogance of those
'saved' by temperance. According to Reuterdahl this false
teaching was already being preached from the country's pulpits.
Those who entered the temperance movements last would on the
final day be last in line for salvation.(28)
In total agreement with Reuterdahl's argument regarding the
pledge of temperance, but nevertheless convinced of the
temperance organisations' positive effect, Henrik Thomander
sought, however, to reduce their religious dimension by
polemically employing several arguments for the organisation
community's suitability to resolve social problems.(29)
We can see that the debate also attained concrete significance
for the spread of the Swedish Temperance Society.(30)
It was precisely in those districts dominated by Evangelical
Lutheran tendencies that the temperance movement was weakest. It
was especially powerful in western Sweden, where the Schartauist
Lutheran view of the Church led to a sharp condemnation of all
religious meetings, including those of temperance groups. This
was despite the fact that the Schartauists were otherwise much
concerned about struggling against minor transgressions.(31)
Reuterdahl was followed by a large number of the Swedish Church's
Lutheran priests. The Swedish Temperance Society 's yearly report
directly indicates that many priests lacked confidence in the
temperance cause because they, like Reuterdahl, did not believe
it to be part of their priestly calling. In fact, to the Swedish
Temperance Society's great annoyance the priests were not always
the best moral examples for their parishioners. Whereas priests
and other persons of rank were not so eager to join the movement,
the common people, according the Swedish Temperance Society's
yearly report, had taken the temperance cause to heart. The
statement can be seen as encouraging people not to allow
themselves to be cowed into submission by their local 'Lutheran'
priest's sabotage of the cause.(32)
We must thus call into question the idea that the Swedish
Temperance Society's local activity was a communal institution
with the priest at its head, controlled by the state via the
State Church's bishops English-inspired revivalist
(33) It was, rather, an movement
which under the pretext of being able to solve a serious alcohol
problem, also attempted to create a degree of support among
leading circles. Even when the priests were included, they were
probably either pragmatic priests inspired by the above-mentioned
Thomanders' utilitarian attitude to the temperance cause, or
Anglo-American inspired priests at the local level. Indeed it
would also be strange if the state and state church would be the
core of an activity which helped to subvert its own existence.
The Swedish Temperance Society's position was strengthened,
however, in the l840's, by the positive endorsement of Anglo-American
Christianity made by the Gothenburg bishop C.F. Wingård, who was
also a personal supporter and close friend of Scott.
That the Swedish Temperance Society nevertheless was not capable
of obtaining wider adherence can hardly be attributed to its
having been made superfluous by l855 legislative measures against
distilled spirits. The organization's decline began much earlier,
in the l840's, and must again be seen in conjunction with the
clampdown by the authorities' and by the Lutheran State Church on
the Anglo-American-style tendencies in Swedish society. This led
Scott, in l842, to be driven out of Stockholm, whereupon the
Anglo-American revival movement lost an important source of
information.(34) It was replaced
by the so-called Lutheran Neo-evangelism, a doctrine saying that
man should be saved only by hearing the words of God and not by
specific actions. The inner mission activities of the Swedish
Temperance Society in the 1840's and 1850's were an expression of
this new evangelism. The Temperance Society became too strict for
this change in activities and its Annual Report frequently stated
that temperance was maintained by the Gospel and not by
membership in an association. Much evidence points to the fact
that the Swedish Temperance Society was replaced in 1856, when
the preacher C O Rosenius founded the impressively large
Evangelical Fatherland Foundation (a Lutheran-based Evangeliska
Fosterlandsstiftelsen), organization whose apparent goal was
to keep lay activity within the framework of the Swedish State
Church. The Foundation consolidated an apparently large portion
of the ongoing revivalist currents. The Swedish Temperance
Society was not unconcerned about being out competed in this way.
Revivalism and temperance had to belong together, it was
believed, and in the spread of Christianity, temperance activity,
in agreement with the Anglo-American revivalistic tradition,
could not be circumvented.(35)
Characteristically, temperance nevertheless played a clear,
albeit more indirect, role in the Evangelical Fatherland
Foundation and in the diffusion of inner mission generally.aside
the Anglo-American (36) Neo-evangelism
succeeded in pushing associations' know the size of this
ideological gap activity but not the Anglo-American
temperance ideology. We do not which occurred with the
emergence of Neo-evangelism. Yet it is indicative that it was
Rosenius who succeeded in collecting the revivalist movements
into the Evangelical Fatherland Foundation thereby retaining them
within the Lutheran Swedish Church. Rosenius was not unaffected
by the Swedish Anglo-American tradition. In fact, he had been one
of Scott's closest collaborators in Stockholm and in this
capacity had continued to publish their magazine Pietisten
(The Pietist) from l842. According to Gunnar Westin, his
Lutheranism was not especially profound.(37)
The connection between the emergence of Anglo-American revivalist
currents and the development of the Swedish temperance movement
should thus be clear for the first half of the l800's.
It is undeniable that Anglo-American Christianity had more
difficult conditions in Denmark, and the temperance movement was
thus not capable of gaining any kind of solid foothold in Danish
society. There had been little response when the two Scottish
missionaries John Paterson and Ebenezer Henderson, settled in
Denmark in l805 in order to prepare for the planned missionary
campaign in the Danish colony Tranquebar. In connection with
their residence in Denmark they began to distribute pamphlets on
Copenhagen streets in order to meet the Danish people. Although
the two missionaries rapidly got into contact with Herrnhutist
circles, their work bore little fruit. When the war with England
made their residence in Denmark extremely problematic, they left
for Sweden. Paterson, in his memoirs, did not attribute the lack
of response in Denmark, to war, but to the fact that Rationalism
and Enlightenment thinking had not penetrated Sweden to the
extent that it had Denmark.(38)
Henderson proved to have more luck, when, following the War, he
returned to Denmark in l8l2 to try again. In l8l4 he founded the
Danish Bible Society (Det danske Bibelselskab). Like the
Swedish Evangelical Society and later the Swedish Bible Society,
the Danish Bible Society had the goal of distributing bibles to
large portions of the population, an effort sanctioned by leading
church circles in the country. The Society also achieved royal
authorization for its work in l8l4. The creation of the Bible
Society, however, was, as in Sweden, intended as an introduction
to a larger work, a campaign conducted by the Lyngby priest Bone
Falck Rønne. In l8l7 he created his own Bible Society for Lyngby
and Environs (Bibelselskabet for Lyngby og Omegn), whose
campaign soon evolved to more than simply distributing bibles.
Around this society, there arose a more active Christian milieu
with regular meetings. In l820, following the Swedish pattern,
the Lyngby Evangelical Tract Society (Lyngby Evangeliske
Traktatselskab) was founded. It was the forerunner for the
Danish Tract Society (Den danske Traktatselskab).
Besides reinforcing a more Bible-oriented Christianity among
laymen, there can be no doubt that Rønne's distribution of
tracts achieved a certain importance among Danish revivalist
movements,(39) i e the pietist
and especially Herrnhutist-inspired religious revival meetings,
which, in the same manner as in Sweden, had emerged local
revivalist leaders around the country in reaction to the
preachings of rationalism and the Enlightenment.(40)
Bone Falck Rønne's work nevertheless did not at all win
undivided sympathy in leading church circles, especially from
bishops Plum, Fr Münter and the later bishop J P Mynster. Even
though the king was apparently well disposed toward the campaign,
neither the Missionary Society nor the Tract Society (founded by
Falck Rønne), achieved royal authorization as had the Bible
Society. In his book on the Danish Mission Society, Niels
Bundgaard asserts that this became the Absolutist state and State
Church did not want these kinds of free societies, whose
activities were so impossible to control.(41)
However, the rejection was also attributable to the fact that the
societies' view of Christianity was very far from that of the
Lutheran State Church. Mynster and Münter went so far as to call
Bone Fack Rønne's work 'damaging', not least because his tracts
gave clear, but problematic instructions as to how laymen
themselves could interpret the Bible.(42)
In recognition of the fact that Rønne's activity had a certain
importance for the spread of Christianity and in order not to
lead to a rise in sectarianism. Münter nevertheless requested
the state authorities not to provoke any conflicts.(43) The plan apparently succeeded,
for the English-inspired Christianity never penetrated Denmark to
the same extent as in Sweden.
N F S Grundtvig must also bear a great deal of the responsibility
for the inability of Anglo-American revivalism to make itself
felt among the Danish movements. Since l8l0 Grundtvig had fought
against Enlightenment theology from a biblical/Lutheran position,
but he nevertheless distanced himself from the revivalist
currents. These he considered 'mediocre surrogates for religion'
because the unenlightened common folk, in his opinion, could
themselves understand the Bible only with great difficulty.
Grundtvig nevertheless played an important role in the Danish
revival movements. Conveniently, he made an exceptional discovery
in a reinterpretation of Luther. He realized that the true church
lay precisely in these revivalist communities, in which
Christianity was achieved via an unconditional faith. Faith alone
distinguished the Christian, and faith was given the individual
by the Sacraments: baptism and communion. In baptism the
individual received faith as a gift, and in communion faith was
still a confirmation of this faith. Yet the validity of
Christianity was alone connected to the individual's experience
of faith. With Grundtvig's own words, Christ allowed all his
faithful who were baptized as children and thereby experience the
validity of their baptisms. So that Bible reading would not lead
the individual on the wrong path, confessions of belief were made
the foundation of their faith. Grundtvig rendered the Bible great
value, of course, not as sacramental words of life but as a holy,
Christian, spiritual book of the church, whose interpretation
requireds faith and knowledge. Most of all, however, Grundtvig
made a distinction between law and the Gospel. The Bible gave no
instructions as to how the individual should live. Only via the
message of the Gospel could one be changed from within.(44) It was an argumentation
congruent with Henrik Reuterdahl's nearly contemporaneous work.
Grundtvig quickly became the spokesman for Danish revivalism, not
only theologically, but also in terms of Church politics. Because
he viewed the revival movements as the only true church, he
proposed, in l827, full religious freedom so that anyone could
freely leave the Danish State Church (Folkekirken). This
viewpoint became topical because the State Church was no longer
dominated by rationalist priests and because an ever greater
number of Grundtvig-inspired priests now began to propagate
Grundtvig's ideas about the 'people's church' as opposed to the
civil servants' 'state church'.
In l839 the Danish revival movements split; there was the
secession of a more Baptist wing, which in contrast to the
Grundtvigians placed more emphasis on spiritual 'rebirth': faith
had to be the individual's conscious and active choice. The
Baptists never came to include more than a few thousand
individuals.
It is also in conjunction with Baptism that the temperance
movement evolved. The temperance movement appeared in Denmark as
early as the l840's, and as is the case in Sweden, the immediate
cause was Robert Baird. Baird visited Denmark, where in l84l he
published his book paid for by an American temperance society on
the American temperance movement.(45)
From the start there were considerable problems distributing the
volume. The translator, F A Mønster, was even arrested as a
Baptist during the great Baptist persecutions of the l840's.
However, the publication was not totally fruitless. It was, in
fact, after studying Baird's writings that the teacher Ole
Syversen, in January l842, introduced its ideas in the journal Dagen
(The Day). Syversen sober-mindedly showed the movement's
suitability in connection with domestic crafts, industry and
economy.(46) The lack of active
support can be explained by the dissatisfaction with the
foundation on which Syversen wanted to work with the temperance
cause. Syversen advocated fanatical total abstinence as the only
means of solving society's alcohol problems, but not everyone
shared his views. Other temperance groups felt that hard liquor
alone was the cause of dependence on drink in society, and it was
therefore sufficient to stay away from hard liquor. Wine and
beer, in contrast, were not considered to cause important
problems. Pastor K E Møhl therefore founded in l843, a so-called
'Moderation Association' (Mådeholdsforening).(47) This much less fanatic
inconsistent according to Syversen attitude toward alcohol
resembled that of the successful Swedish Temperance Society.
Syversen himself later mentioned sarcastically, that this
distinction between 'good' and 'bad' alcohol was the main reason
why his own view of total abstinence engendered such little
support among several prominent persons, especially the clergy,
who did not wish to renounce wine. Hence, from the start there
seemed to be grounds for conflict, and although another of the
Moderation Society's founders, Hoter Hage, sought to convince
Syversen to change his views, Syversen nevertheless founded his
own Teetotalers' Society (Totalafholdenhedsselskab) in
September l843.(48)
The daily work of the Teetotalers' Society clearly sought to
imitate Baird's thorough instructions for the conduct of an
association. The basis of the association's activity were the
meetings, held every fourteenth day. Here one could hear lectures
about current temperance questions, the movement's development in
other countries, etc. The presentations of personal experiences
and trials with alcohol were an important part of the meetings,
totally in the American style, and perhaps more or less intended,
these presentations greatly resembled religious revival
movements, which they basically were. One such personal testament
presented at a meeting of a Teetotalers' Society was published in
their journal Menneskevennen (Friend of Man) under the
title: 'A Reborn Drunkard's Life' Significantly, Baptist style
Christianity also played a role in the work of the Society.(49) Hence, the Society's meetings
opened with a prayer.(50) Yet it
did not make distinctions between religious affiliations.
Syversen strived to avoid any suspicion that the movement was
anything else but politically and religiously neutral, though he
revealingly added that 'should there with the Meetings
occasionally be held short religious Speeches in the Spirit of
the ruling Church, and still with Reference to Temperance
Affairs, they should be held at the End of the Meetings so that
anyone who does not wish to hear them can leave.'(51)
Nevertheless, there seems to be a logical impossibility that such
short religious speeches on the temperance theme should be held
in the spirit of the ruling church. The blending of Christianity
and temperance was certainly considered by the ruling church as
incompatible with the Lutheran religious foundation. Central to
the Society's activity also stood the publication of its weekly
agitational journal Menneskevennen, whose translations
of American temperance articles more than hinted at the Danish
link with the clearly religious American temperance movement.(52)
To Syversen's great regret, the Teetotalers' Society received
support only from the lower social classes in Copenhagen and not
among such influential men who could sit at the forefront of an
association and thereby attract members, as was the case with the
Swedish Temperance Society. It was therefore considerably
difficult for the Teetotalers' Society to be accepted by the
state, despite its clearly socially useful goals. Immediately
after its founding, in l843, it attempted to gain support from
Denmark's bishops and local councils by sending to each parish a
pamphlet of invitation (or more precisely, of agitation), a task
which took two years to carry out. However, the invitation
pamphlet was otherwise not irrelevant for the communal parishes,
who in fact were beginning to take on new social tasks.(53) And since according to the
pamphlet, drunkards were more on public welfare than any other
group, and since the communes could therefore save considerable
money if they did something substantial in this matter, this
itself ought to have awakened their interest. In an attempt to
win greater understanding, the pamphlet thus directed itself
especially to the priests, who often functioned as parish
overseers.
It was not easy, however, to involve the priests. Grundtvig was,
as we have seen, an opinion maker within the church milieu and in
those revival circles which in Sweden had been the temperance
movement's natural allies at the local level. His view of the
matter was also a key to the movement's entrance there. In the
pamphlet Bragesnak Grundtvig had the same year treated
the temperance cause thusly: '...even though I will not
renounce wine, ... I like it most, because it looks good in the
glass, loosens many a tongue which otherwise would only be used
to chew cud, enlightens many a face which otherwise is as dark as
Pluto's, and is, finally, the imaginative language certainly
indispensable as a mirror for the poetically encouraging,
uplifting and refreshing, free oral word which we in our day have
so much need for . . . we are nearly exchanging the virtues of
moderation and temperance with ink, as if we exchanged wine with
the interminable tea water.'(54)
In the invitation pamphlet Syversen therefore strongly
opposed N S F Grundtvig's view of the temperance cause. That
Christianity alone, as asserted by Grundtvig, was able to keep
people from the vice of drunkenness, was for Syversen a totally
mistaken idea, which he polemically justified by the country's
immensely high level of drinking notwithstanding the sufficient
number of preachers. Here he more than hinted that those priests
sharing Grundtvig's views were simply neglecting their work. The
priests, according to his views, must not only preach God's word
in church on Sunday, but must do more to practice Christianity by
seeking out those people, the poor, the drunkards, the jailed,
who were in need and did not have the courage to seek out God.
The priests could, through 'Prayer and Devotion', lead them to
God, where they could find salvation. It was therefore important
that the priests involved themselves in the abstinence cause.(55)
The view that the Lutheran priests' main task was preaching could
not be altered by Syversen's campaign. Presumably for this
reason, he soon gave up acting as if he were working within the
ruling church. In a bitter attack on the church's priests in
April l847, he clearly propagated the Anglo-American view that
drinking was sinful and therefore an obstacle to salvation. The
priests were encouraged to involve themselves in the temperance
cause in order to keep their fallen brothers from damnation.(56) Just a year later, Grundtvig
finally reaffirmed his view about the Teetotalers' movement,
saying that he 'preferred a good High to the spiritual Total-Abstinence.'(57)
The Teetotalers' Society was thus never capable of achieving wide
general acceptance. In April l848 it was decided to halt meeting
activity altogether. Instead they joined together with the
Association against Liquor Drinking (Forening mod Brændevinsdrik),
which the Moderation Society had now begun to call itself. The
official explanation was that the political situation meant that
the people had other things to think about.(58)
However, the Society clearly did not have the popular support for
which it could survive the death, in l847, of its ideologue and
main driving force, O Syversen. We might conclude that
Grundtvigian Lutheranism had not allowed the Teetotalers' Society
any latitude for its activities.
Things went somewhat better for the Moderation Society, which
was backed by a philanthropically interested circle of Copenhagen
bourgeoisie. Among these were several representatives for the
national-liberal circles, who, like similar circles in Sweden,
were clearly interested in the temperance cause as a means of
educating the population.(59)
Besides the Society's leader, C F Visby, several priests also
joined the Moderation Society. Nevertheless, their total number
never exceeded more than l2-l3 in its entire lifetime, which,
although they entirely dominated the leadership of the society,
was nothing compared to Sweden. There was, however, no direct
contact with revivalist circles. The Moderation Society therefore
made its mark more as a purely philanthropic enterprise than a
genuinely religious one.
The Moderation Society also won somewhat greater goodwill from
the state. They financed the publication of two medical
temperance lectures as well as the distribution of pamphlets to
all the country's parish superintendents and local town councils.
However, while the 'official seal' on the pamphlets brought the
movement influential contacts, it brought no great progress. The
movement died out towards the end of the l840's.(60)
As reason for its dissolution, in l849, the movement asserted
like the Teetotalers' Society, that the political situation
overshadowed people's interest. More important, however, was that
the Moderation Society had been incapable of winning over the
clergy in its campaign to wipe out drunkenness.(61)
The temperance movement was thus able to win support in more
sectarian circles and in the bourgeois and philanthropic groups
who did not have the patience to wait for the Lutheran type of
slow personal change from within. These groups succumbed to the
temperance movement's quick results. Yet such circles were very
few. The Grundtvigian Lutheran interpretation had apparently
attained too great a domination over the Danish revival movements
and the Danish clergy at that time, and thereby filled the vacuum
that the Anglo-American societies had found in Sweden.
Swedish Neo-evangelism first seriously manifested itself in
the l850's when the Church authorities in Lund, in the person of
Henrik Reuterdahl, came to dominate the church leadership. He
thus became Minister for Church Affairs in l852 and replaced C F
Wingård as archbishop in l856. One would think that the Anglo-American
Christianity had quite slowly disappeared from Swedish church
life and with it the possibility for the temperance movement's
later emergence. This was certainly not the case. In contrast to
Wingård, Reuterdahl used his position to assert that the old
Lutheran State Church was trying to impose itself on the
activities of religious revival movements outside the pale of the
Swedish State Church. On the contrary, this led to deep
contradictions and an increased enmity to the Church in
revivalist circles, an attitude which won support among political
Liberals. Reuterdahl thus became almost forced to take on a more
moderate attitude. The Liberal Thomander, now bishop in Lund,
declared that in his diocese would cease repression against the
revivalist movements. In this way there nearly occurred a
dissolution of the Clerical Conference in l858, and at the
proposal of Thomander full religious freedom was implemented in l860.
Thus was halted the connection between Lutheran belief and
citizenship, and thus also the connection between state and
church. Parallel with the creation of the Evangelical Fatherland
Foundation, a small group of revivalists had in the course of the
l850's affiliated with Baptism, which thus became a forum for
Anglo-American Christianity. But it was first during the l870's
that there developed the three Free Church tendencies Baptism,
Methodism and the steadily orthodox Lutheran Evangelical
Fatherland's Foundation fragmented with the creation of the
Swedish Mission Society in l878 under the leadership of P P
Waldentröm. The Anglo-American style Christianity apparently had
only 'hidden' itself in folk consciousness behind the Neo-evangelistic
tendencies.
The temperance movement which penetrated Sweden in the l870's
resurfaced with the emergence of the Free Church tendencies.
Again inspired by the English and American temperance movement,
new associations were formed having an 'absolutist' standpoint
which not only advocated temperance toward liquor, but also
against all alcoholic drinks. The leaders and spokespersons for
these new associations were often priests or other prominent
persons within the free churches.(62)
Yet the old established Swedish Temperance Society's association
activity also came to life, being supported by local priests,
especially those with connection to the Evangelical Fatherland
Foundation.(63)
Religiosity and the individual's rebirth now stood more than ever
as totally central to the daily work of the new absolutist
temperance associations. It is thus typical that sober arguments
against alcohol were clearly mixed together with this heavy-handed
Christianity. The mood at the temperance meetings now began to
resemble English or American revivalist religions. Using
rhetorical questions and ritualized answers they could achieve
nearly ecstatic heights:
'...he who has God on his side will be victorious. Do you
not believe?
[Audience:] - Yes! Yes!
- Do you believe that God is on the side of the liquor
distillers and inn owners?
- No! No!
- Is he not on the side of the temperate?
- Yes! Yes!
- Should they not win then?
- Yes!
- I say 'Yes', too, and if God is with us, who can then be
against us!?...'(64)
Such seances achieved effective results. Hardly anyone would
be able to see the difference between a religious conversion at a
Free Church meeting and the decision to remain temperate in a
temperance association. Here was psalm singing, prayer, sermons,
and public confessions of one's own (drinking) sins and of
conversion away from them.
From the start there were several different groups interested in
creating an organization to coordinate temperance activities. A
struggle arose between the new, strongly Anglo-American inspired
absolutist temperance associations and the now inactive Swedish
Temperance Society, which still considered itself the correct
vehicle of the temperance cause.(65)
A united temperance work did not arise, however, for while the
new absolutist temperance movement considered any use of alcohol
- including beer and wine - as sinful, the Swedish Temperance
Society was more moderate; their absolutism applied only to
distilled spirits.(66)
There seems to have arisen an organisational vacuum, enabling the
English/American absolutist International Order of Good Templars
(IOGT) in l879-l880 to win such immediate response in Sweden.
Much evidence indicates that Good Templarism simply swallowed up
a great deal of the l870's religious absolutist temperance
interest. Among the first leaders of the Good Templar movement we
find several persons with connections to the Free Churches. We
also have a concrete example of how an absolutist temperance
association was transformed into a Good Templar lodge: at a
meeting of the Hoppets Här (Band of Hope) temperance
association in l88l, in the Methodists' meeting hall in Linköping,
for example, the temperance cause was having difficulty retaining
members. As a solution to the problem, the presiding temperance
preacher G Liljeroth proposed: 'You must have a Good Templar
lodge', whose forms of work he viewed as eminently more
compatible with the association's goal of human betterment. The
proposal was accepted, and a lodge based on an apparently clear
Christian foundation was established.(67)
The example from Linköping indicates that the jump from the Free
Church-style absolutist temperance movement to the lodge system
of the Good Templars was not such a big step. In fact, Good
Templarism also derived from Methodist Christianity in England
and the United States,where it was considered a natural way of
assisting the work of the church. The first Good Templars
supported this view. In a Good Templar Lodge in Gefle, it was
stated in l88l that, 'a temperance association which is not at
the same time religious cannot achieve anything useful, since,
without having peace with God, a person cannot keep from sinning
or drinking.' The magic and healing elements of the temperance
association thus remained with Christianity.(68)
Especially in its daily activity, the Good Templar movement
clearly reflects the legacy of Anglo-American Free Church
Christianity. The lodge's members were formed a close-knit
community where prayers, song and ceremony played a decisive role.
Each lodge had its own chapel, whose task was to manage the
lodge's religious ceremonies. Even the form of the lodge building
resembled that of the Free Church. In the middle of the Good
Templar's meeting hall lay an eastward facing altar, around which
the lodge members had their permanent places. In fact, the Good
Templars had overtaken the idea of active gradual self-improvement
work emphasized by Anglo-American style Christianity. The Good
Templars cleverly developed a system of ranks, in clear parallel
with the Methodist teachings of degrees of holiness: the First
Degree, acceptance into the lodge, meant giving up the use of
spirits. Here the individual had to learn self-restraint. Second
Degree, the degree of faithfulness, consisted of renouncing
spirits for life. Here the individual achieved control over
himself and could begin to act as an example for others. The
Third Degree, the degree of love, presumed that the lodge brother
now had human capacity to also support the work of improving his
fellow man, via love for others. The Fourth Degree, the degree of
guidance, was the highest stage and strongly resembled the
perfection where the individual from a higher stage of truth and
justice is able to judge what was good for others. So that
everything would remain serious, each transition was marked by a
ritual of initiation, where a confession of faith in an almighty
God gave it strong religious overtones.(69)
There is therefore, reason to assert that the entrance into a
temperance association could fulfill a religious need, where the
individual sought salvation which could be achieved via one's own
action to create a better and more just life on earth.
For many lodges, however, it was the Anglo-American form of
conscious personal improvement which came to dominate rather than
the deeper Christian content. Religious proselytisation such as
the fundamentalist 'The Readers' (Läserna), in northern
Sweden, developed in their associations was hardly the case. As
one speaker in Stockholm's St. Erik lodge stated. 'One can be
pushed from the misery of the vices of drink and become an eager
temperance man without at the same time binding oneself to some
kind of religious confession. ... To reestablish the drunkard's
fallen self-consciousness, to put steel into his character, this
is what we want.'(70)
It was, however, first after the turn of the century, that the
call to faith in an 'almighty God' became so lacking in content
that it disappeared from the IOGT's program. Instead, efforts for
personal improvement attained further societal objectives. Via
systematic educational and informational activities, supported
and controlled by the lodge membership, were transformed into
efforts to build a higher political and social consciousness in
the individual and with it the possibility for a restrained and
conscientious life.(71) In this
way the IOGT achieved increased recruitment especially among
society's more mobile and socially vulnerable groups.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, the Free Church background of
Good Templarism, the relation between the Free Churches and the
temperance movement quickly became tense. The Free Churches felt
threatened by the pseudo-religious lodges. The problem, however,
lay in the fact that the temperance lodges gradually became
secularized and therefore not suitable to the life in the Free
Churches, and not at all suited to the temperance people in the
Evangelical Fatherland Foundation. The emergence of the Blue
Ribbon ('Blå Band') organization in the course of the l880's
must be seen as an attempt to recreate a temperance association
where 'common Christians' could also participate without coming
into conflict with their religion. From the start, it was sought
not to give the Blue Ribbon too strict a framework in order not
to upset such more Lutheran Christians who detested the
association form. The idea was thus that members should pledge
themselves not to use and offer alcohol and to wear a little blue
ribbon which would serve as an example to others.(72)
This form of organization soon showed itself to be too non-committal,
and in a short time there was created a more strict organization
where Christianity continued to be considered as the only sure
means against drunkenness.(73) In
this way the Blue Ribbon gradually not only became the Free
Church's preferred temperance organization, but also gained
sympathizers, via the Evangelical Fatherland Foundation, deep
inside the ranks of the Swedish State Church.(74)
Although their efforts to better the lot of the lower classes
showed a community of interest between the Good Templar movement
and the emerging socialism, it seems that the early period of
Good Templarism reflects a clearly anti-socialist attitude. C O
Berg, one of the Good Templars' leaders, represented a decidedly
social conservative viewpoint by pointing out that while
socialism wanted to break down the existing social order,
eliminate religion, property rights, etc, was essentially
tyrannical, Good Templarism was a socially responsible,
uplifting, democratic and law-abiding movement. It would get rid
of poverty, suffering and crime. It would yield a brotherliness
among men so as to achieve 'love and compassion by means of
renunciation through self-restraint and self-sacrifice'.(75) This idea repeated itself in
Good Templars' writings in the movement's early years. The Good
Templars were, according to their own view, all too thoughtful,
clean, knowledgeable, hardworking, helpful, law-abiding and
peaceful in relation to their fellow men, and they had as such no
need for socialism.(76) In other
words, they were above the 'undisciplined socialist rabble'. The
socialist view that drunkenness has its roots in poverty and that
the struggle should center on the latter was therefore rejected.
Drunkenness, it was believed, did not in fact decline with good
times and higher incomes but only through the individual's
systematic, active effort.(77)
Hardly independent of this, there also evolved in the socialist
movement of the l880's an initially widespread scepticism toward
the temperance work of the Good Templars. It was considered as
clearly reactionary. Society was not to be improved simply by
temperance and thrift. In this sense, the Good Templars spoke for
the interests of the upper class and not the workers. The Order
of the Good Templars was in their socialists' opinion a religious
institution which could only pacify the workers.(78)
In the long run, however, socialism could not be kept separate
from Good Templarism. Both the Good Templars'and workers'
movements appealed to the same lower social groups in society,
and both had strategies for resolving that class' social
problems; here was a kind of communality of interest. The Good
Templars, however, were the first and the strongest. Were the
social democrats to continue to reject the Templars, they would
lose even more potential adherents.
For many workers, however, the lodge's welfare work and the
additional political activity in the workers' movements were
joined together, and it became clearer when the Good Templars'
movement succeeded in electing Edvard Wavrinsky in the l886
election, thus obtaining a new public image. There now appeared a
more open policy, where the solution to the temperance question
and the moral strength of the individual worker were presented as
prerequisites for the labour movement being able to achieve any
further social goals.(79) The
workers were to use their hard earned salaries themselves and not
just give them back to the well-off innkeepers and distillers.
In this way the temperance ideology gradually became so strong
among the working classes that according to historian Ronny Ambjörnsen
it caused the creation of a unique type of Swedish worker: the 'skötsamme'
worker, a careful, diligent, morally enlightened, reliable,
conscientous worker formed from the activity the IOGT lodges.(80) These ideals now won wide
recognition within Swedish Social Democracy: by creating respect
for themselves, the workers would also create sympathy for their
own interests. In fact, a genuinely social democratic temperance
order, Verdandi, was formed in the 1890s. Of the 64 p c of the
members of the Swedish Parliament who in l9l7 were organised
temperance supporters, the vast majority belonged to the Social
Democratic Party.(81)
It is the ideology of the Good Templars which can be found in the
Social Democratic programme of 'The People's Home' (folkhemmet),
which from Per Albin Hansson in the l930's has been the
foundation of the successful Swedish welfare state. It was the
systematic creation of the perfect society, built on education,
solidarity, welfare and control, where the people were gradually
formed into conscientous, sensible citizens.(82)
This is, in fact, the ideology of Anglo-American revivalist
Christianity, which always starts with self-improvement via one's
own example, in order to show others the correct path. Yet in the
eyes of the Danes, this has a typical example of Swedish style
self-righteousness and condemnatory attitude toward the seemingly
improper behaviour of others. Does this not parallel
Christianity's demands for self-restraint and self-control,
demands which have evolved into discipline and repression? Is it
not the exercise of active empathy which has become the Swedish
patriarchal 'knowledge about what is good for the individual
citizen?' And is it not the Methodist idea of sanctification
which has become a demand toward the perfect in the belief that
the path toward higher justice and a better society can be
systematically planned and controlled? In a most profound sense,
Anglo-American view of Christianity, via Good Templarism and
later on Social Democracy, seems to lie behind the previously
mentioned comments of the Dane Ulrik Høy, who in more sceptical
tones describes 'Swedish folk culture'.
Events went quite differently in Denmark. Decisive for
developments was the religious freedom introduced in the l848
constitution. Although Denmark was laid totally open to religious
currents from outside, this nevertheless did not lead to any
great changes in the church. On the contrary although the
Baptists advanced in the l850's and the Methodists began their
work in l858, in contrast to Sweden these denominations did not
succeed in gaining any foothold, and their members remained some
few thousands. To account for this poor response, it was
explained above that Grundtvig's Lutheranism to a very small
degree had characterized the 'gathering' movement in the first
half of the l9th century. Important, however, was the fact that
Grundtvig's special 'churchly perspective' lay behind the
creation of the more open Danish People's Church. The church was
only to administer the sacraments, but also allow considerable
freedom to the exercise of one's Christianity. Here it was made
possible for a more deviant view of Christianity not to break
with the Lutheran Folk Church.
Through the l860's the strong Grundtvigian wing continued to
dominate. The relationship to petty transgressions became
especially relaxed. The view of Christianity became brighter and
was given a more secure sense of human life in all its
multiplicity. With the slogan, 'First human, then Christian',
great emphasis was placed on the development of a living and
harmonious person. The center for this Grundtvigian folk
revival was the enlightening activity of the folk high schools,
carried out in the local communities with lectures and gatherings
in local community houses which sprang up in the countryside in
the l880's.(83)
Nevertheless, the free Grundtvigianism did not continue. Out of
the community-house movement, a group of 'reborn' laymen of a
more pietist tendency created, in l853, an Association for the
Inner Mission in Denmark, the goal of which was to spread a purer
and more personally demanding Christianity. The initiative soon
aroused interest among the priests and in l86l led to the
creation of a Churchly Assocation for the Inner Mission in
Denmark. Hardly coincidentally, this association was founded by
those groups connected to the Danish Mission Society.(84) Inner Mission became, in
Christian terms, a parallel to Rosenius' contemporaneous
Evangelical Fatherland Foundation in Sweden, which was also
linked to the Inner Mission leader Vilhelm Beck.
In direct contrast to Grundtvigianism and clearly inspired by
Methodism, Inner Mission began to place more emphasis on the
verbally inspired Bible, and to preach both the Law and the
Gospel in order to stimulate confession. Consciousness of sin,
personal 'rebirth' and sanctification were all emphasized as
necessary to receive mercy and salvation. These ideas resulted in
a somber view of Christianity, where life was considered a time
of trial prior to the Final Judgement. Not surprisingly, liquor
came to play a decisive role in the Inner Mission revival in the
final decades of the l9th century.(85)
In the early l880's there arose a second temperance movement
in Denmark, this time in connection to the diluted Free Church
circles of Methodists, Baptists and Quakers, and supported by
temperance preachers from Norway, Sweden and the United States.
With the founding of Denmark's Temperance Association in l880,
the temperance movement won a foothold throughout the country.
Associations sprang up everywhere and in a few decades there
numbers had grown considerably. However, it would soon be evident
that the temperance movement would be far from popular in the
liberal Danish People's Church. It failed to obtain support from
the priests, and there were problems with the school teachers as
well. The cause for its rejection was, now as before, the
predominant Lutheran Christianity within the Danish People's
Church, which exhibited significant scepticism toward the
movement's sectarian roots. The Grundtvigians were especially
categorical here. One of the era's leading Grundtvigian priests,
Valdemar Brücker, went so far as to assert that it was a
positive thing to dare to get drunk, and that he himself thereby
experienced a new dimension to life. Ironically, he cited a
Grundtvigian priest for having stated that the Inner Mission
could depict a drinking bout in such a way that one got the
irresistible urge to join, and he continued:
'.. a Drinking Bout where People drink, not in order to sit
and fill up, without Humor, without Life, without Celebration.
But where the Wave of Life goes high, where Thoughts have speed
and swing, where there are fanciful Words, where Atmosphere
increases, not in an unpleasant vulgarity, but in a Lust for Life
and Happiness.'
He himself cursed his own participation in drinking bouts with
experiences full of joy, pensiveness and earnestness in
togetherness. As a Grundtvigian, Brücker opposed any form
asceticism and any reduction of personal freedom. Intriguingly,
he also placed the temperance movement's work together with that
of Inner Mission: '. . Inner Mission and the Temperance
Movement are a real Pair of Twins, and if they are victorious
among us, those who still have a Bit of desire to breath Air
freely will not be able to survive'. Human life should be
lived in all its multiplicity with all its beauty, coziness,
merriment and seriousness. The free and balanced human life was
totally incompatible with the pressure of the temperance cause;
rather it should continue to develop with Christianity. This view
of man attained, via the folk high school, quite large
significance in Danish public opinion.(86)
But as the quotation in the introduction shows, Inner Mission and
the temperance movement were not, as asserted by Brücker, a real
pair of twins. In spite of Methodist Christinaity's undeniably
having put its special mark on most of the Inner Mission
communities, its leader Vilhelm Beck stubbornly maintained the
Lutheranism which Inner Mission, on the question of personal
freedom, had in fact inherited from its link to the gathering
movement in the middle of the 19th century. Lutheranism therefore
excluded any clear involvement in the temperance movement.
In a debate in the 'Inner Mission Times' (Indre Missions
Tidende) in l890, Vilhelm Beck expanded on his views, and
rejecting the temperance movement as: '... a Cause which lies
outside God's Realm, outside the Community of the Pious and does
not concern the pious.... Our Lord Christ says: Come and believe
in me! Come and ask me for Help, and I will help Thou with all,
also the Illness of Drink which you suffer from. But if I now
answer wildly: No, I would rather join a Teetotalers'
Association, I would rather go to Lavrids Jørgensen, or whatever
the Teetotalers' Association's Chairman is named, and give him
that Pledge never to drink Liquor, is this indeed stronger than
believing and asking Christ for Help? What does this mean for a
pious man if it is not a Rejection of Christ?'
In this view Beck was followed by most of the local Inner Mission
communities in spite of the fact that the rejection of liquor was
an important part of Inner Mission's practical theology.
Without success, some of Inner Mission's most prominent members
sought to change Beck's mind. Pastor Axel Bülow stubbornly
opposed Beck, being especially angered by Brücker's idea that
joining the Teetotalers' movement constituted a rejection of
Christ. He himself had (though as a clear exception) joined the
Abstinence movement because in his opinion it fulfilled an
important function not carried out by Inner Mission. He was
puzzled because he knew that the 'living Congregation' in other
countries (Sweden!) had thrown itself into the struggle against
drinking, while the Danes kept their 'refined distance', as he
expressed it with a certain degree of sarcasm.(87)
Beck's and most of Inner Mission's clear rejection of the
temperance cause was undoubtedly also an important reason why the
temperance movement found difficulties being accepted at the
local level. In fact, the temperance movement spread
precisely in those areas where Inner Mission was weak.(88)
Church circles, of cource, were not blind to the harmful effects
of alcohol, nor to the plea that something had to be done. In l883
pastor H G Saabye became prominent in the cause, maintaining that
only bad Christians had a need to enter the temperance movement.
The only proper way to limit alcohol, which in his opinion would
be in agreement with good Lutheran theology, was a high tax on
alcohol. This proposal did not distance itself from alcohol or
hinder the enjoyment of alcohol (wine) as such, but could only
reduce the damage among those who were not themselves capable of
keeping their consumption to a reasonable level.(89)
For the temperance movement, however, the idea that the upper
classes alone could enjoy alcohol was entirely unacceptable,
inasmuch as there would still be a temptation and an even greater
problem for the weak. On the contrary, those in better social
positions ought to be in the forefront of temperance work.
The temperance movement's opposition to the church and the
religious movements, however, led Denmark's Temperance
Association to change character. In order not to offend the
Evangelical Lutheran People's Church, most of the local
associations during the l880's took the consequences and purged
any symbols of Christianity from their associations.(90) Instead they defined the work
as purely citizen or 'popular' (folkelig), independent of
religious views. This was demonstrated by the dropping of the
plea for 'God's Welfare' from the temperance pledge. By purging
religious dimensions from temperance work, Denmark's Temperance
Association believed itself to be in complete agreement with
Lutheran teachings regarding the separation of the necessary laws
of worldly society from the preachings of the Gospel to the
individual's internal development. Hence, there could no longer
be any obstacle to those belonging to the Danish Evangelical
Lutheran People's Church against joining the movement. The
associations sought simply to create an attractive alternative to
the inns. Most of the associations rented or themselves built
their own gathering halls, 'temperance homes', which at the local
level evolved totally parallel with Inner Mission's 'mission
homes' (missionshuse) and the Grundtvigian village 'meeting
houses' (forsamlingshuse). The idea was that these new houses
would be gathering places for the temperance association
community, to be used for meetings, and also to be open for less
formalised social gatherings.(91)
Paradoxically enough, Denmark's Temperance Association got a new
lease on life not from Inner Mission, but from the country's
Grundtvigian circles. Against all expectations, the Grundtvigian
high school circles at the local level began to defend the
activity of the temperance movements, and even joined them. The
Grundtvigian movement in Denmark was the main enlightening
movement from below in the local community(92)
- the same function as the Good-Templars had in Sweden. Their
reason for involving themselves in the temperance cause was
soberly formulated by I Kr Holmgård, a teacher from Ørre, who
said that if the church and school leaders did not join, then
many would go over to the Good Templars, which would draw them
totally away from the church.(93)
It was due to Holmgaard's ability to adapt Grundtvigianism to the
needs of the temperance movement that Denmark's Temperance
Association succeeded in redefining its activity into a mildly
Grundtvigian compromise, in which the enlightenment of the
individual via common activities and educational lectures became
central. We must characterise the temperance associations as
simply non- drinking groups which frequently stood in close
organisational and personal connection with the local
Grundtvigian life centered on formal associations.
This development also forms the background for the creation of
the Temperance Society (Afholds Samfundet) in l889 as a
Grundtvigian agitation association against every type of pressure.
It encouraged only personal temperance of its members and only as
long as they remained in the association. Due to its freer form,
the Temperance Society succeeded, though much less than Denmark's
Temperance Association, in gaining the support of influential
Grundtvigians.(94)
Grundtvigian Lutheranism thus achieved significance for the
temperance movement in two quite contrasting ways: by
constricting the movement's development via the religious
movements and church's lacking support of the movement, and as we
saw, by actively entering the movement in order to affect
existing local associations.
With the IOGT, the Good Templars movement also began an
activity in Denmark from l880, stimulated by a delegate from the
Norwegian Good Templars movement. In contrast to Sweden, the
IOGT's rise was a slow one. There was little response to its work
in the countryside, where Denmark's Temperance Association
certainly had penetrated. Its strange religious mysticism and
strict rules were clearly quite foreign to the popular life of
Danish communities. There was no tradition to which it could link
up. Things went somewhat better, however, among the newly
immigrated and more rootless small craftsmen and workers in the
capital and in the larger provincial towns. Yet it was only in l892,
with the creation of a new Danish branch of the Good Templars,
called the NIOGT (Nordic Independent Organization of Good
Templars) that the Good Templars' movement finally attained a
foothold among workers. It differed from the IOGT in that it
permitted indulgence of weak 'light beer', an indispensable
staple for Danish workers. With these two organisations, there
began, like the Swedish IOGT, a program to develop the individual
into a good, conscientious citizen. We also know that especially
from the NIOGT there was a large overlap of membership with the
Social Democrats.(95)
Despite this, they never came to influencing Social Democratic
policy, as was the case with the Swedish IOGT. The temperance
organization Verdandi was also weak, although after the turn of
the century it sought, as in Sweden, to gain influence as a
social democratic temperance organisation. In fact, the movement
never reached a membership of more than a few thousand, and its
ideology never became part of Danish Social Democracy.(96) Temperance support among
influential Social Democrats also remained quite small. Advocates
of the temperance cause were always a clear minority among social
democratic members of the Danish parliament. Although they could
see the harmful effects of alchohol among the social groups whose
interests they defended, they apparently had a fundamental
antagonism toward actively struggling against alcohol. The social
democratic temperance advocates did not change their minds.
How can this lacking interest among workers be explained? Purely
from an organizational point of view, it is obvious that the Good
Templars had not succeeded, as they had in Sweden, in reaching
the workers before they were organized into the labor movement.
There was certainly no viable take-off point here within the
population. But the Social Democrats' opposition to the
temperance movement still seems to be more deeply rooted and
really fundamental, similar to the Lutheranism which we met from
the Christian side. It gave the individual a spiritual
straitjacket, and the knowledge that one was bound to a pledge
which went against one's wishes must have been intolerable for
any free thinking individual. In several newspaper articles from
the l890's, this thought is expressed by the young, but already
important future prime minister, Th Stauning. Stauning stubbornly
defended 'the poor man's Schnaps' and asserted that
'when the Workers do not eliminate the Enjoyment of Spirits by
Conviction, then neither will they succeed in hindering it by
Decree.' One can hardly get closer to the Lutheran argumentation
than this.(97)
The Danish workers' movement, however, was not wholly unconcerned
about the threat of alchohol to the welfare of the working class.
As in Sweden, there also existed the widespread view that
Capital, exemplified especially by the brewer Jacobsen's
Carlsberg brewery, by encouraging drinking, absorbed the workers'
hard earned money. The Danish workers' solution to the problem
was, unlike the sober Swedes, not to stop drinking. Instead, they
decided to build a cooperative brewery, Stjernen (The
Star) in l902, where they became masters over both production and
profits. This would not only benefit 'Private Capital and the
Carlsberg Foundation'. So that no one would doubt that the
workers' own beer was a worthy competitor, it was repeatedly
mentioned that 'Star' beer was the equal of the Capitalist beers
'Old Carlsberg' and 'Tuborg' in both quality and alcohol content.
The predominant attitude in the Danish labor movement therefore
became to encourage the spread of 'Star' beer over the
capitalists' beer, thus supporting the cooperative enterprise of
the workers.(98) The temperance
cause was undeniably at a disadvantage when it came to the
workers' sphere of interest.
Only after Vilh. Beck's death in l90l, did the Methodist
inspired currents in Inner Mission gain ground, leading to the
creation of the Christian temperance association, the Blue Cross
(Det blaa Kors), with several local affiliates around
the countryside. Yet the organization was hardly accepted by all
Inner Mission circles, and it never succeeded in influencing
public opinion.
A preliminary solution to Denmark's alcohol problems came neither
from the temperance movement, Inner Mission nor from the labour
movement, but was instead a political measure. In connection with
shortages of grain during World War I and the consequent
necessity to reduce production of spirits, the government decided
that in order to avoid the restrictions, rationing and black
market sale of liquor, it would increase prices by imposing a
high liquor tax. This was introduced into law on l7 March l9l7.(99) Since this price increase,
which overnight raised the price of liquor ll times, showed
itself to have greatly reduced consumption, it was decided to
maintain the price after the War's end. Although liquor
consumption changed to beer, the total average Danish alcohol
consumption fell considerably.
However, was this in reality not the same kind of solution
which pastor H G Saabye already had proposed in l883 as the only
limitation on liquor consumption acceptable to the Evangelical
Lutheran priesthood within the Danish People's Church? A certain
degree of regulation was to be introduced in order to reduce (over)consumption,
though without taking from the individual the possibility to
choose, and most of all, without condemnation of drinking; on the
contrary it was the reverse. Liquor now changed character from
being the poor man's consolation to becoming an attractive luxury
which, with the economy's hard restrictions, could only be
enjoyed in reduced quantities.
The Danish temperance movement thus never succeeded in retaining
its position in the long run. Despite a sizable political
activity at the local level in connection with local prohibition
in the l920's and l930's, the increase in membership began to
slow after l9l7, and by World War II had become considerably
reduced.(100) Although there
thus in Denmark had been all possible reason to create a strong
and consistent temperance movement, the ideological resistance
proved to be too great.
This is the way things went in the fatherland of Ulrik Høy, Th
Stauning, Vilh Beck and N F S Grundtvig. Could it not be that a
real Swede, in the tradition of Anglo-American revivalism, would
condemn the Lutheran ideals of freedom and the doctrine that only
personal conviction and unforced change 'from within' could
really help the individual to conquer his vices? In his eyes
would it naturally not be viewed as both anti-social and as an
attitude lacking responsibility, as virtually hypocritical
behavior, as a good excuse for not doing anything with the
problems?
In the introduction the question was asked as to why the
temperance movement became so strong in Sweden and apparently did
not succeed in winning adherents in Denmark. After the
explanations given the answer should be clear.
We have seen that the temperance movement in Sweden derived from
or was part of the Anglo-American style revivalist breakthrough,
and that Swedish Lutheran circles, especially within the Swedish
church, failed to repress this movement. Apparently, the Anglo-American
ideology came to penetrate Swedish society deeply into Swedish
Social Democracy. The Lutheran inspired Danish revival movements,
however, constricted the Danish temperance movement, and when it
finally did emerge in the l880's, it did so largely on the
premises of German Lutheranism. The Anglo-American temperance
tradition therefore never became influential in Denmark, and
encountered little sympathy within the Danish social democratic
movement. The emergence of the temperance movement thus cannot be
explained without a thorough understanding of its religious-ideological
context.
But here we have a clue to the difference between Danish and
Swedish folk cultures: they can be understood in terms of the
penetration of, respectively, the Anglo-American and the Lutheran
views of Christianity in the two countries. In Sweden, there
evolved in conjunction with the Anglo-American view of
Christianity a greater tendency to place pressure on the
individual for self improvement, among other things by forsaking
alcohol. In Denmark, in the Lutheran fashion, there predominated
the idea that there must be no restrictions on the individual's
possibilities of action. Genuine human improvement could only
come from unpressured change from within, which was expressed in
a healthy and natural moderation, also in relation to alcohol.
Ovenstående artikel er en forkortet version af den danske udgave:
Sidsel Eriksen: "Vækkelse og afholdsbevægelse. Et bidrag til studiet af den svenske og den danske folkekultur". i: Scandia. Tidskrift för historisk forskning 1988:2, s.251-295, Lund 1988 (46 sider), ISSN 0036-5483.
Nøgleord:
National kultur · holdningsdannelse · national identitet · Sverige · Danmark · alkohol · alkoholkultur · vækkelser · religionshistorie · Grundtvig · Grundtvigianisme · angloamerikanske vækkelser · sekularisering · alkoholforbrug · alkoholpolitik svensk · dansk · sociale bevægelser · folkelige bevægelser · civilsamfund · modernitet · identitetshistorie
1. Den indre Missions Tidende 14 Nov, 1888 p 660.
2. Ulrik Høy, in Weekendavisen 8 Jul, 1988.
3. Orvar Löfgren, 'Kring nationalkänslans kulturella organisation' in Nordnytt. Nordisk Tidsskrift for Folkelivsforskning Nr 25 1985 p 84.
4. V Falbe-Hansen and Wilh Scharling, Danmarks Statistik Vol IV 1880 p 347; Danmarks Statistik. Statistiske Meddelelser, Serie 3 Vol 4 Part 6 1882 p 251; Nordisk Good-Templar. Ugeblad til Afholdssagens Fremme 30 Jan, 1898.
5. Sven Lundkvist, Politik, Nykterhet och reformer. En studie i folkrörelsernas politiska verksamhet 1900-1920. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm 1974; ibid, Folkrörelserna i det svenska samhället 1850-1920. Sober, Stockholm 1977 pp 26, 58-59, 216.
6. Ingrid Åberg, 'Folkrörelser: mobilisering eller kontroll' in Magt, normer og sanktioner. Studier i historisk metode XIII'. Report from the 13th Nordic Conference in Historical Method. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1978 pp 90-92.
7. Björn Horgby, Den disciplinerade arbetaren. Brottslighet och social förändring i Norrköping 1859-1910. Almqvist & Wiksell International, Varberg 1986
8. Poul E Porskær Poulsen, 'Afholdsbevægelsen som disciplineringsagent' in Fortid og nutid No 3 1985 pp 163ff
9. Inge Bundsgaard and Sidsel Eriksen, 'Hvem disciplinerede hvem?' in Fortid og nutid No 1 1986 pp 55-69.
10. Peter Gundelach, Sociale bevægelser og samfundsændringer. Nye sociale grupperinger og deres organisationsformer ved overgangen til ændrede samfundstyper. Politica, Århus 1988.
11. Vagn Wåhlin, 'Omkring studiet af de folkelige bevægelser' in Historisk Tidskrift Sweden 1979 pp 120, 136ff.
12. Torkel Jansson, Adertonhundratalets associationer. Forskning och problem kring ett sprängfullt tomrum eller sammanslutningsprinciper och föreningsformer mellan två samhällsformationer c:a 1800-1870. Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm 1985 pp 145, 147ff, 156f.
13. Vagn Wåhlin, op cit p 130f; P G Lindhardt, Vækkelse og kirkelige retninger, Aros, Århus 1978 pp 125, 149.
14. Niels Clemmensen, Associationer og foreningsdannelser i Danmark 1870-1880. Periodisering og forskningsoversigt. 1987 pp 120f.
15. Sven Frøkær Jensen, Afholdsbevægelsen i kongeriget 1843-53. Unprinted M A thesis. University of Copenhagen 1968 pp 59, 66.
16. Margaretha Balle-Petersen, 'Everyday rainbows: on social movements and cultural identity' in Arv, Scandinavian yearbook of folklore 1985; Margaretha Balle-Petersen, 'Guds folk i Danmark. Nogle synspunkter på studiet af religiøse grupper' in Folk og kultur 1977.
17. The Swedish part of the comparison is mainly elaborated during my study at the department of History in Uppsala in the autumn of 1986.
18. Edvard Rodhe, 'De svenska Bibelsällskapens uppkomst' in Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift 1906 pp 135ff.
19. Torvald Ribbner, De svenska traktatsällskapen 1808-56. Verksamhet och litteratur. Uppsala, disput 1956 pp 254ff.
20. Några Ord till Wäckelse och warning för dem, som äro begifna på dryckenskap, Evangeliska Sällskapets Skrifter N:o 53 pp 9ff.
21. Torvald Ribbner, op cit pp 67, 77, 85ff, 102ff, 248ff
22. Robert Baird, Historisk Teckning af Nykterhetsföreningarna i Nord-Amerikas Förenta Stater jemte några upplysningar angående dessa Föreningar i England, Sverige och andra länder. Stockholm 1838.
23. Gunnar Westin, George Scott och hans verksamhet i Sverige. Stockholm 1929 pp 265f, 311ff, 335ff, 339f.
24. Fosterlandsvännen, Månadsskrift June 1837 p 65.
25. Utdrag af Swenska Nykterhets=Sällskapets Räkenskaper. 1848 p 130; Swenska Nykterhets-Sällskapet Berättelse för Elfte och Tolfte åren, med Bilagor 1847-49. 1849, p 27; Swenska Nykterhets-Sällskapets Fjerde Årsberättelse, med Bilagor. 1840/41, 1841 p 32; Fosterlandsvännen December, 1838.
26. Den Svenske Nykterhets-Härolden May 1852 pp 79f. See also Bengt Sundkler, Svenska Missionssällskapet 1835-1876. Missionstankens genombrott och tidigare historia i Sverige. 1937 pp 145ff.
27. Den Swenske Nykterhets-Härolden 26 May, 1847 p 73.
28. Henrik Reuterdahl, 'Om nykterhet och nykterhetssällskaper såsom en religions= och tidsangelågenhet. Med afseende på utkomna skrifter' in Teologisk Qvartalskrift Vol 3 1838 pp 189ff, esp pp 203, 207, 209.
29. Joh Henr Thomander, 'Förswar för Nykterhets=Sälskaperna' in Theologisk Quartalskrift Vol 3 1838 pp 250, 260
30. Svenska Nykterhetssällskapets Årsberättelse 1840/41 pp 92ff.
31. Oscar Mannström, Bilder och Blad Ur svenska nykterhetsrörelsens historia. Stockholm 1912. Bilag 1 p 218.
32. Oscar Mannström, op cit 1912 pp 145, 149; Svenska Nykterhets-Sällskapets Andra Årsberättelse med Bilagor, 1838/39 p 8; Den Swenske Nykterhets-Härolden 27 Feb, 1847 p 28; Ibid 31 Dec, 1846 p 188; Ibid Sept, 1850 p 137; Swenska Nykterhets Sällskapets Åttonde Årsberättelse, med Bilagor 1844/45 p 50; Swenska Nykterhets-Sällskapets Andra Årsberättelse, med Bilagor 1838/39 pp 10ff.
33. Torkel Jansson op cit p 156.
34. Gunnar Westin op cit pp 29, 550. C f Bengt Sundkler op cit pp 146f.
35. 'Nykterheten och den inre Missionen' in Den Swenska Nykterhets-Härolden March, 1851 pp 32-47.
36. Swenska Nykterhets=Sällskapets Berättelse för åren 1856-61 1864 pp 101f.
37. Gunnar Westin op cit p 63.
38. Edvard Rodhe op cit 1906 p 153; ibid, 'De svenska bibelsällskapens uppkomst' in Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift 1908 p 37.
39. Hal Koch, 'Tiden 1800-1848' in Hal Koch and Bjørn Kornerup (eds), Den danske kirkes historie. Copenhagen 1954 pp 122, 219, 264; Kaj Baagø, 'Vækkelse og kirkeliv i København og Omegn' in Anders Pontoppidan Thyssen (ed), Vækkelsernes frembrud i Danmark i den første Halvdel af det 19. århundrede, Vol 1. Gad, Copenhagen 1960 pp 30ff; Niels Bundgaard, Det danske Missionsselskabs Historie. Missionsmenigheden i Danmark. Lohse 1935 pp 14ff.
40. Anders Pontoppidan Thyssen (ed), Vækkelsernes Frembrud i Danmark i første Halvdel af det 19. Aarhundrede. Vol I-VII. Gad, Copenhagen 1960-77.
41. Niels Bundgaard op cit p 38.
42. Kaj Baagø op cit p 35.
43. Hal Koch op cit pp 700ff.
44. P G Lindhardt op cit p 70ff.
45. Robert Baird, Afholdenheds-Selskabernes Historie i De forenede Stater i Nordamerika, Copenhagen 1841.
46. Dagen 30-31 Jan, 1842.
47. Fædrelandet 25 Febr, 1843.
48. O Syversen, Svar til Hr. Pastor, Ridder Visby, som Formand for "Maadeholds=Foreningen" og som - Christen. Copenhagen 1843 pp 6ff.
49. Menneskevennen 3 May, 1846 pp 1-4.
50. Københavnsposten 10 Oct, 1843.
51. Aftenbladet 30 Aug, 1843.
52. Menneskevennen 1846-48.
53. Sven Frøkær Jensen op cit p 47
54. N F S Grundtvig, Bragesnak. 1844 pp 48ff
55. O Syversen, Indbydelse til at deeltage i Totalafholdsselskabet for Danmark. Copenhagen 1845 pp 27ff.
56. C Krohn, 'Erklæring' in Dansk Kirketidende, No 17, 1846 col 274-280; Menneskevennen 1 Apr, 1847; O Syversen, Nogle faa Ord fremkaldte ved Pastor C. Krohns Angreb paa Totalafholdsselskabets Bestyrelse. Copenhagen 1846.
57. N F S Grundtvig, Nordens historiske Minder 1847.
58. Menneskevennen 23 Apr, 1848 p 4; C H Visby, 'Til Medlemmerne af Foreningen mod Brændevinsdrik' in Dansk Afholdenhedstidende 7 Jul, 1848
59. Sven Frøkær-Jensen op cit p 72 .
60. C Otto, Om Brændevinets fordærvelige virkninger paa Menneskets Legeme og Aand. Copenhagen 1844; Danske Kancelli 2. Dep. 9 Aug, 1844 No 2574: National Archives, Copenhagen.
61. Dansk Afholdenhedstidende 20 Oct, 1848; C H Visby, Om Maadeholdsforeninger som et Middel til at berede Veien for Christi Riges Komme 1847 p 3f; Viborg Stiftstidende 24 Jun, 1847.
62. Hilding Johansson, Den svenska godtemplarrörelsen og samhället. Stockholm 1947 pp 56ff.
63. Bo Andersson, 'En Wieselgrenska nykterhetsrörelsens renässans' in Scandia 1972 pp 148, 52ff.
64. Nykterhets Basunen 1 Apr, 1877 p 35.
65. Nykterhets Basunen 2 Jan, 1877, 1 May, 1877 p 36, 15 Febr, 1877.
66. 'Om brännvinsförbud och hindern derför' in Afholdsbasunen 2 Jan, 1877.
67. Svenska Good Templar 17 Apr, 1881; Tidskrift för Sveriges Nykterhetsvänner 30 Apr, 1878.
68. Svenska Good Templar 18 Aug, 1881.
69. Goodtemplarismen afslöjad. En noggrann framställning af de tre gradernas jämte rådsgradens ceremonier, hälsningssätt, igenkänningstecken. Stockholm 1882.
70. Svenska Good Templar 31 Mar, 1881.
71. Ronny Ambjörnsson, 'Den skötsamme arbetaren. Exemplet Holmsund'in Tiden No 5-6 1987 pp 299ff.
72. Blå bandet 18 Aug, 1883.
73. Blå bandet 1 Febr, 1889.
74. Edvard Rodhe, Kyrkan och nykterhetsrörelsen. En historisk studie. Sv Kristl Studentrör, Skriftserie, Stockholm 1915 pp 114ff.
75. Alfred Kämpe, Carl Hurtig och hickmaniterna. Stockholm 1930, pp 346ff.
76. Reform 20 Jan, 1887.
77. Reform 29 Oct, 1891; ibid 1 Aug, 1883.
78. Arbetet 5 Jul, 1888.
79. Reform 6 Oct, 1891.
80. Ronny Ambjörnson op cit pp 302ff; Ronny Ambjörnsson, 'Logen 880 Skärgårdsblommman' in Ronny Ambjörnsson and David Gaunt (eds), Den dolda historien. Författarförlaget Malmö 1984 pp 471f.
81. Ronny Ambjörnsson op cit 1987 p 298.
82. Roger Qvarsell, 'Inledning' in I framtidens tjänst. Ur folkhemmets idéhistoria. Gidlunds, Malmö 1986 pp 15ff.
83. Margaretha Balle-Petersen, 'Forsamlingshuset - velkendt eller ukendt' in Mark og Montre 1974 pp 28ff.
84. P G Lindhardt 'Tiden 1849-1901' in H Koch and B Kornerup (eds) Den danske Kirkes Historie. Vol VII. Gyldendal Copenhagen 1958 p 109.
85. P G Lindhardt op cit 1978 pp 143ff, See 'Solstraalen eller Jack Staffords Beslutning' in Gudelige Smaaskrifter No 335 1886 p 28.
86. Tidens Strøm 6 Jan, 1893, ibid 13 Jan, 1893.
87. Annexet til Den indre Missions Tidende. No 4 1890 pp 26, 59.
88. Sidsel Eriksen, 'Afholdsbevægelsen - en etisk religion. Perspektiv på de folkelige bevægelser i Danmark i det 19. århundrede' in Anders Gustavsson (ed.), Alcohol och Nykterhet. Aktuell forskning i Norden presenterad vid ett symposium i Uppsala Etnolore 7, Uppsala 1989.
89. H G Saabye, Biblen og Vinen. Copenhagen 1883; ibid, Endnu et ord om Totalafholdssagen. Copenhagen 1883.
90. Lavrids Jørgensen, Bibelen og Totalafholdssagen. Et Ord til dem, der formener, at Bibelen støtter Drikketrafikken. Copenhagen 1883 p 19.
91. An extended debate in the temperance journals brought a resolution in Beretning om Danmarks Afholdsforenings Virksomhed i dens 23. Regnskabsaar. Copenhagen 1903 p 31; See also Sidsel Eriksen, 'Thisted Afholdsforening 1880-1920. Et lokalstudie i afholdsbevægelsens ideologi og arbejde for at forandre mennesker og samfund' in Historie Vol 2 1989.
92. Anders Pontoppidan Thyssen, 'Grundtvigianismen som bevægelse indtil ca. 1900' in Christian Todberg og Anders Pontoppidan Thyssen (eds.), Grundtvig og grundtvigianismen i nyt lys. Hovedtanker og Udviklingslinier. Fra de senere Års Grundtvigforskning. ANIS, Århus 1983, pp 375-381.
93. Danmarks Afholdsblad 29 Apr, 1887.
94. N C Nielsen, Afholdssamfundets Historie, 1889-1914. Bildsø 1914 pp 8, 14.
95. Inge Bundsgaard og Sidsel Eriksen op cit pp 61ff.
96. W F Hellner, 'Arbejderklassen og alkoholspørgsmålet' in Frode Markersen (ed), Afholdsbevægelsen i Danmark. Vol 1. Copenhagen 1939 pp 376ff.
97. Janus, 'Afholdenhed' in Social-Demokraten 2 Jun, 1891; Social-Demokraten 12 Jun, 1891; Th Stauning, 'Spiritus-Drikkeri paa Arbejdspladsen' in Agitatoren. Ugeblad for Oplysning, Ædruelighed og sund Levevis 8 Jul, 1899.
98. Social-Demokraten 30 Nov, 1902.
99. C Fl Steenstrup, 'Populær Statistik vedrørende Alkoholspørgsmaalet' in Frode Markersen (ed), Afholdsbevægelsen i Danmark Copenhagen 1939 p 347.
100. Sidsel Eriksen, 'Something rotten in
Grindsted' in Nyt fra stationsbyen Nr 8 1985 pp 1-33;
ibid, 'Smugkroer som protestform - Et bidrag til studiet af de
danske lokalforbuds betydning for alkoholforbruget i Danmark' in Alkoholpolitik.
Tidskrift för nordisk alkoholforskning No 3 1989 pp 156 -163.