By Bjørg Tulinius
btu@adm.au.dk
He was actually two different people.
An extremely private man called Poul Georg Lindhardt, who seemed rather shy and preferred not to look the students in the eye when they gave presentations in his lessons – a man who never entered into direct dialogue with them.
And the media-conscious and often provocative church historian P.G. Lindhardt, who was both admired and hated for the views he expressed in lectures, newspaper articles and radio interviews.
“He was actually a bit like Janus. When you met him face to face he was rather difficult to understand and kept his distance very clearly. But in the media he was excellent at setting an agenda and making his mark in the public debate," explains one of Lindhardt’s former students, Carsten Bach-Nielsen, an associate professor of church history. He is the editor of a new book about the famous theologian from Århus which is being published to mark the 100th anniversary of Lindhardt’s birth.
P.G. Lindhardt was the first ever professor of church history at Aarhus University, and he was also the curate of the Church of Our Lady in Århus.
Carsten Bach-Nielsen is in no doubt about Lindhardt’s greatest achievement.
“I think one of his finest achievements was the way he challenged conventional ideas about Hell. The idea of Hell has always been used as a threat and a means of coercing people – a way to keep people firmly in their place. Lindhardt challenged this idea. He was against all forms of personal gain and the abuse of power by the church. So he represented a form of "theology of liberation" to set against the kind of angst which the idea of purgatory and eternal damnation had created in people,” says Carsten Bach-Nielsen.
"P.G. Lindhardt 1910-2010. Kirkehistoriker i en røverkule" is to be published in early december by the anis publishing house. Carsten Bach-Nielsen is the editor of the book.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of P.G. Lindhardt, the section for church History and practical Theology is organising a seminar on Lindhardt entitled “Biografien og det biografiske” (“The Biography and the Biographical”). The seminar will be held on 15 december at 1-3 pm in Lecture Theatre 1 at the Faculty of Theology.
