Morten Fink-Jensen and Charlotte Appel: Når det regner på præsten. En kulturhistorie om sognepræster og sognefolk 1550-1750. Højbjerg: Hovedland, 2009, 378 pp.
 
Abstract:
A Cultural History of Pastors and Parishioners in Denmark 1550-1750
The book is a new way of looking at the important part played by the clergy in Denmark c.1550-1750. By applying a micro-historical approach it becomes possible to show how a complex series of circumstances had bearing on the function of the individual pastor. The book focuses on eight different pastors, describing in detail how they dealt with day-to-day routines as well as matters of far-reaching theological importance.
 
   

Fornuften under troens lydighed. Naturfilosofi, medicin og teologi i Danmark 1536-1636. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004, 418 pp.
 
Abstract:
Reason Obedient to Faith. Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Theology in Denmark 1536-1636
The book argues that the relationship between religion and natural philosophy in the first hundred years after the Danish Reformation of 1536 must be seen on a basis where natural philosophy was integrated with, or contingent on, a fundamentally religious worldview. This is shown by way of an analysis of the charter of the University of Copenhagen, dating from 1539, with special reference to what is formulated therein about the part expected to be taken by the Faculties of Medicine and Philosophy in the consolidation of the Reformation. Studies such as physics, astronomy and anatomy were expected ultimately to contribute to the elucidation of Creation, and thus impress on the observer the idea of God's providence and omnipotence. This definition of natural philosophy remained unchanged for the following hundred years. During the 16th century, however, the scientific milieu in Denmark slowly expanded, and a diffusion of theories, including Neoplatonic, Paracelsian and Ramistic ideas, took place. It became possible to find an anchorage outside the teachings of Galen and Aristotle prescribed in the university charter. This did not do away with the religious foundations of natural philosophy, but it did bring into focus a debate on the nature of the relationship between natural philosophy and religion, and between reason and faith.
    This discussion gathered momentum with the rise of Lutheran orthodoxy in the early 17th century. There was no wish on part of the orthodox theologians either to portray the Biblical truth or the truths based on reason as anything but concordant with each other. Yet, it was the hallmark of Lutheran orthodoxy to look askance at the workings of reason. This had a bearing on natural philosophy in two ways: Firstly, it was emphasized stronger than ever that reason had to be obedient to faith, as the Danish theologian Caspar Bartholin put it in 1628. Secondly, the theologians feared that reason and natural philosophy would impinge on the preserves of faith. In theology, therefore, the doctrines of faith were isolated as much as possible from natural philosophy and rational arguments. This helped to create a dividing line between what was, according to the initial idea, supposed to be inseparable. The result was that natural philosophy in practice got a certain liberty of action, and this eventually led to natural philosophy evolving into a natural science consonant with modern standards. But the point is that at least for the first hundred years after the Reformation, neither theologians nor natural philosophers had any intention of starting this process.
 
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“Kampen om den indviede jord. Perspektiver på begravelsespraksis i 1600-tallet” [Battling for consecrated ground: Perspectives on burial practises in the seventeenth century]. In Arne Bugge Amundsen and Henning Laugerud (eds.): Religiøs tro og praksis i den dansk-norske helstat fra reformasjonen til opplysningstid ca. 1500-1814. Bergen: Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, 2010, pp. 121-141.