Enlightened Absolutism: 1784 to 1849

Abstract

This chapter continues to analyse the documents from the political decision-making process regarding the teaching of religion in rural areas of Denmark (confer Reeh N, Religion and the state of Denmark–state religious politics in the elementary school system from 1721 to 1975, an alternative approach to secularization. Ph.d.-dissertation. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2006; Reeh N, Social Compass 56(2): 179–188, 2009). Broadly speaking, the Danish state was transformed from despotic absolutism to enlightened absolutism. The analysis shows that the legislation regarding schooling and teaching of religion was deeply interconnected with the external affairs of the state, the state-form, the Great Agrarian Reforms of 1789, and the transition to a defence that increasingly relied on conscripted soldiers instead of mercenaries. In this transformation, the Sacred Canopy of the state was transformed as the state turned to a new discursive instrument, namely, patriotism and nationalism as a more efficient means of disciplining and encouraging its inhabitants to comply with the will of the state, including fighting its wars.