"The Song from Jerusalem": Thomas Kingo Frames the Absolute King and His Congregation

Abstract

This chapter considers one of the most important media of Jerusalem-representation in the culture of Lutheran piety, namely the hymns. The influential Danish hymn writer Thomas Kingo (1634–1703) and his description of Jerusalem are seen from two perspectives: first, how Kingo’ through his poem “Hosianna”, framed the absolute king in Denmark–Norway as David, where the musician-king leads his people in song; and second, how Kingo wrote several penitential hymns for Lent, where the singer was led into a visual-acoustic experience of the suffering Christ in Jerusalem. Both these elements, the king and the culture of penitence, were cornerstones of the Lutheran culture of piety in seventeenth-century Denmark–Norway.