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BjøRnstjerne BjøRnson's Beyond Human Power And Kaj Munk's The Word

1960; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/md.3.1.30

1712-5286

Børge Gedsø Madsen,

Cybernetics and Technology in Society

IT IS A WIDELY KNOWN FACT that in his play The Word Kaj Munk refers directly to Bjørnson's drama Beyond Human Power (that is to say Over Evne, Første Stykke). The student of theology, Johannes Borgen, in The Word is assailed by religious doubts after reading Beyond Human Power. One evening he attends a performance of the play with his fiancée Agathe. When they leave the theater, Agathe saves the preoccupied Johannes from being run over by a car but is herself killed. Johannes later tries to resurrect her but fails. The strain is too much for him and he loses his reason. This much is common knowledge. It is likely, however, that a more intimate connection than this exists between The Word and Beyond Human Power. Both plays pose the question: may the Christian faith, under exceptional circumstances, be strong enough to work miracles? Bjørnson answers this question in the negative, Munk in the affirmative. Thus it is possible to regard Kaj Munk's modern “miracle play” as an anti-naturalistic reply to the implied statement in Bjørnson's naturalistic drama that men are restricted by the operation of ineluctable laws of nature, that miracles are beyond human power.