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Ludvig Harald Westergaard (1853-1936)

Professor of economy 1886-1924, MSc mathematics 1874, MSc economics 1877, chairman of Københavns Indre Mission [The Home Mission of Copenhagen] 1886-93.

As a devout evangelical activist Harald Westergaard was engaged in social and clerical work among the working classes of Copenhagen in the decades around 1900. In his revivalist pamphlet Fra Forargelse til Tro [From Indignation to Faith] (Copenhagen: Indre Missions Boghandel, 1885) Westergaard defended a rather positive view on Darwinism compared to his fellow evangelicals. He emphasised against natural theology, but in accordance with Lutheran theology, that Christians should not expect that science could or should prove their faith. The basis of Christian belief was faith and not natural knowledge. However, he saw in Darwin’s theory some resonance between Christianity and science, since both systems, in his view, relied on the fact that through inheritance, the sins of the fathers haunted the children.  

Hans Henrik Hjermitslev

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