N.F.S. Grundtvig was a scholar, poet, hymnwriter, teacher, and pastor. Growing up in rural Denmark at the end of the eighteenth century, his faith was nurtured by pious parents and an old-fashioned Lutheran church. As a first-rate medievalist and theologian, he fought against the preeminent rationalism of his time, preferred the language of images, and emphasized the interconnectedness of faith and culture. His writings have had far-reaching implications, especially in education, and his hymns remain favorites in many circles.

Education was one of Grundtvig's major concerns. He wrote advocating the creation of a unique school that would serve the Danish people at all levels in society, proposing originally to call it the "folkelig højskole" (meaning loosely a school that would be "of and for the people"). His special passion was that these schools would give dignity to the life of the farmer. They would awaken in rural men and women not only a pride in the national culture but a love of learning that would continue long after a student had finished the formal course of study. Grundtvig's positive feelings for the working farmer were equaled only by his contempt for those he referred to scathingly as "the learned."