Faith in Christ's resurrection is currently being challenged in Denmark, as a second Danish priest admitted to questioning the concept of physical resurrection.
In addition to saying that she doubts Christ rose from the grave three days after dying on the Cross, Ulla Charlotte Hansen also said that she does not believe in the Biblical Creation story.
"I cannot believe that Jesus physically rose from the grave," Hansen said in an interview with the local Fyens Stiftstidende newspaper. She said that she would say that scientists have a theory about the Big Bang if she were asked how the world came to be.
Hansen is the second priest in Denmark to express doubt on the actual Resurrection in recent weeks. On Christmas Day, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper published an interview with Per Ramsdal where he stated that he finds it difficult to believe in a literal Resurrection.
"That gets a bit too supernatural for me," he told the Jyllands-Posten. "But it's a really important story," he added.
Per Ramsdal serves in the Frederiksholm Church in Copenhagen.
In response, Ramsdal was summoned by Peter Skov-Jacobsen, the Bishop of Copenhagen, who gave the priest a reprimand. He was also compelled to retract his statement expressing doubt, and to embark on a training programme for six months. The programme will be about "recent interpretations of the Christian faith".
Hansen, however, will not be subjected to the same sanctions as the Bishop of Funen, under whose jurisdiction Hansen's ministry belongs, sees no reason to summon the priest for a reprimand.
Contrary to Skov-Jacobsen's approach, Lindhardt encouraged the ministers and priests under her diocese to pursue an open discussion to talk about their views on the Resurrection.
"The resurrection of Jesus is the basics of Christianity, but how he rose from the dead, no one has seen," Tine Lindhardt, the Bishop of Funen said in a statement. "And it is an event that is so special that language should be stretched to the limit in order to capture it."
