the prevailing orthodoxy
with its settled answers to every question of faith and conduct was
meeting an effective challenge. Many turned definitely away from
religion, seeking in other fields such as history, philosophy and
especially the natural sciences for a more adequate answer to their
problems than religion appeared to offer. Others searched for a solution
of their difficulty in new approaches to the old faith. The result was a
spiritual confusion such as often precedes the dawn of a new awakening.
And Brorson appears to have been caught in it. His failure to complete
his course was by no means caused by indolence. He had, on the contrary,
broadened his studies to include a number of subjects foreign to his
course, and he had worked so hard that he had seriously impaired his
health. But he had lost his direction, and also, for the time being, all
interest in theology.

It was, therefore, as a somewhat spiritually confused and physically
broken young man that he gave up his studies and returned to his home at
Randrup. His brothers were already well started upon their conspicuously
successful careers, while he was still drifting, confused and uncertain,
a failure, as some no doubt would call him. His good stepfather,
nevertheless, received him with the utmost kindness. If he harbored any
disappointment in him, he does not appear to have shown it. His stepson
remained with him for about a year, assisting him with whatever he could,
and had then so far recovered that he was able to accept a position as
tutor in the family of his maternal uncle, Nicolaj Clausen, at Loegum
Kloster.

Loegum Kloster had once been a large and powerful institution and a center
of great historic events. The magnificent building of the cloister itself
had been turned into a county courthouse, at which Nicolaj Clausen served
as county president, but the splendid old church of the cloister still
remained, serving as the parish church. In these interesting surroundings
and in the quiet family circle of his uncle, Brorson made further
progress toward normal health. But his full recovery came only after a
sincere spiritual awakening in 1720.

The strong revival movement that was sweeping the country and displacing
the old orthodoxy, was engendered by the German Pietist movement,
entering Denmark through Slesvig. The two conceptions of Christianity
differed, it has been said, only in their emphasis. Orthodoxy emphasized
doctrine and Pietism, lif