Preaching in Occupied Land

This article examines Danish sermons during the German occupation of Denmark (1940–1945), focusing on whether and how the escalating political crisis of the period influenced sermonic content. Drawing on a corpus of 823 digitised sermons, it applies computational text analysis, specifically topic modelling and sentiment analysis, to trace thematic and rhetorical changes. The results reveal a striking continuity in homiletic practice, punctuated by subtle but significant shifts at key moments, notably around the Telegram Crisis in 1942 and the Collapse of the Danish government in August 1943. These shifts differed across theological traditions, each preserving its own rhetorical and doctrinal character amid wartime pressures. By demonstrating that Danish preaching was neither uniformly heroic nor uniformly cautious, the study offers a more nuanced account of the Church as a diverse body that navigated crisis through a blend of theological persistence and measured adaptation.