Abstract
The Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950) wanted to create a piece of literature which was supposed to replace the Bible and tell the story of the origin of humans according to the scientific theory of evolution.
The book was entitled Bræen (The Glacier, 1908), and later Jensen added five more novels so that it became a whole cycle on the evolution of the man called Den lange Rejse (The Long Journey, 1908-1922). Given the fact that Jensen's cycle was meant to praise the progress and modernity it should represent the very antithesis of the popular treatise by Oswald Spengler Der Untergang des Abendlandes (1918, 1922).
However, it is possible to identify the very same ideas and tendencies in both Den lange Rejse and Der Untergang des Abendlandes. This article attempts a closer examination of this obvious paradox.