Free Church Awakening Movement (Sweden)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The free church revival movement was the first of three great Swedish popular movements of the 19th century .

prehistory

The Church of Sweden was a state church in the 19th century. Not only did the church take on state administrative tasks (until the 1990s), it was also an important propaganda and control instrument at that time. Church unity and religious compulsion (exit without preconditions was only possible from 1951) were laid down in the constitution of 1686, and in the conventicle poster of 1726, later tightened by further ordinances, religious meetings outside the church were forbidden.

precursor

Lars Levi Laestadius

The close connection between church and state with the strong anchoring of the higher clergy in the establishment and the dominance of a deist theology influenced by the Enlightenment led to religious counter-movements at the beginning of the 19th century. These were based on Pietist and Herrnhut currents coming from Germany . Partly they were initiated by pastors like Schartauanism in Bohuslän , Halland and Västergötland (by Henric Schartau ) and Laestadianism in Lapland (by Lars Levi Læstadius ), partly they were lay movements like the Småland Pietism or the "Norrlandsleserei" in Västerbotten . They were spread by traveling, stirring preachers from the lower clergy or the laity who shared the lives of the listeners, mostly farmers.

The authorities and the Church of Sweden viewed these movements with suspicion and at times took strong repressive measures. This happened not only because of theological contradictions, but also because these revival movements were seen as a threat to the church hierarchy. But it soon became apparent that these movements had little interest in political and social issues, but concentrated on preparing for life in the hereafter. The tendencies that were initially critical of society and the church soon disappeared, and the movements gradually found their place in the Swedish state church.

Free Church Awakening Movements

A second wave of religious revival movements began around 1850. They too were based on Pietist and Herrnhut ideas, but with strong impulses from the Anglo-Saxon region, which were conveyed by emigrants returning from the USA . In contrast to their predecessors, they showed a strong social and political commitment and had a close connection to both the abstinence movement and political liberalism.

Methodist movement

One of the first movements to emerge from the Anglo-Saxon area was the Methodist . The Scottish preacher George Scott came to Sweden in 1830, where he spread the Methodist doctrine. However, he met strong opposition from the Church of Sweden and was forced to leave Sweden in 1842. The Metodistkyrkan i Sverige ( Evangelical Methodist Church ) remained relatively small with around 4600 members. In 2011 she merged with the Svenska Missionskyrka and the Baptists to form Equmeniakyrkan .

Evangeliska Fosterlandsstiftelsen / Svenska Missionsförbundet

One of George Scott's students, lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius , created a comprehensive new evangelical revival movement, which was organized in 1856 as Evangeliska Fosterlandsstiftelse . The movement developed a significant activity within the Church of Sweden, building mission houses, training preachers and sending missionaries into the world (about 20,000 members in 1996).

The Evangelical Fatherland Foundation was affected by several divisions. The first and most significant split occurred in 1878 when the Swedish Missionary Union was founded under the leadership of Paul Petter Waldenström . The Swedish Missionary Association gained numerous members in central Sweden and became one of the largest revival movements with more than 100,000 members in its prime. In 2003, when it was renamed the Swedish Mission Church ( Svenska Missionskyrka ), it was the second largest Christian denomination in the country with 64,000 members. In 2011 he joined together with Methodists and Baptists to form the Equmeniakyrkan .

The lifestyle was puritanical and many members were also active in the abstinence movement. The Swedish Mission Association not only played a major role in Sweden's religious life, but was also very active socially and politically.

Baptists and Pentecostal Church

Baptism came to Sweden from America . In 1848 the first parish was formed and in 1857 the Svenska baptistsamfundet was organized . The Baptists in Sweden were religiously and politically more radical than the other free churches and often came into conflict with church and state authorities. They were also affected by internal struggles and divisions. For example, B. 1892 a group of Baptists the Örebro missionsförening , which in 2002 formed the Evangelical Free Church ( Evangeliska frikyrkan ) with two other Baptist churches and was larger than the Baptist Union in Sweden (Baptist Union 2007 about 17,000 members, Evangelical Free Church 2003 about 30,000 members).

The most significant split happened in 1913, when the Stockholm Baptist Church Filadelfia joined the Pentecostal movement. Under the leadership of Pastor Lewi Pethrus , the Pentecostal movement developed into Sweden's largest free church (about 92,000 members in 1997).

In 2011 the Baptist Union joined together with Methodists and the Mission Church to form the Equmeniakyrkan .

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army came to Sweden from England in the 1880s . In Sweden, the Salvation Army was best known for its social and humanitarian activities in the slum areas of major Swedish cities. As a backlash against the centralization efforts within the Salvation Army by its founder William Booth , the Swedish Salvation Army was formed as a religious community in 1905. It had about 25,000 members in 1998.

literature

Web links