Gisle Johnson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gisle Johnson

Gisle Johnson (born September 10, 1822 in Fredrikshald , † July 17, 1894 in Nøtterøy ) was a Norwegian Lutheran theologian.

family

Johnson's parents were the lieutenant and later port director Georg Daniel Barth Johnson (1794–1872) and his wife Wilhelmine ("Mina") Hanssen (1800–1869). On October 31, 1849, he married Emilie (“Milla”) Helgine Sophie Dybwad (September 15, 1825– February 14, 1898), daughter of the businessman Jacob Erasmus Dybwad (1792–1854) and his wife Christiane Lange (1795–1885). He was descended from both parents of Iceland's noblest families: on the paternal side of Gísli Jónsson , Bishop of Skálholt, on the maternal side from the line that had also produced his great-uncle Jón Jónsson Espólin, Syslumaður and Annalist.

Life

Johnson grew up in Kristiansand , where he attended cathedral school. In 1839 he passed the exam artium. The long-standing friendship with the theologian Christian Thistedahl (1813–1876), who introduced him to the Lutheran orthodoxy of the 17th century and a pietistic theology of scriptures anchored in a classical education, was important for his future . After his graduation he studied Protestant theology at the University of Christiania (now Oslo) and passed his exam in 1845. He then traveled to Germany on a scholarship. He came to Berlin , where he studied with August Twesten and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg , and Leipzig , where he heard Adolf Harleß , and finally studied in Erlangen , where he got to know the Erlangen School of Theology. After two years abroad, he became a lecturer in the theological faculty at Christiania University in 1849. In 1860 he became a professor at the chair for systematic theology . From 1855 to 1874 he also taught pedagogy at the practical theological seminary. At his instigation, the theologian Carl Paul Caspari also came to Christiania. These two were the leading theologians in Norway in the 19th century and the fiercest opponents of basic tvigianism and sectarianism.

Teaching

The Bible, the Reformation Confession and Martin Luther himself were the essential foundations of Johnson's theology. But he applied modern principles: Theology is anchored in the individual's experience of faith. Luther's teaching is to be internalized by the believer so that the experience of faith coincides with the teaching. In this way the experience of faith receives the theologically correct content. He founded this method theologically and psychologically in his teaching on the essence of faith. From this theological standpoint, he fought for pure Lutheran doctrine, proclaimed the revival and placed value on personal piety.

Theological disputes

The Norwegian state church faced major challenges in the 1850s. Pastor Gustav Adolph Lammers had resigned his church office and founded a free church , which later became Baptist , and Kierkegaard's ideas also spread. There was great dislike among the church people against the Grundtvigian clergy. In 1851, Johnsson also turned sharply against basic Victorianism and accused it of not recognizing the exclusive authority of the Bible and of seeing people optimistically. Its cultural openness is incompatible with Lutheran teaching and the pietistic basic attitude of the church people. In addition, there was the rejection of infant baptism by the Baptists, against whom he directed the writing Nogle Ord om Barnedaaben (A few words about infant baptism). He fought in vain for a general synod . The Storting did not approve the funds. He succeeded in persuading the government to convene a "Great Church Commission" on January 27, 1859, which worked out five volumes of proposals and a legislative proposal. But these proposals never came to fruition. He initiated a number of regional synods on a voluntary basis. A new church constitution was even drawn up there, but it was not accepted by the government.

For the Grundtvigians and the Liberals, Johnson represented orthodox dogmatism and dark pietism; for the conservative clergy and the Pietist lay movement, however, he was a "kirkehøvding" (church chief).

On January 22, 1855 Johnson founded the "Foreningen for indre Mission i Christiania" (Association for Inner Mission in Christiania). It should pursue pastoral care, dissemination of edification writings and diakonia as a supplement to the state church services. From 1855 he held public Bible readings in Christiania which were very popular. He broke social and cultural barriers by working as a professor as a preacher close to the people, not only in Christiania, but throughout the country up to Tromsø . The Pietist revival in Norway in the 1850s was even named after him the "Johnson revival" and the clergy he trained at the university were called "Johnson pastors". This Orthodox-Pietist clergy developed a close connection with the Inner Mission, which became important well into the 20th century.

Johnson also promoted the establishment of "Den norske Lutherstiftelse" in 1868, a nationwide organization for internal mission and forerunner of the "Det norske lutherske indremisjonsselskap" (The Norwegian Lutheran Internal Mission Society) founded in 1891. He was also part of the founding of some institutions, for example the deaconess house and the first nursing school in Norway in 1868, a dormitory in 1871 and a committee for (non-Grundtvigian) folk high schools in the same year. The structure and organization of nursing was based on the Kaiserswerth model of Theodor Fliedner . In 1890 he completed the new translation of the Old Testament together with Caspari .

As a Lutheran theologian, Gisle Johnson had difficulties with the lay public ministers who also served in the Inner Mission. The public sermon of non-ordained preachers contradicted the Lutheran creed (Art. 14 Confessio Augustana ). Johnson sought a compromise with the “need principle”: If the church was in spiritual need, a lay person must also use his gift to preach. But when "Lutherstiftelsen" changed into the "Indremisjonsselskap", the emergency principle was abandoned, the lay sermon was generally accepted and Johnson withdrew from the leadership.

In the 1870s, Johnson finished his lectures in systematic theology and taught the history of dogma instead. He felt burned out and no longer able to face the challenges of modernity. In the 1880s he supported the conservatives with his oppropet Til Christendommens Venner i vor Land (appeal to the friends of Christianity in our country), which appeared in 1883 as a response to political radicalism within the “Venstre” party. The call provoked powerful responses from both liberal and radical sides. Even within the lay movement, which largely belonged to the Venstre, it did not receive approval everywhere.

meaning

Gisle Johnson was one of the most important theologians of the 19th century in Norway. He worked for a long time at the theological faculty in Christiania and thus exerted a great influence on the subsequent clergy. He was a co-founder and for a long time head of the Inner Mission in Norway. Johnson made sure that diaconal institutions were set up in Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, Lillehammer and Tromsö and that Norwegian nurses were active overseas, where they were mainly assigned to caring for lepers . One of the trained deaconesses was Cathinka Guldberg , who had been head of the deaconess house in Oslo for 51 years when she died in 1919. Following the example of diakonia, nursing schools of the Red Cross and the Norwegian Women's Association were also established in Norway .

With his proclamation of the faith in the 1850s, Johnson had a decisive influence on religious life in Norway.

Honors

He was a founding member of "Videnskabs-Selskabet" in Christiania (today "Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi") and since 1857 a member of " Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab ". He became a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1866 and was awarded the Commander's Cross, 1st Class, in 1882. In 1879 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.

Works

Books

  • Nogle Ord om Barnedaaben . 1857
  • (Translation) Concord sheet eller den evangelisk-lutherske Kirkes Bekjendelsesskrifter (together with CP Caspari), 1861–1866
  • Grundrids af den systematiske Theologi, til Brug ved Forelæsninger 1879–1881, 1878 anonymously as a manuscript Grundrids af den systematiske Theologi . urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2009020203012
  • (Translation) Dr. Martin Luther's store Katechismus (together with CP Caspari), 1881
  • Til Christendommens Venner i vor Land (To the friends of Christianity in our country). In: Morgenbladet , January 28, 1883
  • Forelæsninger over Dogmehistorien , (posthumously) 1897
  • Forelæsninger over den Kristelige Ethik , (posthumously) 1898

Journal start-ups

  • Theologisk tidsskrift for den evangelisk lutherske kirke i Norge (together with Caspari and Tønder Nissen) 1858.
  • Luthersk Kirketidende . 1863

Remarks

  1. ↑ The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination for university, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university until 1883.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gisle Johnson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

The article is based on the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Any other information is shown separately.

  1. ↑ JB Halvorsen, Paragraph Tharanger: Johnson, Gisle Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 13 : Jernbaneret – Kirkeskat . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1922, p. 137 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  2. ↑ a b c d JB Halvorsen, Paragraph Tharanger: Johnson, Gisle Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 13 : Jernbaneret – Kirkeskat . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1922, p. 138 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  3. ↑ Kirkens by misjon . ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Norwegian State Archives, Oslo  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arkivverket.no
  4. ^ A b Volker Klimpel : Gisle Christian Johnson . In: Hubert Kolling (Ed.): Biographical lexicon on nursing history “Who was who in nursing history” , Volume 7. hps media, Nidda 2015, pp. 132 + 133.
  5. ↑ JB Halvorsen, Paragraph Tharanger: Johnson, Gisle Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 13 : Jernbaneret – Kirkeskat . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1922, p. 139 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  6. ↑ Jorunn Mathisen: Cathinka Augusta Guldberg , in: Hubert Kolling (Hrsg.): Biographical lexicon for nursing history “Who was who in nursing history” , Vol. 6 hps media Hungen 2012, pp. 119–122.
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Gisle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnson, Gisle Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Halden (Norway)
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1894
Place of death Nøtterøy