Leiv Aalen

Leiv Aalen as professor at the Oslo municipal faculty

Leiv Aalen (born September 21, 1906 in Rennesøy , † January 24, 1983 in Oslo ) was a Lutheran theologian and university professor.

life and work

Aalen grew up in a Christian home in his birthplace and in Stavanger . He studied theology from 1930 to 1935 at the University of Oslo and at the parish faculty (Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet ). His excellent diploma enabled him to go into theological research. For this purpose he came to Germany twice in the following period. In 1935/36 he did a research stay in Erlangen and in 1938/39 another stay followed in Tübingen . In the meantime, in 1937, after attending the practical theological seminary of his home church, he was employed as an assistant professor at the parish faculty. In 1941 Aalen was ordained by Bishop Eivind Berggrav . He then served in a parish in the Frogner district of Oslo until 1945 . In autumn 1945 Aalen got a position as a lecturer in dogmatics at the community faculty . In 1953 he received his doctorate at the University of Oslo with his dissertation on the theology of the young Zinzendorf . In 1957 he finally became a professor of dogmatics at the community faculty and remained so until 1976.

During the 1930s, Hermann Sasse became his main theological teacher. Like him, Aalen represented a Lutheran theology that was based on the confessional scriptures and focused on God's word of the Bible and the sacraments as objective means of grace. With this he stood at a certain distance from his faculty, which was more shaped by the pietistic tradition. Not only in relation to Pietism, but also in relation to Catholicism and modern Protestantism , he tried to present Lutheran teaching clearly and to justify it biblically. In his piety he emphasized the connection between personal experience and prayer life .

Aalen also took an active part in the fortunes of the Church of Norway . At the end of the 1950s he was one of the initiators of the movement for the Bible and Confession ( For Bibel og Bekjennelse ). Towards the end of his life he watched with regret as Norwegian Lutheranism changed for the worse. These developments included a. opening the parish faculty to non-Lutheran students and supporting the ordination of women . To counter this, he joined the high church community for the renewal of the church ( Kirkelig Fornyelse ), founded in 1976 .

His brother was the New Testament scholar Sverre Aalen (1909–1980).

Publications (selection)

• Testimonium Spiritus Sancti som “teologisk prinsipp”. 1938.
  • in German: The testimony of the Holy Spirit as a "principle" of evangelical ethics , in: Journal for systematic theology 15 (1938), p. 248ff.
• (as ed. with Sverre Aalen :) Bakenfor inferno. Oppgjør med tradisjonelle forestillinger om helvete. 1955.
• The theology of the young Zinzendorf. Berlin 1966.
• The struggle for the gospel in the sacrament. Do the Arnoldshain theses denote a peace agreement? In: Theologische Literaturzeitung 91 (1966), pp. 82-99.
• Ord and Sacrament. Bidrag til dogmatikken. 1966.
• The Leuenberg Agreement and the Lutheran Churches of Europe I. In: Lutherische Blätter 32 (1980), pp. 154–163.
• The Leuenberg Agreement and the Lutheran Churches of Europe II. In: Lutherische Blätter 33 (1981), pp. 22–30.

Web links

• Leiv Aalen in the Norwegian Biographical Lexicon