Charismatic Christianity in Finland, Norway, and Sweden Case Studies in Historical and Contemporary Developments

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN NEW RELIGIONS AND ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITIES CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY IN FINLAND, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN CASE STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS EDITED BY JESSICA MOBERG AND JANE SKJOLDLI Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities Series editors James R. Lewis University of Tromso – The Arctic University Tromso, Norway Henrik Bogdan University of Gothenburg Gothenburg, Sweden Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities is an inter- disciplinary monograph and edited collection series sponsored by the International Society for the Study of New Religions. The series is devoted to research on New Religious Movements. In addition to the usual groups studied under the New Religions label, the series publishes books on such phenomena as the New Age, communal & utopian groups, Spiritualism, New Thought, Holistic Medicine, Western esotericism, Contemporary Paganism, astrology, UFO groups, and new movements within traditional religions. The Society considers submissions from researchers in any discipline. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/series/14608 Jessica Moberg • Jane Skjoldli Editors Charismatic Christianity in Finland, Norway, and Sweden Case Studies in Historical and Contemporary Developments Editors Jessica Moberg Jane Skjoldli University of Gothenburg University of Bergen, Norway Gothenburg, Sweden Bergen, Norway Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities ISBN 978-3-319-69613-3 ISBN 978-3-319-69614-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69614-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017960949 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018. This book is published open access. 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Cover illustration: Karen Ilagan / Getty Images Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland FOREWORD I commend this volume to you wholeheartedly. This volume on Pentecostalism in the Nordic region is full of intriguing multidisciplinary studies that have relevance not only for this region, but for the study of Pentecostalism elsewhere. Despite the difficulties of definition mentioned by several authors in this collection, I have always been fascinated by how what we may term “Pentecostal and Charismatic” movements often present surprises. That Scandinavia and Finland, with their relatively low popula- tions, became the founding region for European Pentecostalism as a whole, is one of those surprises. Relative to its position in the rest of western Europe, Pentecostalism became a significant movement within Nordic Christianity within a short period of time and was probably as well estab- lished there as anywhere else in the world. Undoubtedly, the towering figures in this remarkable story were those of Thomas Ball Barratt of Oslo and Lewi Pethrus of Stockholm. Both these early leaders were to have enormous international significance in the development and expansion of Pentecostalism. They were not the first or the only significant figures, as papers in this book show. But it was from Norway and Sweden that Pentecostalism spread to the other Nordic countries, and also to Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and Russia. Pentecostalism was from its beginnings fundamentally a missionary movement. The Spirit had told them to “go.” From the earliest years before the First World War, Nordic missionaries went out not only to other European countries, but also much further to Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and to Southern and Eastern Africa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and China. The largest “classical” Pentecostal denomination in the world, v vi FOREWORD the Assembleias de Deus in Brazil, was started by two Swedish migrants to the United States, Gunnar Vingren and Daniel Berg. The enormous Pentecostal denominations in present-day Ethiopia owe their origins to Finnish and Swedish missionaries (Haustein 2010). We must also not overlook the significant role also played by Danish missionaries, whose impact was far greater abroad than it was at home (Christensen 2017). To say that Scandinavia was one of the epicenters of global Pentecostalism is no exaggeration. If we understand Pentecostalism as being essentially a missionary and evangelistic movement (Anderson 2007), we will also understand the outward thrust by Nordic missionaries, and particularly women, amply illustrated in the chapter in this volume by Mikaelsson. Pentecostalism was relatively weak compared to the dominant Lutheran state churches in Nordic countries, but the Nordic impact on the rapid internationalization of Pentecostalism far outweighed its small numbers at home. This was especially the case in Denmark, where the growth of Pentecostalism was relatively small, aggravated by internal schisms early on in its history, as the recent history by Nikolaj Christensen (2017) shows. Because there is no article on Denmark in this volume, I will give some attention to the related events there. Although contemporary Danish Pentecostalism is extremely small, this does not mean that nothing significant has happened there. Christensen reveals that an important factor for the lack of Pentecostal growth in Denmark (unlike other Nordic countries) was the absence of active religious minority groups. The state church monopoly in Denmark was still virtually intact, and though the earliest Pentecostals were largely members of the state church, even this was per- ceived as a threat by traditionalists and especially by Evangelical and Holiness factions. Denominational organization also made the Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish Pentecostals more robust, whereas early Danish Pentecostals tended to pursue obscure doctrines like universalism and the ineffective restorationism of the Welsh-led Apostolic Church. I have long advocated a “multiple origins” theory of Pentecostalism in contrast to the many attempts at making this a movement whose primary genesis comes from the United States. At the same time I have avoided suggesting that the American forms springing from Los Angeles and other centers were not influential, as indeed they were in many places. There are at least three considerations that the present volume illustrates. Firstly, there was much continuity with Evangelical, Holiness and healing revivalist movements that preceded early Pentecostalism in the nineteenth cen- tury. Stenvold’s chapter on Norway makes this clear. The links with FOREWORD vii American Methodism also had great significance in the beginnings of Pentecostalism in India, Chile, and West Africa, among others. Pentecostalism did not suddenly appear from heaven, as some would have us believe. Even speaking in tongues, one of the most divisive aspects of the early movement, did not suddenly appear at the beginning of the cen- tury. Tongues speaking has been recorded throughout the history of Christianity among various groups and revival movements. In Finland, the Laestadian movement (briefly mentioned in the chapter by Mantsinen) is an example of this. Furthermore, in Europe at least, many of the early Pentecostals remained in their church denominations until forced to leave. In some cases, they never did leave the old churches. Secondly, there was no one place of origin, despite the fairly widespread claims that it all began at Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles in 1906. It is true, as these chapters show, that Nordic Pentecostalism was at first influenced by events in the United States, but that was a transitory period. Contemporary Charismatic Christianity in Nordic countries (as throughout the world) is the product of a long process of development with prec- edents going back to a much earlier time. Its history was in continuity with the revivalist movements out of which it emerged. Azusa Street was indeed an important centre for the early internationalizing

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