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Copyright by Collin Laine Brown 2018 Copyright by Collin Laine Brown 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Collin Laine Brown Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: CONVERSION, HERESY, AND WITCHCRAFT: THEOLOGICAL NARRATIVES IN SCANDINAVIAN MISSIONARY WRITINGS Committee: Marc Pierce, Supervisor Peter Hess Martha Newman Troy Storfjell Sandra Straubhaar CONVERSION, HERESY, AND WITCHCRAFT: THEOLOGICAL NARRATIVES IN SCANDINAVIAN MISSIONARY WRITINGS by Collin Laine Brown Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2018 Dedication Soli Deo gloria. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge my wife Robin. She especially helped me through the research and writing process, and kept me sane through the stress of having to spend so much time away from her while in graduate school. I wish that my late father Doug could be here, and I know that he would be thrilled to see me receive my PhD. It was his love of history that helped set me on the path I find myself today. My academic family has also been amazing during my time in graduate school. Good friends were always there to keep me motivated and stimulate my research. The professors involved in my project are also much deserving of my thanks: Marc Pierce, my advisor, as well as Sandra Straubhaar, Peter Hess, Martha Newman, and Troy Storfjell. I am grateful for their help and support, and for the opportunity to embark on this very interdisciplinary and very fulfilling project. v CONVERSION, HERESY, AND WITCHCRAFT: THEOLOGICAL NARRATIVES IN SCANDINAVIAN LUTHERAN MISSIONARY WRITINGS Collin Laine Brown, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Marc Pierce Writings by 16th to 18th century Lutheran missionaries on the indigenous Sámi peoples of northern Scandinavia show a strong tendency to characterize all aspects of traditional Sámi spirituality as demonic “superstition” that posed a real, existential threat to the kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and Sweden’s status as Lutheran Christian kingdoms following the Reformation. These beliefs and practices, in their view, therefore needed to be stamped out. This dissertations views the theological rhetoric of these missionary works through the lens of “superstition” (i.e. illicit religion) vs. “religion” (i.e. licit religion) as elucidated by Patristic authors such as Tertullian and Augustine, as well as the more recent theoretical model of “syncretism” (i.e. religion blendings) vs. “anti-syncretism” (i.e. the backlash against religious blendings) from scholars such as Meyer and van der Leeuw. I argue that indigenous spirituality served as a canvas upon which these Lutheran missionaries cast many of their own theological vi uncertainties regarding the fight against illicit religion which had begun centuries earlier with the Lutheran Reformation. Chapter 1 provides an overview of relevant research on historical missionary contact with the Sámi and a summary of important scholarship on the Western study of indigenous spirituality in general. Chapter 2 focuses on the most salient Lutheran missionary authors of this period. It situates these authors’ works within their historical contexts, and presents the writers’ depictions of Sámi spirituality. Chapter 3 outlines the methodological considerations of both of the theoretical frameworks used in this dissertation to analyze missionary sources on Sámi spirituality. Chapter 4 uses the theoretical frameworks as outlined in the previous chapter to analyze the relevant missionary works. By doing this, it shows that almost all of these missionary writers categorized indigenous Sámi spirituality as “superstition” and strongly condemned any perceived syncretistic blendings. Chapter 5 is a comparative analysis of German Lutheran missionaries in Papua New Guinea in the 20th century. This chapter provides a similar analysis of a Lutheran mission in a different part of the world and in a different time that bears strong similarities to the Scandinavian Lutheran missions to the Sámi. This dissertation uses these models of “superstition” vs. “religion” and “syncretism” vs. “anti-syncretism” to track how missionary portrayals of Sámi spirituality and the conversion process changed throughout the course of missionary activity, thereby showing how changing theological attitudes over from the 17th through the 20th century affected missionary attitudes. vii Table of Contents Introduction: Theological narratives in Scandinavian missionary writings ……………...............1 Who are the Sámi? ………………………………………………………………..............2 Theoretical lenses ………………………………………………………………................3 Comparative analysis ……………………………………………………………..............5 Importance to the field ……………………………………………………………………6 Outline of dissertation …………………………………………………………………….7 Chapter 1: Previous research on Sámi-missionary interactions …………………………..............9 Earliest missionary descriptions of Sámi spirituality ……………………………………10 Missionary tactics in missions to the Sámi ……………………………………...............15 Scandinavian Lutheran missions as part of the colonial project ………………………...15 Sámi beliefs and practices …………………………………………………….................18 Definition of the concept of “religion” ………………………………………….............23 Syncretism in missionary theology ……………………………………………...............28 Sámi noaidit as followers of aberrant “religion”………………………………………...29 “Superstition” vs. “religion” …………………………………………………………….42 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………49 Chapter 2: Methods and Definitions …………………………………………………………….52 “Superstition” vs. “religion,” and “syncretism” vs. “anti-syncretism”…………………..54 Syncretism ……………………………………………………………………………….55 Syncretism in missions ………………………………………………………………….58 Anti-syncretism ………………………………………………………………………….65 viii Anti-syncretism in missions ……………………………………………………………..67 Demonization of pre-Christian beliefs and practices ………………………....................68 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………....................71 Chapter 3: Scandinavian Lutheran missionary writings on Sámi traditional spirituality………………………………………………………………………..............74 Missionary sources on Sámi belief ……………………………………………………...75 Missionary sources on Sámi practice ………………………………..............................101 Noaidi: priest of the Sámi, priest of the devil ………………………………….............101 Sámi rituals, Sámi sacraments …………………………………………………………109 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………..............118 Chapter 4: Analysis of missionary writings …………………………………………................119 What missionary sources say about Sámi spirituality ………………………………….120 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………..............143 Chapter 5: Comparative analysis: A German Lutheran missionary contact situation in Papua New Guinea ……………………………………………………………………..149 History of Lutheran missionary activity in Papua New Guinea ………….....................152 Pilhofer’s description of indigenous New Guinean spirituality ……………………......155 Pilhofer’s definition of “religion” as a concept ………………………………………..162 Reports of “magical” practice in Pilhofer and Keyßer ………………………...............165 Cargo cult and the Neuendettelsauer Missionsgesellschaft ………………....................168 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..174 Concluding Remarks …………………………………………………………………………...179 Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………....................191 ix INTRODUCTION Theological Narratives in Scandinavian Lutheran missionary writings Oh you confounded Drum, tool and instrument of Satan, cursed are your depicted Gods: cursed your ring and ‘baja’: cursed your hammer and drumstick: cursed anyone who serves you with beating, and anyone who avails himself of divination and have their inclination for it. Each beat that is made upon you, is and will be a Satan’s beat in hell for them, among the spirits of the damned who shall torment and torture them, so that no executioner in such a way can torment and handle the one who is given in his hands: no snake bite makes such pain: no scorpion with its bite such ache: nothing in the world can be thought out to be such punishments, even if the pains of the whole world could be brought together, as is the pain and torment of the damned in hell. (Rydving, Drum-Time 81, cf. Forbus 87)1 By the beginning of the 17th century, the kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and Sweden had both recently become Lutheran following the inception of the Lutheran Reformation in German-speaking Europe.2 While Sweden did play a decisive role at the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Scandinavia in general was not involved in armed conflict in defense of Protestantism, unlike the Continental Lutheran and other Protestant forces. By the end of the Thirty Years’ War, the Scandinavian kingdoms faced the task of ensuring that all of their subjects were orthodox, practicing Lutherans. The state churches of both Denmark-Norway and Sweden turned their gaze northwards to the indigenous Sámi peoples who had been living in Scandinavia for centuries. 1 ‘O tu fördömde Trumma satans redskap och instrument, äro tina afmålade Gudar: förbannade tin ring och baja: förbannad tin hammar och trumkäpp: förbannad then som tienar tig med slag, och den som deraf sig betienar och låter slå ja alla de som samtyckia till sådant slag och spådom, och hafwa sin lust däraf. Hwart och ett slag som på tig skier, är och blifwer dem skola slå pina och martera, att ingen bödell kan så plåga och handtära den, som i hans händer gifwen är: intet
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