{"id":6829,"date":"2018-09-11T10:03:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T09:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/?p=6829"},"modified":"2023-07-26T15:08:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T13:08:30","slug":"religious-dissidents-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/religious-dissidents-in-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious dissidents in Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a look at those who did not belong to the Norwegian state church<\/p>\n

Dissident:\u00a0<\/strong>disagreeing especially with an established religious or political system, organization, or belief <\/strong><\/em>(Merriam-Webster Dict.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We often think of Norway in the 1800’s as a homogeneous society. In many ways it was, but when it comes to religion, the Lutheran State Church was beginning to show cracks. I will start this article by listing some very brief facts.<\/p>\n

King Kristian V’s Norwegian law from 1687 defined the Evangelical-Lutheran religion as the union Denmark-Norway’s official religion. The Norwegian constitution that was signed May 17. 1814, confirmed this and stated that the church was a state church, subject to and supported by the Norwegian government, with the king as its supreme leader (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

“The so-called “konventikkelplakaten” was a law issued by king Kristian VI in 1741 that prohibited religious gatherings and the activity of lay preachers without permission of or presence of the parish minister. This law was established to fight the growing influence of the Herrnhutter movement.\u00a0 This movement came to Norway in the 1730’s (Wisl\u00f8ff 1949, 7).<\/p>\n

In the year 1797 the Norwegian lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge began publishing religious books and travel around preaching the gospel (Molland:52). Hauge’s activities led to a christian revival in Norway and by the year 1804 he had followers in nearly all parts of Norway (Molland 1979, 3). This group was called Haugianerne.<\/p>\n

During the Napoleonic wars, many Norwegian sailors ended up in prison in England. Here they were introduced to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)((Kvekersamfunnet)<\/a>. The first congregation was established in Norway in 1818 (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Norwegian government decided to do away with the law about religious gatherings (“konventikkelplakaten”) in 1842 (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/p>\n

After the Lutheran reformation in 1537, the Catholic Church was not permitted to work in Norway. In 1843 it was given permission to establish a congregation in Oslo (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Finally in 1845, the “law about dissenters” were put in place, allowing Christian churches to establish in Norway.\u00a0(Bjerk\u00e5s 1997, 55) From now on there was a small, but increasing number of people who chose to stay outside the State Church.<\/p>\n

I must note that<\/em>\u00a0The Church of the latter-day saints is today considered to be a Christian church.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>The Church of the Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) was not covered by the law of dissenters, as a Norwegian supreme court ruling defined them not to be a Christian congregation. This was part of the reason why so many Mormons left Norway in the 1800’s (Store Norske leksikon<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The law about dissenters was amended in 1891 giving non-Christian churches, such as the Jews, and the Mormons the same rights (Mykland 1997, 11).<\/p>\n

The law required the congregations outside the state church to register with the authorities and to keep records of their members. Birth marriages and deaths should be recorded and reported to the state church minister in the parish (Dissenterloven 1845).<\/p>\n

This new law meant that the ministers had to record the events regarding the dissidents in separate sections of the church book. Prior to 1877 we find these records with handwritten headings on blank pages in the church books or a separate page of the preprinted forms where the minister clearly notes that this\/these page(s) records dissidents.<\/p>\n

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Indmeldte i Statskirken – People joining the State Church handwritten on blank pages.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Reported deceased and still-born dissenters. Noted on the ordinary pages in the church books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new sections in the church records that the law about dissenters required were:<\/p>\n