Gisle Johnson
Gisle Christian Johnson was a leading 19th-century Norwegian theologian, revivalist, and educator.
Biography
Gisle Christian Johnson was born at Fredrikshald in Østfold, Norway. He grew up at Kristiansand in Vest-Agder. He was a son of engineer and architect Georg Daniel Barth Johnson. His grandfather, also Gisle Johnson, was an Icelandic minister who immigrated to Norway after theological training in Copenhagen. He studied theology at the University of Christiania and graduated in 1845. In 1849 he became a lecturer at the University of Christiania, and in 1860 a professor, first in systematic theology and Dogmatic theology and from 1875 in church history.Early life and education
Raised in a Pietist Lutheran family, Johnson was deeply influenced from an early age by the revivalistic preaching of Hans Nielsen Hauge via a Haugean, Ole Pedersen Noe, who would influence Johnson to pursue vocational ministry. Likewise, Christian Thistedal, a teacher at the Kristiansand Latin School, was also a profound theological influence on Johnson, educating him in the more formal aspects of theology including Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac prior to his entrance to the university, and acquainting him with Lutheran dogmaticians and confessionalism. During his time in the university Gisle excelled in his studies, reading well beyond his required course of study and digesting literature from Kierkegaard, Bengel, Gesenius, Vitringa, and others. In 1845 Johnson passed his university exit examinations "with distinctions," and was soon after offered the post of lecturer of theology, which he turned down in favor of a scholarship to study theology abroad in Germany beginning in 1846. There, he became profoundly influenced by the Erlangen School of Theology, which appealed to his own theological sensibilities by its appeal to Scripture, Confessions, and religious experience as its threefold religious principles. He later reflected,This University offered me such a rich assortment of all that could possibly have been of interest and meaning for my studies, that... if I had been able to spend another half year abroad would in a moment have thought of nothing other than Erlangen.
Career and accomplishments
When Johnson returned to Norway, he brought with him an eclectic mix of German theology, pietism, and Lutheran Confessionalism, which emerges in his most significant theological work, Grundrids af den Systematisk Theologi, a work which incorporates a Kierkegaardian-style prolegomena on faith in its three stages, followed by a dogmatic account stemming from realities of justification and regeneration. It was this focus on faith and the new birth that would prove to be a particular element of emphasis in Johnson's preaching ministry, which focused on the need for God's grace in the heart, a ministry which appealed to laypeople and ministers alike and which became known as the Johnsonian Revivals.In 1855, he founded the Christiania Inner Mission Society, in 1863 the Lutheran Church Official Journal and in 1867 the Norwegian Luther Foundation. In 1858 he established, together with Carl Paul Caspari, an annual publication entitled Theologisk Tidskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske Kirke i Norge which he edited until 1891. Religiously he followed strict Confessional Lutheranism. During the Johnsonian revivals, which went across Norway during the 1850s, he reflected the pietistic and ecclesial tradition of Hans Nielsen Hauge. Johnson emphasized a theology that was both based on the experience of faith and grounded in Lutheran orthodoxy.
He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters from 1858. He was appointed a Knight in the Order of St. Olav in 1866 and made a Commander 1st class in 1882. In 1879, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Copenhagen. He died during 1894 at Nøtterøy in Vestfold, Norway. Both Gisle Johnsons plass in the district of Grünerløkka in Oslo and Gisle Johnsons gate in Trondheim were named in his honor.
Decline and death
Despite his influence, accomplishments, and charisma, the last several decades of Gisle's life are often noted as being characterized by decline and withdrawal. Skarsten evaluates that,
As a revival preacher, Gisle Johnson's activity came to an end in the late 'sixties. He had never been strong physically, and he found that he just could not stand up under the constant strain of lecturing and preaching.
Of his death, Nostbakken recounts,
On July 17, 1894 he died in his sleep. During his last days he spoke of the nearness of his salvation in Christ. On the day before his death when questioned as to whether or not he held firmly to reconciliation in Christ, he answered, "Ja visselig". Those were his last words.
Personality
Gisle Johnsons' personality is depicted as reserved and yet conscience-driven. Ousland writes of his earliest youth, that "Gisle had a sensitive mind as a child, and he retained this character trait throughout his life. He could easily be overwhelmed by change, as happened several times during serious events in his life." Likewise, Nostbakken considers that Gisle's reticence to address certain issues and his recension from the public eye in later years may have been due to this naturally-withdrawn character: "He was timid and cautious. He had a natural tendency to rely on the authority of others."Nonetheless, Gisle's passion for theological experience lent his preaching and lecturing career a great deal of charisma. J.C. Heuch had recorded that "he was so gripped by the forcefulness and the interest of Johnson's lectures that on more than one occasion he caught himself sitting with mouth open and pen fallen on the desk completely fascinated by the address." In fact, with regards to his preaching ministry and revivalism, he was likened to Jonathan Edwards:
People poured into the meeting place and sat spellbound while he spoke, often for as long as two hours. His words seemed to grip his hearers with an almost mystic power. He was not an emotional preacher, but he was a strong preacher of repentance. One is reminded of the awakening under Jonathan Edwards when one reads about Johnson that when in a thin and quiet voice he read the words 'There is no peace for the ungodly, saith my God' a visible tremor ran through the audience.As such, Nostbakken evaluates, "Johnson, as a person was quiet and shy, his preaching was quiet and restrained, but its effect was to cause a religious awakening, to sweep through country."
In his personal life, it is notable that Johnson is depicted as being personally generous and gracious with students. Skarsten recounts that
Every other Saturday evening the theological students had a standing invitation to come to the home of Gisle Johnson. These gatherings were not just theological 'bull sessions' with the professor. From Gisle Johnson's side, they were an attempt to lead the students into a personal type of Christianity and a living faith. The sessions were always informal, full of fun and laughter. Toward the close of the evening Gisle Johnson would usually lead in devotions.Likewise, in reflecting on the life of his father, Jonathan Johnson recounted several stories in reflecting on Gisle's sense of humor.
Theology
Gisle's theology was contained over the course of three volumes, a compact consideration of faith and dogma in his Grundrids af Den Systematiske Theology, along with lectures on ethics and lectures on dogmatic history. Together, the Grundrids and the kristelige Ethiks comprise three volumes of what Gisle envisioned to be a full dogmatic treatment of the Christian faith; in the introduction to his Grundrids he reasons,From the three basic connections in which it is objectively perceived by the conscious mind, systematic theology is divided into three parts. These may be called Christian Pistics or the teaching concerning the nature of faith, Christian dogmatics, or the teaching concerning the truth-content of faith, and Christian ethics, or the teaching concerning the life of faith. Systematic theology finds its total content in these three disciplines...A potential fourth element of Johnson's thought is the Forelæsninger over dogmehistorien, or Lectures on Dogmatic History, also published posthumously, which will be discussed below.
Gisle's method is what Kaasa correctly terms "regressive," beginning with faith and moving toward concrete theological realities. As such, it represents a different ordo cognitio'' than typical dogmatic treatments of the period, largely related to the influence of Kierkegaard and Erlangen theology on his thinking. Notably, Gisle's dogmatics implement an organic motif, where faith, the church, etc. are seen as organic realities, and as such it would not be unfair to categorize him as organicist in his ontology.