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Erik Pontoppidan and His Asiatic Prince Menoza

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Trygve R. Skarsten
Trygve R. Skarsten
Affiliation:
associate professor of church history in Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio.
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Extract

If one were to ask a Scandinavian to name the outstanding Pietist from the eighteenth century, that Pietist would undoubtedly be Erik Pontoppidan. August Herman Francke would most assuredly come in second place. Pontoppidan's lasting fame rests with his “Explanation” (Forklaring) to Luther's Small Catechism which he published in 1737 under the title Truth Unto Godliness (Sandhed til Gudfryktighed). A little over one hundred years later (1842), a pioneer Norwegian-American pastor by the name of Elling Eielsen translated it into English and walked—yes walked—from the Fox River settlements in northern Illinois to New York City in order to get Pontoppidan's “Explanation” published.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 33 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1981

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References

1. Nelson, E.Clifford and Fevold, Eugene L., The Lutheran Church Among Norwegian-Americans, 2 vols. (Minneapolis, 1960), 1:77.Google Scholar

2. Skarsten, Trygve R., “Gisle Johnson: A Study of the Interaction of Confessionalism and Pietism” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1968), pp. 200–241.Google Scholar

3. Bruce, G. M., ed., The Union Documents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, 1948), pp. 38–57.Google Scholar Pontoppidan's answer to the question “What is Election?” was as follows: “God has appointed all those to eternal life who He from eternity has foreseen would accept the offered grace, believe in Christ, and remain constant in this faith unto the end.”

4. His grandfather, Erik (Eriksson) Pontoppidan, died in 1678 while bishop of Trondhjem, Norway. It is his picture which erroneously appears on page 1922 of the third volume of The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (edited by Bodensieck, Julius and published by Fortress Press in 1965)Google Scholar instead of his grandson's Erik (Ludvigsson) Pontoppidan. Both Pontoppidans were native Danes who served as bishops in Norway. Pontoppidan is a latinized version of Broby, the community in Fyen from which the family stemmed.

5. I have in my library a copy of the tenth edition of the Swedish translation of Troens Speil published in Stockholm in 1899 by F. G. Beijers Bokforlagsaktiebolag (1st ed., 1776). This indicates the popularity of the work of Pontoppidan as well.

6. Pontoppidan, Erik, Collegium pastorale practicum (Christianssand, 1850).Google Scholar Compare also Nelson, and Febold, , The Lutheran Church Among Norwegian-Americans, 1:104, 106, 114–115.Google Scholar

7. Fleischer, A., ed., Hovedverker av den Kristne Litteratur fra Kirkefedrene til Nutiden, Vol. 8, Fra Pietismens Tid (Oslo, 1930), pp. 155–229.Google Scholar Compare also Nilsen, Halkild, “Biskop Pontoppidans Opvekkelige Hyrdebreve,” Tidsskrift for teologi og kirke 281 (1957): 116–136.Google Scholar

8. Koch, Hal and Kornerup, Bjørn, Den Danske Kirkes Historie, 7 vols. (Copenhagen, 1951), 5:160.Google Scholar The translation is mine.

9. Welle, Ivar, Norges Kirkehistorie (Oslo, 1948), p. 125.Google Scholar

10. Koch, and Kornerup, , Den Danske Kirkes Historie, 7:11–20, 33–34.Google Scholar

11. Ibid.., 5:63–65.

12. Ibid.., pp. 199–205.

13. Holberg, Ludvig, The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground, ed. McNelis, James I. Jr (Westport, Conn., 1973).Google Scholar

14. Neiiendam, Michael, Erik Pontoppidan, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1930–1933), 2:128.Google Scholar

15. Pontoppidan, Erik, Menoza (Horten, 1881), title page.Google Scholar All translations from Menoza are my own.

16. Ibid.., p. 15.

17. Ibid.., pp. 3–5.

18. Neiiendam, , Erik Pontoppidan, 2:133–135Google Scholar; also Koch, and Kornerup, , Den Danske Kirkes Historie, 5:252–255.Google Scholar

19. Menoza is here referring to the writings of the early seventeenth-century Puritan theologians.

20. Pontoppidan, , Menoza, pp. 351–352.Google Scholar

21. Ibid.., p. 454.

22. Ibid.., p. 46.

23. Ibid.., pp. 59, 63.

24. Ibid.., pp. 125–139.

25. Ibid.., pp. 283–289, 318–326. The storming of the Bastille and the beginning of the French Revolution were still forty-seven years off in the future when Pontoppidan wrote these prophetic words.

26. Ibid.., p. 352.

27. Ibid.., p. 422.

28. Pontoppidan wrote Menoza in 1742. It is obvious that Menoza would not have met any Methodists in 1715.

29. Pontoppidan, , Menoza, pp. 356–357, 364–370, 379–382, 424–431.Google Scholar

30. Ibid.., pp. 443–480.

31. Ibid.., pp. 605–620, 695–696, 796–799.

32. Ibid.., pp. 593–604.

33. Ibid.., pp. 723–724.

34. Ibid.., pp. 516–517, 688–690.

35. Ibid.., pp. 761–765.

36. Ibid.., pp. 817–818.