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What are the Grundrids? This is a question that has arisen in my own contemplation of Gisle's seminal volume in tandem with two other sources for his theology: the earlier Swedish edition, Föreläsningar öfver Systematiska Theologien (1878), from the lecture note of August Weenaas, along with the 1850 Den Kristelige Dogmatik from the lecture notes of Gjermunde Hoyme. In the latter two instances, more elaboration is clearly present, with more direct engagement with prominent th

Famously, in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Danish philosopher S ø ren Kierkegaard described the need for a “qualitative transition of the leap from unbeliever to believer," colloquially known as the leap of faith. This is seen as brought on by an existential crisis by Kierkegaard, where the paradox of existence forces one to this higher sphere of belief. Gisle Johnson was regularly described as having been influenced by Kierkegaard, Svein Christofferson describing h

Gisle's dogmatics is a distinctly Christ-centered dogmatic. It is both driven by the need for a lived experience with Jesus Christ as the central person of Christianity, as well as by the central concerns of orthodox Lutheran theology. This is demonstrated in his extensive section on Christ's humiliation in the 1878 Swedish edition. Utilizing the classic status duplex of Christ's humiliation and exaltation, he considers the necessary theological realities involved in what is

“The Believer’s Childlike Obedience to God,” Lectures on Christian Ethics As gratitude to the God of grace, this love is also necessarily a heartfelt desire to please Him in everything. This speaks, of course, about someone's desire to attain to God's good pleasure. Precisely, it is the essential presupposition of the believer’s love for God. It solely concerns the grateful heart's desire to thank Him, He to whom one thus has to thank for everything one is and everything one

The title page to Gisle Johnson's translation of the Book of Concord. With the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, a great deal of theological literature has been published, presented on, and disseminated to celebrate what is essentially the most seminal theological document in the history of Chrsitianity outside of the Bible itself. Gisle Johnson cared deeply about Nicene theology. This is apparent not only in his sections on the Trinity in his own systematic theology, b

Significant to the study of historical figures is the discovery of their signature. Although it might seem a trivial things, signatures are a personal touch: seeing the signature of someone long-gone is a glimpse into their personality, a sort of written fingerprint. It was exciting, then, to find Gisle Johnson's signature, here adorning a letter of recommendation for one Ole Christiansen Bjornstad. A rough translation with magnified signature is as follows: Testimony of the

Title page: "The Pauline Concept of Doctrine," presented by Gisle Johnson, Lecturer in Theology. The last post mentioned a series of lost...

Several authors mention Gisle's lost lectures and manuscripts. Part of the Gisle Johnson Project is to track down these lost lectures,...

Gisle was a continentally-trained theologian: before proceeding to lecture at the University of Kristiana, he toured Europe studying with...

Nils Herzberg was a student of Gisle Johnson's. In his memoir, Fra min barndoms og ungdoms tid: 1827-1856 , he records first-hand...

The Norwegian Political Climate of the 1800’s [1] The greatest political crisis since 1814 was beginning to boil, climaxing in the...

FORWARD This work, left in translation, has been used at the Theological Seminary of the Augustana Synod since 1868. The teacher of...

One of the more significant elements in Gisle thought comes within the Pistik. It is what Gisle calls the "irrefutible claim" on...

One of the more common questions I get is how a rather Reformed Baptist living in the Southern California became acquainted with Gisle...

Translation is part art and part science. There is a certain malleability to words, and a certain concreteness as well. The well-worn categories of formal equivalence versus dynamic equivalence must be taken seriously as well as considered chartable along a spectrum. Gisle's Norwegian presents interesting issues in and of itself. Written at an early period in Norwegian independence from Denmark (1814), literature was now being produced in a tongue that was moving away from it

"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...

Original page of "Det Kristelige Selskap." Gisle Johnson , Forel æ sninger af den Kristelige Ethik, “Det Kristelige Selskap”   What makes...

Translating the Theological Legacy of a Norske Theologien Who was Gisle Johnson? This is the most common question posed when the name is...