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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