Gisle Johnson as Renewal Theologian

Abstract: Historical theology generally considers two strains of spirituality as opposed to one another: pietism on the one hand, and dogmatism on the other. No clearer can such strains be seen than in Lutheran theology of the 19^th century, especially in the controversy between Kierkegaard and Martensen. It was partly due to Kierkegaard’s avid denouncement of dogmatics and bold assertion of subjective faith experience that would lead to a divorce and mutual suspicion between pietism and orthodoxy. As opposed to “dead orthodoxy” on the one hand or “radical subjectivism” on the other, Brunner and Barth had proposed that a “live orthodoxy” was needed, where practice is galvanized by practice. One theologians who straddled the line between pietism and orthodoxy was Norwegian Lutheran theologians Gisle Johnson. A little-known figure, Johnson is lauded as the first Kierkegaardian in theology, and constructed his system of doctrine from Kierkegaard’s mode of subjectivism and the stages…