Introducing the Unpublished Gisle

Title page: "The Pauline Concept of Doctrine," presented by Gisle Johnson, Lecturer in Theology.

The last post mentioned a series of lost lectures by Gisle Johnson. Nils Hertzberg recalled in his memoir, "Johnson's first lectures, which gave me the greatest benefit, were the ones he gave on 'The Pauline Concept of Doctrine.' As far as I know, these have never been printed. They were the result of an in-depth study of Paul's letters and shed peculiar light on the apostle's entire Christian worldview."

Likewise, Hertzberg described the clarity with which Gisle spoke, so that students wrote down his lectures word-for-word: "We therefore learned his lectures almost by heart from cover to cover, so it was not without reason when the theological students and candidates from that time were characterized as pocket editions of Gisle Johnson." (see https://www.gislejohnson.com/post/gisle-as-lecturer)

As of today, several of these lost lectures have been found, residing in the Norwegian-American Historical Association's archive, with special thanks to archivist Kristiana Warner for generously providing scans. The lectures were taken down verbatim by Gisle's student, Lutheran minister Gjermund Hoyme, and were preserved with meticulous detail, reinforcing Hertzberg's recollections. Hoyme immigrated to America and brought his notes on Gisle's lectures with him, and these are now stored in the Gjermund Hoyme Papers.

As can be seen, Hoyme's handwriting is clear and legible, in a flared Norwegian cursive that contains little ambiguity or error. This is a significant element, as often handwritten material, by either professor or student, is difficult to discern. Here, attention is placed on readability, and Hoyme seems to have treasured these notes, which even contain a Scripture index in the back, perhaps revisited for sermon preparation.

Hoyme's collection preserves three classes from Gisle: "Den Nyere Theologies Historie" (1850), "Det Paulinske Lærebegreb" (1851), and his nascent lectures on dogmatics. These are significant in that they present Gisle's thought in its earliest form, from within two years of his beginning lectures at the University of Christiana when he was still just a lecturer and not full-time faculty, his continental education in the 1840's lying fresh in his mind. "Den Nyere Theologies Historie," or "A History of Modern Theology," seems to be an account of then-contemporary theology, which would be something akin to the recently-published Foremost Problems of Contemporary Dogmatics by Herman Bavinck, a survey of the state of theology at the time, and it valuable for discerning his direct appraisal of various thinkers as well as who he was reading and hearing. "Det Paulinske Lærebegreb" will present Gisle's biblical theology, an interaction and harmonization with Pauline themes from the epistles, and is significant in demonstrating Gisle's work with biblical theology; a brief glance indicates detailed interaction with the Greek and some Hebrew, as well as citation and interaction with famous biblical theologians like F.C. Bauer. Finally, the early notes on his dogmatics lectures will be helpful in determining how his theological thought moved and changed: lying so early in his lecturing career, it will be interesting to see what his theology looked like without the fideistic introduction known as the Pistik, introduced in nascent form in the 1860's.

Here is the first page of the Introduction to the Pauline Concept of Doctrine, followed by a rough translation.

Introduction

By the Pauline concept of doctrine, we understand an historical system—a presentation of the doctrine proclaimed by Paul, as it lies before us in the Scriptures of the New Testament. We must then consider its purpose, its form, and its source.

As for the form of the presentation, it must, as mentioned, be historical; it must become a system. Insofar as the presentation must become a task, it is to remain standing with the many details in Paul's doctrine. But we must find a unity in this multiplicity, which is given to us immediately. The task must be, from the many scattered expressions, to reconstruct the system from which these expressions must have proceeded. We cannot place this in the Acts of the Apostles. Others have sought to bring about such an understanding, and at first glance one sees it in his writings; but rather it appears that Paul, in his inner being, had resolved what we find expressed in his writings in various places. We must reconstruct this primitive system in Paul himself, proceeding from individual elements. But since the presentation must also become historical—a presentation such as this does not belong in the narrower sense to history, but rather to historical theology—the presentation becomes a partial view of...

The Gisle Johnson project continues to find extensive literature from Norway's premiere theologian. In the steps ahead, these unpublished lectures will be transcribed and translated for publication, helping to preserve and reintroduce the church to Gisle's legacy of faithful commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.