- Trial lecture starts at 10.00
- Public defence starts at 12.00
Title of trial lecture: The Inner Mission. Strategies in the Religious Market of Northwestern Norway 1920–1970
Disputation chair: dean Ingunn Folkestad Breistein
Assessment committee:
- First opponent: Professor Lars Gaute Jøssang, from the NLA university College
- Second opponent: Senior lecturer Ulrika Lagerlöf Nilsson, from the university of Gothenburg
- Chair of assessment committee: Professor Pål Ketil Botvar, from the University of Agder
Supervisors in the doctoral work:
- Main supervisor: Professor Helje Kringlebotn Sødal, from the University of Agder
- Co-supervisor: Professor Knut Dørum, from the University of Agder
Summary of thesis
The Inner Mission. Strategies in the Religious Market of Northwestern Norway 1920 –1970
In 1920, responding to a perceived, urgent threat from theological liberalisation, the Norwegian Inner Mission Society facilitated a convention of 950 low-church delegates. Strategies outlined here included using policies of non-cooperation and non-platforming. But visions were also drawn for conquering the school system, the Church, and local communities from the inside. Some of these plans, and other, more specific local Inner Mission strategies, were partly successful.
The vigour and energy on display here, run contrary to perceptions of modern Scandinavian religious history as dominated by “lazy monopolies” and low religious diversity. The Inner Mission, together with other voluntary lay organisations, provided Norwegian Lutheran Christians with outlets for religious fervour, without them having to formally exit the official Church. This, in turn, helps explain how Norway could become the per-capita leader in overseas missionaries in the late 1900s, and why low-church Lutheranism has left its clear marks on modern Norwegian culture, politics and institutions.
This dissertation describes and analyses strategies used by the Inner Mission to compete in the religious market of the counties of Møre og Romsdal and Sogn og Fjordane between 1920 and 1970. With a cultural approach to the analysis of strategic planning, and a Rational Choice-inspired approach to religious market dynamics, this dissertation explores the development and decisions of regional associations of the Inner Mission. The sources are primarily regional low-church magazines. An empirical basis is found in donation accounts and in a geospatial and chronological registration of prayer houses, called “bedehus”.
A central theme is the “market effect” of different end-time theologies, different levels of loyalty to the official Church, different approaches to recruitment, and different levels of theological strictness. Overall, a shift is observed, from a growing movement defined by radical revivals in the 1920s and 1930s, to a dwindling one, known for charming, fundraising lotteries around 1970. This shift happened to a larger degree in church-loyal versions of the Inner Mission, than in stricter ones, providing a Norwegian example of the effects of “strong religion”.
What to do as an online audience member
The disputation is open to the public. To follow the trial lecture and the public defence online, register on Zoom.
We ask online audience members to join no earlier than 10 minutes in advance. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time.
Opponent ex auditorio:
Deadline for the public to pose questions is during the break between the two opponents. Questions ex auditorio can be submitted to disputation chair.
Contact:
- lise.moss@uia.no
- Phone
- +47 38 14 20 58