Av denna världen? : Emil Gustafson, moderniteten och den evangelikala väckelsen

• Main Author: Halldorf, Joel
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen 2012
• Subjects: Emil Gustafson; modernity; evangelicalism; spirituality; holiness movement; Helgelseförbundet; Keswick movement; Free Churches; Charles Taylor; practices; mysticism; individualism; suffering; holiness; discipline
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-168901; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7580-594-8

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between evangelicalism and modernity with the Swedish holiness preacher Emil Gustafson (1862–1900) as a case. This is achieved by comparing Gustafson’s spirituality with Charles Taylor’s characterization of modernity. The investigation identifies five central themes in Gustafson’s spirituality: conversion, calling, suffering, sanctification, and spiritual experience. With regard to these themes paral-lels with modernity are noted. For example, the analysis shows that modern individualism influenced Gustafson’s view of conversion, and that instrumental rationality informed his evaluations of his own work as a preacher. But there are also instances where he distanced himself from modernity. He did not embrace a modern optimistic anthropology, or the view of suffering as purely negative. It is concluded that Gustafson is neither anti-modern, nor identical to Taylor’s depiction of modernity. He represents one kind of modernity. One that is theocentric rather than anthropo-centric. In order to uphold this theocentric character Gustafson’s opposition to the basic struc-ture of modernity had to be grounded in social practices. For instance, his negative anthropol-ogy was grounded in the revival-meeting where outsiders were called to repent and rely on God rather than themselves. Based on the results from this study it is suggested that evangelicalism should be inter-preted as neither in conflict with modernity, nor in continuity with it, but rather as a kind of modernity. There are multiple modernities, and evangelicalism is one of them.