Hans Nielsen Hauge og mystikken

– ut fra hans autobiografiske tekster

Abstract

Hans Nielsen Hauge’s view of Christendom was shaped by the state Pietism of the Danish-Norwegian church. As in all Pietism, however, a mystical foundation can also be detected in Hauge’s thought. This was explicitly expressed in his autobiographical texts, which was not unusual in his days. As a mystic he did not consider himself bound by the restrictions imposed by ecclesiastical law on the layman’s sermon (The Conventicle Act). But Hauge and his adherents remained loyal to the state church, and Haugeanism became a Pietistic awakening and pietist movement within the Church of Norway. Their mysticism was ecclesiasticalized, and in this manner the movement came to shape church and cultural life in Norway.