9 Summary

a 1907–20

When the “new movement” appeared in Sweden it was represented in the daily and confessional press as a sect. In the initial stages “the new movement” was interconfessional in nature, but gained ground among the baptists, where it attracted a number of the younger pastors. “The new movement” was received most favourably within the branch of the baptists which was led from Orebro by John Ongman, its magazines being Svenska Tribunen and Närkes Bladet.

In 1913 one of the leading congregations in ”the new movement” , at Philadelphia in Stockholm, was expelled from the Baptist Church on the ground of deviations with regard to Holy Communion, but it was obvious that the new methods of operation and preaching played an important part in the decision. The congregation was led by the young Lewi Pethrus (born 1884).

There was a breach between Pethrus and Ongman c. 1915. Pethrus asserted the freedom of the Spirit and of the congregation. The experience of the baptism of the Spirit was to be the foundation of the congregation. The baptism by the Spirit was invariably accompanied by speaking in tongues (glossolalia), a tenet not shared by Ongman. In Pethrus's view, the local congregation should be wholly autonomous. Ongman, on the other hand, advocated loyalty to the mother organization.

By c. 1920 “the new movement”, led by Pethrus, had fixed its image in relation to all other denominations. It displayed the characteristic features of a sect, being both apolitical and apocalyptic. It retired into its shell with its message, and professed to renew the Primitive Church, a notion expressed in the designation which came into use c. 1920, namely Pentecostalism.

b 1920–33

By 1933 the Pentecostal sect had grown to comprise over 42.000 members. The period 1920–33 represents a time of consolidation of the young revivalist movement, which drew away from the society and

from the denominations. Pentecostalism faced its first identity crisis in 1929–30. The so-called Franklin dispute was concerned with the relationship between Spirit and organization. The wing led by Pethrus won the day. In consequence of the external attack, documented inter alia, in the nonconformist Svenska Morgonbladet (SvM) the movement followed an isolationist line.

c 1933–45

The 1930's were the decade of national and international financial and political crises. Sweden's agricultural structure was superseded by an industrial society. The social, and not the Christian ethical, problems were at the heart of politics. In 1934 the frisinnade (free minded) party, preferred political home of the nonconformists, was amalgamated with the liberals – in cultural political terms – to form the “Folkpartiet” .

The composite political picture gave rise to a less exclusive attitude on the part of the pentecostalists. Moreover an increased institutionalization of the activity and structure of the movement should be noted.

Visible expressions of this less exclusive attitude are Pethrus' and Lidman's political interests, which were documented by their election to a municipality near Stockholm. Moreover, in 1937, when the Örebro Mission broke away from the Baptist Church, Pethrus was free to sound out the possibilities of co-operation.

The outbreak of the second world war unified the Swedish people. The situation in Germany and Russia increased the social responsibility of the pentecostalists. In addition, from 1942 onwards the Swedish society became increasingly secular. In 1944 Pethrus, the charismatic leader, pointed out an entirely new way for the pentecostalists, by maintaining that a Christian was duty bound to vote in general elections, to support Christian candidates, and to work for an increased Christian contribution to society. The social responsibility was balanced by increased ecumenical awareness. In 1944 a great conference with delegates from all baptist churches was held at Pethrus' instigation.

Yet another manifestation of social awareness was Pethrus' efforts, documented from the early 1930's, to found a Christian newspaper with a different programme from the nonconformist SvM, which was

regarded as far too liberal in terms of both culture and theology. On Nov. 1st, 1945 these plans were realised, when the first issue of the newspaper Dagen was published.

d 1945–51

Dagen was in serious financial trouble only a month after its first appearance. Karl G. Ottosson, a pentecostalist, took over the financial, and from time to time, the editorial responsibility for the paper. In order to increase its financial base, Dagen tried to win readers within the Orebro Mission. The unity conference of 1946 between this sect and the pentecostalists must in part be considered in this context.

The newspaper dissociated itself from political extremes. It pursued a course independent of party politics, but in the early years evidently followed the Liberal party (Folkpartiet) and its nonconformists, who were culturally conservative and socially progressive, and repelled by the attitude of the ruling Social Democrats to Christianity and by the demand for the nationalization of industry.

The Liberal party was split with regard to cultural policy. The paper's line was clear insofar as the nonconformists were able to steer its general policy. The Lidman dispute of 1948 and the Freeman controversy of 1950, however, opened the eyes of the paper to the strong radical forces in the Liberal party. In the Freeman controversy the paper also observed that freeminded members of the riksdag expressed misgivings about Freeman's faith healing meetings. The newspaper had no political home after 1950. As a result of opposition from outside the pentecostalists closed ranks around a new aspect of the doctrine of baptism by the Spirit, around the visible charismata –glossolalia, prophecy and healing. After the years of serious internal tension the pentecostalists needed to consolidate.

e 1951–63

In 1951 a new Act on Freedom of Religion was passed, which may be said to have opened the door to a religiously neutral state. This situation worried the newspaper, which in the years that followed suffered the assaults of a secularised state in, inter alia, the Helander affair in 1953 and the IBRA and Kaggeholm cases in 1954. Because of its anxiety concerning the consequences of the Religious Freedom Act for the position of Christianity in the society the newspaper rejected

the nonconformist line in the dissenter question. The paper also repudiated the far-reaching proposal for a united Free Church of Sweden in 1953. So far as Dagen was concerned, the nonconformists and especially the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, showed signs of liberalism in terms of both culture and theology.

In his increased social responsibility Pethrus turned to representtatives of the Church of Sweden. The organization, Responsibility for a Christian Society (KSA), led by Bishop Sven Danell of Skara with Pethrus as vice chairman, was founded in 1956. KSA may be described as a political protest movement against the secularization of the Swedish society. Its purpose was to influence the existing political parties to place as many Christians as possible at the head of lists of candidates for election.

Pethrus himself found in the mid 50's that the Conservative (H6gern) party's values were closest to his own. The protection of home and family were important political ends. In 1956 Pethrus considered standing, as a Conservative, for the riksdag and was appointed to that party's cultural council the same year.

During the last years of the 50's Pethrus became more and more disappointed in KSA's possibilities of influencing the political parties in a Christian spirit. By November 1958 at the latest he resigned from the Conservatives' cultural council. His personal disappointment concerning the possibilities of exercising any real influence on the shaping of policy seems to have been one reason for his resignation; another was an effort, for financial reasons, after the closure of SvM in October 1958 to win over its readers for Dagen.

Indeed Dagen was itself facing serious financial problems. In 1961 Ottosson resigned as managing director, and the paper was taken over by the Swedish pentecostalists congregations. The pentecostalist bent of the paper became manifest in 1961 at a time of financial strain.

The change in the nature of pentecostalism is shown by the rise of the Maranatha movement c. 1960. Maranatha represented the sect as non-political and anti-ecumenical, in contrast to the institutionalised mother body.

Dagen was of course not apolitical but after the local elections of 1962, through Pethrus, favoured a positive association, with the option of forming a specifically Christian party. The collection of signatures in favour of the retention of religious instruction in the senior high schools, which was undertaken in 1963 was, in the eyes of

the paper, a protest by “the silent majority” against the intentions of a secularised state. Dagen represented “the Christian society” at the beginning of the 1960's. From being a non-political, exclusive sect the pentecostalists had, as a result of the development of the society, reflected in the newspaper, come to represent the Christian society against the secularising social forces.