Unbending Purpose How Conflict, Controversy, and Stubbornness Shaped the Founding of Norwegian-American Lutheran Colleges in the Nineteenth Century By Jennifer Kovarik It is impossible, in a few short pages, to share the stories of all of the Norwegian Lutheran colleges and institutions of higher learning here in the United States. For the sake of this article, the focus will be on several of the colleges that had their founding in the nineteenth century and continue as institutions today. There are many excellent resources—books, articles, and even webpages—where one can learn about the interesting histories of the individual schools. Stories from a variety of nineteenth and twentieth century Norwegian-American Lutheran colleges will be the focus of a Vesterheim exhibition opening in May 2011.
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hundred higher schools in a hundred years! That is the mark reached by the Norwegians in America,” wrote Olaf Morgan Norlie in his book History of the Norwegian People in America, published in 1925, the centennial of Norwegian immigration to America.1 Academies, preparatory schools, colleges, and seminaries were established in many Norwegian communities throughout the United States. Curricula may have varied, but the schools shared a common goal of providing a Christian education for Norwegian Americans. The separation of church and state in the United States meant religion was not to be formally taught in public schools. This was quite the opposite of Norway, where the state church was the Lutheran Church and religion was taught alongside other subject areas. “Only a true Christian instruction can create a Christian conscience and faith, in short, a Christian character.”2 Very early in their history, Norwegians in America agreed upon the need to establish schools of higher education; however, they could not always agree upon how, and sometimes even where, to do this. From the early settlement years until the early 1900s, “Norwegian Lutheranism was plagued by almost continual internal conflicts and divisions, both doctrinal and personal.”3 Many of the Norwegian Lutheran colleges in existence today were founded because of, or even in spite of, conflict and controversy during the nineteenth century. The crux of the conflict was the tension between the “high” church and the “low” church in Norway. The high
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church followers greatly “respected the Church as a divine institution, the Word and the Sacraments as the Means of Grace, and the ministry as a holy office.”4 As members of the upper and ruling class, pastors were afforded a good deal of power and influence over the lives of their congregants, and this power became associated with worldliness. High church followers also believed in the traditional method of preparing pastors through university training in theology and classical studies. The low church came about in protest to the influence and worldliness of the pastoral position in the high church. According to O.M. Norlie, the low church “called for personal experience in the power of the Gospel to save sinners and the privilege of every man, nay, even the duty, to bear witness of the fact that he has himself found peace with God and that God can save sinners.”5 The low church advocated Bible reading, prayer meetings, and lay preaching, along with the regular work of the pastors. The pastors of low church followers could receive a personal call from God and be educated by the experiences of their lives. Ironically, the majority of Lutherans in Norway were tolerant and moderate in their religious views, seeing the value in the ministry and ceremonies of the Lutheran church and acknowledging the importance of personal expression and worship. By immigrating to the United States, many Norwegians hoped to leave the high church/low church conflict behind, but this was not to be. Along with more moderate Lutherans, high and low church followers also immigrated, bringing their beliefs and the conflict with them. Elling Eielsen, a lay preacher and follower of Hans Nielsen Hauge, immigrated to the United States in 1839 and began evangelizing in the Fox River, Illinois, settlement in 1839. Soon after his arrival, Eielsen erected a building that served as his home, a hospice for new immigrants, and an assembly hall. His fervor and determination helped him to win back immigrants who had been drawn away from the Lutheran faith by Mormons, Methodists, and Baptists. He moved to Wisconsin in 1843, where the more moderate and churchly followers of Hauge at Muskego were less than friendly. In August 1844, the tension between the high church and the low church began to grow with the arrival of Reverend J.W.C. Dietrichson in Muskego. Dietrichson was Vesterheim Vesterheim