Frelsens vei i norsk vekkelsesliv: fra Pontoppidan og Hauge til Hallesby

In 1796 the peasant Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771–1824) had a profound religious experience that transformed his life. The following years he crisscrossed Norway as a lay preacher. His message was according to the pietistic ideals for repentance and conversion. His works led to an influential revivalism that left a theological and organizational imprint on the lay movements that evolved within the Lutheran state church (the Church of Norway) in the 19th and 20th centuries. This article analyses the historical and theological conditions for Hauge’s mission with special regard to the pietistic doctrine of the Ordo Salutis. It reviews the concept of Ordo Salutis according to the textbook by the court priest E. Pontoppidan, Sandhed til Gudfrygtighed (1737), that was compulsory teaching materials to all Norwegians in schools and in church preparing for confirmation for approximately 150 years. The article studies how the former understanding Ordo Salutis is continued and changed on new terms in three significant revivals: the revival of the 1850s with prof. G. Johnson, the revival in the first half of the 1900s with prof. O. Hallesby, and the revival of the 1880s that in Scandinavia commonly is called “new evangelical” and broke with the pattern of Ordo Salutis by focusing on instant conversion.