Birger Gerhardsson about the ‘Uppsala School’

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Last Friday I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Birger Gerhardsson in Lund. An elderly academic gentleman, he still is active in reading and reflection. Our topic was the so-called Uppsala School, which was of major importance in the exegetical debate in the middle of the last century. There were two ‘Uppsala schools’, one Old Testament, one New Testament; it must be noted that the notion ‘school’ is not without complications. The link between the two was not least the emphasis on oral tradition, but the Old Testament Uppsala School is also sometimes called the ‘Scandinavian school’ due to the influence of both the Norwegian scholar Sigmund Mowinckel and the dane Johannes Pedersen.

The nestor and founder of the New Testament ‘Uppsala school’  was the Norwegian scholar Anton Fridrichsen (1888-1953) who gave Swedish exegesis a new start. Several well-known scholars more or less came out of this school, e.g., Krister Stendahl and Birger Gerhardsson. Without Fridrichsen’s approach, it is very probable that part of the exegetical landscape would have looked quite different.

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6 thoughts on “Birger Gerhardsson about the ‘Uppsala School’”

  1. What Anton Fridrichsen achieved in Uppsala was quite amazing. I think he was the doktor-vater of more than a dozen great NT-scholars. He was also of importance to a generation of Swedish Lutherans pastors.

  2. May I have a contact with professor Birger Gerhardsson? I’m a scholar on Holy Scripture and would ask him a question about one of his articles. Thank you very much.

  3. Sir, I have read about you. I need your help as I am preparing to write a thesis on the contribution of Scandinavian scholar Sigmund Mowinckel to the traditio-historical study of the Old Testament. I would really appreciate your contribution and am willing to acknowledge your contribution to my thesis.
    Yours’ sincerely,
    Hanak Sahoo.

  4. I am no expert at Mowinckel, I’m afraid. It’s another branch on the so-called Uppsala School. They had some things in common, that is the interest for tradition, but that’s basically it.
    All the best for your research!
    Anders Gerdmar

  5. Uppsala school/Mowinckel: I have just uploaded an article: “Temple theology and Royal Priesthood” on http://www.academia.edu – Erik Langkjer – it is not about oral tradition, but about sacral kingship and the ritual of baptism in the early church.
    Yours sinc.
    Erik Langkjer, former assistent at Århus University

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