Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945

Epilogue: Legacies

256 Epilogue Legacies The Church of Norway’s resistance to Nazism and subsequent break with the NS state had repercussions as well as historical significance. This epilogue considers a few of its repercussions in postwar Norway and the global church, compares and contrasts it with the German Kirchenkampf, returns to the question of why it was different from its German counterpart , and, finally, assesses its significance within Norwegian church history , general church history, the history of World War II, and movements of non-violent resistance. Nation, Church, and Society Viewed politically, Norway’s postwar era may be considered as the period of Labor dominance under Einar Gerhardsen from 1945 to 1965 an era marked by a heightened sense of national unity.1 The common war against the occupation brought people together across class and political lines and was symbolized by the first coalition government’s “Common Platform”: constitutional democracy, the right to work, and the preservation of freedom and independence. After winning the first postwar election, the Labor Party continued as a social democratic party that dominated politics and directed and coordinated the growing economy while guaranteeing higher social security and economic equality. As the virtues of the party’s social democratic ideology took hold, opposing political ideologies lost their force within a broad segment of the population.2 Legacies · 257 Internationally, Norway joined with other governments intent on avoiding another global tragedy and promoting new thinking about preserving peace through non-violent change and conflict resolution. In the first rank of institutions dedicated to such ends was the United Nations, founded in 1945. Norway was a founding member of the United Nations, and Trygve Lie, Norway’s foreign minister for most of the war, became the United Nation’s first Secretary General. Militarily, Norway became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 1949 to secure the peace in Europe and North America. Ecclesiastically, Norway’s postwar era was briefer—1945 to 1953. The era proved to be in marked contrast to the church’s experience during the occupation. The Church of Norway entered the era with high expectations of spiritual and cultural renewal under its aegis. Signs of spiritual renewal during the occupation raised church hopes of a postwar religious revival and church renewal, and the moral capital it had accumulated fueled hopes for a “re-Christianization” of culture. The church was disappointed on both counts. Almost immediately after liberation, church attendance dropped to prewar levels, and the same was true in the mission societies. Three years after the war, Hallesby confessed that there had been “few people, no revival, tiredness, dispiritedness , and criticism.”3 Why were church hopes so quickly crushed? One reason was that church leaders misread the signs. The increased church attendance during the war was more patriotic rather than religious, a venue for demonstrating dissidence when others were closed.4 Another reason was war weariness . After five years of occupation and material deprivations, people were intent on rebuilding their personal lives and careers. The church was not the only institution they neglected. Participation in all cultural and political organizations, including the labor movement, experienced similar declines. The deepest and most long term reason, however, was probably secularization. In Christian circles, secularization was identified as our “great opposition,” but unlike Nazism it could not be resisted with protests.5 The church’s plans to capitalize on its new wartime reputation included a broad renewal of Christian culture. Stephan Tschudi expressed the vision with the slogan, “Everything concerns the church.” Church and people belonged together, he thought, and the church had to go on a 258 · Epilogue broad offensive to create a national Christian cultural awakening.6 To that end, church leaders launched new initiatives. Tschudi, Alex Johnson, and Kåre Eide formed Land og Kirke (Land and Church), a publishing house that aimed to publish more broadly and on more contemporary issues than existing Christian publishers.7 A second venture was Vårt Land (Our Land), a Christian daily newspaper in Oslo intended to “bring forth the Christian spirit and Christian view of life in all sectors of the people”; its first issue appeared on 31 August 1945.8 The names of these ventures are telling about Christian hopes, because they spoke of the union of Christianity, church, and country against what the church interpreted as the causes of the war. The church interpreted the war as a consequence of modern secularization and a judgment on the secular values of “materialism...