Wednesday, February 19, 2025

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show *** 

It is the 19th of February 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I am willing to wager that less than 1% of listeners to this show are familiar with the name and work of Dorothe Engelbretsdatter. If you are one of the very few, might I take a guess that you are a Norwegian Lutheran with some connection to Mankato, Minnesota?

Although Engelbretsdatter was a household name in the 18th century and one of Norway's most famous hymn writers (and dare I say, theologian), it wasn’t until 1996 that one of her hymns finally made it, in English translation, into a hymnal.  

So, who was this woman, so well known in her own day and then almost lost to history? Dorothy, “Norway's first published woman poet,” was born in 1634 to Anna and Engelbret Jorgensen- a Lutheran pastor in the bustling port city of Bergen, Norway. Her dates- 1634 to this day, February 19th, 1716 puts Dorothe in the context of the devastating 30 Years War (1618-1648), the post Reformation debates regarding the place, and appropriate blend, of piety and orthodoxy and the great fire in Bergen of 1702.  

One could argue that her anonymity is due in part to her being a female theologian but also in part to the town of Bergen being almost completely destroyed by that fire in 1702, such that most of her personal items perished.

Her early life was fairly typical of a Norwegian daughter of a Lutheran clergyman. She herself married a Lutheran pastor, and her status afforded her an education, a lively parsonage to manage (in the style of Katie Luther), and the responsibility to catechize her children. She was personally familiar with the poet Thomas Kingo and priest/poet Petter Dass.

She married Ambrosius Hardenbeck- a Lutheran pastor and would have been educated secondhand through his library- one that included not only works of Lutheran Orthodoxy but also piety- such as the very popular “True Christianity” by Johann Arndt. Her first published work of poetry, 1678’s “The Souls Offering of Song,” made her a minor Norwegian celebrity- holding the distinction of being the first woman to have her work published in Norwegian.

[a shout out to Gracia Grindal, whose 2017 “Preaching From Home: The Stories of Seven Lutheran Women Hymn Writers” has opened up the world of Dorothe and other obscure but significant female writers in the Lutheran tradition]

But her lasting fame amongst Norwegians, such that she would be called “Bergen’s Deborah” (after the Biblical character who stood out as a leader, poet, and woman) came from her sorrow.

Ambrosius would die in 1683- leaving Dorothe a widow for the last decades of her life- she wrote an ode upon his death:

“I am a widow, and my husband now is dead,

Dead is half my life, dead my earthly gladness,

Inside the grave, my husband with all my worldly joy is buried,

Oh, my Ambrosius! My treasure, half my soul”

Not only her husband but 7 of her nine children died young, and the two who survived seem to have been prodigal as she described herself as a kind of “St. Monica” who long prayed for the conversion of her son Augustine.

It is the book of poetry and hymns, inspired by her loss- 1685’s “Tear Offering” that would make her one of the great poets of mourning and loss, but also consolation in Christ. In her “Father of Mercies,” she wrote:

“You know that pale death with his murderous gnawing,

Has thrown my husband and my children in the grave;

Here I sit abandoned, in grief and left behind.

Anxiety, unrest, sighing, and tears are mine both day and night” 

She was the patient bride- the “widow bride” was one of her common descriptors (and one of the reasons it was suggested she fell out of favor as men objected to the feminine, yet biblical imagery)- her last work “A Farewell from This World and a Longing for Heaven” included a hymn she wrote for her own funeral. And it would come- after her husband and children all went before her- she wrote of herself:

“Now Dorothe bids farewell,/She hurries home, and is prepared/To travel blessedly forward in peace./The art of Prayer, hardened her weary/hands, and scuffed knees.”

We remember Dorothe Engelbretsdatter- thanks to Gracia Grindal as well as those Norwegians in Minnesota for keeping her memory alive and a blessing- born in 1634, she died on this day in 1716 at the age of 82.

  

The last word for today is adjacent to the daily lectionary, which today is full of woes... so I jumped a chapter- this is from Luke 12:

27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

  

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of February 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is probably wondering why I didn’t quote Dorothe on Gold and Cinnamon Water. He is Christopher Gillespie

The show is written and read by a man who had never heard that insult before... and likely blushed reading it- I’m Dan van Voorhis 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.