Anders Wiberg (17 July 1816 – 5 November 1887) was a preacher, missionary, and leader of the early
Swedish Baptist movement.
Life
Early life and influences
Wiberg was born on 17 July 1816 in Vi in
Hälsingtuna parish,
Hälsingland
Hälsingland (), sometimes referred to as Helsingia in English, is a historical province or ''landskap'' in central Sweden. It borders Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is part of the land of Norrland.
Ad ...
, Sweden. He was educated at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
and became a priest in the
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...
. The growing
pietist
Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...
and Reader (''
läsare
(lit. 'reader') or the Reader movement was a Swedish Pietistic Christian revival movement of people who stressed the importance of reading (), that is, reading the Bible and other Christian literature. It was influenced by both the Herrnhute ...
'') movements in the Scandinavian countries were an influence on him. Wiberg, like fellow Lutheran-turned-Baptist-pioneer
Gustaf Palmquist, was a friend of pietist preacher
Carl Olof Rosenius
Carl Olof Rosenius (February 3, 1816 – February 24, 1868) was a Swedish lay preacher, author and editor of the monthly ''Pietisten'' (The Pietist) from 1842 to 1868.''Twice-Born Hymns'' by J. Irving Erickson, (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1976 ...
.
He was also influenced by Methodist missionary
George Scott and
Lars Vilhelm Henschen
Lars Vilhelm Henschen (1 June 1805 – 27 January 1885) was a Swedish jurist and politician and involved in the free church movement. He was the father of doctor Salomon Eberhard Henschen, educator Maria Henschen (von Bergen), and publicist , an ...
, a champion of
religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
.
Wiberg later came to know several of the figures in the growing Baptist
revival movement and his views on the
state church
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
became more skeptical. Wiberg has been called the "pivotal link to the New World" and "in some ways a piece of ideological blotting paper" due to his connections with so many key figures in the Reader movement.
After a visit to preacher
Johann Gerhard Oncken
Johann Gerhard Oncken (26 January 1800 - 2 January 1884) was a pioneer German Baptist preacher, variously referred to as the "Father of Continental Baptists", the "Father of German Baptists" and the "Apostle of European Baptists". Oncken, Gottfri ...
in Hamburg in 1851, Wiberg came to agree with Baptist teachings regarding
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
.
Wiberg's influence
He developed his teachings on baptism in the book ''?'' ('Who should be baptized and what does baptism consist of?') in 1852, which sparked a fierce debate in which
Lars Anton Anjou
Lars Anton Anjou (18 November 1803 – 13 December 1884) was a Swedish bishop, church historian and politician.
Biography
Anjou studied at Uppsala University, where he became a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1827, a Master of Philosophy in 1830, a Bach ...
, and
Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg
Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg (15 July 1811 – 19 August 1893) was a Finnish Lutheran priest and vicar. He was a Neo-Lutheran theologian, a prominent figure in the Finnish evangelical revival movement and a leader of confessional Lutheranism in Finland ...
made high-profile contributions.
The same year, on his journey to the United States, he was baptized by
F. O. Nilsson in Copenhagen.
Wiberg spent three years in the United States to learn more about the
Baptist movement there. He was ordained in New York in the
Baptist Mariner's Church and then worked for the
American Baptist American Baptist may refer to:
* American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA), formed (as the Northern Baptist Convention) in 1907
* American Baptist Association, formed 1924
* American Baptist College, Nashville, Tennessee, formed 1924 by the National B ...
Publication Society. While in Philadelphia, he married Caroline Lintemuth. He also wrote ('The Christian baptism') and ('Are you baptized?'), the first Swedish Baptist publications in the United States. Wiberg returned to Sweden in 1855 to find his writings had contributed to the movement's growth; there were now 500 Swedish Baptists, with 800 to 1000 formal conversions a year.
He became leader of the first Baptist church in Stockholm, which had been founded the year before.
He began intensive work to strengthen the new movement throughout the country. Among his collaborators were brothers
Johannes
Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
,
Per
Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita.
Per or PER may also refer to:
Places
* IOC country code for Peru
* Pér, a village in Hungary
* Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland
Math ...
, and Gustaf Palmquist. A confession of faith written by Wiberg was adopted, a training course for preachers was begun, and from 1856 the new movement had its own publication, , edited by Wiberg. The publication and Wiberg's
colporteur work were to play a large role in the spread of Baptist churches in Norway and Finland as well; his writings were brought to
Åland
Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...
and contributed to the start of the early
Finnish Baptist movement. He also baptized some of the early founders of Baptist churches in Finland, siblings
Viktor
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
and
Anna Heikel
Anna Charlotta Heikel (2 February 1838 – 3 April 1907) was a Finland-Swedish teacher and director of the School for the Deaf in Jakobstad, Finland, from 1878 to 1898. She was a temperance activist as well as a pioneer of the Baptist movement i ...
.
In 1858, the
Conventicle Act, which outlawed religious meetings other than those of the
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
Church of Sweden, was overturned. By the following year, the Baptists had grown to a total of 4,311 members in 95 churches, and almost 6,000 members in 1863.
Baptist Union and seminary
Wiberg was one of the leaders who worked to gather the Swedish Baptist churches for their first general conference in 1857; this was to become the
Baptist Union of Sweden
The Baptist Union of Sweden ( sv, Svenska Baptistsamfundet) is the oldest of several Baptist bodies in Sweden.
The first-known Baptist church in Sweden was organized on September 21, 1848, in Vallersvik, where a group of people committed the firs ...
in 1889. Speakers at the second conference included key Baptist figures
Julius Köbner,
John Howard Hinton
John Howard Hinton (23 March 1791 – 11 December 1873) was an English author and Baptist minister who published, along with many other works, ''The History and Topography of the United States of North America'' together with his brother Isaac ...
, and
Edward Steane.
In 1866, the conference established a seminary,
Bethel Seminary (), which he raised funds for through the
American Baptist Missionary Union
International Ministries is an international Baptist Christian missionary society. It is a constituent board affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. The headquarters is in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, United States.
History
The soc ...
.
Death
Wiberg died 5 November 1887 in Stockholm.
Works
* ''?'' (1852, Uppsala)
* (1854, Philadelphia)
* (1855, Philadelphia) (also printed in Stockholm)
* (1869)
* (1879)
* (1880)
See also
*
Radical Pietism
Radical Pietism are those Ecclesiastical separatism, Christian churches who decided to break with denominational Lutheranism in order to emphasize certain teachings regarding holy living. Radical Pietists contrast with Church Pietists, who chose t ...
*
Oscar Broady – contemporaneous Swedish Baptist missionary
*
John Alexis Edgren – contemporaneous Swedish Baptist missionary
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiberg, Anders
1816 births
1887 deaths
19th-century Baptist ministers
Swedish-language writers
Swedish writers
Swedish Baptist missionaries
Writers from Hälsingland
Converts to Baptist denominations
Radical Pietism