04 November 2025
The book Präster i norr under tidigmodern tid (“Clergy in the North during the Early Modern Period”) pertains to the Protestant clergy and their role in northern Scandinavia from the sixteenth century to around 1800.
The book addresses two central themes: ecclesiastical dynasties and clerical families, on the one hand, and legislation and practice, on the other. The theme of dynasties and families explores how clergy established powerful ecclesiastical networks and dynasties, while also encompassing clerical education, recruitment, career trajectories, and economic conditions.
The theme of legislation and practice examines what may be described as the limits of legislation—namely, the relationship between, on the one hand, the central authority’s norms concerning clerical education, the exercise of office, and ecclesiastical life, and, on the other, the practical possibilities of implementing these norms in the northern regions.
Together, these two overarching themes also shed light on cultural encounters in the North, particularly the Lutheran clergy’s relationship to Sámi language and culture, to settler communities, and to commercial activity. An underlying question concerns whether a “Protestant colonization” of northern Scandinavia took place, with clergy as key actors. Such a development may be understood both as an oppressive display of power and as a contribution to modernisation and negotiations of meaning.The contributors are historians, church historians, and cultural historians from the countries that the book concerns—Sweden, Finland, and Norway. The chapters are written in Swedish or Norwegian with English summaries.
Editors: Bugge Amundsen‚ Arne|Lindmark‚ Daniel|Rasmussen‚ Tarald
