cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

meetings then in a place at Opphaugen. The occasion for the trip this time was surely of a
private nature, since Hauge had been married the year before to Ingeborg Maria Olsdatter 1
from Bø in Gjerpen. Her parents were the tenant farmers Ole Heljesen and Marthe
Østensdatter.
Hauge's friends, like the master-teacher himself, were law-abiding and pious
people, who wanted to effect the transformation of the minds of individuals by the power
of the word and by good example. They were far from breaking with the church, and
neither Blom nor the following pastors in Gjerpen appear to have had any conflict with
these oldest Haugianists. They wanted to act as a leavening within the existing church,
and the "readers," as they were derisively called, had a message to those who did not feel
themselves content with the preaching and the life which the church had to offer.
The rationalistic concept of Christianity and its often moralizing and learned
preaching style had been prevalent among pastors for a long time, and it would take time
before a decisive change in this would take place. Accordingly Edvard Munch (1813-34),
who assumed the position of parish minister after Blom, was from the rationalistic school.
However, Munch's exceptional competence, and the conscientious manner in which he
took care of his parish, must have commanded respect even among those who otherwise
took a critical position towards his preaching. He was recommended as Number One for
the position by the church owner, the then chief county administrative officer Severin
Løvenskiold, who in addition to the best marks and recommendations had his personal
knowledge to depend upon. Munch had been employed for four or five years as private
tutor by the county officer's father, chamberlain Severin Løvenskiold, "and in that time
1 Ingeborg Maria Olsdatter, Hauge’s second wife, baptized in Gerpen 5.4.1790, died at Tynstet 13.7.1872.
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