Word: berggrav
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...Eivind Berggrav was elevated to the diocese of Oslo, the primacy of Norway. Already widely known at home as editor of the magazine Kirke og Kultur (Church and Culture) and writer of a number of religious books in addition to the best-selling Spenningèns Land (an account of his life in the Arctic), he soon achieved world fame in the Universal Church movement. In 1938 he was elected president of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches...
Terboven purred with pleasure and circulated the slogan: "Let us follow our leaders, Quisling, Hamsun,* and Berggrav." The people of Norway muttered "pacifist" at mention of their Bishop's name. But Berggrav held fast. Adolf Hitler had promised Norway religious freedom and a legally constituted government. In the interests of peace and order, the Bishop proposed to do his part...
Said Bishop Berggrav: "God's peace ... is not something finished and done with . . . not ours to keep forever. The peace is won by accompanying God into the battle, It is then it grows, becomes new and real. It is in battle we feel the peace...
Dream and Awakening. Bishop Berggrav had not always seen so clearly. Once he thought that peace could be won without battle. In the first seven days of the German invasion, a state of chaos existed in Norway under the dictatorship of Vidkun Quisling, head of the Nasjonal Samling, the Norwegian Nazi organization. To calm the tumult, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven sought the aid of Norway's Primate in forming a provisional government under King and Storting (Parliament). Quisling was quietly shoved into the background and Eivind Berggrav, man of God and man of peace, took to the radio to appeal...
...Hitler's word proved as worthless in Norway as elsewhere. After five months, Terboven abruptly dismissed the King, dissolved the Storting, and decreed a "New Era" of Nazi government for Norway. Berggrav and his Church awoke from their dream of peace. Rallying to the defense of Norwegian liberty, representatives of all branches and factions of the Church met to form the Christian Council for Joint Deliberation, and Eivind Berggrav cried: "God made us Norwegian. He will not put you in uniform and destroy your individuality. He will save you and liberate you. All Christians in this land...