The Chapel and the Layman’s Movement
If you see a particularly ugly building out in the country, a bit bigger than what houses normally are, with large cold windows, it is obviously a chapel, if it is not a youth house or a school house”. It was the architect Johan Lindstrøm who came with this attack on the architecture of the chapel in an article on “Official buildings in the rural areas” from 1927. We regard this characterisation today as more of a caricature with a sting against the “un-Norwegian” Swiss style which influenced many of these buildings from the turn of the century. But more than the style and the architectural expression, it is the cultural and ideological aspects which capture our interest. Cultural radicalism’s one-sided picture of the chapel as an exponent for puritanical narrow-mindedness and opposition to culture has been replaced today by a wider and more nuanced view of an important cultural factor in Norwegian society. The chapel, a meeting place for the Christian layman’s movement is the bearer of a democratic Low Church tradition with strong social engagement and an attitude towards resources and values which speak to our own times: “Fear of God and frugality is the great gain”
The layman’s movement early in the 19th century, known as the Haugians, emphasised repentance and penitence. The seriousness comes out in this picture by Adolph Tidemand from 1852; a gathering of layfolk in a home in Kvam. Towards the end of the century, the motto was: “Come as you are. Christ has atoned for your sins”. This message made for liberation and made for great joy.(Photo: J. Lathion, owner: Nasjonalgalleriet (NG. M. 197)).
A Christian song and music group led by Laura Bjørsvik, Lindås, around 1930. (unknown, owner: Picture collection, University Library in Bergen(Bs 6385/7)).
The engagement of the missions pointed out to foreign countries and foreign peoples, as we can see on the cover of the “Norwegian Missionary News” from 1910 (AV-avd. UiB, owner: University Library in Bergen).