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Life of Ansgar: Vita Anskarii
This is the story about a man who faces his fears and does the unthinkable. More than a thousand years ago, with his heart ablaze for God and Glory, he risks his life to bring the Gospels of Jesus Christ to the far feared heathen Viking Lords of Scandinavia. This true story is told by his admirer and successor St. Rimbert in the late Ninth Century A.D., and as such is a window into another time and another way of thinking - something to be esteemed as a historical treasure.
83 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 875
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March 7, 2023
This life of Ansgar, written by a close friend and protege, portrays the evangelist as a model of humility, service, and faith that God will sooner or later accomplish what seems improbable from a human perspective: over and over again, the conversion of groups of pagans to Christianity. Making allowances for the different contexts, the first dozen chapters read like a modern professional biography of the kind that gets posted on a corporate website or LinkedIn. But after that, the account gets more interesting.
One pattern that plays out multiple times consists of Danes (Vikings?) attacking a town or small kingdom. The leading figures of the suffering community pray to ‘their gods’, but receive no help. Then, persuaded that their gods have abandoned them, the local leaders accept the bishop’s exhortations to turn to the Christian God, and they are saved from material danger. At no point in the early chapters does the biographer suggest the pagan gods aren’t real; they’re just demonstrably weaker than God. In Chapter XIX, the author says that the pagan gods were in fact demons, but doesn’t repeat this elsewhere. Meanwhile, throughout the account, ‘the devil’ is a perpetual antagonist, stirring up hatred from Christians among the pagans. It’s unclear to me whether these are several ways of describing the same reality, or whether the text reflects several different cosmologies stitched together.
One pattern that plays out multiple times consists of Danes (Vikings?) attacking a town or small kingdom. The leading figures of the suffering community pray to ‘their gods’, but receive no help. Then, persuaded that their gods have abandoned them, the local leaders accept the bishop’s exhortations to turn to the Christian God, and they are saved from material danger. At no point in the early chapters does the biographer suggest the pagan gods aren’t real; they’re just demonstrably weaker than God. In Chapter XIX, the author says that the pagan gods were in fact demons, but doesn’t repeat this elsewhere. Meanwhile, throughout the account, ‘the devil’ is a perpetual antagonist, stirring up hatred from Christians among the pagans. It’s unclear to me whether these are several ways of describing the same reality, or whether the text reflects several different cosmologies stitched together.
Displaying 1 of 1 review