Christopher Arndt Bruun (23 September 1839 – 17 July 1920) was a Norwegian priest and educator.

Biography

He was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

(now Oslo), Norway. He was a son of jurist Johan Peter Bruun (1810–1843) and Line Stenersen (1816–1901). After his father died when Christopher was three years old, the family moved to Vang, Hedmark, then to

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...

in 1850. He enrolled in theology studies at the Royal Frederick University in 1857, and graduated with the cand.theol. degree in 1862. He was an open Scandinavist, and in 1864 he returned to Norway from a trip in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

to agitate for Norwegian support of the Danish cause in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 Februar ...

. He even participated as a volunteer in the Battle of Dybbøl in April 1864, and after being demobilized from the war in August 1864, he walked back to Rome. Later, especially around 1866 and 1867, Bruun began supporting the use of the language form

Landsmål Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

(now Nynorsk), and was also inspired by N. F. S. Grundtvig and the Danish

folk high school Folk high schools (also ''adult education center'') are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal. They are most commonly found in Nordic countries and i ...

movement. He founded a folk school in

Sel __NOTOC__ SEL may refer to: *Signalling Equipment Ltd, a trading name used by the British toy manufacturer J & L Randall *Finnish Food Workers' Union, a trade union in Finland *Left Ecology Freedom (''Sinistra Ecologia Libertà''), Italian political ...

in Gudbrandsdalen during 1867. It was moved to Fykse at

Gausdal Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segelstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forse ...

in Oppland during 1871 and Vonheim at

during 1874. In the same year Karoline and

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...

moved to Aulestad, which is located nearby. Gausdal became a cultural centre, although Bjørnson later split with this milieu. Bruun's thoughts on education were chiseled out in the work ''Folkelige Grundtanker'' issued in 1878.He idealized Norwegian history, and wanted to replace

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

languages with the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ( ...

'' in schools. At the same time as hailing the Norwegian farmer, he was clear that the farming populace would need to be educated, especially over the next "century", hence the folk high schools. As a theologian he denounced

Pietism Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life. Although the movement is ali ...

, and emphasized the collective (the people) over the individual. He also (unlike Grundtvig) preferred a Free Church over a State Church. Nonetheless, he left Vonheim Folk School to become curate in Kristiania in 1893. He was promoted to vicar at Johannes Church (''Johannes kirke'') in 1898. He supported the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, later the Moderate Liberal Party, but did not fit in here, neither with Johan Sverdrup's constitutional policies nor the Lars Oftedal and

Western Norway Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...

- dominated Moderate Liberal Party. From 1884 to 1888, during a most turbulent period in Norwegian political history, Bruun issued the periodical ''For frisindet Christendom''. In 1893 he co-founded the periodical '' For kirke og kultur'', and co-edited it until 1908. In 1905 he chose not to support the radical constitutional policies that led to the

dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden The dissolution of the union (; ; Høgnorsk, Landsmål: ''unionsuppløysingi''; ) between the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden under the House of Bernadotte, was set in motion by a resolution of the Storting on 7 June 1905. Following some months of ...

. His periodical refused to print his views on the union dissolution. A pamphlet was printed in Denmark and smuggled to Norway. This contributed to him being removed from ''For kirke og kultur'' in 1908.

Personal life

In 1872 Christopher Bruun married Kari Skard (1851-1924). Her parents were Ole Torsteinson Skard (1804-1886) and Mari Johannesdotter Lånke (1814-1894). She had eight siblings including brothers, Johannes Skar (1837–1914) and Matias Skard (1846–1927). Christopher and Kari Bruun were the parents of eight children. Five died of tuberculosis at a young age. Their daughter Margit Bruun (1875–1958) married Klaus Sletten (1877–1946) in 1905 and was the mother of Vegard Sletten. Bruun retired as vicar in 1918, and retreated to Østre Gausdal where he died on his farm in July 1920. His wife died in May 1924. They were buried in the family grave at Vår Frelsers gravlund in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruun, Christopher 1839 births 1920 deaths People from Oppland University of Oslo alumni Writers from Oslo Danish military personnel of the Second Schleswig War 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy Norwegian magazine editors Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour Norwegian magazine founders