Hilding Pleijel (1935) har hævdet, at første generation af brødremenigheden i
Sverige rekrutterede fra pietistiske såvel som radikale pietistiske grupper: Den
stærkt uensartede litteratur, der cirkulerede blandt herrnhuterne, underbygger
denne påstand. Denne artikel analyserer bogsamlinger blandt
førstegenerationsherrnhuter i Bergen i et forsøg på at skitsere medlemmernes
litterære interesser. Variationen i disse religiøse værker dokumenterer også
gruppens interne konflikter. Jens Rennord og kredsen omkring ham havde åbenbart
adgang til litteratur af ”lutheransk ortodoks”, pietistisk og radikal pietistisk
karakter så vel som til litteratur skrevet af middelalderens mystikere såsom
Tauler og bøger skrevet af Zinzendorf. Hvad angår fysikeren Turck så vidner
auktionsoptegnelser om, at Turck købte bøger af esoterisk karakter. På den måde
havde de, der omgav Turck og hans hustru, adgang til en anden type litteratur
end de, der omgav Jens Rennord. Denne gruppe har derfor formentlig været mere
radikalt pietistiske. Man kunne derfor hævde, at første generation af bergenske
herrnhuter formentlig repræsenterede forskellige religiøse strømninger. Sådanne
divergenser kan også have bidraget til deres problemer med, at interagere i
løbet af den første fase.
English Hilding Pleijel (1935) has
claimed that first generation Moravians in Sweden recruited
from Pietist as well as radical Pietist groupings: Highly heterogeneous
literature circulating among the Moravians are evidence of these claims. In this
article, I analyse book occurrences among first generation Moravians in Bergen
in an attempt to outline the members’ literary interests. Occurrences of
different
types of religious works might also account for the group’s long-lasting
internal
conflicts. Evidently, Jens Rennord and the circle gathering around him had
access
to literature of “Lutheran orthodox”, Pietist and radical Pietist character, as
well
as to literature written by medieval mystics such as Tauler and books written by
Zinzendorf. As for the physician Turck, information given in a Bergen auction
record (1735) testifies to the fact that Turck bought books of an esoteric
character,
i.e. books of a Paracelsian and Hermeticist nature. Hence, those who gathered
around Turck and his wife had access to a different type of literature than
those
gathering in the circle of Jens Rennord. This group might therefore have been of
a
more clear-cut radical Pietist nature. It might thus be claimed that first
generation
Bergen Moravians probably recruited from a wide range of religious backgrounds,
and that they as a whole therefore represented different religious currents.
Such
divergences might also make up for their problems of interaction during their
first
phase.