Pre-denominational

Den ska ju inte vara klar förrän om tre år, men jag kan inte låta bli att bjuda på ett litet smakprov från min avhandling in progress. På utkastnivå, needless to say :)

"Of great important for Granhammar and the congregation was the schoolteacher Ida Engvall, who moved to the parish in 1873. She was a Methodist, a matter that led to some disputes with the parish priest Johan Olov Thavenius. She did however get involved in the mission society and taught at its Sunday school. Engvall is found in Gustafson’s personal notebooks: she buys his songbook Betlhemesstjärnan (Star of Betlehem) around 1886, and he received a letter from her in 1888. Engvall’s activity in the mission society is a sign of its ecumenical openness, an attitude shared by most mission societies in this time. The local societies are best understood as organizational expressions for the sense of solidarity of the pietsits in a specific, geographical area. They are not denominational creations, and they do not have an exclusivist theological identity – even if they of course have limits. This is a pre-denominational era, and the identity of mission societies and even congregations is more local and ecumenical than national and denominational."