Berggrav, Eivind

(1884–1959)

   Bishop and Polemicist.

   Berggrav was the son of a Norwegian Lutheran Bishop. After a varied clerical career, he became Bishop of Tromso in 1928 and of Oslo in 1937. Although a prolific writer and successful editor, he is chiefly remembered for his courageous stand against the Nazis in the Second World War. While Norway was occupied, he refused to co-operate with the puppet government and resigned his bishopric in 1941. At the same time he insisted that he retained the spiritual calling to which he had been ordained. He was imprisoned in a log cabin outside Oslo and lived under heavy guard until the end of the war.

   Eivind Berggrav, With God in Darkness (1943);

   A. Johnston, Eivind Berggrav, English translation (1960).