Tord Ehnevid in memoriam

Resumé

In Memory of Tord Ehnevid, 1922 - 2000

By Gert Nilsson

Doctor of divinity Gert Nilsson’s obituary of the Swedish Grundtvig scholar Tord Ehnevid begins with a presentation of Ehnevid’s background and his point of departure. Ehnevid was bom into an evironment characterized partly by revivalist piety, partly by Swedish State Church tradition, a fact which came to influence his later research. Tord Ehnevid studied theology at Lund and took holy orders in 1947. After working as a clergyman for some years, continuing his studies at the same time, he became a curate in Trelleborg in 1958, and subsequently worked as a grammar school teacher at Söderslatt Grammar School until his retirement.

In 1959 his doctoral thesis Församlingsetik Studier over Grundtvig, Morten Pontoppidan och Einar Billing was published. The thesis focuses on the national church and its congregational ethics, comparing important positions in Danish and Swedish theology. In the following years Ehnevid published a number of writings in Grundtvig Studier, such as The dominant Peoples in History according to Grundtvig and Hegel in 1973. In »Vad Sandhed er skal tiden vise«, 1998, Ehnevid deals with the concept of truth, time and ethics in Grundtvig’s works.

From the early 1970’s Tord Ehnevid was a member of the Grundtvig society committee. And as late as 1998 he participated in the annual meeting in Århus. With Tord Ehnevid’s decease, a good clergyman, a competent pedagogue and an original interpreter of Danish and Swedish theology has passed away. His ideas and writings will live.