Christian History articles from August 1999

Christian History archives from August 1999

Did You Know?(vikings)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... Fascinating and little-known facts about the Vikings and their times. What's a Viking? To the Franks, they were Northmen or Danes (no matter if they were from Denmark or not). The English called them Danes and heathens. To the Irish, they...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 1999... Troubling hope I am a charter subscriber to CHRISTIAN HISTORY and never miss a single word of each issue. I found the latest issue, "Bound for Canaan," most disturbing and most encouraging. What a record of God's grace and a rebuke to...

`BE CHRISTIAN OR DIE'.(Viking history)
August 1, 1999... When it comes to conversion by the sword. Few can match the ruthless exploits of King Olaf Trygvesson. By age 21, Olaf Trygvesson had grown into a superb Nordic specimen. In climbing and swimming and leaping, he was unmatched, and it was...

DEAD MAN CONVERTING.(King Olaf Haraldsson and Norwegian Christianity)
August 1, 1999... King Olaf Haraldsson had only modest success at Christianizing his people--until a year after he was killed in battle. In July 1030, at the lonely moorland farm of Stiklestad, Norway, a dispossessed king perished beneath the spears and axes...

WHY TRUST THE WHITE CHRIST?
August 1, 1999... Besides seeking spiritual solace, Vikings were attracted by christianity's tangible blessings. To encourage Scandinavian envoys to accept baptism, Frankish emperor Louis the Pious gave the newly baptized a fine, white baptismal garment. In...

When Religions Collide.(Vikings and Christianity)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... A church tapestry illustrate The give and take between Christianity And Viking paganism. When this tapestry was created around the year 1200 for Skog church in Halsingland, Sweden, the conflict between Christianity and paganism was still...

The Conversion of Scandinavia.(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... 790-900 c.710 Willibrord unsuccessfully attempts to convert the Danes 793 Vikings attack Celtic monastery at Lindesfarne 790s Viking raids on western Europe, Scotland, and Ireland 826 Ansgar journeys to Denmark and to Birka,...

PLANTING THE SEED.(Denmark and Christianity)
August 1, 1999... How missionaries' modest beginnings eventually bore fruit in Denmark. Around the year 965, King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and his Viking warriors were discussing which god was most powerful. Some favored mighty Thor, who defeated giant...

POWER EVANGELISM CHECKED.(Norway and Sweden)
August 1, 1999... The story of three Viking rulers. Easy Apostate HAKON THE GOOD OF NORWAY (935-961) As was the Norwegian custom, Hakon, son of the aged Harald Fairhair, was fostered to England's king, Athelstan. Across the North Sea, Hakon not...

FAITH WITHOUT THE FIREWORKS.(history of Christianity in Sweden)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... The conversion of Sweden is unspectacular--and for that reason most illuminating. Sweden,"the wildest and Most remote of the Scandinavian lands," was the last Scandinavian region to be converted. The specifics of its conversion remain as...

FATHER-SON SAGA.(Viking Eric the Red and his son Leif Eriksson)
August 1, 1999... The story of Erik the Red, son Leif (the famous explorer) and the most misnamed of Viking lands. "Are you intending to sail to Greenland this summer?" Norway's King Olaf Trygvesson asked Leif Eriksson, whose father had founded the island...

ALTHINGS WORK TO THE GOOD.(history of Christianity in Iceland)
August 1, 1999... At a legislative "Althing," a pagan judge prevented civil war in Iceland--by converting everyone to Christianity. In one sense, Iceland began as a Christian land. The earliest history of the volcanic island, Ari Thorgilsson's IslendingabSk...

CONVERTING BY THE SWORD.(religious conversions)
August 1, 1999... Why Christians used it, why it "worked," and why it died. AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD FLETCHER This issue, more than any other we've published, raises the awkward matter of forced conversions--"Be Christian or die." There's no sense in...

CONVERSION OF THE VIKINGS.(Christianity)(Brief Article)
August 1, 1999... Ever since a Celtic monk spotted the first Viking longships approaching from the horizon, these medieval Northmen have been associated with murder, theft, and destruction. But their greatest sin in the eyes of some is that they didn't write...