Trosskiftet utgjør en sentral begivenhet
i tidlig norsk historie. I nyere forskning har det regelmessig blitt
hevdet at innføringen av kristendommen skjedde i form av en langvarig
prosess. En har dempet ned betydningen som sagakildene tillegger
kristningskongene, med Olav Haraldsson som den viktigste aktøren.
I artikkelen gis en analyse av kongens rolle. Motivene bak hans
Norges-tokt i 1015 drøftes, og det settes et søkelys på den sosiale
og kulturelle konteksten som nøkkel til å forstå kristningsforløpet. Til
sist drøftes Olavs misjonsmetoder, på bakgrunn av datidens teologi
og kirkerett. Konklusjonen lyder på at sagakildenes oppfatning,
at innføringen av kristendommen fant sted innenfor en avgrenset
periode og med samspillet misjonsbiskoper/kongemakt som det viktigste
instrumentet, i hovedsak samsvarer med de historiske realiteter. Bildet
av trosskiftet som har blitt tegnet av F. Birkeli og andre må ses
på som en konstruksjon, uten tilstrekkelig forankring i kildene.
St. Olaf – missionary with an «iron
tongue»
The conversion to Christianity is a main event in early Norwegian
history. How did the transformation from paganism to new belief
take place? The Kings’ sagas and other Norse literary sources claim
that the process took place within a limited period and by violent
methods. Modern scholarship has challenged this view in emphasizing
other aspects – the shift in belief is assumed to be the result
of a development during centuries due to cultural contact between
Scandinavia and Christian areas. In this article, I discuss the
role of King Olav Haraldsson. Was his expedition to Norway in 1015
determined by his personal ambitions of political power or by his
Christian faith and a responsibility to bring the gospel to his
homeland? I emphasize the fact that Olav was baptized in Rouen in
1013/1014, in close connection with King Aethelred II. This kind
of «political baptism» (A. Angenendt) seems to have played an important
role as a Christianization strategy in the Middle Ages. The event
must have been an important factor behind Olav’s struggle for power
in Norway from 1015 onwards. Missionary projects as a joint venture
with bishops and magnates as participants was a preferred strategy
due to the cultural context in which attempts to spread the teaching
of the Church took place. In Scandinavia, religion and political
power were a unity, Christianization starting with social elites
was a convenient method against this background. The top/bottom
strategy, characteristic of what happened in Norway, was probably the
only possible way of getting rid of paganism. The rather tough methods
used by King Olav, seemingly not quite in accordance with biblical
ideas, must perhaps be understood as a result of a development within
church laws and canonic ordinances. If groups of people fell back
into a heathen cult, it was allowed to bring them back to the church
using force (Burchard of Worms). Other factors perhaps cooperated,
such as for instance eschatological ideas linked to the turn of
the millennium. I conclude that the view of the sagas, i.e. that
King Olav played a central role in the Christianization process,
is reliable.