On the Anniversary of Peder Borgen’s Death

Torrey Seland writes

PEDER J. BORGEN 1928 – 2023.

Prof. Dr. Peder Borgen died last Saturday, April 8, at the age of 95. His health conditions had deteriorated during the previous few months, and now he has crossed the final border.

Borgen grew up in a Methodist family and church context; for a time, he served as a pastor within this church and was a member of this denomination all his life. Eventually, he became part of the Norwegian higher education system in Christian knowledge / religious studies.

In the Norwegian context, he is probably best known for his roles in several settings; he was a high-profiled Methodist, preacher, church politician, and ecumenist. Moreover, he was a university teacher and scholar in religious studies as an associate professor in Bergen in 1967-73, and as a full professor in Trondheim in 1973-93. Then he worked for six years as a Senior Scholar in 1993-99 in Trondheim. In 1999 he and his wife Inger moved to Lillestrøm, a few miles north of Oslo.

Outside Norway, he is, presumably, primarily known and respected as a prominent scholar of the Gospel of John and the Jewish theologian, politician, and philosopher Philo of Alexandria. But he also worked and published within Lukan and Pauline’s studies. In addition, but probably less known, he published several studies within the field of church history, primarily related to the history of Methodism in Norway.

I had the honor of getting more acquainted with his life story when I worked on a biography of his life and work. A Norwegian edition of this biography was published in 2020, and an American edition in 2022, bearing the telling title of Crossing Borders (Wipf & Stock). An extensive bibliography of his works is published in these volumes.

Now as he has crossed his final border, I am left grateful to have known him, for his mentorship, and even to have been included among his friends.

His scholarship is Himalayan.  May he rest in peace everlasting.