Peter Lorenz Sellergren

Peter Lorenz Sellergren (9 April 1768 – 1 May 1843) was a Swedish Lutheran priest, theologian, and ('old church', characterized by emphasis on the Lutheran faith and the church's orders) revivalist preacher.

Biography Peter Lorenz Sellergren was born in Jönköping in 1768 to gunsmith Petter Sellegren and Anna Maria Björkander. He later changed the spelling of his name to distance himself from priest Petrus Sellegren. Sellergren's parents died when he was young.

Sellergren, able to afford to study through the support of friends and family, began his studies in Lund in 1788. He supported himself through preaching and private tutoring. He was ordained a priest in 1794, and became a cathedral assistant in Växjö. In 1812 he became assistant vicar in Hälleberga in the Diocese of Växjö. He was considered to be richly talented and was highly regarded as a preacher. One well-known sermon was known for its "deep remorse and heartfelt longing for repentance." Sellergren's preaching was often aimed at everyone: "the sleeping, the awakened and the converted, sometimes even different age groups."

Sellergren found a renewed faith based on Lutheran orthodoxy, the läsare (Reader) movement, Pietism, and Moravian beliefs, although he would later discourage the reading of Moravian books. Despite his criticism of the Reader movement in general, Bishop Esaias Tegnér praised Sellergren's preaching. His preaching was of an Old Pietistic nature, but in time, partly through the influence of Johann Arndt and Johan Möller, bishop of Visby, it acquired a stronger evangelical element. Sellergren is said to have been seen as something close to an apostle among the population and to have had a great influence on the clergy of the diocese.

He made an impression on the Palmqvist family, several of whom (Per, Gustaf, and Johannes) would later become pioneers in the early Swedish Baptist movement in Sweden and the United States. A friend of jurist and advocate of religious freedom Lars Vilhelm Henschen, Sellergren also affected Henschen's beliefs.

Works

(1843) (1925)