President Professor Torbjörn Aronson

Torbjörn Aronson is a professor and associated professor in church history and a doctor of philosophy in political science. He has researched and taught at various universities and colleges for over 30 years. In 2020, he was appointed as a professor-at-large at Southeastern University in Lakeland, USA, after being twice declared professor-competent in expert reviews conducted in connection with job openings at Uppsala University.

Torbjörn Aronson is married to Lena, and they have a daughter. They live in Bunkeflostrand outside Malmö. He was born in 1963 and grew up in a family with spiritual roots in the Pentecostal movement in southern Sweden. During his teenage years, he encountered the charismatic revival and faith teaching. After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in 1985 in Lund, combining political science, humanities, economic history, and literature, he felt called to Christian pioneering work and continued academic activities.

From 1985 to 1987, he participated in a church planting project in a suburb of Malmö while also beginning graduate studies in Political Science at Lund University. These studies led to a Licentiate degree in 1988 and a PhD in 1990, achieved at a remarkably young age, just before his 27th birthday. His dissertation was titled Conservatism and Democracy and examined Swedish right-wing leaders’ views on democracy during the 20th century. It later became a reference work in discussing social science methodology, particularly regarding the analysis of political ideas.

In 1990, Torbjörn Aronson also completed a year of studies at the Life’s Word Bible Center. When Word of Life Christian High School began in the fall of 1990, he became responsible for teaching history and civics. From 1991 to 1994, he worked as a political science teacher at Uppsala University. In 1993, he published his second scientific monograph, a study of the ecclesiastical minister and party leader for the Conservative Party, Gösta Bagge (1884-1951): Gösta Bagge’s Political Thinking. A Study in 20th Century Swedish Conservatism.

From 1994 to 1997, Torbjörn Aronson divided his time between his role as principal atWord of Life Christian High School (LOKG) and as a teacher in political science and history at the newly founded Word of Life University (LOU), later known as Word of Life Theological Seminary (LOTS). During this period, the Swedish National Agency for Education reviewed LOKG and granted it the right to receive government funding in 1996.

From 1997 to 2005, he focused on building up Word of Life University, as study director and teacher, but also managed to write another scholarly monograph on Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century (For King and Country. Swedish Magazine’s Nationalist Opinion Formation 1911-1914, 2001). After this book, his interest in studying the church and Christian theology grew, and in addition to his work at LOU, he undertook theological studies at Uppsala University. These led to a degree in theology in 2004.

Opportunities arose to continue doctoral studies in church history, combining experiences from social science research with historical and theological analysis. In 2005, Torbjörn Aronson was accepted as a PhD candidate in church history at the Department of Theology, Åbo Akademi. In 2006, he transferred to Uppsala University to continue in the same subject. In 2008, he defended his PhD in theology with a dissertation titled The Young Manfred Björkquist: How a Vision of Christianity’s Encounter with Culture and Society Develops.

From 2009 to 2014, Torbjörn Aronson worked as a teacher and researcher in church history at the Department of Theology, Uppsala University, while continuing to teach intermittently at Word of Life Theological Seminary. In 2014, he published his second monograph in church history, High Churchmanship and Church Politics: The Circle Around the Swedish Lutheran Church Newspaper Up Until About 1895. This book examines Lutheran theologians working to renew the Swedish church in the late 1800s. In 2016, he published a history of Christian schooling in Sweden, Christian Schools in Sweden over a Thousand Years, and in 2021, a comprehensive study on the Maranatha Revival in Sweden: Maranata! Revival and Social Change in Sweden from the 1960s to the 1990s (about 400 pages). More recently, he has contributed to several academic journals (Pentecostudies, Studies in Puritanism and Piety, and Journal of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity) and anthologies (e.g., Why Did Lewi Petrus Travel to Chicago? Relations Between Sweden and the USA Within Pentecostalism, 2019, Swedish Mission and the Churches That Grew From It, 2021, and Pentecostalism in Sweden in the 2020s, 2021). From 2019 to 2022, he worked at the Center for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University as part of the research project Pentecostal Migrants in Secular Sweden: Challenges and Influence. The project will report its findings in several publications in 2024.

Torbjörn Aronson has also published popular science books on revival history, including God’s Fire Over Sweden: Swedish Revival History After 1945 (1990 and a revised and expanded edition in 2005), Revival Movements in Sweden 1700–2000 (2014), and A New Charismatic Landscape in Sweden: The Faith Movement, Independent Churches, Anglo-Saxon Church Plantings, Migrant Congregations, and Many Others – A Church Overview (2016).

Professor Torbjörn Aronson
Teacher in: Church History, Practical Theology, History of Ideas

Degrees and Qualifications:

• Professor in Church History with a focus on Christianity and Politics, Scandinavian Theological Seminary
• Professor-at-Large in Church History, Southeastern University, Lakeland, FL
• Docent in Church History, Uppsala University
• Doctor of Theology in Church History, Uppsala University
• Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science, Lund University
• Licentiate of Philosophy in Political Science, Lund University
• Bachelor of Philosophy in Political Science, Lund University
• Bachelor of Theology, Uppsala University

Scientific Publications:

• Den unge Manfred Björkquist: Hur en vision av kristendomens möte med kultur och samhälle växer fram (The Young Manfred Björkquist: How a Vision of Christianity’s Encounter with Culture and Society Develops). Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Historica-Ecclesiastica Upsaliensia 44. Uppsala, 2008, 342 pages (Doctoral dissertation in Church History).
• Högkyrklighet och kyrkopolitik: Kretsen kring Svensk Luthersk Kyrkotidning fram till ca 1895 (High Churchmanship and Church Politics: The Circle Around the Swedish Lutheran Church Newspaper Up Until About 1895). Artos, Skellefteå, 2014, 328 pages.
• Väckelserörelser i Sverige 1700˗2000 (Revival Movements in Sweden 1700-2000). Areapagos, Uppsala, 2014, 60 pages.
• Ett nytt karismatiskt landskap i Sverige: Trosrörelsen, oberoende församlingar, anglosaxiska församlingsplanteringar, migrantförsamlingar och många andra – en församlingsöversikt (A New Charismatic Landscape in Sweden: The Faith Movement, Independent Churches, Anglo-Saxon Church Plantings, Migrant Congregations, and Many Others – A Church Overview). Areopagos, Uppsala, 2016, 80 pages.
• Kristen skola i Sverige under tusen år (Christian School in Sweden Over a Thousand Years). Areopagos, Uppsala, 2016, 176 pages.
• Maranata! Väckelse och samhällsförändring 1960tal-1990tal (Maranata! Revival and Social Change 1960s-1990s). Acta Johannelundensia 4, EFS Förlaget/Budbäraren, Uppsala, 2021, 440 pages.
• Konservatism och demokrati: En rekonstruktion av fem svenska högerledares styrelsedoktriner (Conservatism and Democracy: A Reconstruction of Five Swedish Right-Wing Leaders’ Political Doctrines). Lund Political Studies 64, Norstedts Juridik, Stockholm, 1990, 300 pages (Doctoral dissertation in Political Science).
• Gösta Bagges politiska tänkande: En studie i 1900-talets svenska konservatism (Gösta Bagge’s Political Thinking: A Study in 20th Century Swedish Conservatism). Norstedts Juridik, Stockholm, 1993, 191 pages.
• För kung och fosterland: Svensk Tidskrifts nationalistiska opinionsbildning 1911–1914 (For King and Country: Swedish Magazine’s Nationalist Opinion Formation 1911-1914). Uppsala, 2001, 160 pages.

Contact:
torbjorn.aronson@teol.se