The revival in Sweden in the 19th century

In the middle of the 19th century, a revival broke out in Sweden that was strong and widespread. In June 1860, Rosenius wrote in the American Christian newspaper “The Christian World” that one in fourteen, that is, 250,000 of the country’s 3,500,000 inhabitants, were counted among the converts. One of the representatives of the Fosterlandsstiftelsen wrote, “It is gratifying to note that the most remarkable revivals have been direct answers to prayers for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our country. Early in this year we set aside a day for prayer meetings for the success of Christ’s kingdom here, and through our religious newspapers this decision was announced to Christians throughout the country, and they were invited to attend these meetings.” (Westin, From the History of the Swedish National Revival, pp. 182-185)

There was a complete explosion in the media. A book titled “Come to Jesus” by Peter Fjellstedt was published in 1853 and within a few months it had sold 50,000 copies.

EFS publishing house soon became the largest book publisher in Sweden. In 1872, its published works were estimated to amount to 5.4 million. Rosenius’ writings were printed in 2 million copies. Between 1840 and 1853, one million tracts were distributed in Sweden.

The revival came in waves and it is estimated that the “high wave” was in the mid-1870s. This means that by the end of the 19th century there was a large percentage of active Christians in Sweden. This completely changed the cultural climate, the business climate and took care of the addiction problems that existed.

According to Professor Gunnar Westin, the situation was that the Swedish Missionary Union in 1895 had approximately 72,600 members in its congregations. By 1910 this had risen to approximately 100,000. The Swedish Baptist Church had approximately 38,000 members in 1895 and approximately 50,000 in 1910. The corresponding figures for the Methodist Church were 14,500 and 17,700. The number of Sunday school children in the Missionary Union was approximately 81,800 in 1895 and approximately 123,500 in 1910.

This growth in the Free Church movement had an impact everywhere in society. In 1910, IOGT was the largest organization in Sweden with 160,000 adult members. It is estimated that in 1911, a quarter of the members of the second chamber of the Riksdag were Free Church members.

The same growth as in the old free church communities occurred in the new ones that came into being at the beginning of the 20th century.

(For further reading, we recommend the book A Transformed Sweden by Stig Hällzon)