Henric Schartau (1757-1825): A forgotten father of modern Sweden

Statue of Henric Schartau (1757-1825) in Lund

A bronze statue of a man wearing a cape, a clerical collar and holding a book: This is what you find if you visit Lund, in the county of Skåne in Sweden. The statue is located in the square next to the imposing Lunds domskyrka (Lund Cathedral). 

As you may have guessed, the man honored by this statue is a Swedish Lutheran clergyman. His name is Henric Schartau (1757-1825). Very few Swedes would be able to explain who he was. And so, given that February 3, 2025 is the bicentenary of his death, it is an excellent opportunity to bring back to light one of the men who is at the heart of the making of modern Sweden. 

Who was Schartau? 

In short, Henric Schartau was a Lutheran pastor through whom one of the most powerful spiritual revivals in southwest Sweden began. The cape he wears on the statue is also a reminder that he worked at the University of Lund. 

Henric Schartau was born into a Christian family in Malmö on September 27, 1757. His grandfather had been the city’s mayor, while his father was a city clerk. Schartau demonstrated superior intellectual abilities from an early age. he attended the Latin school in Malmö before entering Lund University to study philosophy at the very young age of fourteen. Unfortunately, Schartau also encountered hardship. He lost his mother at the age of thirteen, and his time in Lund were years of moral decline. However, the Christian education he received from his parents, and especially from his grandfather, did not allow him to drift for long. 

At the age of twenty, Henrik Schartau experienced the great turning point in his life, the experience of conversion to Christ. After receiving his master’s degree, he was ordained a pastor in Kalmar, on the Baltic Sea coast, in 1721. But four years later, he returned to Lund where he was appointed assistant vicar at the cathedral. It was at this time that he began preaching to students at the university. Later, in addition to his role at the cathedral, Schartau also became a pastor in the small villages of Bjällerup and Stora Råby, not far from Lund. 

Revival 

Despite having lived most of his life in the county of Scania, it was particularly in the Gothenburg region that Schartau would see his sermons cause a real revival movement. However, this revival was somewhat different from those in many other parts of the Nordic countries at the time. First of all, it remained part of the traditional Lutheran church. The preachers were ordained pastors, not lay people. Furthermore, Henrik Schartau’s sermons strongly emphasized the still active role of God’s law in contemporary society. This gave rise to certain accusations of legalism, to which he responded: 

“Yes, I have preached law, and I will preach it as long as God gives me strength to move my tongue. The Chief Shepherd Himself preached law, and so did His apostles. So I, too, have preached the law, though I well know that no man shall be justified by the works of the law, but I have not attempted to retain contrite hearts under the threats of the law. I have preached the law as a tutor unto Christ. It has been my sincere desire, so far as possible, to tear down the kingdom of Satan from the very bottom. I have been desirous of threatening the obdurate sinner, that his conscience might be awakened.” 

The awakening did not please everyone. The authorities of The Diocese of Gothenburg sought to break up the movement by dispersing the pastors who had begun to follow Schartau to the small villages of the region. But instead of causing the revival to die out, it spread wherever these pastors were sent. 

Schartauanism 

The Schartau revival, which became know as Schartauanism, particularly covered the region of Västra Götaland, where Gothenburg is located. From Varberg in the south of the county to Uddevalla in the north, the revival instilled moral rigor in the agricultural and working population of the region. The members of the movement developed a daily practice of communal prayer at home. A large part of the population took the habit of attending the local church on Sundays. In some cases, the pastors visited the workplaces to question the workers to see if their faith was strong. These visits were generally well accepted by the workers. The preaching of these pastors anchored in the hearts of the population the idea that work was a vocation, a way of worshiping God. Schartau’s revival movement even spread to the Swedish diaspora in the United States, especially in the northeastern state of Maine. 

The Forgotten Wise Man 

The book of Ecclesiastes tells of a city that was besieged by a powerful king. But in that same city was a poor but wise man. Thanks to the wisdom of this poor man, the city was delivered. However, after the deliverance, the memory of this man was forgotten (Ecclesiastes 7:14-15). Henric Schartau is somewhat the equivalent of this poor man. Today, Skåne and Västra Götaland are, after Stockholm, the Swedish counties with the highest GDP per capita. But this material prosperity would surely not have been achieved without the preaching of Schartau and his disciples. Their work instilled moral rigor among the population, a necessary condition for the economic development of a region.  

May the bicentenary of the death of Henric Schartau bring to light what God has done for Sweden.