Erik Pontoppidan

Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan (24 August 1698 – 20 December 1764) was a Danish author, a Lutheran bishop of the Church of Norway, a historian, and an antiquarian.

During their stay in Utrecht, he came into personal contact with the then-influential reformed theologian Friedrich Adolph Lampe, whose theological thinking left an impression on him.

During this same period he laid the foundation of his later topographical and historical works in Memoria Hafniæ (1729); Theatrum Daniæ (1736); and the aforementioned Kurzgefasste Reformationshistorie der dänischen Kirche.

In 1736 Pontoppidan was directed by royal rescript to prepare an explanation of the catechism and a new hymnal, and through these two works — Sandhed til gudfrygtighed (1737) and the hymnbook (1740) — the pietistic cause in Denmark received powerful assistance.

He likewise continued his historical investigations in his Marmora Danica (3 vols., 1739–1741; a collection of noteworthy epitaphs and ecclesiastical monuments) and his uncritical Annales ecclesiæ Danicæ (4 vols., 1741–1752); and also wrote a novel, Menoza (3 vols., 1742–1743), a critique of the religious conditions of Denmark and other countries.

In 1747 he was appointed bishop at Bergen, where he introduced many educational reforms, and wrote Glossarium Norvagicum (1749) and Forsøk til Norges naturlige historie (Copenhagen, 1752–1753), while his pastoral letters formed in part the basis of his later Collegium pastorale practicum (1757).

However, all his plans in this capacity were thwarted by his opponents, and he sought consolation in writing, the results being his Origines Hafnienses (1760) and the first two parts of his Den danske Atlas (1763–1767), of which the last five volumes were edited posthumously.

[3] Pontoppidan's Heller Glaubensspiegel was an influence on Swedish Lutheran lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius, impressing upon him the importance of conversion and having a living faith.