[2] Johan Henrik Thomander was the nephew of the writer, hymnwriter and priest Jöran Jakob Thomæus [sv].

In 1840 he entered political life as a member of the clergy in the Riksdag of the Estates, and in 1855 he was elected after Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom to the Swedish Academy, which in 1849 awarded him its great prize for rhetoric on the occasion of his collection of sermons published the same year.

When he applied for the post of dean in Lund in 1830, Carl Adolph Agardh, comparing him with Reuterdahl, gave the following opinion:[1] "Thomander is a far superior person, superior by his healthy nature, his able body, his lively manners, his warmth, his wit, his knowledge of modern literature, his ability to come forward when necessary, his intrepidity, his boldness, his aplomb, his way of making himself important and everyone else a trifle.

"Agardh's simultaneously flattering and reproachful characterization of Thomander was formed during the battle for the position of dean in Lund.

Thus in 1825 appeared Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, and Richard II, interpretations which were also endorsed by Carl August Hagberg as excellent, and also The Clouds by Aristophanes in 1826, Manfred by Lord Byron, and Brutus by Voltaire in 1830.

In manuscript, too, he produced at the same time several such works, as Amanda by Moreto (performed in 1831), Shakespeare's Macbeth, Le Tardif by Gensoul, and Thesmophoriazusae and The Frogs by Aristophanes, the last three first printed in his Skrifter.

Together with Henrik Reuterdahl, he published Theologisk quartalskrift ('Theological Quarterly') from 1828 to 1832 and 1836 to 1840,[4] which forms an epoch in the history of Swedish theology.

[6][7] Thomander was conservative in his religious and theological views and was equated by Esaias Tegnér with the orthodox Bergquist, disciple of Schartau.

[8] Two parties began to form: on one side Thomander, Peter Wieselgren, Paul Gabriel Ahnfelt [sv], and later Hans Birger Hammar [sv]; on the other Reuterdahl and the majority of the clergy, a group which later was strengthened by the specifically Lundensian high church under the leadership of Ebbe Gustaf Bring.

He demonstrated his eminent abilities in the field by publishing a draft canon law a few years later, which he himself had written and which later became the basis for much of the committee's further work.

Its final proposal could not, any more than the previous one, stand the fire of criticism, but some questions were nevertheless solved in the way of partial reforms, and some were carried forward towards their solution.

Thomander's masterly speech at the House of Nobility in 1840, at a joint meeting of all four estates on the question of representation, already established him as one of the country's leading parliamentary orators.

He was a constant advocate for change in representation and personally intervened to advance the issue; it was Thomander who drafted the so-called Ekholm proposal in 1845.

[11][12] He spoke in favor of appropriations for the education system at four parliamentary sessions (1840–1841, 1844–1845, 1847–1848 and 1856–1858) of the six Thomander proved he was a member of the State Committee.

Thomander again spoke in favor of church synods [sv], the reorganization of cathedral chapters, a new system of selecting priests, and more.

As bishop, Thomander was not entirely to the liking of his old followers, many of whom had begun to idolize the Free Church of Scotland and derived their constitutional ideals from it.

Within his diocese, Thomander sought to achieve greater mobility by frequent visits and by organizing clerical society gatherings between the clergy meetings held every six years.

Thomander reaches his highest point when he contrasts human frailty with the merciful omnipotence of God, but overall it must be said that, at least judging from the printed sermons, he is not a deep preacher.

[14] A characterization of Thomander is given by Gustaf Ljunggren, his biographer in the Swedish Academy, who emphasizes the enigmatic nature of his personality, the strange mixture of jokes and seriousness, which made him less appealing to many as a priest and bishop.

See also G. Ljunggren, "Inträdestal" (in Svenska akad:s handlingar ifrån år 1796, d. 41, 1867) and C. V. A. Strandberg's (Talis Qualis) reply to this speech, Harald Wieselgren, Ur vår samtid (1880), August Quennerstedt [sv], "Johan Henrik Thomander" (in Lunds stifts Julbok, 1912), O. Hippel, Kyrkolagskommittén 1824–1846.