Review of Bo Giertz's "The Hammer of God"

 Bo Giertz's The Hammer of God surprised me. 

It surprised me at how engaging it was, considering it was written in 1941,  translated from Swedish, and obviously written to contend with regional worries in Swedish Lutheranism. 

It surprised me to read of the depth into which pastors once were involved in parishioner's lives--by invitation or just by force of the authority of their office.

It surprised me to read of pastoral life in a culture where the pastoral office was a tax-supported agency of the state--and thus too often occupied by unregenerate office-holders.

It surprised me to find that the book topped the bestseller list in Sweden the year it came out, and it remains in print in many languages today. When people think of Swedish literature today, they think of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but there was a time when Sweden was known for more redeeming fare.

It surprised me to find how, well, "entertaining" an author could make a work that is really an exposition of the differences between licentiousness, legalism, and the saving grace of the gospel.

The novel is a small triology of novellas, each taking the reader to a different era of the same setting: the early 1800s, the late 1800s, and the mid 1900s. As the translator, Hans Andrae, wrote in the Preface:

The author unveils the dramatic confrontation between the Faith of the Church and the many beliefs (and disbeliefs) that battle for the human soul, which basically remains constant even as cultural settings are changed. Faith comes down to a matter of relying either on our own accomplishments to be right with God or on receiving as a free gift by grace the righteousness Christ gained for us. 

I'm grateful to have been surprised by this find.