Sigurbjörn Einarsson

Sigurbjörn Einarsson (* June 30, 1911 in Efri- Steinsmýri, Vestur - Skaftafellssýsla, Iceland, † August 28 2008 in Reykjavík ) was an Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran theologian and hymn writer. From 1959 to 1981 he was Bishop of Iceland.

Life

The son of a farmer grew up in southern Iceland. After graduating from high school, which he completed in 1931 on the Menntaskólinn in Reykjavik, he first began studying classical philology and history at the University of Uppsala. Graduating in 1936 with a focus on Greek he joined a short stay at the University of Stockholm. In Reykjavik, he obtained in 1938 the state exam in Protestant theology. Further studies, including the topic of the New Testament, brought him 1939-1948 at various European universities, first back to Uppsala, and finally to Cambridge and Basel.

Already from the September 1, 1938 Einarsson worked as a priest in the places Hvammstangi, Vesturhópi and Breiðabólstaður in northwestern Iceland. In 1941 he moved back to Reykjavik and had spent three years at a pastorate at the Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in the city held. In 1944, he was first appointed as a lecturer at the University of Iceland in 1949 as professor of theology.

Einarsson joined in 1959 as a successor to the office of bishop Ásmundur Guðmundsson of Iceland and the Icelandic State Church stood before until 1981. In parallel, he led the Icelandic Bible Society, whose board he joined in 1948. Also 1959-1981 he was chairman of the Nordic Ecumenical Institute and the hymn Committee. He entered himself as a writer of spiritual songs out that were sporadically translated into German ( The sun sinks into the sea ).

Back in 1945 his translation of the so-called " last sermons " Martin Niemöller was published, the latter had held before his deportation to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. Einarsson wrote not only a wealth of academic and theological writings, such as the Book of Revelation, but in 1955 a book about the life of Albert Schweitzer. The 300th anniversary of the death of the eminent poet Hallgrímur Pétursson he published a German - Icelandic edition of whose Passion Psalms 1974.

1961 awarded him an honorary doctorate from University of Iceland in 1975 as the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Sigurbjörn Einarsson was married to the late 2006 seamstress Magnea Thorkelsdottir since 1933. The marriage produced eight children were born, including the composer Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and the theologian Karl Sigurbjörnsson, who was also appointed bishop of Iceland in 1998.