Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg: The reluctant author of an autobiographical conversion narrative

Abstract

On June 12, 1844, Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg – one of the most prominent religious revival leaders in nineteenth-century Finland – published the first version of many of his spiritual development. The 26 pages manuscript has ever since been regarded and read as a so-called conversion narrative. It is ironic, considering that the revival movement named after him later came to dissociate itself from such testimonies. Hedberg’s account can, namely, be read as a dissuasion against writing conversion narratives. In it, he explicitly advises against seeking any particular conversion experiences. Instead, he advocates a faith founded on God’s Word, not one dependent on whatever passing and uncertain “inner flashes of feelings” a conversion experience may or may not bring about. In this article, I argue that this contradiction – namely that his account resembles and is interpreted as a conversion narrative despite his warning against such testimonies – may be explained by his use of metaphors and tropes typical of conversion narratives that he cannot avoid if he is to reach out to his audience. The rhetorical power of such tropes and metaphors lies in the cognitive and affective resonance they conjure up in the audience – they are universal, conventional, and immediately recognizable for most people. Consequently, the result is that Hedberg’s account inevitably resembles a conversion narrative.