Elling Hove

Background

He was born at Northwood, Iowa, 1863, the son of Ole and Kari (Olson) Hove.

Education

As a lad of fifteen he entered Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, from which he received the degree of A. B. in 1884. He then pursued studies in Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and in 1887 received the degree of candidate of theology.

Career

After short pastorates at Portland, Ore. (1887 - 89), and Astoria, Ore. (1890 - 91), he was called to the large and exacting pastorate of the First Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa. In 1894 he was sent to Mankato, Minn. , where he found more time for study.

Though he had taught a few classes in religion at Luther College, he attained to his theological professorship at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. , in 1901 by delivering a paper on "Justification, " prepared in his characteristically thorough manner and delivered at a pastoral conference. When at the union of churches in 1917, the seminary was dissolved and reestablished under the name, Luther Theological Seminary, he was retained as a professor in the new institution and served until 1926, when he was forced to retire on account of failing health.

Possessing a strong voice, he at one time, without mechanical aids, spoke to an audience of 10, 000 and at another time to an audience of 15, 000, and made himself heard. Although modest and unassuming, he did not hesitate to take a firm stand on the questions of the day, but he was averse to carrying controversies into the press. He preferred to work at the fundamentals rather than on the peripheries, and besides his lecture on "Justification, " he wrote another on "Conscience. " An accomplished linguist, he read widely in original sources.

In the later period of his life his interest was centered largely in the field of dogmatics, and he utilized his sabbatical year (1925 - 26) in translating his notes on this subject from Norwegian into English, hoping that they might be published some time in the future. His son, Rev. O. Hjalmar Hove, completed the work and in 1930 it was issued under the title, Christian Doctrine. In this book of nearly 500 pages, which puts Hove in the front rank of Lutheran theologians in America, he summarizes Norwegian Lutheran dogmatics in its various orthodox tendencies up to the present time.

Active in denominational affairs, he was in 1901 a member of the committee on calls in the Norwegian Synod, and in 1908 and 1909 of the committee on Christian education, having, no doubt, much to do with the issuance in Norwegian and English of the popular editions of the Explanations to Luther's Catechism. From 1905 to 1910 he was a member of the Norwegian Synod's committee on union. Although it was another committee which brought about the Madison Agreement in 1912 and the formation of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America at the union in 1917, the earlier committee of which Hove was a member had laid the foundations on which the articles of union were built.

Achievements

• Hove was widely known as an eloquent preacher. As a theologian he ranks high in Lutheran circles.

Connections

He married in 1893, Didrikke Wulfsberg.

Father:

Ole Hove

Mother:

Kari (Olson) Hove

Spouse:

Didrikke Wulfsberg

Son:

Rev. O. Hjalmar Hove

References

• Norsk Lutherske Prester I Amerika, 1843-1915... (Norwegian Edition)