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teachings of the mission are Christian, the appearance of the eight-sided church and its surroundings are uncompromisingly Chinese, a gesture to the Buddhist pilgrim monks who found shelter there.
Karl Ludvig Reichelt was born in 1877 at Bardu, near Arendal, Norway. The son of a sea captain, who died when Karl Ludvig was a child, he trained as a teacher at Notodden. He taught for a short period in Telemark and became a lay preacher in his spare time before entering the Norwegian Missionary Society training college at Stavanger.
Shortly after his ordination, Reichelt sailed for China, where, after language study, he was appointed to Ninghsiang, Hunan, where the Norwegian Missionary Society was active. It was his experience at Ninghsiang that influenced the rest of his missionary career. The impressions gained while on a visit to the famous Weishan monastery remained with him for the rest of his life.
“I got a glimpse,” he wrote, “of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world charged with deep religious mysticism, a world full of tragedy and heart-rending but also marvellously rich in points of contact with sacred religious material.”
In response to what he felt to be a call from God, Reichelt decided to prepare for “special work among these people by the cultivation of friendly intercourse with the monks and enlightened lay people.”
From that time Reichelt devoted himself to the study of Far Eastern religions and became in time one of the greatest contemporary authorities on the subject.
Reichelt's influence grew and he was later appointed to the staff of a Lutheran Theological Seminary at Shekow, near Hankow. His ideas on a Christian-Buddhist relationship matured sufficiently for him to submit to his home board a proposal for special work among Buddhists in China. He received support from his own missionary society, from the Church of Sweden and the Danish Missionary Society. He also toured Germany, Finland and the
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313
teachings of the mission are Christian, the appearance of the eight sided church and its surroundings are uncompromisingly Chi- nese, a gesture to the Buddhist pilgrim monks who found shelter there.
Karl Ludvig Reichelt was born in 1877 at Bardu, near Arendal, Norway. The son of a sea captain, who died when Karl Ludvig was a child, he trained as a teacher at Notodden. He taught for a short period in Telemark and became a lay preacher in his spare time before entering the Norwegian Missionary Society training college at Stavanger.
Shortly after his ordination, Reichelt sailed for China, where, after language study, he was appointed to Ninghsiang, Hunan, where the Norwegian Missionary Society was active. It was his experience at Ninghsiang that influenced the rest of his missionary career. The impressions gained while on a visit to the famous Weishan monastery remained with him for the rest of his life.
“I got a glimpse," he wrote, "of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world charged with deep religious mysticism, a world full of tragedy and heart rending but also marvellously rich in points of contact with sacred religious material.”
In response to what he felt to be a call from God, Reichelt decided to prepare for “special work among these people by the cultivation of friendly intercourse with the monks and enlight- ened lay people."
From that time Reichelt devoted himself to the study of Far Eastern religions and became in time one of the greatest contem- porary authorities on the subject.
Reichelt's influence grew and he was later appointed to the staff of a Lutheran Theological Seminary at Shekow, new Hankow. His ideas on a Christian-Buddhist relationship matured sufficiently for him to submit to his home board a proposal for special work among Buddhists in China. He received support from his own missionary society, from the Church of Sweden and the Danish Missionary Society. He also toured Germany, Finland and the
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