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Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1 September 1877 – 13 March 1952) was a NorwegianLutheran missionary and religious scholar who worked inChina. He was a missionary for theNorwegian Missionary Society from 1903 to 1922. In 1922, he established theNordic Christian Buddhist Mission. He also founded the institutionTao Fong Shan inHong Kong.[1][2] He became most known for his work amongBuddhists and writings aboutBuddhism.
Karl Ludvig Reichelt grew up in apietistic environment inBarbu, nearArendal. His father Carl Ludvig Reichelt was a sea captain who died when Karl Ludvig was still a child. His mother Othilie Helene Gundersen, who was theMatron at an orphanage, provided that the boy had teacher education at Teachers' College Notodden in 1895.[3] He then spent some time teaching inTelemark, and was lay preacher in his spare time.
Karl Ludvig Reichelt began in themission school in Stavanger at the age of 20 years in 1897. He was ordained at Our Savior's Church inOslo 20 March 1903 byBishopAnton Christian Bang.
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In 1903 was sent by theNorwegian Missionary Society (NMS) toChina. In October he came with his fiancée and later ('05) wife, Anna Dorothea Gerhardsen, toShanghai, but left soon after for toHunan province. Gerhardsen followed suit. In the provincial capitalChangsha they settled down to begin their language studies. Karl Ludvig Reichelt had the first part of his work in Hunan. After the one-year language course, he was sent to the city ofNingxiang City, which was a mission field for the Missiorary Society. In 1906, he had an experience that would be crucial to his later work when he undertook his first visit to the famous Buddhist Weishan monastery close to town. He later wrote that he just gave a glimpse of a unique and exclusive world of deep religiousmysticism, of heartbreakingtragedy, but also immensely rich. He felt that God called him to a special way to work among Buddhists, and cultivate a friendly dialogue with the monks and the enlightened Buddhist laity. This he used some force to his years in Hunan andHubei, first as a pioneer missionary (to 1911, when he returned to Norway for a time), then as a teacher in the NT at the priest school inShekou [no] (1913–1920).
He was particularly suited to the study ofBuddhism and theBuddhist religious writings. In 1919 he had the opportunity to be involved in renaming aBuddhist monk.
During a stay inNorway from 1920 to 1922 he got the green light from the NMS to build a Christian center of the Buddhist monks to come and stay for shorter or longer time, and there have personal contact withChristianity. He travelled inSweden,Denmark,Finland,Germany and theUnited States to generate interest for his project, and also received some pledges of support, including from theChurch of Sweden and the Danish Mission Association. A coordination committee for the mission companies in the three Scandinavian countries, was established to guarantee a minimum amount of support in case the gift supply would not reach the expected size. NMS also promised to pay him wages, even though he would work on his own.
Reichelt and missionary Notto Normann Thelle then went back and got their planned center, called the Ching Fong Shan ("the shining wind rock"), just outsideNanjing. It was not long before the first itinerant Buddhist monks found their way to theChristian "monastery", and eventually, the number of such visitors in approximately 1,000 per year, and most were there for a longer or shorter period. Some wereChristian and were baptized.
In his meeting with China's Buddhist monks,Karl Ludvig Reichelt developed a new view on mission work that made him controversial. Particularly controversial was his view of God's revelation and the religions (especially Buddhism) as a preparation for the gospel (praeparatio evangelica), his dialogical method, and his positive evaluation of other religions. NMS became concerned that Reichelt openness to Buddhism went too far, especially when Reichelt meant to find "points of light and connection points brought forth by God's Holy Spirit ... in their sacred writings (and) in their rituals and thinking systems ". It ended with NMS calling Reichelt home for consultations due to this and some financial problems, and it ended with the split from Reichelt in 1925.
In 1926, Reichelt founded The Nordic Christian Buddhist Mission (or the Nordic-East Asia Mission, later the Areopagus). Work continued inNanjing, and in 1927, 22 Chinese people were baptized. But the same year the mission station was destroyed during a riot, and Reichelt and Thelle had to flee the city.
For two years they worked inShanghai. In 1929 Reichelt built the institution Tao Fong Shan ("the mountain where the wind blows Logos") inSha Tin in theSha Tin District of theNew Territories in Hong Kong. This institute has since been the seat of the Buddhist Mission's work in China.
He left China in 1947, and settled down in Hong Kong in 1951. He died at the Tao Fong Shan in Hong Kong on 13 March 1952.
Karl Ludvig Reichelt wrote both scholarly and popular literature. He wrote several books in Chinese and several works on East Asia religions, includingReligions of China (1st ed. 1913) andFrom Convenience Types and shrines in East Asia (Three volumes, 1947–1949).
Reichelt was awarded theSt. Olav's Medal in 1939 and was appointed honorary doctor atUppsala University for his extensive research on Eastern religious life in 1941.
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