Author: Carsten Johnsen
Born: 1914
Died: 1987
Bio: Carsten Johnsen was born in Norway February 23, 1914. He memorized the dictionary from A to Z when he was a student of Latin, English, French, and German at the University of Oslo, becoming a linguist par excellence. During his early student days, he read The Conflict of the Ages Series by E. G. White. He gave up his inborn enthusiasm for romanticism, and dedicated his life to what he called, "the rock-bottom realism of Seventh-day Adventism. He finished his "Lektoreksamen" (a seven year university study, equivalent above a masters but below a doctorate) at Oslo University in 1940, specializing in Romance Philology. After many years of teaching he went into new fields of study, this time in France, at the University of Montpellier, where he earned a doctorate in Philosophy and the History of Ideas. His dissertation was entitled Essai sur l'Altérocentrisme contre l'Egocentisme en tant que Motifs Fondamentaux du Caractére Humain (Université de Montpellier, 1968). This was translated into English with the title of The Part of the Story You Were Never Told About Women., published in the USA just prior to his death. He also studied at Faculté de Théologie Prostestante, where he earned a doctorate in Theology. His French dissertation here was Essai sur l'Unite de l'Homme, which was published in 1971 by the Oslo University Press in English with the title of Man, the Indivisible—Totality Versus Disruption in the History of Western Thought. He married Ester Henriksen, and had a son Per by this marriage. Ester died of tuberculosis. He remarried, and with his second wife Sylvi he had a second son Andreas. He had a lifetime of teaching at Seventh-day Adventist and other schools in Norway, Denmark, Austria, France, England, Ethiopia, and the United States. His last assignment prior to retirement was as Professor of Philosophy, Systematic Theology, and Christian Ethics at the Graduate School and the Theological Seminary at Andrews University, from 1968 to 1978. During his retirement he continued teaching and writing, spending his time between Norway and the United States, with short-term volunteer teaching assignments in Jamaica and Kenya. In 1972 as a result of cooperation between Andrews University and the Norwegian Universities, he began to conduct summer courses in Alpes de Provence, the French highlands bordering on Italy and the Mediterranean. On a mountain farm near Sisteron, described by tourists as "La Perle de la Provence", youth from many countries gathered every year to find, in the Ethics and Philosophy of Christian Realism, a knowledge which makes life meaningful. He died July 30, 1987 in Norway at age 73.