Wheat Flour Messiah: Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill

Scandinavian Review, Autumn 1997

Wheat Flour Messiah: Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill by Paul Elmen

Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997 222 pages. B/W illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Paper. $15.95

This volume offers a theological explanation of the brief existence of Bishop Hill, a colony of Swedish immigrants in northern Illinois, whose many letters home publicized the American dream and may have had something to do with its acceptance in Sweden. The author vividly traces the spiritual odyssey of their leader, Eric Jansson, from his youth on a Swedish farm, through his career as a wheat flour salesman and religious zealot, to his death by shooting in 1850.

Under Jansson's influence twelve hundred sober countrymen left their native Sweden and set out to serve God in a new land by creating a utopian community in America. The author is a moral theologian who argues that the tempestuous story of this religious cult reflected the personality of its fiery and charismatic leader, Eric Jansson. The hopes and failings of Jansson and his followers are so clearly delineated that the reader will eventually come to an appreciation of what this flawed prophet hoped to create. Today, Bishop Hill is preserved as a "living museum" which receives thousands of summer visitors every year.