Norges første professor i misjonsvitenskap: Professor O.G.Myklebust (1905-2001) The first Professor of Missiology in Norway: Professor O.G.Myklebust (1905-2001)

Olav G Myklebust, professor at MF Norwegian School of Theology, became the founder of the study of mission as academic discipline in Norway, and he argued strongly for mission studies as a required discipline in theological education. In 1946 he was instrumental in founding the Egede Institute of Missionary Research, and the quarterly Norsk Tidsskrift for Misjon, which Myklebust edited till his retirement in 1975. He was also instrumental in establishing the Nordic Institute for Missionary and Ecumenical Research, NIME. In 1951 he published a proposal for An International Institute of Scientific Missionary Research, but it took 20 years for the first part of that dream to materialize in the International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS). Myklebust published his doctoral thesis in 1955: The Study of Missions in Theological Education – which became an international standard reference work. Myklebust was a firm Lutheran, but he was also a convinced and visionary ecumenist, a position he steadfastly maintained throughout his life. He had important positions in national and international organizations such as the International Missionary Council and the Commission of World Mission and Evangelism in the World Council of Churches.