Ernst Oddvar Baasland was born 3 April 1945 in the city of
Kristiansand in
Vest-Agder county,
Norway. He took his
Examen artium in
Oslo and passed. He went on to study
theology in
Oslo at the
Misjonsskolen, at the
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and at the
University of Tübingen. He returned to Oslo and graduated from the
MF Norwegian School of Theology with a
cand.theol. degree in 1970. He again graduated with his
Doctor of Theology degree in 1981 at the
University of Oslo. He graduated from the Practical Theological Seminary at MF in 1984. He first served in the
Norwegian Army as an
Army Chaplain from 1971 to 1972) in
Bodø before returning to
MF Norwegian School of Theology where he became a
research fellow from 1972 to 1975. He had different positions as a lecturer there before finished his doctorate in the
New Testament in 1981. He was named
professor of the
New Testament in 1984. He stayed in this position until becoming
ordained as a priest and
consecrated a
bishop in the
diocese of Stavanger in 1998. It was unusual in the
Church of Norway for someone to be
ordained as a priest just a few days prior to becoming a bishop, but his extensive background in theology as a professor assured many that he was ready to be a priest. He held the post until 15 June 2009 when he resigned amid a family scandal involving his son,
Bjarte Baasland. Since his resignation he has gone back to teaching as a visiting professor at various schools including at
Stellenbosch University in
South Africa and
Humboldt University in
Berlin. ==References==