Sven Erlandson

Sven Erlandson
Sven Erlandson 2011 Sven Erlandson 2011
Born	Sven Eric Erlandson (1967-09-17) September 17, 1967 Fargo, North Dakota
Occupation	Wall Street & Olympic/Pro Performance Coach, Writer, Spiritual Counselor
Nationality	Swedish-American
Education	Master of Divinity -- Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Bachelor of Arts -- Augsburg College (US Air Force Academy)
Genre	Non-fiction, Relationships/Self-help, Spirituality
Years active	1996-Present
Children	Colbjorn King Erlandson Charlotte 'Svea' Erlandson
Relatives	LeRoy Erlandson (Father) Charlotte Erlandson (Mother) Kent, Dan, Karla, David, John (Siblings)
Website
www.badasscounseling.com

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Sven Erlandson M.Div., B.A. (b. 1967) is a Wall Street performance coach, soul counselor, and author of six books on spirituality and culture in modern life. He is credited with coining the phrase "Spiritual but not religious" and was the first theologian/author to name and delineate the concept and movement in his 2000 book by the same name.

Books by Sven Erlandson

A trained Lutheran pastor, emergency room chaplain and spiritual counselor, as well as former SERE-trained military and NCAA Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning, his books focus on the intersection of spirituality and the challenges of modern life, including politics, athletics, education, parenting, and relationships. His literary agent is Don Fehr, Senior Vice President, of Trident Media Group, NYC.

List of books:

• (2018) There's A Hole In My Love Cup: The Badass Counseling Method For Healing the Soul And Unleashing Greatness[1]
• (2004) Rescuing God from Christianity [2nd Edition] : A Closet Christian, Non-Christian, and Christmas Christian's Guide to Radically Rethinking God Stuff
• (2012) I Steal Wives: A Serial Adulterer Reveals the Real Reasons More and More “Happily Married” Women are Cheating (Two Volumes)
• (2009) Badass Jesus
• (2005) The 7 Evangelical Myths
• (2000) Spiritual but Not Religious: A Call to Religious Revolution in America

Family History

His father, LeRoy Arthur Erlandson (b. 1928) is the grandson of Swedish immigrants to the fertile farm country of the northwesternmost corner of Minnesota (Kittson County) along the Canadian border. Operating a 1500-acre farm and machinery production facility on the farm, during the Great Depression and World War II, Sven's grandfather, Ephraim 'Alric' Erlandson held a US Government Patent for his pesticide-delivery implement, the Plant Duster, or 'Hood Duster'. LeRoy was the second-oldest son of four sons and one daughter to Alric and his Swedish wife, Walborg (Haglund) Erlandson. Three generations lived one roof, spoke primarily Swedish, and were critical in bringing electricity to Kittson County under the Rural Electrification Act (REA) in 1936 and growing food supplies for soldiers overseas, during the war. Of the five children in LeRoy's family, three sons became ordained Lutheran pastors in the old Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. An avowedly religious home, LeRoy's grandfather weekly read Martin Luther's sermons to the grandchildren in Swedish from Luther's Postilla, and Alric was known to have told new pastor's to his country parish, "Pastor, if I have to team up my horses at 6am in January of a Minnesota winter, I expect more than a 30-minute sermon."

LeRoy attended the Agricultural School of the University of Minnesota and also wrestled at the University of Minnesota before attending the Lutheran Bible Institute (where he met Charlotte Johnson, whom he would later marry), and eventually graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College. He received his ministerial degree (Bachelor of Divinity/Master of Divinity) from the former Augustana Lutheran Seminary, Rock Island, IL. He went on to serve Lutheran parishes in Kennedy (MN), Oberon (ND), Irving (TX), and Fridley (MN), before ending his ministerial career as a Protestant chaplain at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Minneapolis, MN.

Sven's mother, Charlotte Evangeline (Johnson) Erlandson (b. 1928) is the daughter of Victor and Ruth (Larson) Johnson, who were also grandchildren of Swedish immigrants. The fourth of six children, Charlotte grew up on a small farm in East Chain, Minnesota, along Minnesota's southern border with Iowa. She grew up attending a rural, one-room schoolhouse and was a childhood classmate of future US Vice President and Presidential candidate, Walter Mondale. Her mother, Ruth, broke from her rural parish after a dispute with the new pastor and went on to start her own church, shortly after the Great Depression. In her 70s, Ruth went on to live as the chapel proctor and wise old woman on the reservation of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. In her 80s, she served as the wise old woman-in-residence of a Jewish-Christian commune in Laporte, MN, formed by Arthur Katz.

Charlotte's two oldest brothers became ordained Lutheran pastors in the aforementioned Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. During and after raising her six children, Charlotte was a schoolteacher and later a Director of Christian Education at two churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). She was also a published writer in the field of early childhood education and was adjunct faculty at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. She also counseled and mentored numerous clergy and spouses of clergy throughout her career and well into her 80s.

Early life

Into this significant spiritual-religious history, Sven was born in the Summer of Love in Fargo, ND. Though the nearest hospital was 30 miles away in Fargo, Sven's family lived in the 600-resident rural town of Lake Park, MN, where LeRoy was the pastor of a three-church parish. Born at 7:35am on a Sunday morning, his late arrival caused LeRoy to be late for pastoral duties at his first church and the nascency of Sven's reputation of creating headaches for the church and organized religion from, quite literally, the very day he was born.

He spent his first six years in Lake Park. Sensing he was different, his parents had him tested by a psychologist to determine whether to start him in school early. Registering a 145 IQ, he was started a year early, to the chagrin of the school superintendent who commented, "Sven will never measure up to his peers academically or athletically."

Desiring more opportunities for their children, in 1973, LeRoy and Charlotte accepted a new pastor position in suburban Minneapolis. Fridley, MN, became Sven's home for the next 12 years. He attended public school and eventually graduated from Fridley High School where he had been a three-sport athlete (Wrestling [captain], Football, Track) and 8-time letter-winner, took 2nd place at heavyweight in the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament, a member of the Concert Choir, starred in numerous plays, played in the orchestra (and in a greater Twin Cities orchestra), a member of the local and regional gifted students program, sang in an award-winning band, and was a competitive powerlifter.

But, perhaps, the most interesting part of the story is not what was happening in the limelight, but what was happening at home. For the final four or five years of high school, Sven was mostly alone with his parents, every day and night. The once full house was now occupied by four, though his older brother, John, was gone a lot and graduated and left for all of Sven's high school years. Every night at dinner was one, long, ongoing conversation about life, ministry (which both of Sven's parents were now in, as Charlotte had now gone back to work as a Director of Christian Education in a large suburban parish) and, mostly saliently, counseling. As both of Sven's parents were Master's-level-educated spiritual counselors and both were emergency/trauma counselors, they deliberately taught him, day in and day out, how to listen, the power of questions, contrarian thinking, and wisdom. Seemingly innocuous at the time, a decade and two later, this rigorous early training would be coupled with formal training and experience to yield great fruit.

University Years and Marriage

Inspired by a girlfriend's father who introduced him to the service academies and by his oldest brother, Kent (who had enlisted in the military during the Vietnam war and would go on to serve for 25 years, retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force), Sven started looking for the biggest challenge he could find, post-high school—the elite academies of the US military. In 1985, Sven received congressional nominations to attend university at either West Point or the US Air Force Academy. After initially choosing the former, he finally rested upon a move to Colorado Springs and started basic training, 5 July 1985, at USAFA. Sven was also recruited to play NCAA Division 1 football at the Academy. He was an offensive lineman on the 1985 Air Force Falcons football team that was within one game of playing for the national championship, beat the Texas Longhorns in a bowl game, and ended the year at 12-1 and ranked #5 in the country. Excelling as an athlete, he made it through the dreaded first two years of cuts to the roster and was set for a successful collegiate football career.

Sven was also an academic and military standout—multiple semesters awarded the coveted Superintendent's List nomination for both academic and military excellence. He majored in mathematics and continued from high school his studies of German, instructed in the latter by a former US spy in East Germany. From being awarded the title 'Big Bad Basic' in Barbarian Squadron, during basic training, to being awarded his Air Force pilot wings in sailplanes a year later; from being placed on the Commandant's (a 1-star general) advisory council to being invited into the home of the Superintendent (a 3-star general); and from successfully completing SERE training for downed pilots to becoming an 'ace' for accomplishing five pranks that would lead to demerits/punishment if caught, Sven was both a respected leader and a spirited rebel, a spirit that only added to his credibility. Fully 'PQ' (pilot qualified), he was on track to one day fly fighter jets, bombers, or transport planes.

However, Sven felt called in a new direction. He left the Academy after two years and moved back to Minnesota. He was accepted into the business program at an Ivy League school (Cornell University). Missing his family, he instead chose to stay in Minnesota and in the fall of 1987, he began studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, the Swedish-Lutheran Alma Mater of his father, uncles, and several siblings. Here he continued his mathematics studies, while also falling in love with the study of world religions and spirituality, which included studying his second language, Classical Greek. Sven's path was somewhat mirroring that of his father, who had spoken Swedish and English, growing up, studied German and majored in Classical Greek in college. Additionally, he was a starter offensive lineman on the 1987 Gustavus football team, which advanced to the national playoffs and was the only football team in school history to go completely undefeated (10-0) in a season. Ever the rebel, Sven got kicked off the football team and quit Gustavus one semester before graduation, having been told by the Religion Department Chairman, "Sven you have serious thinking problems and will have a very difficult time graduating from here with a Religious Studies major or ever being a serious religious thinker."

This was 1989. Within a year, Sven would meet and marry his first wife, Julie. Though it was a tumultuous relationship, only a year after marriage their first child, Colbjorn King, would be born and Sven would be enrolled for his final year of university at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Now possessing clarity of calling, in 1992, Sven graduated from Augsburg with a near-perfect GPA and a degree in Studies of Religions, with additional emphasis in the latest language he had learned: Latin.

Seminary, Ministry, and the First Book

That summer of '92, he began as all Lutheran first-year seminarians do with intensive study of Koine Greek, in his case at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, Sven's fourth language besides English. Though English was his native tongue, he was known to carry a full-size dictionary in his backpack through college and seminary, so that he could look up Latin and Greek etymologies, upon hearing a new or interesting word. That fall, the little family moved to Berkeley, CA, where Sven was enrolled at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of the consortium of seminaries, known as the Graduate Theological Union. Here, in addition to the full Lutheran complement of classes, Sven would study at the Jewish seminary, take meditation with the Buddhists, learn education from the Presbyterians, and study liturgical and sacramental theology at the three Catholic seminaries, on top of counseling studies and counseling field work.

He had also cleared the first hurdle of the examining committee of his home synod, the Minneapolis Area Synod, of the larger ELCA. After the standard essays and autobiography, psychological and vocational testings and interviews, the ordination candidacy committee welcomed him into the process of preparation for ordination, which takes four years, though clearly sensing already that this one was different.

First year of seminary was not a happy time at home. Sven and Julie fought bitterly, interspersed with times of great passion and shared love for their little Swedish 'Black Bear' (Col-bjorn) son. Within months, Julie took their son and moved back to Minnesota, officially separating from Sven, while he was deep in studies and hands-on work counseling the elderly at a nearby nursing home, in addition to Sunday preaching and liturgy duties under the tutelage of Rev. Roger Bauer at Immanuel Lutheran Church of Alameda, CA. Rev. Bauer, had a solid reputation in the Lutheran Church as a strong leader. Yet his bona fides as a rebel thinker were unquestioned, having played noseguard at Purdue and ridden in a motorcycle gang in his younger years, and having also been part of the Seminex uprising in the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church. Coming out of the German-Lutheran tradition, which was very different socially from the Swedish-Lutheran tradition, Bauer taught Sven that strong drink, coarse language, and great passion for ministry and love for people can all go hand-in-hand. The fusion of sacred and secular in Sven's theology and life had begun—a fusion that would change the course of religion and spirituality in America, just seven years later in his seminal work, Spiritual But Not Religious.

In the summer of 1993, Sven left seminary and accepted a position of Pastor of Youth at the large suburban Minneapolis parish of Immanuel Lutheran Church in tony Eden Prairie, MN, so that he could be nearer to his son and try to mend his marriage. It was at Immanuel that Sven exploded onto the scene as a preacher.

Shortly after completing his work at that church, Sven matriculated into St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, a Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of St.Paul-Minneapolis. Though still preparing for Lutheran ordination, Sven chose to study with the Catholics for a few years to learn as much as he could about the theology and ethos of the largest church body in the world. During this time, he also took classes and did research at the largest Lutheran seminary in the world, Luther Seminary, as well as other classes at Bethel Seminary of the Baptist Church, where Sven also learned his fifth language, Hebrew.

It was during this time that Sven worked as an Emergency Room Chaplain at the Level One Trauma Center, then St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center, fulfilling his education requirement for significant hands-on spiritual counseling in a clinical setting.

Also during this time, as Sven's marriage dissolved, his first co-authored articles were published in the now-defunct The Parish Teacher (Augsburg Fortress Publishing), a journal for spiritual education professionals; he developed a seminal multi-generational, education-worship method for helping children grow spiritually, which he was invited into colleges and parishes to workshop; and he began writing what would become his first book. Additionally, it was during this time that Sven lectured at the graduate level, Luther Seminary, in the field of early childhood education. After multiple separations, Sven and his wife divorced in 1996. He worked for two years for Sun Country Airlines as a member of their Accident Response Team, while serving as the Co-manager and Lead Counselor of Sun Country's Critical Incident Response Team.

During the late-90s, though he continued to grow as a respected spiritual writer, leader, and counselor, he was three times kicked out of the ordination candidacy ranks of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Once, he was flat out told by his candidacy committee, "Sven, we find you to be intensely passionate. And we find that both unnerving and offensive, and quite unsuited for ministry." In 1999, he graduated from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA, with his Master of Divinity degree. This same year he preached at and was asked to be pastor of the German-speaking St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, San Francisco, CA, but had the request rescinded when he forcefully defended gay rights. (Two years later, after St. Matthew's German pastor washed out, Sven was again interviewed for the senior pastor position and was removed from consideration for his unyielding defense of gay rights.) On September 7 of that year, just months after graduating from seminary, while at a Major League Baseball game (A's vs. Red Sox) at the Oakland Coliseum, on a bet with his Boston buddies, wearing only his Minnesota Twins cap, Sven streaked buck-naked across the Coliseum infield in the bottom of the 9th. He was subsequently arrested, spent the night in jail, had his case thrown out, and won the $500 bet.

The third time he was kicked out of the ELCA ordination ranks by the denomination as a whole, after the 2000 release of his first book Spiritual But Not religious, he was let go for his disagreeable, forward-thinking theology and his intense personality, again.

Expanding Influence

Sven's book, Spiritual But Not Religious: A Call to Religious Revolution in America, was the very first book to both name and delineate the then-unknown and unnamed spiritual but not religious movement, long before that phrase became a part of the American Vulgate and even longer before the movement hit critical mass in America. He has been credited with both coining the phrase and mid-wifing the movement. With the release of Sven's book, speaking events quickly followed and he became a regional celebrity at the undergraduate level in the Midwest and West Coast in now his second area of expertise—sociology of American religion—adding to his established reputation as a leader in the field of early childhood spiritual development.

Sven also met the woman who would become his second wife, the Broadway-level dancer, Janice Cronkhite, while she was on the first national tour of the Broadway show, Fosse. They lived in Los Angeles together. The relationship only lasted a few years and produced no children.

While living in Los Angeles, Sven was listed with the mid-size modeling agency, Bobbie Ball Agency. At the 2003 E3 Convention he was awarded "Best Booth Babe" of the entire convention by Gamespy Magazine and became a highly entertaining phenomenon, while serving as the intimidating Nazi of Activision's Call of Duty booth.

During the early-to-mid-2000s, Sven burrowed into his writing and counseling of street people, choosing to live in his car, off and on for years, so as to have complete focus for writing. His second and third books came out. He moved back to Minnesota and there served as an NCAA Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, which had a long reputation for national championship wrestling teams, producing MMA fighters (including UFC-ranked Roger 'El Matador' Huerta, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated), and hosting the US Women's Olympic Hockey Team, both on its rinks and in Sven's gym. This led to Sven's subsequent book, Badass Jesus: The Serious Athlete and a Life of Noble Purpose. All of this added up to Sven being asked to speak regionally in the field of sports psychology, fitness, and excellence training.

The reputation and word of mouth of his spiritual counseling practice continued to expand greatly during this time. He became one of the very first spiritual counselors to use both internet and telecommunications for what would become a global counseling practice. Not finished with the Lutheran pastor work, Sven was hired in 2007 as the first full-time Sports Pastor in the entire 500-year history of the Lutheran Church. Serving as Assistant Pastor at Epiphany Lutheran Church of Centerville, Ohio, he was charged with full responsibility for leading and growing Epiphany's outpost church in Springboro, Ohio. In his first three months, alone, he more than tripled Sunday worship attendance and added a second service. However, Epiphany would become the third pastoral position Sven would get kicked out of for defending gay rights. Here, his opponent was the fiercely and publicly anti-gay pastor, Rev. John Bradosky, who was Sven's Senior Pastor and who would go on to split the Lutheran Church and start his own staunchly conservative denomination, the North American Lutheran Church very shortly after his battles with Sven.

Going Rogue: Deliberate Homelessness and a Revealing Book

Though continuing to take counseling clients through the first two decades of the 2000s, Sven made the radical life decision in 2011 to give away all of his life possessions, empty his bank account, and go back to Berkeley and Oakland, California, to both work with and live among the homeless, drug-addled, and suffering. For nearly three full years, Sven slept on concrete every night on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland, becoming one with and ministering to outcasts, the disenfranchised, and the hurting and mentally ill.

In this same period of time, Sven woke early every morning to write at the Starbucks near his cold sleep spot. Reflecting on 30 years as a serial adulterer, Sven wrote the very first and highly controversial book on the burgeoning rate of female infidelity in America, I Steal Wives: A Serial Adulterer Reveals the Real Reasons More and More 'Happily Married' Women are Cheating. Stating in his book that although he only cheated on one of his ex-wives, he was cheated on by both of his ex-wives and had affairs with over 30 married or engaged women in straight or lesbian relationships. Laying himself bare and based on the very intimate and deep conversations from these 30+ affairs, Sven's book explores the under-reported and under-researched underbelly of female cheating from the perspective of a spiritual researcher looking for clues, reasons, and insights deeper than existed at the time. This book garnered Sven representation by Trident Media Group's Senior Vice President and Agent, Don Fehr (see above).

During this same productive period, Sven branded his counseling practice and method, Badass Counseling. Already attracting professional athletes, Wall Street CEOs, faculty of the top universities, and the like, by this time, his next move was inevitable.

Manhattan and TV

Falling in love with a fashion company President and long-time leader in the fast fashion world, Karen Camporeale, Sven moved from the west coast to the Tri-State/NYC area. There he established a two-office, spiritual counseling and Wall Street performance coach practice in Manhattan and Stamford, CT.

While simultaneously writing his 6th book, Sven was approached by numerous production companies and networks to create a TV show based on his Badass Counseling brand and work, as well as his unusual life experience and insights. He is presently under contract to develop a show.

External links

• Official site
• Kéri, Szabolcs; Borwein, Oguz (13 June 2016). "Faith Unchanged: Spirituality, But Not Christian Beliefs and Attitudes, Is Altered in Newly Diagnosed Parkinson's Disease". Religions. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI AG. 7 (6:73). doi:10.3390/rel7060073.
• Fenrick, David (2005-04-01). "Book Review: Spiritual but Not Religious: A Call to Religious Revolution in America by Sven Erlandson". Missiology. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. 33 (2): 245–246. Retrieved 2017-05-17.
• Eric Shuster. Where Are the Christians: The Unrealized Potential of a Divided Religion. Cedar Fort. pp. 343–. ISBN 978-1-4621-0530-4. Search this book on
• Fenrick, David (2005-07-01). "Book Review". Word & World. Luther Seminary.
• Sherer, Michael L. (2005-04-01). "Four non-literal readings of Holy Scripture". Metro Lutheran.
• McQuillar, Tayannah Lee (2016-10-08). "Polydimensional Spirituality From Antiquity to Modernity". People of Shambhala.
• Cucinell, Pamela (2017-02-21). "Re-boot Your Psyche: Spiritual, Not Religious". InsightOasis.

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