by By Cecile Mentor in collaboration with Andreas Saugstad
Andreas Saugstad is a Norwegian thinker who connects Christian mysticism, everyday experience, and philosophy in a personal way. At the heart of his work is a deep trust in Jesus, who, he believes, brings calm, hope, and meaning into the struggles of life. He often writes about how philosophy can empower people, helping them to live a more authentic life and to find joy in thoughtful reflection. Saugstad also isn’t afraid to challenge postmodern ideas or hyper-capitalist culture, and he defends a social justice view of society that values dignity and compassion. This interview was conducted in Oslo, Norway, in January 2025, but the message is eternal and relevant to everyone, no matter where they live.
Cecile: How do you know Jesus?
Andreas: I know Jesus Christ as the King of Eternal Love. I know Him as my Lord, Savior, and best friend. I know Him as the King of the universe, and that is why I call Him “Christ the King.” I know Him as God Incarnate, which means that He is God and man in one person. He is the “God-man.” He is the only person that can lead us to God, because He is both God and man, divine and human. I know Him in my heart, in my intellect, and in my whole body. I know Jesus Christ through the power of prayer and worship, and, because I suffer from a very serious disability, I know Him from quiet and resting prayer. I also know Jesus Christ through the Bible, and I know Him through the Christian books that I read. Jesus Christ is a living reality for me. He connects me to the meaning of life and the ultimate reality, and He is the meaning of life and the ultimate reality. I know Jesus in a very personal and intimate way, but also in a very intellectual way, because He appeals to the whole person. I know Him in a way that is more powerful than any other encounter people could imagine.
Cecile: How did you encounter Jesus? Or when did you encounter Jesus?
Andreas: Well, I was born into the Christian Church. My parents are Christians, and I was baptized as an infant. I believe that infant baptism is legitimate. I grew up with Jesus, but when I was in my early twenties, I got into a crisis, because of a love relationship that did not work out. I had a kind of breakdown. Then I gave my life radically to Jesus, and I got to know Him better than ever. I started spending a lot of time in prayer and Bible study. I started attending a Charismatic Christian church, and I became a more intense worshipper of Jesus. So, you might say that I grew up knowing Jesus, but when I was a young student, I made a radical commitment to follow Him and to study the Bible as the Word of God, and also to study the great Christian thinkers. This is something I was born into, but it is also a gradual process, and it is a process the Christian philosopher Bonaventure calls The Soul’s Journey into God. So, it is something that goes deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. There is always more to learn about Jesus, and the encounter is always reinforced. Even though there are some difficult times and some things you do not understand, you can always learn more about Him. I learn more and more about Him every day, and He always gives me a hunger to learn more about Him. So, it is a lifelong process.
Cecile: What do you think about Jesus intellectually and emotionally?
Andreas: That is a very good question. I am convinced that Jesus Christ appeals to the whole person. When we know God, the whole human being, our whole personality, is involved. First of all, I have an emotional love relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the lover of my soul. He is my best friend. I believe in the Song of Songs interpreted symbolically. He is the Bridegroom, with a capital “B,” and I am the bride. That is what we Christians are supposed to be. So, it is first of all a very intimate and personal loving relationship. But it is also a highly sophisticated intellectual relationship. As a Christian philosopher, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. I emphasize that very strongly. As the Gospel of John says in chapter 1, Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Word of God come in flesh and blood. The Greek word here, “Logos,” can also mean “Logic.” I am here inspired by the Christian philosopher Gordon Clark and his translation of the prologue in the Gospel of John. I write in my forthcoming book that Jesus Christ is the Love and Logic of God, come in flesh and blood. That is how I know Him. I know Him through His love, but also through His thoughts. That is the fantastic thing about being a Christian. It appeals to every part of your life and personality. Jesus Christ is for me my King in all dimensions of my life. I love Him at a personal, existential, and intimate level, but also at the intellectual and philosophical level. That is why I have spent a lot of my time during my life on Earth reading the Bible and the great Christian thinkers. Jesus and His emotions I encounter through prayer, rest, silence, and worship. But I also encounter Him at the intellectual and philosophical level. That is one of the reasons I love Him so much: He gives me everything. All dimensions are covered in Jesus Christ.
Cecile: This is a bonus question. What was the one time or situation where you had to admit you just felt Jesus being there? Do you have one of those moments where you just really felt that He was by your side?
Andreas: That is also a very good question. There are, of course, many powerful moments that I could talk about. There is a continuity and a stream flowing from God into me constantly over many, many years. But I must say that in 2006, I was so sick with ME [myalgic encephalomyelitis] that I felt like I could not breathe anymore. I had no strength in my body, and I felt that God started to breathe through me. I really felt that I could not breathe, and God filled me with His breath. If you look at the Greek and Hebrew words for the Holy Spirit, those words actually mean “breath,” “wind,” and “spirit,” all those things. The truth is that God breathed through me, and I regained my strength. I am convinced that I was going to die within a few minutes, but God came into my life and started to fill me with His power. Many great things happened in my life after that. That does not mean that all my troubles were just gone for the rest of my life. So, I needed other encounters as well. One of the greatest things I have experienced throughout this life is the total intimacy with God, this feeling of total intimacy with Jesus Christ. The Christian mystics often call this Unio Mystica, the mystical union. That is the most powerful thing, this constant feeling that the King of Eternal Love is living inside of me. That He is always there as an intimate, loving relationship, constantly there, constantly flowing. Sometimes we experience what John of the Cross called The Dark Night of the Soul. There may be many difficulties, but the most important thing is always that constant feeling that God is there, that God loves me, and that Jesus lives inside of me. You may say that this special experience in 2006 was the turning point. God simply saved my life. But the most powerful thing is that He sustained me, and that He has sustained me, year after year, in this loving relationship and this loving encounter in silence, rest, prayer, worship, and just an intimacy that is there, even when I am just lying down, which I am all the time, and sleeping and just resting, in the heart and arms of God.
Cecile: Thank you so much, Andreas, for your time. Thank you.
Transcribed by dingruppen.no
Andreas Saugstad’s Note: Since this interview was conducted, my health has improved quite a bit. Cecile Mentor has been my personal assistant and has helped me in this process. Both the Norwegian and English versions of my book are now published by Kolofon Forlag: Kristne notatbøker om den evige seierens kraft (2025) and Christian Notebooks on the Power of Eternal Victory (2026). The English version is available from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, and many other similar websites.
I publish this page, and I owe its author the same honesty he asked of me when he sent this interview in. I am not a religious man. The room Andreas describes, where the King of Eternal Love lives and breath arrives when the body has none, is a room I have never entered, and I will not pretend to hold its key.
Here is what a man outside that room can verify. For years I have watched what comes out of it: essays on postmodernism, on apologetics, on political theology, written by a philosopher who spends his days lying down; a book published in two languages; a mind that keeps asking for more work when the body has every excuse to stop asking for anything. William James built The Varieties of Religious Experience on testimony like this and settled on the only test available to the outsider: “By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots.”
So I read this interview the way I would read a dispatch from a country I will never visit, sent by a correspondent I have learned to trust. The geography is beyond me. The correspondent has never filed a false report. Whatever happened in 2006, a man who could not breathe is still here twenty years later, still working, still hungry to learn, and that fact asks for an explanation from every worldview, including mine.
Cecile Mentor’s questions are what good interviewing looks like: short doors that let the subject do the walking. Welcome to the page, Cecile.
Andreas, no reply is owed. A testimony asks nothing, and neither does this comment. Consider it a receipt for something safely delivered.