Читать книгу Blessed Peacemakers - Robin Jarrell - Страница 19

15 January 1866—12 July 1931

Ecumenical Pioneer

Born in the country parish of Trönö, Sweden, Soderblöm, the son of a Lutheran pastor, was destined for a life in Christian ministry. Possessing a keen intellect, he attended the University of Uppsala and graduated in 1883 with honors in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. At the time, the academic fields of the History of Religion and the Origins of Christianity were viewed by many clergy as threats to the Christian faith. But Soderblöm believed otherwise, and as a graduate student learned Old Persian to explore whether the Old and New Testaments had been influenced by the religion of Iran. He earned his BD degree in 1892 and was ordained in March 1893.

That same year, Soderblöm experienced “a direct perception of the holiness of God

. . . , that God was far stricter than anyone could comprehend. God is a consuming fire. This apprehension was so powerful, so shattering, that [I] was unable to stay on [my] feet.” For the rest of his life, Soderblöm’s faith remained unshakable. He was “unable to doubt God in spite of everything.”

Over the next seven years, he served the Swedish Church in Paris, among the members of which were the philanthropist Alfred Nobel and the playwright August Strindberg. Soderblöm returned to Sweden in 1901 to assume a professorship in the University of Uppsala’s School of Theology. The author of several well-received books, Soderblöm was especially influential in making the field of comparative religion respectable in Christian circles. He remained at the university until his 1914 election as Primate and Archbishop of Sweden.

Soderblöm’s work as an academic and pastor led him to the conclusion that Christians “find no difficulty in freely interpreting Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount” but were much less likely “to take the master’s uncomfortable words completely seriously.” He believed the Church must engage with the world in order to bring about the gospel vision of justice that leads to peace.

During the final seventeen years of his life, Soderblöm worked toward that vision through his efforts to found a worldwide ecumenical movement. He sought the intercommunion of all Christian denominations, and in 1925 he worked tirelessly to bring together leaders from Anglican, Reformed, Orthodox, and Lutheran traditions in what came to be known as the Stockholm Conference. The ecumenical conference, motivated in part by the impotence of the divided churches to prevent World War I, advocated “a Christian internationalism equally opposed to a national bigotry and a weak cosmopolitanism” and “affirmed the universal character of the Church and its duty to preach and practice the love of the brethren.”

Soderblöm’s ecumenism earned him election to the Swedish Academy in 1925 and the Nobel Peace Prize the year before his death.