Nathan Söderblom

Swedish archbishop and social reformer

• Born: January 15, 1866
• Birthplace: Trönö, Sweden
• Died: July 12, 1931
• Place of death: Uppsala, Sweden

Söderblom, as archbishop of Uppsala, was a principal promoter of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in promoting international understanding through the ecumenical movement. He is also noted for his work on behalf of war prisoners and displaced persons following World War I. A prolific writer, he emphasized the need to reunite Christianity and make it a practical, humanitarian movement.

Early Life

Nathan Söderblom (SOH-dehr-bloom) was born in Trönö, Gävleborg’s Län, Sweden. At an early age, he determined to pursue the same calling as his father, a Lutheran pastor. He also chose to shorten his name and became known as Nathan for the rest of his life. Söderblom earned his licentiate of theology at the University of Uppsala. Consecrated a Lutheran minister in 1893, he served briefly as chaplain of the Uppsala Mental Hospital. In 1894, he began graduate studies at the famed Sorbonne in Paris, where he earned the highest academic honor granted by the Protestant theological faculty. He was the only Swede ever to be so honored. His specialties were comparative religions with emphasis on the Persian Zoroastrianism. At the Sorbonne he was influenced by the liberal Protestants, especially by Auguste Sabatier, under whom he studied. Because of this influence, he became interested in the ecumenical movement and a reunification of the Christian denominations.

Söderblom was able to pursue his studies by serving as pastor of the Swedish legation in Paris from 1894 to 1901. Among those who consistently supported the Swedish church in Paris was Alfred Nobel, the inventor-philanthropist, who was often referred to as an atheist. The two men became close friends, and Nobel donated generously to the Swedish congregation. When Nobel died in 1896 at his villa in San Remo, the youthful Söderblom officiated at the funeral services.

Life’s Work

On receiving his doctorate of theology in 1901, Söderblom returned to Sweden to become a professor of the history of religions at the University of Uppsala. From 1912 to 1914, he was an instructor at the University of Leipzig. In 1914, he was nominated to become archbishop of Uppsala and primate of the Church of Sweden, the most prestigious ecclesiastical position in Lutheranism. As archbishop he transformed the archdiocese at Uppsala into a center of world ecumenism. Together with the Archdiocese of Canterbury, England, the Archdiocese of Uppsala was the ecclesiastical center of world Protestantism.

The terrors of World War I occupied the first four years after Söderblom became archbishop. Because of the years spent in France and Germany, Söderblom was intimately acquainted with many of the battle sites, and he grieved over the loss of lives. An outspoken pacifist and proponent of Christian unity, he intervened on behalf of war prisoners and displaced persons. This was the beginning of his many efforts to unite Christianity for the purpose of saving lives and promoting social justice.

Even before the war began, Söderblom actively helped form the so-called General World Union of Churches for International Understanding. It closed with the outbreak of war. Undaunted, he tried to continue by working with a Norwegian and Danish bishop. A planned conference for 1917 failed to materialize, however, so a purely Nordic Conference was held at Uppsala from September 14 to 16, 1917. At this conference, a manifesto, clearly inspired by Söderblom, was drafted and issued. The churches, it declared, must work to remove the causes of war, and each religion must strive to understand the differences of other beliefs. In 1920, he managed to convoke an international meeting in Geneva, where the foundations were laid for an ecumenical conference in Stockholm. After five years of very careful preparation, the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work was convened. Nearly six hundred delegates from thirty-one Protestant and Orthodox church communities in thirty-seven different nations attended. The Roman Catholic Church did not attend.

Although interested in the ecumenical Faith and Order movement begun in Scotland in 1910, Söderblom insisted that the Stockholm Conference be separate from the World Conference held at Lausanne in 1927. “Doctrine divides Service unites,” he wrote, and he intended the churches to provide the necessary leadership to encourage social justice, not to squabble over doctrinal traditions. After the Stockholm Conference, a continuation committee was named to pursue the objectives of the conference and plan for later meetings. Söderblom was its first president. It was this committee that in 1930 became a permanent organization with the title, the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work.

Despite his demanding tasks as archbishop, Söderblom found time to write in the fields of theology, church history, the history of religions, and the reinterpretations of the life and thought of Martin Luther. His numerous publications included Religionproblemst inom Katolicism och Protestantism (1910; the religious problem of Catholicism and Protestantism) and Humor och melankoli och andra Lutherstudier (1919; humor and melancholy with other studies of Luther). Although he was definitely high church, his writings show considerable liberal influence. He firmly espoused ecumenism, or the reunion of all Christianity to meet the social justice, economic, and civil rights needs of the world as well as to establish international peace. All religion depended on revelation, he wrote, but the “reality of revelation,” as he perceived it, was the manifestation of godliness through the genius and leadership abilities of extraordinary people in all civilizations. Finally, he saw the practical application of Christianity to the needs of modern man as the “social justice” for which he worked.

Because of his unfailing determination to promote international understanding through the church, Söderblom was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930. He was also invited to deliver the famous Gifford lectures on natural theology at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1931. A brief illness led to his death on July 12, 1931, only a few weeks after those lectures.

Significance

Söderblom was granted the highest academic honors at the Sorbonne, and, when he returned to Sweden, he became the first to occupy the chair of chief professor in the religious history department. As archbishop, he also served as vice chancellor of the University of Uppsala. Söderblom’s influence was not restricted to Sweden or Scandinavia. The 1925 Stockholm Conference was a seminal conference for the international ecumenical movement, and he was a dominant figure at that meeting. As one of the founding fathers and pioneers, he sought cooperation of all Christian denominations in solving social problems and in serving society without consideration of doctrinal differences. Largely because of his work, the Universal Christian Council on Life and Work came into being. This movement was one of two that in 1948 merged in the World Council of Churches.

Söderblom did not perceive himself as merely archbishop of Uppsala; his parish was the world. He envisioned a united Christendom providing social justice and international peace. For these efforts, he was the first Swedish churchman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The reason for his being so honored was his promotion of international understanding through the church. His prominent role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Sweden was given recognition by his election to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1921. Ironically, this academy was one of those prescribed by Nobel as the selectors of the Nobel Prize recipients. The contributions of the archbishop were recognized before the Nobel Prize was awarded, for he was accorded honorary doctorates from eleven universities and membership in numerous learned societies.

Bibliography

Br†kenhielm, Carl Reinhold, and Gunhild Winqvist Holman, eds. The Relevance of Theology, Nathan Söderblom, and the Development of an Academic Discipline. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala Universitet, 2002. Lectures and addresses delivered at a 2002 conference at which participants discussed the relevance of Söderblom’s life and work to theology scholars, churches, and the wider community.

Curtis, C. J. Contemporary Protestant Thought. New York: Bruce, 1970. This work presents an excellent definition of Söderblom’s ecumenical theology. It presents a foundation for the so-called Life and Work movement of practical Christianity that became Söderblom’s preoccupation. The work includes a brief biographical sketch.

Duff, Edward. The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches. London: Longmans, Green, 1954. This is an excellent source on the history, development, and goals of the World Council of Churches. Söderblom’s stellar role as a pioneer in establishing the Conference of Life and Work is put in context with the larger World Council, or ecumenical movement.

Kaplan, Flora, comp. Nobel Prize Winners: Charts, Indexes, Sketches. Chicago: Nobelle, 1941. This collection of short biographies includes a brief sketch of Söderblom and the reasons for which he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. It includes a complete (through 1938) listing of all prizewinners.

Nobel Foundation. Nobel: The Man and His Prizes, edited by H. Schuck et al. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. This book presents a history of Nobel, his bequests, and the selection process of recipients of this coveted award. It includes the brief relationship between Söderblom and Nobel. Both desired world peace: Nobel through the encouragement of peacemakers and Söderblom through the Church. Details the actions and contributions that earned the archbishop the nomination for the Peace Prize.