SÖDERBLOM, NATHAN

SÖDERBLOM, NATHAN (1866–1931). Swedish churchman, theologian, Luther scholar, ecumenical pioneer, and historian of religions. Lars Olaf Johnathan Söderblom was born into a deeply religious family in Trönö, Hälsingland Province, Sweden. His father, a fervent evangelical preacher, was pastor of the Trönö parish and led his family in a life of devotion, study, discipline, and hard work. In 1883 young Nathan entered the university at Uppsala as a candidate in classical and Oriental languages but later changed to work for a degree in divinity. The theological faculty in Uppsala at the time was immovably conservative and literalist; it had been little touched by the German theology reigning on the European continent. Söderblom in consequence was disappointed with his divinity studies.

The outstanding events of the university years for him were the discovery of biblical criticism, his acquaintance with the theology of Albrecht Ritschl, and his participation in the Student Missionary Society. The new biblical criticism posed an acute crisis for Söderblom; while he enthusiastically welcomed its methods and insights, it threatened the conservative Swedish view of the Bible as a literal revelation. Söderblom resolved his difficulties through Ritschl's broad view of a dynamic revelation not confined to the literal words of the book. His attitudes in these matters earned him a reputation as a dangerous liberal, an accusation that would plague him all his life and that probably accounts for his failure to become a docent upon graduation. It was his participation in the Student Missionary Society and a consuming concern for Christian missions that first stimulated Söderblom's interest in non-Christian religious experience and laid the basis for his work as historian of religions.

In 1893 Söderblom was ordained and served for a time as chaplain in the Uppsala mental hospital, but in 1894 he accepted an appointment as pastor to the Swedish legation in Paris. In addition to pastoral duties, Söderblom cemented a close relationship with the Protestant Theological Faculty of the Sorbonne. Auguste Sabatier, A. and J. Réville, and Léon Marillier in particular exerted strong influence on his thinking, and he continued the study of Iranian languages that he had begun earlier. In 1899 he published in Paris Les fravashis, a short but erudite study of a type of spiritual beings in ancient Iranian religion; his Sorbonne doctoral dissertation, La vie future d'après le Mazdéisme, followed in 1901, establishing him among the leading Iranologists of Europe.

In 1901 Söderblom was invited to a professorship in Uppsala. The chair was in theology, but under Söderblom it became, practically speaking, one in the history of religions. The strong Swedish tradition in history of religions had its beginning with this appointment. Söderblom was a popular teacher who also rapidly became a decisive influence in the church as a leader of a general revival of religion and theology in Sweden. In 1912 he was appointed to the new chair of the history of religions in Leipzig which he held jointly with that of Uppsala. His most important contribution to the theory of the nature of religion, Gudstrons Uppkomst (2d ed., Stockholm, 1914), and his books The Nature of Revelation, translated by Frederic C. Pamp (Oxford, 1933), and Natürliche Theologie und allgemeine Religionsgeschichte (Stockholm, 1913) belong to these years. The German connections also enabled him to carry out his work of reconciliation among Christians of the belligerent nations during World War I.

In 1914 the Swedish king chose Söderblom to replace J. A. Ekman as archbishop of Sweden. The first four years of his tenure coincided with World War I, and even while the fighting continued, Söderblom pleaded for a conference between Christians of the two sides. His interest in ecumenical matters had begun in his student days, and it continued through the Lambeth Conference of 1905 and the agreement between Anglicans and Swedish Lutherans concluded in 1922. The culmination for Söderblom was the great Stockholm conference of 1925 on life and work, of which he was a principal mover. His work among the combatants in World War I and his efforts toward Christian unity were the principal bases for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize that he received in 1930. The last of many honors bestowed on him was the Gifford lectureship for 1931–1932. He delivered the lectures for 1931, published as The Living God (1933; reprint, 1962), but he died before he could complete the series.

The central element in Söderblom's thought, as apparent in his work both as theologian and as historian of religions, was the concept of revelation. He held that revelation is dynamic, not confined to the words of the Bible but also to be seen in nature, history, and genius. Neither is it the exclusive possession of Christianity, for he believed there to be revelation wherever genuine religion is found. Nevertheless, he also held to the inherent religious superiority of Christianity over other traditions and believed that he could prove this superiority through purely disinterested and scientific study of the history of religions. His effort was thus to gain a concrete grasp of the world's religions in all their historical diversity and richness but also to demonstrate the merits of Christianity as the climax of the revelation of the living God to human beings.

Bibliography

There is a full-scale biography of Söderblom by his most famous student, Tor Andrae, Nathan Söderblom (Uppsala, 1932). A short biographical account, as well as a preliminary bibliography of Söderblom's writings, is to be found in Nathan Söderblom in Memoriam, edited by Nils Karlström (Stockholm, 1931). Söderblom's theological thought is ably expounded in Charles J. Curtis's Nathan Söderblom, Theologian of Revelation (Chicago, 1966).

New Sources

Bråkenhielm, C.R., and G.W. Hollman. The Relevance of Theology: Nathan Söderblom and the Development of an Academic Discipline: Proceedings from a Conference held in Uppsala, April 14–16, 2002. Uppsala, 2002.

Hallencreutz, Carl F. "The American Influence on Nathan Soderblom and the Legacy of His Ecumenical Strategy" Svensk Missionstidskrift 85, no. 1 (1997): 16–23.

Sharpe, E.J. Nathan Söderblom and the Study of Religion. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1990.

Charles J. Adams (1987)

Revised Bibliography