Archbishop Söderblom—Nobel Peace Prize Winner

World Affairs Institute

Archbishop Söderblom—Nobel Peace Prize WinnerAuthor(s): NABOTH HEDINSource: Advocate of Peace through Justice, Vol. 93, No. 3 (August, 1931), pp. 158-161Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20681592 .

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158 Advocate of Peace, August, 1931

the western hemisphere. These treaties merit the greatest consideration and it is to be hoped that they will receive the ratifi cation of all of the American Republics.

Provided both instruments are adopted by all the American Republics, these two mul tilateral treaties will serve the purpose of 420 bilateral agreements.

Archbishop S?derblom?Nobel Peace Prize Winner

By NABOTH HEDIN

Archbishop S?derblom died at Upsala, July 12. The following article written some weeks ago?-descriptive of "Scandinavia's most beloved churchman," leading exponent of church unity in the interest of universal peace, is therefore peculiarly appropriate at this time.?Editor.

AMONG

the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize during the past thirty years,

Archbishop S?derblom of Sweden is the first clergyman, and to my mind the most

surprising thing about him is that he is an archbishop. With that title I somehow associate a rather pompous, almost unreal

personality, with "the lugubrious remote ness of spiritual superiority," to quote a Swedish writer; whereas Nathan S?der

blom, or just "Nathan," as he is called by his friends in Sweden, is so human and so full of understanding for ordinary people, that one wonders how he became a prince of the church.

Friendliness

While working for his doctor's degree at the Sorbonne more than thirty years ago, he was also pastor of the Swedish Church in Paris as well as missionary to the Swedish sailors in the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk. Among his parish ioners in Paris were the officials of the Swedish Legation and such distinguished painters as Anders Zorn and Nils Forsberg; but he also had to serve as spiritual and sometimes temporal adviser to the Swedish denizens of the Latin quarter, and they often rivaled the sailors in their exigencies.

Once he helped a Swedish seamstress by inducing the wives of the Swedish diplo

mats to buy their corsets of her; and at another time he obtained a loan out of the church funds for a young Swedish dancer, so she could buy a spangled skirt. Was she not also an artist and in need of the

implements of her profession? His home was one of the Swedish art centers in Paris; and one summer he bucked up the char acter of a failing Swedish painter by spend

ing his vacation with him in a little house near Calais, at the same time getting him a commission to paint a new altar piece for the church. Begging for others is one of his habits, whether for missionaries or war

prisoners; and having been brought up in a poor country minister's home in northern

Sweden, the oldest of many children, he knows the feel of Nature's pain.

Peace Interests

Among his parishioners in Paris was also Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and

the donor of the prizes. In his address of

acceptance at Oslo, Archbishop S?derblom said he was probably the first winner of a

prize who had known the founder person ally. In fact, he officiated at his funeral. It was known that Nobel dispensed an ex

tensive charity; and it is probable that Reverend S?derblom interceded with him for worthy applicants.

"The Peace Prize was not to be an atone ment for his high explosives," said Dr.

S?derblom in his Nobel address at Oslo. "On the contrary, he believed that the per fection of them would render war so de structive as to make it impossible?a hope in which he was greviously deceived. But he also understood that real peace must come from within and that it needs to be

encouraged and fostered by positive as well as by negative means. He therefore speci fied in his will that the peace prize should be awarded to workers for the fraterniza tion of the peoples and specifically to the

organizers of international peace con

gresses." In this respect Archbishop S?derblom

has earned the honor by reason of his labors for church unity and in particular by his



Advocate of Peace, August, 1931 159

arduous efforts to get the various denomi nations together at international confer ences. Such a one was held in Stockholm in 1925; and it will be repeated in London in 1935. At the Stockholm conference he was not only the chief host, but also the guiding spirit; and though nothing revo

lutionary resulted, a permanent organization was set up, so that the machinery for the next meeting is already at work.

Universality

It is probable that no Protestant clergy man of our times has so many contacts and so many interests in all parts of the world as Archbishop S?derblom. As a tribute to his leadership and zeal for church unity he has been called sometimes the "Protestant Pope" and sometimes a "Modern Luther." Few men of our age are more learned or more effective in popular appeal. He speaks several languages fluently, and besides the doctor's degree from the Sorbonne, holds honorary degrees from nearly a dozen European universities, including Berlin and Oxford. For two years before his eleva tion to the archbishopric at Upsala, he was professor of Comparative History of Re ligions at the University of Leipzig, and his writings on professional topics have been published in several languages. He is a member of the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, and has been pro-chancellor of the University of Upsala. While in the United States in 1923, he preached at such American uni versities as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago. If there ever was an internationally minded man, Arch bishop S?derblom is one.

Romantic Color

But greater than all these honors and feats of learning is the man himself, a

picturesque, warm-blooded individual, a truly romantic figure in a mechanistic age. In the succession of bishops at Upsala, he is the 70th and the 62nd archbishop; and among his predecessors have been several colorful personalities, such as Jons Bengts son Oxenstierna, of whom I read as a boy that at the beginning of the 16th century he led a rebellion against the king. He was himself of noble birth, relatively wealthy and as administrator of the episco pal estates able to equip and order out a

respectable force of horsemen. These he commanded himself ; and dropping his sur

plice and chasuble, he appeared before the altar at the Upsala Cathedral in full armor to say the farewell mass. In battle he was defeated and came to an evil end. Other wise, he might have made himself king.

Even in my own childhood there was an

archbishop at Upsala who was a member of the national parliament; and thanks to his forceful personality he became so

powerful politically that at one time he was thought of as a candidate for the pre miership. Of his autocratic manners and unconventional repartee, there are still many amusing anecdotes current in Swe den.

Not that Archbishop S?derblom himself is a subdued personality or unconscious of the dignity of his office. On the con

trary, being a true son of the north, he likes colorful vestments and ornate rituals. In recent years he has done much to rescue the Swedish Lutheran Church service from the bleakness that in my youth threatened to rival the gloom of the Puritans. Like

most successful clergymen he is a consum mate actor and a skillful stage manager. His temperament is that of an artist. His manners and gestures lively; his voice agreeable and his personal charm irresist ible. His profession he regards as closely allied to that of the artist, and when pro fessor of theology at Upsala he urged his students to take inspiration from the work ers in the fine arts.

In America

As a university student at the age of twenty-four he visited the United States on his first trip abroad, being a Swedish dele gate to one of the first international Chris tian Student Conferences at Northfield,

Massachusetts, where he met the great American revivalist, Dwight L. Moody, whom he greatly admired. To this day he likes to sing the Sankey hymns. He also

made short visits to both Yale and Har vard. Dr. John R. Mott has been his life long friend since then. When I first saw him he was on his

second visit to the United States, a propa ganda trip in the interest of church unity and international peace. After having preached at Appleton Chapel at Harvard in the morning, he was scheduled to speak



160 Advocate of Peace, August, 1931

at Tremont Temple in Boston in the after noon. My motive for attending, I confess, was pure curiosity. I had read about his titles and his honors, but I knew nothing about the man. To tell the truth, my ex

pectations were not high. In France I had heard such orators as R?n? Viviani and Aristide Briand, to say nothing of men like Lloyd George and President Wilson.

The Swedish archbishop would probably be a stilted speaker and a bore, I thought.

But I soon had my awakening. There were some preliminary numbers of local

talent, a hymn or two, a prayer and some choral singing, and then the Archbishop himself arose. Perhaps I ought to say he

leaped into the center of the platform, with such agility did he move. He wore no

vestments; only the conventional black of a cleric, his only ornament being his epis copal insignia, a large gilt cross, dangling from his throat.

Now a Swedish-American audience any where is apt to be respectful and attentive, but not exactly exuberant or volatile, at least not in Boston; and yet the Arch

bishop had hardly spoken his first sentence, before I could feel that he had the entire crowd as though hypnotized. It was not formal oratory, and yet it was something so eloquent that it seemed bewitching.

When he had spoken for a few minutes he

suddenly began to read a formal procla mation or greeting from the king of Swe

den, and instantaneously as though the crowded Tremont Temple had been a coun

try church in Sweden, everybody rose with a sort of military vim. The speed of it sur

prised me. I had seen no sign to rise from the Archbishop. It was his tone of voice, I suppose.

He spoke first in Swedish to the old timers and then to the younger generation in English. He used no flattery; but on the contrary was at times quite severe, yet also light and humorous, for relief. I once heard General Ballington Booth address a Salvation Army meeting in Brooklyn, and I found Archbishop S?derblom his equal in

popular appeal. Like the rest, I drank in every word as though it had been a stimu

lating beverage and with every sentence, I wondered what he would say next.

"What a political spellbinder he would have been," I reflected, as my mind wan dered back to the final "Bull Moose" ral

lies in the old Madison Square Garden in New York and to the turbulent sessions I had witnessed from the press gallery in the French Chamber of Deputies. His prede cessor, Jons Bengtsson Oxenstierna, may have been a doughty leader of men; but in these days of general suffrage and repre sentative government, an orator like Dr. S?derblom has at least equal potentiality for political power. When he finished, I could not resist the impulse to climb up on the platform and shake his hand.

"When history finally decides who has most stirred the imagination of the Swedish people in recent years?Hjalmar Branting or Nathan S?derblom?" writes Dr. Lydia

Wahlstr?m in a recent issue of a Swedish

periodical, "I wonder whether it will not be the latter who will carry the decision."

In Paris, before and during the Peace

Conference, I had also met the Swedish socialist statesman, Mr. Branting, who was one of the founders of the League of Na tions ; and though I never heard him speak in public, I am inclined to agree with Dr.

Wahlstr?m. Mr. Branting may have been more intellectual, but I believe he lacked the romantic glow of Archbiship S?der blom. In 1922 the Norwegian Parliament also honored Hjalmar Branting with a

Nobel Peace Prize, but only half a share, as had been the case with K. P. Arnoldsson in

1908, the only other Swedish winner; so that Archbishop S?derblom is the first Swe dish recipient of a full award.

Backgrounds

His full name is "Lars Olof Jonathan (Nathan) S?derblam"; and he was born

January 15, 1866, near the east coast of northern Sweden in the province of Hei

singland, a rugged country with a vigorous population, that is sometimes inclined to violence. On his father's side his ancestry consists of sturdy farmers, and as far back as the records go they have been the own ers of the same land. In the Archbishop's features as well as in his temperament the

genealogists have traced other than Swed ish influences?at least a mixture of races. On the Swedish east coast are many signs of an earlier immigration from Finland, and students of racial biology believe that on his father's side there may be a Finnish strain.

His will power and determination to go ahead despite all obstacles and discourage



Advocate of Peace, August, 1931 161

ments support this idea, for the Finns are a stubborn race.

His mother, on the other hand, was not Swedish at all. Her father was a Danish

physician, who moved over to Malm?, a Swedish city opposite to Copenhagen, at the time of a cholera epidemic in 1836. His name was Blume, which in turn suggests German antecedents, while his wife was born a Koefod, which is distinctly Danish. The German background may be respon sible for the sentimental, romantic strain in the archbishop's make-up. On the other

hand, his friends remark that he is prompt in his decisions as an Englishman, energetic as an American and artistic as a French man. In his youth he was a noted singer, having a fine second tenor voice, and he still loves music and singing. Altogether he is one of the most gifted men in Swe

den, his brilliancy being so marked that once he had chosen the clerical profession, he inevitably rose to the top.

His father was also a clergyman, but he was not much known outside of his own diocese. His preaching was of the evangel istic type, and the discipline in the home

was of the strictest. But he was also eager to have his sons educated, and began teach

ing Latin to Nathan, when the latter was but five years old. In Sweden the country ministers receive part of their salary in the form of a small farm, which they often have to help cultivate themselves, and thus the future archbishop learned farming as well as Latin when he was a small boy. This

familiarity with the rude facts of country life has been a help to him not only in his sermons and appeals to the Swedish peo ple, but also in his scholarly work, par ticularly his interpretation of the Avesta

language in old Persian religious manu

scripts, on which his doctor's thesis at Paris was based. At the same time he likes modern aids to progress and was one of the first air passengers to and from Sweden?

perhaps the first bishop to fly anywhere.

When he had obtained his degree in

theology at Paris he was immediately ap pointed professor of Religious History of his own university, Upsala, in Sweden. There he stayed for twelve years and may be said to have revolutionized the instruc tion in the theological school. At the same time he served as rector of a local church and as a member of the Cathedral Chap ter. In 1912 he obtained leave of absence to serve as professor at the University of

Leipzig, an appointment by the Saxon Gov

ernment, and while there was elected Arch

bishop of Sweden on May 20, 1914.

His Main Achievement

Before he could leave Germany, the World War had broken out; but thanks to his many contacts in France as well as

England, he was able to grasp more than one side of the controversy. Hardly had he been consecrated on November 8, 1914, before he launched an appeal to the clergy of all nations to cooperate for the early termination of the war. The replies from the countries that were not neutral were

discouraging indeed. Each side took God to witness that their national cause was

just. But Archbishop S?derblom was not to be repressed. As soon as the peace treaty was signed he renewed his agitation for church cooperation in preserving peace, and in 1925 he saw his work crowned to the ex tent that delegates from every denomination in the world, except the Roman Catholic, and from practically every country met in Stockholm. "The chief result of our meet ing is that we have met," he admitted when it was over, but to get so many antagonis tic factions together was no small feat. The

Nobel Peace Prize is partly a reward for this work; but it is also a token of the neigh borly feeling that now prevails between Sweden and Norway, and no other Swede so well symbolizes the irenic aspirations of his country as Archbishop Nathan S?der blom.



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Archbishop Söderblom—Nobel Peace Prize Winner