Erling Eidem

Eidem in the 1930s

Erling Eidem (born April 23, 1880 in Gothenburg , † April 14, 1972 in Vänersborg ) was a Swedish Lutheran clergyman. He served as Archbishop of Uppsala from 1932 to 1950 .

Life

Eidem studied at the Universities of Gothenburg and Lund in 1913 with a thesis on the visual language of Paul ( Pauli bildvärld. Bidrag till belysande av apostelns omgivning, uttryckssätt och skaplynne. 1. Athletæ et milites Christi ). From 1913 to 1924 he was a lecturer at Lund University , then pastor in Gårdstånga until 1928 , and from 1926 adjunct professor at Uppsala University . In 1928 he received the full professorship for the New Testament in Lund. In December 1931 he was appointed to succeed Nathan Söderblom as Archbishop and served as the highest representative of the Swedish Church from his introduction on May 22, 1932 until his retirement in 1950 . From 1940 he was also chief court preacher ; he gave up this office only in 1959. In 1946 he baptized the current King Carl XVI. Gustaf .

Eidem had friendly ties to Germany and in 1932 took over the presidium of the Luther Academy in Sondershausen to help the German Protestant Church out of isolation . During the church struggle he tried to avoid an open break with the imperial church controlled by the German Christians , but supported the Confessing Church . In 1934 he tried to influence Adolf Hitler in a personal audience . Through Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Max Josef Metzger , among others , he kept in contact with circles of the German resistance .

In 1945, Eidem took over the chairmanship of the Lutheran World Convention in place of August Marahrens, who was burdened by his close ties to National Socialism , from which the Lutheran World Federation emerged in 1947 . At the inaugural meeting of the World Council of Churches in 1948 he was elected one of the presidents.

Oath with crosier and miter

Eidem had been married to Elisabeth Eklund, a daughter of theology professor Pehr Eklund , since 1909 .

Honors

Eidem has been awarded several high orders, including the (Swedish) Order of Seraphines , the Grand Cross of the (Danish) Dannebrog Order , the Grand Cross of the Finnish Order of the White Rose and the (Estonian) Order of the Eagle Cross (1st class). He also belonged to a number of academies and learned societies, including the Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhetssamhället i Göteborg . Numerous universities (Tübingen 1932, Edinburgh 1933, Prague 1937, Oxford 1937, Delaware 1938, Sopron 1947, Åbo 1948, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois 1948) awarded him an honorary doctorate .

literature

• Eino Murtorinne : Archbishop Eidem on the German church struggle , 1933–1934. Helsinki 1968.
• Jens Holger Schjørring : Eidem, Erling. In: Religion Past and Present . 4th edition, Volume 2, 1999, Col. 1130.
• Birgitta Brodd: Var Sveriges sak också kyrkans? Svenska kyrkans utrikespolitiska aktivitit 1930–1945. End-to-end orientation wheel analys. Skellefteå 2004.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eidem, Erling . In: Vetenskapsakademi (ed.): Sveriges statskalender för år 1940 . Almqvist & Wiksell boktryckeri AB, 1940, ZDB -ID 205099-7 , p. 617 (Swedish, runeberg.org - with evidence of Eidems awards and affiliations).

predecessor	Office	successor
Nathan Soderblom	Archbishop of Uppsala 1932–1950	Yngve Torgny Brilioth