John Raleigh Mott

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Raleigh Mott

John Raleigh Mott (born May 25, 1865 in Livingstone Manor ( Sullivan County ) in the US state of New York , † January 31, 1955 in Orlando , Florida ) was secretary of the Christian Association of Young People (YMCA), President of the YMCA World Federation and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1946.

life and work

Early years and education

John Raleigh Mott's family moved with him to near Postville, Iowa soon after he was born . As a child, Mott often marveled at the hissing steam locomotives on the newly built railway line. His father was the head of the church. He gave up agriculture and devoted himself entirely to the timber industry . Father Mott, who had English and Dutch ancestry, found his Christian faith through the YMCA Secretary of Iowa, JW Dean. His wife Elmira Dodge was an avid Methodist and was considered a benevolent, cheerful person. Mott junior was eager to learn and known for his pranks. He helped in his father's business, including the administration. The station board gave John R. Mott railroad maps of the United States, which he studied diligently, and the local Methodist minister provided John with good literature.

At the age of 18, John R. Mott attended Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa . He had a special gift in the art of speaking. He eagerly studied the speeches of the politicians. At a young age he vigorously opposed the government's view that the Chinese should be banned from immigration.

John R. Mott is portrayed as strong, with red hair, brown eyes and freckles. He enjoyed the sport very much and could often be seen rowing a boat on the river. In the fall of 1883, when he was 18, he began to work for the local Christian Association . At that time he was still unsure about his future job.

At 20 he began studying at the Cornell University in Ithaca (New York) in Law and Economics . He was troubled by a spiritual lecture by cricket player Edward Kynaston Studd, who later became Mayor of London . In conversation, Studd recommended that he should primarily seek the kingdom of God. Studd immediately recognized Mott's great talent. While still a student, Mott decided to become a preacher and dedicate his life to the service of Christianity . He was influenced by intensive study of the Bible and biographical accounts of John Wesley and Dwight Lyman Moody . However, he was never ordained for an ecclesiastical office , but remained a layman throughout his life .

In the summer of 1886, Mott attended a large conference organized by Moody in Northfield, attended by 250 students from 89 American universities and foreigners from Europe and Asia. This event left a lasting impression on many. John R. Mott was among those who were to be devoted to the Gentile mission. 99 signed a vow to this effect. As a result, Mott was put in charge of the local Christian Association , which soon grew to 330 members.

YMCA, student association, mission association

In 1886, John R. Mott reported to his father that through his position as chairman of the "Christian Young Men Association" he used YMCA for the spiritual needs of 800 students. Cornell's YMCA built a homestead under his direction, for which a New York publisher alone had donated $ 50,000. In 1887 Mott began preaching in various churches in Ithaca, which he did with enthusiasm. Shortly before graduation, he accepted the position of travel agent for the American Student Christian Associations . He was therefore later called the squirrel of evangelism .

After graduating from Cornell University in Ithaca in 1888, Mott devoted himself to coordinating national and international student missionary associations and in the same year became student secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). In 1893, on behalf of Dwight L. Moody, John R. Mott organized the Northfield Student Conference that had formerly played such an important role in his own development. From Moody he learned that in addition to working with thousands of listeners, one-on-one interviews should not be forgotten. Mott was in Europe for the first time in 1891 at the YMCA World Conference in Amsterdam.

With his wife, John R. Mott began his first world tour on July 20, 1895, which began in England and lasted a full two years. The English were initially reserved, but then let themselves be inspired by his captivating and fiery message. 2,000 young people came together in Edinburgh , 1,800 of them students. John R. Mott envisaged the establishment of a Christian student union. He was inspired by the YMCA World Federation, which was founded on the occasion of the World Conference of the Evangelical Alliance in Paris in 1855. In Sweden he was received by the later Lutheran Archbishop Nathan Söderblom . His ideas met with open ears, and the World Christian Student Union was founded in 1895 with representatives from American and five Nordic universities .

In Switzerland, on September 23, 1895, 60 mainly Welsh students came to the Mott meeting in Sainte-Croix VD , including the young Henri Guisan . The free-spirited press teased that Mott would make Salvation Army- style confessions. The future Zurich theology professor Leonhard Ragaz judged Mott that he had the energy to set the will in motion. He stated that especially among intellectuals who suffer from overeducation and moral exhaustion, Mott brought his lively, whole, full and strong personality, which was worth more than a brilliant conference. The then youthful and religious-socialist embossed Karl Barth was first with sharp words against Mott. He later judged him that Mott was what he and others would only talk about. Mott wants to lead humanity to Jesus. Mott also met Eastern European students in Switzerland. a. were shaped by nihilism, agnosticism and whose image of Christianity would perceive formalism, ceremonies and superstition.

From 1895 to 1897 Mott attended 144 colleges in 24 countries, including Australia, China and Japan. During this world tour and in its wake, 70 Christian student organizations were founded or revitalized.

From 1895 to 1929 Mott was general secretary of the Christian Students' Union, which he co-founded. At the same time he held the general secretariat of the YMCA until 1920 and was head of the American section of the federal government from 1915 to 1928. From 1926 to 1937 he was President of the YMCA World Federation.

In April 1912 an employee of the British shipping company White Star Line , who was interested in Mott's work, offered him and one of his employees a free passage for the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic . The two men refused and instead took the Lapland to New York. When they arrived in New York and heard of the accident, they are said to have looked at each other in amazement and said, "The Lord seems to have a lot of work for us."

Some of the new Christian associations did not survive the onslaught of the First World War, or only survived in a damaged manner. The YMCA was all the more a bulwark that, together with the Red Cross in Geneva, set up the welfare for prisoners of war, the search for missing persons and soldiers' rooms during the war. In the judgment of US President William Howard Taft, Mott's aid organization was one of the greatest peace achievements in the war. For this, 250 million US dollars were collected, a gigantic sum at the time. In the 1916 conflict between the United States and Mexico, Mott was used as a mediator, a war was averted. Mott turned down the post of US ambassador to China because he wanted to remain an ambassador of Christ. After the war he made every effort to rebuild the world alliances of YMCA, Christian students and missions. In 1920 Mott called an international Christian student conference in Beatenberg , where the representatives of the previously warring nations shook hands. In Switzerland, student residences were created primarily for foreign students with American money. In 1920 Mott called a mission board conference at the castle in Crans-près-Céligny .

“When you are ready to serve, fight ignorance, narrow-mindedness, indolence, and indifference. Be obedient to the call and become men, not dolls with messy passions. Immerse yourself in God's word and persevere in prayer until the hour of decision strikes for you. "

- John R. Mott : Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott.

International missionary work and ecumenism

Two years after his pivotal Northfield spiritual experience, Mott inspired the Mission Volunteer Movement whose motto was: Evangelizing the World in This Century. Result of this was u. a. that Mott convened a world missions conference in Edinburgh for June 1910 , and was unanimously elected to chair it by around 1,200 delegates (189 of them Methodists) from 160 mission societies. As a result, various national associations were founded. Between 1900 and 1941 he traveled to a number of nations to promote international missionary work. The distance of his travels is about seventy times the circumference of the earth.

The Edinburgh conference laid the foundation for the international coordination of missionary work and the modern ecumenical movement, and it was decided to found an International Mission Council, which should be composed of representatives of national councils. This plan was implemented in 1921 and John Raleigh Mott was elected the first president of the association. Even with the universal church conferences of Lausanne in 1927 and Oxford in 1937 led Mott presided.

In 1946 he received the Nobel Peace Prize together with Emily Greene Balch for his commitment to the ecumenical movement and his work in international missionary service. John Raleigh Mott died at the age of 89 in his retirement home in Florida .

Efforts to promote ecumenism culminated in 1948 with the establishment of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam , at which 147 churches from 47 nations were represented. The 83-year-old Mott was appointed honorary president.

“... Let us always be certain that God unfolds his omnipotence as soon as man's strength is exhausted ... But what makes my heart happy in these tragic and difficult hours is above all, because Christ is greater than ever. Is that something new? No, because He is the same yesterday, today and in all eternity ... He is the river of life, the creative source of the greatest changes, the center of the lost and the greatest hope of the World Council of Churches! "

- John R. Mott at the World Churches Conference in Amsterdam 1948 : Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott.

literature

Web links

Commons : John Raleigh Mott  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 7-11.
  2. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 11–12.
  3. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 12-13.
  4. ^ Charles Howard Hopkins: John R. Mott, 1865-1955. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1979, p. 14.
  5. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 13–15 and p. 17.
  6. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 17.
  7. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 19–24.
  8. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 24–26.
  9. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, pp. 26–29.
  10. ↑ http://www.wscfglobal.org/ (accessed on: June 9, 2012).
  11. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 30 f.
  12. ^ Charles Howard Hopkins: John R. Mott, 1865-1955. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1979, pp. 156-197.
  13. ^ Charles Howard Hopkins: John R. Mott, 1865-1955. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1979, pp. 472-473.
  14. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 39 and p. 50–58.
  15. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 63.
  16. ^ Karl Heinz Voigt: Free churches in Germany (19th and 20th centuries). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-374-02230-8 , p. 134.
  17. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 5 and p. 46f.
  18. ^ Charles Howard Hopkins: John R. Mott, 1865-1955. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1979, pp. 696-697.
  19. ^ Alfred Stucki: John R. Mott. The great Christian leader. Heinrich Majer, Basel 1955, p. 89.
personal data
SURNAME Mott, John Raleigh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Methodist theologian, President of the YMCA World Federation
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Livingstone Manor , New York
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1955
Place of death Orlando , Florida