New ways

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under New Paths (disambiguation) .

New Ways - Journal of Religious Socialism is a monthly Swiss journal, published by the “Association of Friends of New Ways ”. The journal, which is characterized by great continuity, publishes articles by various authors on spirituality, theological and ethical questions, comments on global challenges and regularly on domestic political issues.

history

The journal Neue Ways was founded in 1906 by a group of socially committed theologians and pastors in Zurich, including Benedikt Hartmann , Rudolf Liechtenhan , Paul Wernle and Leonhard Ragaz . Under the influence of Ragaz, the papers for religious work (so the subtitle) came closer to the labor movement. This course was supported by the editors Jean Matthieu (1912–1921), Lukas Stückelberger (1912–1921) and later Robert Lejeune (1920–1924). During the First World War, while social democracy fell into nationalism, Lenin attested the New Ways a radical pacifism.

Ragaz was the sole editor of the magazine from 1924 until his death in 1945. He led the New Ways as an organ of the Religious and Social Association of Switzerland and was financially supported by the Association of Friends of the New Ways . Ragaz campaigned for anti-militarism and international community service, advocated a prophetic Christianity that set the kingdom of God against religious consolidation, and advocated a democratic and cooperative socialism against " Bolshevik communism by violence". In the New Ways he launched his initiative “Disarmament as a Mission of Switzerland” (1924), while his wife Clara Ragaz-Nadig documented the disarmament activities of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom . The New Ways warned of the fascist danger in Europe early on and called for the League of Nations to be strengthened in order to secure peace. From 1933 onwards, refugees from Germany were supported.

During the Second World War, the magazine was subject to prior censorship because of its alleged anti-neutrality and because it jeopardized "good relations with foreign countries" , whereupon Ragaz sent it to his subscribers in semi-illegal programs for about three years.

After Leonhard Ragaz's death at the end of 1945, Paul Trautvetter and Hugo Kramer took over the editorial office, but fell out over the assessment of the Soviet Union and the role of anti-communism . As a result, the religious-social association split up, and for years two organizations of religious socialism existed in parallel in Switzerland. Between 1948 and 1969, the left-wing socialist Hugo Kramer was a defining figure in the New Ways . Other editors besides Kramer were Bruno Balscheit (1948–1951), Carmen Weingartner-Studer (1951–1956), Albert Böhler (1951–1956), Paul Furrer (1957–1977) and Berthe Wicke (1957–1977).

In 1977 the Swiss Christians for Socialism , founded on Chilean suggestion, decided to work on the New Ways ; Willy Spieler and Albert Böhler took over the editing. In 1980 it was given a new subtitle: Contributions to Christianity and Socialism . Between 1982 and 2007 Willy Spieler managed the magazine alone, supported by an editorial committee. In the new ways important texts were liberation theology and feminist theology published, and players made it the site of a unpolemical discussion of the Swiss Left "on left and green party lines." The theoretical and practical discussion on self-administration was particularly encouraged . In 1989 the Religious-Social Association and the Christians for Socialism merged to form the Religious-Socialist Association of German-speaking Switzerland, which has remained associated with the magazine to this day. On the 100th anniversary in 2006, both Swiss state churches paid tribute to the importance of the New Ways and the religious-social movement as the “ leaven ” of official Christianity, and the journalist Michael Meier called the magazine a “social-ethical competence center for critics of globalization”.

From 2008 it had a new subtitle: Articles on Religion and Socialism , from 2018: Religion. Socialism. Criticism .

literature

• Hadrien Buclin: Les intellectuels de gauche dans la Suisse de l'après-guerre (1945–1968). Thèse de doctorat, Université de Lausanne, 2015, OCLC 995614149 .
• Willy Spieler , Stefan Howald , Ruedi Brassel-Moser : For the freedom of the word. New ways through a century in the mirror of the magazine of religious socialism. TVZ, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-290-17415-6 .

Web links

Wikisource: New Paths: Sheets for Religious Work  - Sources and Full Texts

• Website of the magazine
• History of the magazine Neue Wege on the magazine's website

Remarks

1. ↑ Lenin: Works. Volume 21. Berlin 1960, p. 81 f.
2. ↑ It is quoted from the letter of the “Pressekontrolle Bezirk Zürich”. The Territorial Command 6. Suter ”of January 9, 1940. Leonhard Ragaz: About the freedom and dignity of Switzerland. In: New ways. Volume 34, 4/1940, pp. 164–211, here: p. 165 ( digitized version ; collects “some documents from the struggle that broke out between the 'New Ways' and the army's press staff”, p. 164).
3. ^ NW discussion with Monika Stocker, Hansjörg Braunschweig, Thomas Heilmann and Jo Lang. The Left in Switzerland after the elections in 1987. In: New ways. Volume 82, 1/1988, p. 14 ( digitized version ).
4. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger . Zurich, November 4, 2006.
5. ↑ Current Articles. In: New ways. May 1, 2018, accessed July 2, 2018 .