Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft

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Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft, left (1964)

Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft (born September 20, 1900 in Haarlem , † July 4, 1985 in Geneva ) was a Dutch Reformed theologian. He was the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches .

Life

Visser 't Hooft, the son of a lawyer, studied Protestant theology at the University of Leiden from 1918 to 1923 . In 1924 he became secretary of the YMCA World Federation in Geneva and in 1925 he took part in the Stockholm World Conference of Churches . In 1928 he was in Leiden with a thesis on the theology of the Social Gospel in the USA Dr. theol. PhD. In 1931 he became general secretary of the Christian World Student Union . In 1938 he became general secretary of the provisional committee in Utrecht , which was supposed to bring about a merger of the Movement for Practical Christianity and the Movement for Faith and Order to form the World Council of Churches . When it was founded in Amsterdam in 1948 , Visser 't Hooft was elected Secretary General. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1966.

Theologically, Visser 't Hooft was strongly influenced by Karl Barth . The center of his ecumenical work was the dialogue between the churches, which must always answer to the social situation. With Barth he understood the task of theology as a critical self-reflection of the church.

During the time of National Socialism he supported the Confessing Church in Germany. In the spring of 1944 in Geneva, in the house of Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft, the representatives of resistance groups from nine European countries met several times in order to achieve a federative, united Europe as the only logical model after the National Socialist era .

He was also the head of an ecumenical delegation that received the newly founded EKD's confession of guilt in Stuttgart in October 1945 . He had suggested this explanation in advance. In his autobiography, he recalled how it came about:

“How should we achieve the resumption of full ecumenical relationships? The obstacles to a new community could only be removed if the German side found a clear word. Pierre Maury finally advised us to say to the Germans: 'We have come to ask you to help us, to help you.' When we arrived in the largely destroyed Stuttgart, we heard that a special service would be held in the Markuskirche that evening , with Bishop Wurm , Pastor Niemöller and Bishop Dibelius to speak. Niemöller preached on Jeremiah 14: 7–11: 'Oh Lord, our iniquities deserve it; but help for your name's sake! ' It was a powerful sermon. Niemöller said that it is not enough to blame the Nazis, the church must also confess its guilt. "

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de/sixcms/media.php/1290/1966.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolph; Visser 't Hooft, Willem A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch Reformed theologian, ecumenical figure
DATE OF BIRTH 20th September 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Haarlem
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1985
Place of death Geneva