Erling Eidem

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

Life

Eidem studied at the Universities of Gothenburg and Lund in 1913 with a thesis on the imagery of Paul ( Pauli bildvärld. Bidrag till belysande av apostelns omgivning, uttryckssätt och skaplynne. 1 athletae et milites Christ ) doctorate. From 1913 to 1924 he was a lecturer in Lund, then to 1928, pastor in Gårdstånga, next in 1926 associate professor in Uppsala. In 1928 he received the full professor of New Testament in Lund. In December 1931 he was appointed as the successor of Nathan Soderblom and served as archbishop of its introduction in 1932 until his retirement in 1950 as the highest representative of the Church of Sweden. From 1940 he was also court preacher; this office he resigned in 1959.

Eidem was friendly Germany joined and took over in 1932, to help the German Protestant Church of the insulation, the Bureau of the Luther Academy in Sondershausen. In the time of the church struggle, he tried to avoid an open break with the controlled by the German Christians imperial church, but supported the Confessing Church. In 1934, he tried to act in a personal audience with Adolf Hitler. Among other things, about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Max Josef Metzger he maintained contact with circles of the German resistance.

1945 took over Eidem instead of August Marahrens its close ties to Nazism stressed the chair of the Lutheran World Convention, which became in 1947 the Lutheran World Federation. At the inaugural meeting of the World Council of Churches in 1948 he was voted one of the president.

Many universities (Tübingen 1932, Edinburgh 1933, Prague in 1937, Oxford in 1937, Delaware in 1938, Sopon 1947 Åbo 1948, Augustana College, Iceland rock USA 1948), distinguished him with an honorary doctorate.