Hermann Kutter

Hermann Kutter ( born September 12, 1863 in Bern, † March 22, 1931 in St. Gallen) was a Swiss Protestant theologian and one of the founders of the local religious socialism. He was the son of William Rudolf cutter.

Life stages

Cutter came from a pietistic home and studied Protestant theology in Basel, Bern and Berlin. In 1894 he became pastor in Vinelz on Lake Biel. With a thesis on Clement of Alexandria, he received his doctorate in 1896 in Zurich for the licentiate of theology. From 1898 until retirement in 1926, he served as pastor at Zurich Neumünster, where he initiated social projects and worked with the volunteer Armenfürsorgerin Elizabeth Luz.

He became famous overnight when he was in the font you need! (1903 ), the Social Democrats, known as " instruments of God to create a better future." With Leonhard Ragaz, the cutter took up theses, and other colleagues came from this plant from 1906, the religious and social movement in Switzerland.

The Faculty of Theology of the University of Zurich awarded Kutter 1923, the theological honorary doctorate.

Theology

Cutter was heavily influenced by the Württemberg preacher Christoph Blumhardt and joined the Christian kingdom of God - expectancy with German idealism, contemporary philosophy of life and socialist faith in the future. His own image of God stressed the " immediacy " of religious experience, the " penetration" of the finite by the dynamics of the infinite, so that God is "the only reality of life " was for him. This idea took in some ways the so-called " dialectical theology " of Karl Barth, Emil Brunner and other former German theologians already anticipated.

The history of mankind saw cutter as a " return to immediate life." This goal combined for him Christianity and socialism together. Social democracy he saw as a "tool " of the living God. In his book, you have to (1903 ) he introduced her followers is as unconscious servants of God who must preach the court and the great turning point in the world. "Nowadays ," Cutter wrote in You must, " the Social Democrats are reviled by all the people. I almost think there is something of God is made ​​manifest. " Famous last words of the book are: " God's promises fulfilled in the Social Democrats: You must. " He came, however - unlike his companion Ragaz and Barth - not in the Social Democratic Party would like it not also identified Gospel and Socialism.

Writings (selection )

  • "The world of the Father", 1901
  • " The immediate, a question of humanity ", 1902
  • "You have to! An open word to the Christian Society ", 1903
  • "The revolution of Christianity," 1908
  • "Experience". The Christmas experience of boys, 1915
  • "Addresses to the German Nation", 1916
  • " The picture book of God for young and old ", 1917
  • "In the beginning was the deed ", 1923
  • "Where is God? ", 1926
  • "Not and certainty ", 1926
  • "Plato and we", 1927
  • "My people ", 1929.
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