Rom in Schweden? Die katholische Offensive im ökumenisch-nationalen Kontext
In the literature on the Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, his critical attitude towards the Roman Catholic church has been suppressed. To Söderblom, the opposite sides of the Christian church were not the Evangelical and the Catholic confessions, but the Ecumenical world movement and the Roman C...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
2005
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| In: |
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
Year: 2005, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 13-27 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
Non-electronic |
| Summary: | In the literature on the Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, his critical attitude towards the Roman Catholic church has been suppressed. To Söderblom, the opposite sides of the Christian church were not the Evangelical and the Catholic confessions, but the Ecumenical world movement and the Roman Catholic world Church. In Sweden, Catholic and other dissenters were legally accepted in 1860. Swedish priests and converts were soon eager to give the Church a Swedish impression. In 1921, Archbishop Söderblom had consecrated the Lutheran Archbishop Kärlis Irbe in St. Jacob's Church in Riga. When the concordate between the Latvian republic and the Holy See in 1922 led to the transformation of the St. Jacob's Church to the Catholics Söderblom critisized this 'most cunning and ruthless manifestation of the Counter-Reformation'. In the middle of these Swedish protests, Cardinal Willem van Rossum came on visitation to Sweden. This, too, led to heavy attacks on the Roman Church in the Swedish press. The Catholic ' offensive' was understood as an expression of aggressive missionary evangelism and as a threat against national identity. In order to collect money for the Nordic Mission, Cardinal van Rossum published a booklet, in which he criticized the Protestant churches, and sometimes in ridiculous ways. In 1925 Bishop Müller lectured in Munich on the Catholic Mission in Sweden, picturing the discrimination of the Swedish Catholics. These activities, meant an effort to establish a Catholic Scandinavism were understood as nothing less than a declaration of war against the Church of Sweden. The answer of Archbishop Söderblom was a new emphasis on 'evangelical catholicity' as a contrast to Roman catholicity. 'Catholic' meant comprehensive, universal, and ecumenical. To Söderblom, the Church of Sweden was identical to the medieval Church in Sweden, even though he maintained Protestant criticisms against the contemporary Roman Church. Thus, the Stockholm conference in 1925 may be interpreted as a Pan-Protestant counter-offensive. Only in his last years was Söderblom's ecumenical interest widened beyond the theology of Catholic Modernists to that of more orthodox catholic thinkers. It was in 1941 that a Catholic Bishop took part in an open Church conference of the Church of Sweden, and during and after World War II, a more ecumenical attitude gradually was accepted. In this change of mood national integrity remained a decisive factor, and the debate in Parliament on the abolition of the prohibition of monasteries in 1951, made it clear that Rome in Sweden was gradually accepted, while Rome over Swedish citizens still was rejected. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-808X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
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