Nathan Söderblom

The lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, (1866-1931) was the founder of the oecumenical movement "Life and Work". Popular rumour says that he was at one and the same time "priest and prophet". Without being able to give sociologi cal authority to such a judgement, the author feels that there are same analogies between Söderblom's "life and work" and Weber's ideal-type of the prophet. There is an approximate ana logy between Söderblom's revivalist "conversion" and prophetic personal revelation, between the unitary vision at the origin of the "life and work" movement and the laying down of new norms by the prophet. There is also an analogy, although less clear, between the Archbishop of Uppsala's relationship with money and charis matic economy. Finally, there is an analogy between Söderblom's transcendence of his institutional power and usurpation of power characteristic of the prophet. Jean Baubérot thinks that Söder blom's case can help us to construct an ideal-type which is at one and the same time distinct from that of the prophet, and in some ways close to it: that of the religious reformer. The latter would succeed in articulating a comparatively channeled personal cha risma and a comparatively deviated functional charisma

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