Willem Adolph Visser 't Hooft (20 September 1900 – 4 July 1985) was a Dutch theologian who became the first secretary general of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

in 1948 and held this position until his retirement in 1966.

Biography

Visser 't Hooft was born in Haarlem, in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and in his early adult years, was involved in the Dutch student Christian movement and soon became involved internationally. In 1925, while on his first trip to the United States with John R. Mott, he became interested in the "social gospel" movement. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on it at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in 1928. From October 1929 (vol. 22, no. 4) through the third quarter, 1939 (vol. 32, no. 3), he served as editor of ''The Student World'', a quarterly magazine published in Geneva by the World's Student Christian Federation. The magazine's motto was ''Ut Omnes Unum Sint''. Visser 't Hooft was active in the resistance against

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

. His apartment in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland became the meeting place for members of the German Resistance against the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

between March and April 1944.Frédéric Stephan
''Ideas about Europe in the German and French Resistance to National Socialism from 1933/40 to 1945''
(PDF) Dissertation in two files (abstract in English at the end of file 2), pp. 72-73 University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Humanities. Retrieved July 9, 2010 Hilda Monte and Hannah Bertholet were among the 15-16 people from countries all over Europe who met to discuss international resistance to

. In 1938, Visser 't Hooft was named the first secretary general of the WCC, though he was only 38 at the time. He wrote 15 books in several different languages and numerous articles and some 50,000 letters.

Recognition

In 1961, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine did a cover story on Visser 't Hooft and the World Council of Churches. In 1967, ''een christelijke HBS met 5-jarigen cursus'' school in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

was renamed and called after Visser 't Hooft, the ( Christelijk Lyceum Dr. W.A. Visser 't Hooft).

Decorations and awards

* 1958 - Grand Cross of Merit with Star and Sash of the Federal Republic of Germany * 1959 - Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

* 1966 -

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (English: ''German Publishers and Booksellers Association''), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in ...

(with

Augustin Bea Augustin Bea, S.J. (28 May 1881 – 16 November 1968), was a German Jesuit priest, cardinal, and scholar at the Pontifical Gregorian University, specialising in biblical studies and biblical archaeology. He also served as the personal confessor ...

) * 1967 - Honorary Citizen of the City of Geneva * 1968 - Honorary Chairman of the World Council of Churches * 1975 - Augustin Bea Prize * 1982 - Four Freedoms Award (category of Religious Freedom) * 15 honorary degrees, including those of the theological faculties of

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and Harvard.

Selected literary works

*''The Background of the Social Gospel in America'', Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1928. *''Anglo-Catholicism and Orthodoxy: A Protestant View'', London: SCM Press, 1933. *''Students Find the Truth to Serve: The Story of the World's Student Christian Federation 1931-1935'', Geneva: World's Student Christian Federation,

935 Year 935 ( CMXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Arnulf I ("the Bad") of Bavaria invades Italy, crossing through the Upper ...

* Visser 't Hooft, W.A. and J. H. Oldham, ''The Church and Its Function in Society'', New York: Willett, Clark & Company, 1937. *''The Kingship of Christ: An Interpretation of Recent European Theology'', New York: Harper, 1948. *''The Renewal of the Church'', Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956. *''Rembrandt and the Gospel'', Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958. *''The Pressure of Our Common Calling'', New York: Doubleday, 1959. *''No Other Name: The Choice between Syncretism and Christian Universalism'', London: SCM, 1963. *Bea, Augustin and Willem A. Visser 't Hooft, ''Peace Among Christians'', translated by Judith Moses, New York: Association Press; Herder and Herder, 1967. *''Memoirs'', Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. *''The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches'', Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982. *''The Fatherhood of God in an Age of Emancipation'', Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982. *''Teachers and the Teaching Authorities'', Geneva: WCC Publications, 1990. * "The Inclusive and Exclusive Aspects of Christian Truth," ''The Student World'', vol. 22, no. 4 (October, 1929): 349-355. *"The Economy of the Charismata and the Ecumenical Movement," in Student Christian Association of Greece, ''Paulus-Hellas-Oikumene (An Ecumenical Symposium)'', Athens: Student Christian Association of Greece (1951): 189-192. *"The Integrity of the Church," ''Princeton Seminary Bulletin'', vol. 52, no. 2 (1958): 3-7. *"Missions as a Test of Faith," ''Ecumenical Review'', vol. 16, no. 3 (April, 1964): 249-257.

Biography

Recognition

Decorations and awards

Selected literary works

References

Further reading