Leonhard Ragaz (28 July 1868 – 6 December 1945) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

theologian and, with

Hermann Kutter Hermann Kutter (1863–1931) was a Swiss Protestant theologian. Together with Leonhard Ragaz, he was one of the founders of Christian socialism in Switzerland. He was heavily influenced by Christoph Blumhardt. He combined Blumhardt's expectatio ...

, one of the founders of

religious socialism Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. He was influenced by

Christoph Blumhardt Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842–1919) was a German Lutheran theologian and one of the founders of Christian socialism in Germany and Switzerland. He was a well-known preacher. In 1899 he announced his support for socialism and joined the Soc ...

. He was married to the feminist and peace activist Clara Ragaz-Nadig.

Biography

Born to a farmer family in

Tamins Tamins () is a village and a municipality in the Imboden Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. History Tamins is first mentioned in 1224 as ''Tuminne''. In 1225 it was mentioned as ''Tvminnis'' and in 1399 as ''Tumins''. Geography Tami ...

Grisons The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; *Romansh language, Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also list of European regions with alternative names#G, other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton ...

, on 28 July 1868, Ragaz studied theology in Basel, Jena, and Berlin. In 1890, he was elected as minister in

Flerden Flerden ''( Romansh: Flearda)'' is a municipality in the Viamala Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. History Flerden is first mentioned in 1156 as ''Flirden''. Geography Flerden has an area, , of . Of this area, 54.6% is used for agricu ...

Heinzenberg Heinzenberg is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land, who ...

. In 1893, he moved to

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

, working as a teacher of language and religion, and from 1895 to 1902 as municipal minister. In 1902, Ragaz was elected as minister at the

Basel Minster Basel Minster (German: ''Basler Münster'') is a religious building in the Switzerland, Swiss city of Basel, originally a Roman Catholic cathedral and today a Continental Reformed church, Reformed Protestant church. The original cathedral was bu ...

. Leonhard Ragaz grew up as the son of a small farming family in the municipality of Tamins. After studying theology in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, he became a pastor in Flerden, Heinzenberg in 1890. In Swiss Zofingen Association. 1892 he took up a position as a language and religion teacher in Chur and was elected parish priest in 1895, and in 19002 he moved to Basel Minster as the second pastor. Here his first book was created, the ethical draft: You are said to do! In Basel, including reading the works of Hermann Kutter, Ragaz came into contact with the

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. As construction workers went on strike in 1903, Ragaz delivered a sermon in his famous masonry watch on the cathedral cockpit "if institutional Christendom were to be cold and incomprehending towards the becoming of a new world, which after all emerged from the heart of the gospel, then the salt of the earth would have become putrid". which came to be known as the "bricklayers' strike sermon" (). Since 1906, Kutter and he have collected like-minded people at annual religious-social conferences. In addition, Ragaz gave the magazine with Benedikt Hartmann (1873-1955) and Rudolf Lichtenhand (1875-1947) In 1908, Ragaz was appointed to the Theological Faculty of the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

as Professor of Systematic and Practical Theology. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland in 1913. He was Shocked during the First World War by European Nationalism, he campaigned for the international cooperation of social democracy and helped to prepare the Zimmerwald Conference in 1915. During the of 1918, he took sides with the workers, when the soldiers guarded the university with their steel helmets and planted bayonets, he protested: "this site had to be protected only because it had given the people stones instead of bread" In 1921 at the age of 53, Ragaz resigned from his chair because it had become impossible for him to train pastors for the ''bourgeois''

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. He and his family moved to the proletarian

Aussersihl Aussersihl is a district in the Swiss city of Zürich. Known officially as District number 4, the district is known as colloquially ''Chreis Cheib'', ''cheib'' being the Zürich German word for an animal cadaver. It earned the name as the area h ...

district of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. He remained involved with the labour movement, editing his journal ''Neue Wege'' he was recognised and been added to the International Reconciliation Society to maintain peace, until his death in Zürich on 6 December 1945.

Religious socialism and pacifism

For Ragaz, the

Early Church Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and bey ...

was based on a spirit of cooperation and collectivity. As a consequence, the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

ideal of self-administered cooperatives owned by the workers themselves was a postulate directly derived from the gospel and the promise of justice in

God's kingdom The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" ...

. Also as a consequence of his Christian belief in justice and peace, Ragaz staunchly opposed the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, from a stance of active

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

: he called for all religious socialists to unite in protesting the war.Zahl, Simeon (2010).
Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Blumhardt: The Holy Spirit Between Wittenberg and Azusa Street
'. New York: T&T Clark. . p. 136. He taught that if capitalism resorted to force and violence, that was a true reflection of its nature, but that if socialism did the same, it was a treason to its ideals. Ragaz' main work is ''Die Bibel – eine Deutung'' ("The Bible - An Interpretation"), written during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and published in seven volumes in 1947–1950.

Works

*''Du sollst. Grundzüge einer sittlichen Weltanschauung'', Waetzel, Freiburg im Breisgau 1904 *''Dein Reich komme. Predigten'', Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1909 *''Religionsphilosophie'', 2 vols., Zürich 1909 *''Die neue Schweiz. Ein Programm für Schweizer und solche, die es werden wollen'', *''Weltreich, Religion und Gottesherrschaft'', 2 vols., Rotapfel, Zürich/Leipzig 1922 *''Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn – und weiter!'', Rotapfel, Zürich/Leipzig 1922 *''Von Christus zu Marx – von Marx zu Christus. Ein Beitrag'', Harder, Wernigerode 1929 *''Das Reich und die Nachfolge. Andachten'', Herbert Lang, Bern 1937 *''Gedanken. Aus vierzig Jahren geistigen Kampfes'' (anthology), Herbert Lang, Bern 1938 *''Die Botschaft vom Reiche Gottes. Ein Katechismus für Erwachsene'', Herbert Lang, Bern 1942 *''Die Gleichnisse Jesu'', Herbert Lang, Bern 1944 *''Die Bergpredigt Jesu'', Herbert Lang, Bern 1945 *''Die Geschichte der Sache Christi. Ein Versuch'', Herbert Lang, Bern 1945 *''Die Bibel. Eine Deutung'', 7 vols., Diana, Zürich 1947–50 *''Mein Weg. Eine Autobiographie'', autobiography, 2 vols., Diana, Zürich 1952 *''Eingriffe ins Zeitgeschehen. Reich Gottes und Politik. Texte von 1900 bis 1945'', eds. Ruedi Brassel and Willy Spieler, Exodus, Luzern 1995, *''Leonhard Ragaz in seinen Briefen'', eds. Christine Ragaz et al. (letters): **vol. 1: ''1887–1914'', Zürich 1966, **vol. 2: ''1914–1932'', Zürich 1982, **vol. 3: ''1933–1945'', Zürich 1992,

References

External links

* * *
Neue Wege
biography page {{DEFAULTSORT:Ragaz, Leonhard 1868 births 1945 deaths 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Calvinist and Reformed Christian socialists Calvinist pacifists Christian socialist theologians People from Imboden District Social Democratic Party of Switzerland politicians Swiss Calvinist and Reformed ministers Swiss Calvinist and Reformed theologians Swiss Christian socialists Systematic theologians

Biography

Religious socialism and pacifism

Works

References

Further reading

External links