Erling Eidem

Nationality

Sweden

Date of Birth

1880

Date of Death

1972

Political
Preference

Erling Eidem was a Swedish theologian. He studied and taught at Lund University and had close ties to the Protestant Church in Germany. When the pro-Nazi German Christians tried to unify all German Protestant Churches under its Nazi ideology, the Confessing Church opposed them. During this time, Eidem supported the Confessing Church, but worked towards reconciliation with the German Christians. He was Archbishop of Uppsala, and as such primate of the Church of Sweden, from 1931 to 1950. He was also in contact with known members of the German resistance against Adolf Hitler within Protestant circles, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1942, for example, Eidem was one of the people George Bell and Bonhoeffer met when they had arranged their secret meeting in Sweden. In 1945, Eidem became the chairman of the Lutheran World Convention, which later became the Lutheran World Federation. At the Amsterdam Conference that would lead to the establishment of the ecumenical World Council of Churches in 1948, Eidem was elected one of its presidents.