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, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

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

Biography

Visser 't Hooft was born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and in his early adult years was involved in the Dutch student Christian movement that 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 The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean en ...

" movement. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on it at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

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 (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

. His apartment in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

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

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

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 The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

, 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, ''

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'' 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 language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

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 The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

* 1959 - Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

* 1966 -

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international list of peace prizes, peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Frankfurter Paulskirche, Paulskirche in Frankfurt. T ...

(with

Augustin Bea Augustin Bea (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 of Pop ...

) * 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 The Four Freedoms Award is an annual award presented to "those men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed in his ''Four Freedoms speech'' to the Un ...

(category of Religious Freedom) * 15 honorary degrees, including those of the theological faculties of

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Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

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 of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Arnulf I ("the Bad") of Bavaria invades Italy, crossing through the Upper Adige (modern Tyrol). He proceeds ...

* 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

See also

References

Further reading