At the moment I'm spending my holiday period reading certain things, one of which is Werner Neuer's biography of Adolf Schlatter. I learned from my friend and Pastor back in Australia, Craig Lloyd, the value of reading biographies. Schlatter's is a must read. Here's a few quotes or bits of trivia from what I've read so far:
Quoting Schlatter himself from a letter: "I see no comparable juncture in my life that had such a decisive effect on my personal direction. I came to the conclusion that avoding theological study to preserve faith was rank hypocrisy, and this conclusion brought decisive consequences. When people ask me to describe the day of my conversion, I am inclined to tell them that it was the day of my decision to study theology."
Schlatter got top grades in his university studies but turned down a lucrative scholarship in order to go into ministry in the Reformed church.
One of the first churches that Schlatter pastored in was Neumunster on the eastern shore of Zurich. This church had some problems including: "There was a theology professor who entered the pulpit drunk; an education director who would occasionally be found passed out on the street; a congregational leader who had amassed considerable power for himself, who publicly stated that he made use of local houses of prostitution, yet was confirmed in his church office by a raucous majority."
More anon.
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1 comment:
Read this myself recently and loved it. Schlatter is a fascinating character indeed. It is a strange providence of God that his students were killed off in the wars.
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