Revivalism and Social Christianity

The Prophetic Faith of Henri Nick and André Trocmé

Chalamet

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781498273503
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

How does one become a Righteous among the Nations? In the case of Henri Nick (1868-1954) and Andre Trocme (1901-1971), two French Protestant pastors on whom that title was conferred by Yad Vashem (Jerusalem) for their acts of solidarity toward persecuted Jews, the answer seems to be: by being immersed, from an early age, in the discourses and practices of social Christianity. By focusing on the lives of two significant figures of twentieth-century Christianity, this study, the first in English on the Social Gospel in French Protestantism, presents a genealogy of that movement, from its emergence in the last decades of the nineteenth century to its high point, during World War II, in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, where Trocme and many people of that area of southern France rescued hundreds of Jewish refugees. As social Christians who prayed and worked for the coming of God's kingdom on earth in the midst of a world torn by two world wars, Henri Nick and Andre Trocme combined a deep revivalist faith with a concern for the concrete conditions in which people live. They wished to save others, and indeed they realized that intent in ways they did not foresee.

Part One

The Meanings of Conversion—Henri Nick

Henri Nick was born in Paris on April 16, 1868. His father, Georges-Henri, who had German roots, was a branch manager for the Société générale, the French bank, which had been founded just four years before Henri’s birth. Henri lost his father when he was ten. His mother, Héléna Roussel, raised him in Paris, where he began his studies in the humanities, including ancient languages, at the “lycée” Jeanson-de-Sailly, completing his degree (“bachelier ès Lettres”) in Montpellier. In the last months of 1885, he entered the Faculté de théologie protestante in Montauban, the main seminary training Reformed (Calvinist) pastors in the south of France at the time.1 There, among seventy students, Henri Nick struck a deep friendship with two fellow students, Élie Gounelle (1865–1950) and Wilfred Monod (1867–1943), inarguably the two most important leaders of the Social Gospel among French Calvinists in the first half of the 20th century.2 It is fascinating to realize that these three young men, who were to play a prominent role in 20th-century French Protestantism, were closely connected right from their student years. The correspondence between Élie Gounelle, Henri Nick, and Wilfred Monod, which was in part preserved, reveals the deep bond between the three young men.3

Henri Nick’s Thesis on the Notion of Conversion

In July of 1890, Henri Nick defended his undergraduate (bachelor) thesis in theology, titled Notion de la metanoia d’après le Nouveau Testament et l’expérience chrétienne.4 Nick’s work is quite interesting. Its main objective was to clarify the meaning of the term “metanoia” (Nick translates it as “conversion”) in the New Testament. The fact that Nick wrote on that topic is telling. He was, and would remain, very interested in the notion (and even more in the reality) of “conversion.”

At the end of the introduction, Nick alludes to his experiences in his last year of studies in Montauban: “If our friends were to find at least in our concluding theses a feeble echo of our religious discussions during the academic year 1889/90—a year which will leave in all our spirits and hearts indelible memories of mutual affection and gratitude toward God—then our labor would find more than its recompense.”5 The concluding theses, indeed, do not merely summarize the overall argument of Nick’s work, which mainly defends the importance of the person’s will and its cooperation in effecting religious conversion.6 Grace and faith both precede and follow the human will, he carefully notes, but there is a moment when the human will, in its autonomy, is responsible and free to act.7 And so Nick’s thesis is a critique of “quietism,” “fatalism,” and the inertia that results from them, as if one should expect everything from God in utter passivity.8 Interestingly, the consequences of this emphasis on human action and responsibility are not developed in the study itself but instead in the concluding theses, which Nick mentions in the introduction. There, one finds some of the themes that Nick and his friends had discussed during the preceding year. It is worth quoting several of these theses, as they reveal insights that help us understand Nick’s ideals, and his future ministry: “The return of Jesus Christ is conditioned by our faith and the use we shall make of our freedom. Whether we hasten or delay it depends on us. This glorious advent could already be a past event. When the Son of man returns, will he find faith on earth?” (10th thesis).9 “Both reason and conscience confirm the notion of eternal punishment. A Christian cannot deny that notion. Jesus allowed this terrible uncertainty to hang over humanity” (13th thesis).10 “We are saved in order to become saviors; our individual salvation is intimately linked to the salvation of our brothers” (18th thesis).11 “The Church is an association of believers who all work for Christ. The faith which saves implies a continuous act of the will” (20th thesis).12 “The ecclesiastical spirit is a spirit of solidarity and fraternity, but it can only exist in a Church of people who profess their faith” (21st thesis).13 “The one who proclaims the truth must above all be its witness” (25th thesis).14 “The evangelical alliance with all Christians from all denominations is more than an order, it is Jesus Christ’s prayer, in other words it is an order which is being carried out. It is an act of faith and the source of great blessings. Perhaps the only means to practice it loyally, without pettiness, would be to plan a work of evangelization to those who are outside” (27th thesis).15 “The tendency to always postpone the realization of Jesus Christ’s promises until another century is fatal” (29th thesis).16 “God is giving some extraordinary opportunities to the Church in our time. It is time for the Church to respond to God’s vision, by taking seriously his promises and his orders, and by advancing for the sake of lost souls onto the path of a conquering Christianity” (30th thesis).17 And, finally, the 31st—and final—thesis: “The synod will find the kind of popularity to which it is entitled among the Churches only when its essential and only concern will be the evangelization of France and the progress of the Kingdom of God.”18

From all this, it appears that the notions of conversion and salvation were at the center of Nick’s thought, and that he had a very realistic interpretation of it, as salvation from “eternal punishment.” Here, Nick’s roots in a traditional version of Calvinism are visible. The ecumenical and missionary dimension of his thought cannot be missed either: the Churches are called by Jesus Christ to work together in bringing the Gospel to all people, and thus to contribute actively to Christ’s return. The Churches are responsible for the fact that the parousia has not yet taken place. Moreover, Nick had little patience for multitudinous Churches where fervor and sacrifice appeared to be lacking. His ideal, it is clear, resembles that of the “free Churches,” but these communities of committed (read: converted) Christians, far from being sectarian and withdrawn from a sinful world, should foster a spirit of “solidarity and fraternity” (21st thesis) and seek “those who are outside” (27th thesis).

Nick had been discussing all of these things with his friends in Montauban. They were a group of eight to ten theology students, and as some of them were graduating, being ordained, and beginning to work in various parishes, a circular letter was organized.19 On May 27, 1889, Nick sent such a letter to his friends, writing, “As Gounelle notes, it is our understanding of the Christian life which is the foundation for our circular letter and our bond.”20 What was the program of this small group? Very simply, but also amazingly ambitiously: the “revival” of France. They called their circular letters “a circular letter for Revivalism” (“une circulaire de Réveil”). The main objective of their lives was “the transformation of the country.”21

At a time when theological liberalism and orthodoxy were clashing, these students of theology and young pastors, rather than taking part in the ecclesiastical battles and thus contribute to the divide among French Calvinists, were pursuing a different goal: the regeneration of their country.

The members of the circular letter came mostly from Pietist backgrounds. In a French Reformed Church that, after years of tensions, had finally split up into two branches in the wake of a nationa...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One: The Meanings of Conversion—Henri Nick
• Part Two: André Trocmé’s First Steps in Spiritual and Social Christianity
• Part Three: The “Conspiracy of Good” in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
• Part Four: After the War
• Epilogue
• Appendix: Declaration Read by Pastors André Trocmé and Édouard Theis in the Church of Le Chambon on Sunday, June 23, 1940
• Bibliography