Willem Adolph Visser 't Hooft (September 20, 1900 - 4 July 1985) was a Dutch theologian who became the first secretary general of the World Council of Churches

World Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...

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

Biography

Visser 't Hooft was born in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and in his early adult years, was involved in Dutch student Christian movement and 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" movement. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on it at the University of Leiden 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

Resistance during World War II

Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...

 against Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

. His apartment in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 became the meeting place for members of the German Resistance

German Resistance

The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...

 against the Third Reich between March and April 1944. Hilda Monte and Hannah Bertholet were among the 15-16 people from countries all over Europe who met to discuss international resistance to Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

.

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, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

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 was renamed and called after Visser 't Hooft, the (Christelijk Lyceum Dr. W.A. Visser ’t Hooft).

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, [1935].
• 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.

Writings about Visser 't Hooft

• “A Bibliography of the Writings of Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft 1918-1970,” compiled by A. Guittart, in No Man Is Alien: Essays on the Unity of Mankind, edited by J. Robert Nelson. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971, 264-330.
• The Sufficiency of God; Essays on the Ecumenical Hope in Honor of W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, edited by Robert C. Mackie and Charles C. West. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963.
• Gérard, François C., The Future of the Church: The Theology of Renewal of Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft. Pittsburgh: Pickwick Press, 1974.