Johannes Uddin – Pastor, Pacifist, Spiritualist

The paper explores the modern Spiritualist movement in Sweden during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on the relationship between Spiritualism and Christianity. Spiritualists often sought to reconcile their beliefs with the Bible, while critiquing what they perceived as the dogmatism of the church. To illustrate the connection between Spiritualism, Christianity, and pacifism, the focus is put on the Swedish clergyman and radical pacifist Johannes Uddin, who was influenced by the thriving Spiritualist movement in Britain during the First World War. Despite his turn to the occult, Uddin remained a vicar in the Church of Sweden. The paper aims to create a better understanding of the relationship between Christianity and Spiritualism in Northern Europe, focusing on Uddin’s radical pacifism and the Church of Sweden’s response to his Spiritualist beliefs.