Charles Wagner

Charles Wagner was born in 1852, in Lorraine, with Wiberswiller in a family of pastors Luthérien S. His childhood rural without constraints was saddened by the death of his/her father in 1859 and the child, raised by his mother and his Pasteur grandfather, shared the hard life of the Alsatian peasants. He made his studies of theology in Paris and Strasbourg where he met his future wife.

After its diploma, it spent a few months to Gottingen and Heidelberg before returning to take its first pastoral station with Barr, in Alsace (under German administration). Then after four years with Remiremont, in the the Vosges, Wagner in 1883 a ministry suggested by the Liberal Committee near the Parisian liberal Protestant families accepted.

It quickly decides to create its own parish and starts by using one of the parts of its apartment like temple. Its first parishioners are a mixture of intellectuals (Fischbacher editor, the Alsatian principal, etc.) and of workmen of the suburbs east of Paris. Little by little its audience grows, and its circle of relations and friends (T. Hand lantern, Raoul Allier, Jalabert, E. Coquerel, Th. Monod) widens. Its modern and independent theology moves away it from all orthodoxies: “I am neither Protestant, neither catholic, nor Jewish, but a little all that at the same time, not as a skeptic who laughs at all, but while believing which believes more than what the formulas contain. ”

Poet since his youth, and captivating speaker, it begins his literary career in 1890 with “Justice” which knew modest beginnings in France. But they were especially “Youth” (1892) and “the Simple Life” (1895) which made known it with many people and out of the French borders. Then come “the Gospel and the life” (1896), “Near the hearth” (1896) and in 1897 “Would be a man”. The disease, then the death of his/her son in 1899 inspire to him “the Friend”, published in 1902, marvellous work of comfort in the test. The shortly after died of his son, he writes to him, in his Newspaper: “You will live in the heart of your father and his voice. From now on, you will go up in pulpit with him, and; with him, you will go to those which suffer and cry. I will not grant your death; it would be to grant so that God does not want, because he does not want that none of these small perishes. ”

From 1900 to 1906, Wagner redoubles pastoral and associative activity. The League of teaching, the League of moral Education, the popular Universities, the School of assistance to the patients of the street Amyot make sure of its assistance, like later the Sorbonne and even the State education. At the request of Ferdinand Buisson it will contribute to the general Handbook of the primary education. With this last, he wrote besides in 1903 “freethinking and liberal Protestantism” to explain his theology, and to measure it with the ideas of the century.

It is in 1904, qu' at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt which had read a translation of “the Simple Life”, that Charles Wagner embarks for a round with the the United States; there will remain 2 months there and a book will draw some “Towards the heart from America” which describes its experiment. Before its departure, it was accepted at the White House and Roosevelt declared: “If there is a book which I wish to see reading by our whole people, it is “the Simple Life” of Wagner. ”

But it is in France, which saw the tribulations of Separation, that Wagner develops all its energies to avoid the schisms between Protestant churches. Like his/her friends Élie Gounelle or Wilfred Monod, Wagner does not want to accept the division which weakens the Church reformed since the years 1850. At the assembly of Jarnac, in 1906, he requests reformed not to yield to the demons disunion. Its marvellous speech remained without effects. The consumed disunion, it will end up joining the liberal synod in 1916.

Bibliography of Charles Wagner

The majority of the works of Charles Wagner are exhausted today.

• Justice, Eight speech • Youth, (crowned by the French Academy) • Valiancy, • Simple Life, • Near the Hearth, • Would be a Man, (talks on the control of the life) • The Heart of the things, • Along the way, • The Friend, dialogs interior, • Stories and farciboles, for the children, • Freethinking and liberal Protestantism (with Ferdinand Bush) • Five religious speeches, • Towards the heart of America, • By listening to the Master, • The Juste will live of his faith, • The Gospel and Life, Ampelos Editions, • In front of the invisible witness, • The two spirits (sermons) • Walk with the life (sermons) • The salt which loses its savor, • Do not forget, • Sword with two edges, • For the small ones and the large ones,

It is also necessary to quote the Handbook of good life, written by Mrs. Torch-El Salvador written according to works of CH. Wagner and also the collection: “The Hearth of the Heart” which contains a speech of CH. Wagner.

The biography, “a Man” written by his son-in-law, A. Wautier d' Aygalliers quotes much its “Newspaper” now lost and contains many biographical and theological elements on CH. Wagner and evolution of its thought.

A recent biography, “Charles Wagner and the Hearth of the Heart” by Pasteur PJ Ruff, tell the history and the combat of Charles Wagner and the Hearth of the Heart.

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