SÖDERBLOM, NATHAN. - Lutheran bishop of Uppsala and primate of the Swedish Lutheran Church, b. at Tröö (Söderhamn) on 15 Jan. 1866, d. at Uppsala on 12 July 1931.
He began his career as a pastor and scholar in Paris by publishing two works on Zoroastrianism: *Les Pravashis*, Paris 1897, and *La vie future d'après le masdéisme*, ibid. 1900. In 1912 he taught the history of religions at Leipzig, and in 1914 he was appointed bishop of Uppsala. He took a great interest in the movement for the union of Christian Churches (Ecumenical Conference of Stockholm 1924; Conference of the Faith and Order Movement, Lausanne 1927). As a historian of religions, besides the two works mentioned above, he wrote: *Gudstrons uppkomst*, 1914, translated into German; *Das Werden des Gottesglaubens*, 1915, 2nd ed. 1926, in which he expounds his thesis of God as Creator (Urheber); the handbook *Die Religionen der Erde*, Tübingen 1905, Eng. tr. Rome 1908; he revised the *Kompendium der Religionsgeschichte* of Tiele, 6th ed. Berlin 1930; *Natürliche Theologie und allgemeine Religionsgeschichte*, 1941; *Einführung in die Religionsgeschichte*, 2nd ed. 1928; *Christliche Einheit*, 1928; *Dieu vivant dans l'histoire*, Paris 1937, Eng. tr. *De Coussange* of the Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh in 1931. He had a very lively faith in God and said on his deathbed: “I know that God lives and I can prove it by the history of religions.” The last book is the demonstration of this faith.