he was nicknamed ‘The Red Pastor’, and he accepted invitations to address workers’ meetings around the country. However, he always advocated reform and co-operation in place of rebellion and antagonism, and never became a thorough-going socialist. His interest in social democracy was far more practically oriented than theoretically grounded, and the kingdom of God always posed a limit to the power and validity of human political orders. By the time of a lecture in Tambach in 1919, he had become rather