Giovanni Miegge

Giovanni Miegge was born on 30 May 1900, in Savona, son of Mario, an engineer at the Municipality, and Rachel nee Coïsson, both originally from the Waldensian valleys. His brother was the pastor Guido Miegge. After his father's premature death, the family settled in Torre Pellice, where Giovanni attended the Waldensian College. In 1919 he enrolled in the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Florence, but two years later had to interrupt his studies for health reasons. Thereafter he continued to learn as an autodidact. In 1921, he gave a public lecture on William James' psychology of religion, and his reading of German philosophical trends (Otto, Schleiermacher, among others) was clearly deep and ongoing, though increasingly seen through the lens of Barth. (Rota 2012) In 1926 Miegge graduated in Theology, with his thesis on 'La dottrina della salvazione nella teologia di Gaston Frommel' (The doctrine of salvation in the theology of Gaston Frommel) being defended the following year.

While still studying, in 1924 he had begun pastoral service in Massello, where he remained until 1930, when he was transferred to Aosta. From 1931 he became director of the magazine Gioventù Cristiana, a critical voice both within the Church (in which he sought to displace the traditional Reveil theology with that of Barth), and toward the broader society. As a result, the Fascist regime suppressed the publication. Starting in 1935 he organized the “Giornate teologiche del Ciabas” ("Ciabas Theological Days", named after the piemontese town in which the sessions were held), an opportunity for young people to clarify and debate current problems in the light of faith.

After a short period in Como, in 1937 he was entrusted with the chair of Church History and Practical Theology at the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome, which however he was forced to abandon the following year due again to serious health reasons. He moved to the Waldensian valleys, first to Massello, then to Torre Pellice. In 1940, he attempted to regain something of the influence of Gioventù Cristiana, through the new masthead L'Appello, but this too was rapidly closed due to restrictions imposed by the Fascist regime. In 1942 he assumed the direction of the weekly La Luce, and, four years later, that of Protestantesimo, until 1948.

In 1952 he was once again appointed professor at the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome, this time to the chair of Biblical Exegesis (Old and New Testament). In the following years he actively participated in the Theological Weeks at the Agape Ecumenical Centre, while his international notoriety allowed some of his writings to be translated into other languages. These earned him honorary degrees in the theological faculties of Leipzig, St. Andrews, Geneva and Montpellier. These works - such as those on The Virgin Mary, on Religious Liberty, and on Rudolf Bultmann - influenced authors such as Stephen Neill, who contributed to the Anglophone discussion about mission and the church in a secular age. Wayne Glick referred to Miegge's Christian Affirmations (translated by Neill) as 'unbelievably good', and expression of a "post-Barthian liberal" position "defined by its absorption of the 'massive challenge of the new orthodoxy' and the insights of biblical theology, by the fact that it does not fear reason, and by its location of the "heart of revelation" in the Synoptic Gospels." He saw Miegge as the theological equivalent of Benedetto Croce (Glick 1959), a reflection both on the richness and integration of Miegge's thought, but also the surprise which sometimes broke upon Anglophone (especially American) authors when they discovered how thin their own sources of reflection were compared to their European colleagues.

Miegge died in Massello on 30 July 1961. In 1930 he married Ellen (Lina) Pons, from Massello, with whom he had a son, Mario (1932-2014), who became a university professor of Philosophy of history.

Main publications

(translator and editor) Martin Luther, Servo arbitrio (Roma: Doxa, 1930).

(translator and editor) Martin Luther, La libertà del cristiano (Roma: Doxa, 1932).

Il Battesimo dei fanciulli nella storia, nella teoria, nella prassi (Torre Pellice: Claudiana, 1943).

Lutero. Vol. I. L'uomo e il pensiero fino alla dieta di Worms (1483-1521) (Torre Pellice: Claudiana, 1946).

L'église sous le joug fasciste (Ginevra: Labor & Fides, 1946).

La chiesa nei secoli (Torre Pellice: Claudiana, 1948).

La Vergine Maria. Saggio di storia del dogma (Torre Pellice, Claudiana, 1950).

(editor) Per una fede (Milano: Ed. Comunità, 1952).

(with K. Heussi), Sommario di storia del cristianesimo (Claudiana: Torre Pellice, 1953).

La Chiesa dei martiri (Claudiana: Torre Pellice, 1954).

L'Evangelo e il mito nel pensiero di Rudolf Bultmann (Milano: Ed. Comunità, 1956). Published in English as Gospel and myth in the thought of Rudolf Bultmann (Stephen Neill, transl), (London: Lutterworth, 1960).

(edited), Dizionario biblico (Torino: Claudiana, 1957).

La sapienza di Dio (Torre Pellice: Claudiana, 1957).

Religious Liberty (London: Lutterworth Press, 1957), and in French as La Liberté religieuse (Neuchâtel et Paris: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1962).

Christian Affirmations in a Secular Age. (Stephen Neill, transl.), (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958).

(edited) Karl Barth, L'Epistola ai Romani (Feltrinelli: Milano 1968).

(edited by C. Tron), Dalla riscoperta di Dio all'impegno nella società. Scritti teologici (Torino: Claudiana, 1977).

(edited by C. Tron), Al principio la Grazia. Scritti pastorali (Torino: Claudiana, 1997).

(edited by C. Tron), La chiesa valdese sotto il fascismo (Torino: Claudiana, 2015).

Sources:

Coïsson, Renato, 'Giovanni MIEGGE (30 maggio 1900 – 30 luglio 1961)', Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia, online, https://www.studivaldesi.org/dizionario/evan_det.php?evan_id=575&str=miegge, accessed 26.11.2022.

Glick, G. Wayne, 'Review: Christian Affirmations in a Secular Age by Giovanni Miegge and Stephen Neill', The Journal of Religion 39.4 (Oct., 1959): 286-287.

Rota, Giovanni, 'Su Rudolf Otto e sulla diffusione del suo pensiero in Italia,' Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 67.2 (2012): 317-339.

Saccomani, Sara, 'Gli Studi su Giovanni Miegge dal 1961 al 2002', Rivista di storia della filosofia 60.4 (2005): 791-795