Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
Christoph Blumhardt (1842-1919) was a German Lutheran theologian and one of the founders of Christian Socialism in Germany and Switzerland. He was a well-known preacher. In 1899 he announced his support for socialism and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany; for this, he lost his position as minister. The next year, he was elected to the state parliament of Württemberg.

As the First World War broke out, he declared his belief in a coming Kingdom of God, declaring "we live in the time before a massive change in the world. This darkness will be vanquished through the Lord Jesus Christ."

He was a significant influence on the theologians Karl Barth, Hermann Kutter and Leonhard Ragaz, who were also Christian socialists.

Thy Kingdom Come -- a reader, edited by Vernard Eller
"It often may seem that God doesn’t do anything, no matter how much we beg. In this or that area of life it is as though everything has gone dead. What is the consequence? That we say, as many do, “Now I believe nothing anymore!”? No, rather I say, 'Then we don’t have him. We have gotten onto a wrong track; we are no longer turned to him in the right way. Because only a God who intervenes is our God. If he does nothing, it is not our God.'...

"We don’t need a religion; we need a man, a God. And if we don’t get a God, what then is the purpose of all our Christianity? It produces hypocrites! It is as dynamic as cobblestones are! We need an action-God, a God who does something. That is the God of the Bible. The rest will come of itself.." -- from the book.
258 pages