Charles Wagner (4 January 1852 – 12 May 1918) was a French Reformed pastor whose inspirational writings were influential in shaping the Reformed theology of his time.
Biography
Wagner was born in Vibersviller, Moselle, where his father was the pastor of the Lutheran Church. At the age of 14, he was sent to study in Paris and graduated from the Sorbonne in 1869 with a B.A. degree. He then went to Strassburg for a theological degree but continued his studies in Göttingen.
Up to this time his associations had been with the Lutheran Church but in 1878, he left Germany and began ministerial service in connection with the liberal wing of the French Protestant Church. He was the pastor of a small parish in Remiremont, Vosges until 1882, when he went to Paris.
With his young wife, he began Paris life in a very modest way, living in a three-room apartment in a poor street near the Place de la Bastille, working hard at the university throughout the week, and occasionally preaching on Sundays as a guest preacher. He soon found all orthodox pulpits closed to him, however. In response, under the auspices of the French Protestant Church, he opened a Sunday school in his Bastille neighborhood. This was the germ of his first church and later of his new church Temple protestant du Foyer de l'Âme ('Protestant Temple of the Portal of the Soul'). The church cost the equivalent of ca. $60,000 of which a little less than one quarter was contributed by Americans.
His philosophy was one of Christian love without dogma, espousing a simple life and love of nature.
