Erich Przywara, S.J.

Thomas F. O’Meara

Description

Erich Przywara, S.J. (1889–1972), is one of the important Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century. Yet, in the English-speaking world Przywara remains largely unknown. Few of his sixty books or six hundred articles have been translated. In this engaging new book, Thomas O’Meara offers a comprehensive study of the German Jesuit Erich Przywara and his philosophical theology.

Przywara’s scholarly contributions were remarkable. He was one of three theologians who introduced the writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman into Germany. From his position at the Jesuit journal in Munich, Stimmen der Zeit, he offered an open and broad Catholic perspective on the cultural, philosophical, and theological currents of his time. As one of the first Catholic intellectuals to employ the phenomenologies of Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he was also responsible for giving an influential, more theological interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola.

Przywara was also deeply engaged in the ideas and authors of his times. He was the first Catholic dialogue partner of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Edmund Husserl was counted among Przywara’s friends, and Edith Stein was a close personal and intellectual friend. Through his interactions with important figures of his age and his writings, ranging from speculative systems to liturgical hymns, Przywara was of marked importance in furthering a varied dialogue between German Catholicism and modern culture.

Following a foreword by Michael A. Fahey, S.J., O’Meara presents a chapter on Pryzwara’s life and a chronology of his writings. O’Meara then discusses Pryzwara’s philosophical theology, his lecture-courses at German universities on Augustine and Aquinas, his philosophy of religion, and his influence on important intellectual contemporaries. O’Meara concludes with an in-depth analysis of Pryzwara’s theology—focusing particularly on his Catholic views on person, liturgy, and church.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Denominations
• Religious
• Philosophie et théologie
• Germán
• Colegio Mayor Universitario Santo Tomás de Aquino
• Múnich
• Stimmen der Zeit
• Thomas Aquinas
• Denomination
• Society of Jesus
• Catholic
• Christianity
• Augustine of Hippo
• German
• Paul Tillich
• Augustine
• History
• John Henry Newman
• Max Scheler
• Karl Barth
• Edith Stein
• Edmund Husserl
• Munich

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268088613
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Erich Przywara, S. J.

* * * Erich Przywara, S. J. * * * His Theology and His World * * * * * * * * Thomas F. OMeara,o.p. * * Foreword by Michael A. Fahey, S . J . * * * * University of Notre Dame Press * Notre Dame, Indiana * * *

Copyright © University ofNotre Dame Notre Dame,Indiana All Rights Reserved www.undpress.nd.edu

1VCMJTIFE JO UIF 6OJUFE 4UBUFT PG "NFSJDB

Paperback edition printed in2009

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data O’Meara,Thomas F.,1935– Erich Przywara,S.J. :his theology and his world / Thomas F. O’Meara ;foreword by Michael A.Fahey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-268-03731-0(cl.: alk.paper) isbn13: 978-0-268-03731-4(pbk.: alk.paper) isbn10: 0-268-03731-0 (pbk.: alk.paper) 1. Przywara,Erich,1889–1972.I.Title. bx4705.p736o442002 230'.2'092—dc21 2001006422

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanenceand durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council onLibrary Resources.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Contents

Foreword by Michael A. Fahey,. . Preface

Chapterand His World. Erich Przywara: His Age Life and Works Themes and Projects Currents of Modernity A Theologian of Culture

ChapterChallenge to Be a Catholic. The An Embattled Church and a Catholic Renewal A Philosopher -Theologian amid German Culture: The University Courses at Ulm and Leipzig Sources from the Past:Augustine and Thomas Aquinas

Chapterin the Service. Philosophies of Religion of Theology Philosophies of Religion Catholic Sensibility:The Analogy of Being and the Presence of Grace Sources from Modernity: Newman, Husserl, Scheler

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Contents

Chapter 4. A Theologians Contemporaries Karl Barth Paul Tillich Leo Baeck Edith Stein Martin Heidegger Hans Urs von Balthasar Karl Rahner

Chapter 5. The Christian in the Church Christian Existence The Liturgy The Church

Conclusion

Notes Bibliographical Resources Index of Names

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  

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Foreword

English-speaking readers will be especially grateful to Profes- sor Thomas F. OMeara, O. P., for providing not only a com- prehensive theological commentary on the diverse writings of Erich Przywara, S. J. (–) but also fascinating biographi- cal details about this major German Catholic theologian. In our academic settings, Przywara is scarcely known, much less read. This is explained in part by his complex German prose and by the unwieldy methodology he chose for his principal publica- tions.Whereas the writings of Karl Rahner, Romano Guardini, Karl Adam, and Augustin Bea were translated quickly and were widely read on this side of the Atlantic, Przywaras works have gathered dust on our library shelves. I am honored to have been asked by Professor OMeara to preface his valuable study with some introductory reflections, especially from the viewpoint of one who has just completed fifty years as a Jesuit. Reading this book has afforded me many insights and has steered me toward the original sources I should have read long ago. Perhaps this present monograph will encourage translators to produce an English collection of at least Przywaras less formidable writings. OMeara describes how he first came into contact with Przywaras work in the earlys while he was editing essays on Paul Tillich by various authors.Arriving in Munich in, he paged through some of Przywaras theological writings without having the time or courage to delve into them. Now, some forty years later, after having established himself as an ex- pert in the complexities of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German Catholic intellectual life, especially its philosophy and

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Foreword

theology as represented by Schelling, Rahner, and others, and after hav- ing acquired a fond appreciation for Munich and Bavarian culture, he shares the fruits of his recent reading of Przywaras thickest tomes and thinnest book reviews. His two important contributions to earlier German theology,Schelling andRomantic Idealism and Roman Catholicism: the Theologians() andChurch and Culture: Theology,German Catholic –,prepared him for understanding theSitz im Lebenof this later esoteric Catholic theologian. His breadth of vision makes this study readable and reliable. For example, he explains why, in the after- math of BismarcksKulturkampf,religious orders such as the Society of Jesus had been banned from territorial German lands and how Przy- waras novitiate training (–) was done in exile in Exaten,The Netherlands. Later Przywara was assigned as part of his formation to teach briefly in a Jesuit secondary school in Austria. Finally, he pursued theological studies for ordination fromtoat the extraterri- torial German Jesuit theologate across the border inValkenb urg, The Netherlands. After his ordination and a shift in the political scene, Jesuits and other religious were all owed to take up apostolic work in the Fatherland. For Przywara this facilitated his appointment to the Munich-based editorial offices of the Jesuit monthly journal of culture and thought,Stimmen der Zeit. That a Dominican scholar should undertake a major exposition of a Jesuit theologian is neither unprecedented nor disadvantageous.To list only one other example, the challenging task of translating into French the volumeMethod in Theologyof Bernard Lonergan, S. J., was tackled by a team of French-Canadian Dominican theologians from Montreal. OMearas Dominican understanding of the theology of grace rooted in the writings of Thomas Aquinas and in a variety of Thomisms handed down both accurately and distortedly (in the lat- ter case sometimes by Jesuits), allows him to identify pitfalls in the way Jesuit theology has sometimes been distorted into what OMeara calls “the Baroque mechanics of actual grace and mortal sins pushing and pulling a neutral human person from day to day.” Munich in therich in artists and musi-s was a cultural mecca, cians, including Ibsen and Rilke,Thomas Mann, Kandinsky, Schoen- berg, Richard Strauss, and Mahler. Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pius XII) had already arrived in Munich to take up the post of apostolic nuncio inuntilwhen he moved on for another four years in Berlin. But below the surface of freedom and exhilaration there

Foreword

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was also unrest, insecurity, and confusion caused partly by the negative effects of the Treaty of Versailles.When the rise of National Socialism was later criticized it was done delicately and indirectly. In those days, it would have been impossible for a member of a reli- gious order to teach at a German university.That exclusion has been described as a deprivation, but in fact, in my judgment, it proved to be a stroke of luck for Przywara. His editorial assignment allowed for a rela- tively placid pace of living. He read voraciously in the arts, history, phi- losophy, and theology. His readings as a member of the editorial team of Stimmen der Zeit,where he was assigned fromto(although the journal was closed down by the Gestapo in), included titles by many Jewish, Protestant, and agnostic authors. Few university professors then or now have the leisure to read uninterruptedly such hefty tomes. Yet he had the time to assimilate, write, lecture in academic circles, and preach in church settings. He had no secretary, no electric typewriter, no computer, no Internet access, but he managed nonetheless. His lively Jesuit community included several persons whose interests paralleled his own, men of specialized intellectual interests. He accepted speaking engagements in various parts of the country, taking advantage of the excellent German train service of his day. His circle of friends and col- leagues, as OMeara indicates, was unusually large. Przywara never experienced the harsh restrictions that were earlier and later meted out by Rome to theologians in France, Italy, Great Britain, and the United States, during the Modernist era and the rise of thenouvelle théologie.OMeara describes the theologians contacts with Pacelli and his need from time to time to clarify puzzling points he had delivered in public statements (especially remarks critical of the institutional church). Although his writings and radio addresses were carefully scrutinized and occasionally challenged by his Roman or Jesuit superiors, he wrote and spoke without harassment. Przywara was a pre–Vatican II Catholic theologian, not in the sense that his writings were hostile to developments that occurred at the council. Still his direct influence there was negligible. Sadly, for at least the last ten years of his life, he suffered from a debilitating mental ill- ness, perhaps schizophrenia or perhaps Alzheimers. His voice grew si- lent as he needed specialized nursing care in a series of various country- side locations isolated from his community and admirers. OMeara correctly observes, as have other commentators, that Przy- waras theology was colored by Jesuit spirituality, especially as embodied