Franz Dähler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franz Dähler (2008)

Franz Dähler (born May 17, 1922 in St. Gallen ; † November 25, 2013 in Kriens near Lucerne ) was a Swiss theologian .

education

Franz Dähler grew up in Appenzell , the capital of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, from 1926 on. He passed the Matura exam at the Appenzell College in 1942. During the Second World War he graduated from the recruit school as an infantry gunner and later did active service. At the end of the war, she experienced streams of refugees near Schaffhausen on the border between Switzerland and Germany .

From 1945 Dähler lived in the Canisianum in Innsbruck, which was reopened after the chaos of war, and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Innsbruck with Jesuit professors such as Hugo and Karl Rahner . He was ordained a priest in 1948 . After studying in Rome , he did his doctorate in theology under Paul Gächter in Innsbruck in 1950.

Act

From 1950 to 1958 Dähler was youth minister in the city of St. Gallen . As vicar in the Heiligkreuz district, he had a formative influence on many young people through his education, persuasiveness and sportiness. Several followed him into the priesthood. The alumni of those youth organizations (especially the JUWAHEI) still meet regularly.

He did not want to be a pastor in the official church, but a Jesuit , in order to later take up a foreign assignment within the framework of this order. After the novitiate in Switzerland, he was sent to Indonesia in 1961 . In the vicinity of Semarang on Java he learned Javanese , later in Jakarta the national language Indonesian , not a matter of course at the age of 40. Several of his friars came from the colonial days as Dutch . It was first used in 1962 in Magelang , Java.

Interreligious Dialogue in Indonesia

Indonesia is the state with the largest Muslim population in the world with 88% of the approximately 250 million inhabitants. The small Christian minority of 9% has to assert itself in this environment. According to the founding fathers of Indonesia, the state motto of unity in diversity should also apply denominationally. Dähler got to know Islam very well over the following years, after all he became a professor at the Muslim-dominated UNDIP University in Semarang. At this college there are religious lectures on Islam, Protestantism , Catholicism , Hinduism and Buddhism . He specifically took on the subject of creation and evolution and studied relevant literature, especially that of Charles Darwin and Teilhard de Chardin SJ. His insights were rejected by certain fundamentalists . He sought dialogue with those who think differently. So he invited the lecturers of other religions to joint seminars. From 1972 Dähler became a national Catholic student chaplain with teaching positions at three universities, including the state-run Universitas Indonesia UI in Jakarta. During this time he wrote a total of five writings in the Indonesian language, whereby the book with the translated title Origin and Goal of Man , which dealt with evolution, was supplemented and reissued several times after the first edition in 1971.

Return to Switzerland

He met an Indonesian woman and struggled with the obligation to be celibate . After much deliberation, he decided to get married. In 1979 he returned to Switzerland after 18 years in Indonesia. He married Teresia Mei Ing Tjang in 1981, started a family and later had two children. One of the consequences of leaving the order and the priesthood was looking for a job and taking on a temporary role at the organization Caritas Switzerland . On behalf of Caritas he traveled to the countries of Indochina and reported about it. He was later employed by UNICEF , from 1983 head of the media service of the Bethlehem Mission Society in Immensee , where he was best known as the editor of the Wendekreis magazine . He was later able to contribute his experience in a developing country as President of Interteam , an organization that uses volunteers for several years in development projects in various countries. In numerous lectures (including at the adult education center in Zurich) and appearances on Swiss television, he campaigned for understanding for Islam and willingness to talk in interdenominational dialogue as well as more open-mindedness in the Catholic Church.

His autobiography with the title Der Indozeller (word construction from Indonesian + Appenzeller) was published by Appenzeller Verlag in 2009.

Fonts

  • Franz Dähler: The Indozeller - a life in two worlds , autobiography, Appenzeller Verlag, Herisau 2009, ISBN 978-3-85882-492-9 .
  • Many articles in the magazine Wendekreis , Bethlehemmission Immensee, 1984–1990.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jungwacht Heiligkreuz, St. Gallen
  2. ↑ Edith Franke: Muslim, moderate, modern - opportunities and risks of religious plurality in the Islamic culture of Indonesia. The New Zurich Times. October 10, 2015, p. 49
  3. ↑ Manfred Rist: Islamization of Politics - Race for Religiousness in Indonesia. NZZ online, June 7, 2017. Accessed June 9, 2017
  4. ^ Franz Dähler: Asal dan tujuan manusia (origin and goal of man), Kanisius, Yogyakarta 1971
  5. ↑ Franz Dähler: Pijar perabadan Manusia (evolution of man and the cosmos), Canisius, Yogyakarta 2000
  6. ↑ Franz Dähler: Teori Evolusi (evolutionary theory), Canisius, Yogyakarta 2011
  7. ↑ Franz Dähler, Hanni Waller: Indochina - Land and People: Information on the history, geography, culture, politics, religion of the Southeast Asian countries Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam , Caritas Switzerland, 1981
  8. ↑ Source of supply Appenzeller Verlag
personal data
SURNAME Dähler, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 2013
Place of death Kriens , Switzerland