Franz Furger (theologian)

Franz Anton Fridolin Furger (born February 22, 1935 in Bern , † February 5, 1997 in Münster ) was a moral theologian and social ethicist .

Life

Franz Furger was born in Bern and came from a Catholic academic family. His great-grand-uncle of the same name was a well-known publicist, poet and “popular speaker of the first order” in Switzerland. Furger attended primary school in Muri , then the Progymnasium and later the grammar school in Bern, which he completed in 1954 with the Matura in the ancient language-humanistic range of subjects. He first studied philosophy at the University of Leuven and then philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University . He completed his philosophical studies with a doctorate on the structural unit of truth under Karl Jaspers . Eugène Cardinal Tisserant ordained him a priest on October 4, 1961 in Rome . Furger's studies in Rome took place at the time of the Second Vatican Council , whose spirit of renewal shaped him very much. In 1962 he obtained his theological licentiate and in 1964 his theological doctorate with a thesis on wisdom and conscience with the moral theologian Josef Fuchs . Freedom of conscience became one of his central themes for Furger.

Professional activities

After completing his studies, Furger became a teacher of philosophy and Catholic religion at the Lucerne Cantonal School in 1964 . From 1965 he received lectureships in philosophy (anthropology, ethics, contemporary philosophy) at the Lucerne Theological Faculty. Two years later he was appointed full professor for the newly created professorship in these philosophical subjects at the same faculty. In 1969 the full professorship was transformed into a professorship for philosophical ethics and moral theology . Furger has also received several guest professorships at the University of Zurich , the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Tagatay University, the University of Economics in St. Gallen and the Technical University of Zurich. He was an advisor to the theological commission of the Swiss Bishops' Conference and co-editor of the Swiss Church Newspaper. He was also a spiritual advisor to the Association of Christian Entrepreneurs in Switzerland (VCU).

In 1987 he was appointed to the renowned and influential chair for Christian social sciences at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . This chair was previously held by the social politician and social reformer Franz Wärme , the social and Caritas scientist Heinrich Weber, the multifaceted social expert and political advisor Joseph Höffner , who later became Bishop of Münster and Archbishop of Cologne, and the theologian and economist Wilhelm Weber. In contrast to Höffner, who understood the Christian social sciences as a "system of several, interrelated subjects" of theology, philosophy and social sciences, Furger understood "Christian social ethics as moral theology of social issues". Social policy and the sociology of religion withdrew from him. He has contributed to renewing Christian social ethics from the spirit of Vatican II. In contrast to his predecessor, Furger advocated a reconciled relationship to political theology and liberation theology , but without sharing their Marxist social analysis and historical materialism. Furger's endeavor was to bring the reform impulses of the Second Vatican Council to life in social ethics. He included questions of environmental, medical and bioethics in the spectrum of his ethical considerations and has intensified and expanded the preoccupation with the development problems of non-European peoples. Through intensive educational work in academies, television interviews and radio lectures, he brought the further developed socio-ethical findings to a broader public and also worked in this regard in the sense of his predecessors Franz Wärme, Heinrich Weber and Joseph Höffner. The ability to dialogue in the church was very important to him.

Furger was torn from an active scientific life by a sudden death. The Requiem took place on February 12, 1997 under the direction of Bishop Reinhard Lettmann with great sympathy from personalities from science and the Church in St. Martini , Münster. He found his final resting place in the cemetery of the Hofkirche in Lucerne. Furger's academic papers are in the Münster University Archives.

Fonts

• Conscience and Wisdom in Catholic Moral Theology of the Last Decade. Raeber, Lucerne, Stuttgart 1965.
• Ethics of the areas of life. Decision support. Herfer, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna 1985. 2nd edition 1992.
• Introduction to moral theology. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-534-03271-3 .
• Catholic social teaching - an introduction. Kanisius, Freiburg 1989.
• Shaping the world out of faith. Try a Christian social ethic. Aschendorff, Münster 1989, ISBN 3-402-04518-4 .
• Christian social ethics. Basics and objectives. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1991. ISBN 3-17-010305-9 .
• Politics or morality? Foundations of an ethic of politics. Benziger, Solothurn and Düsseldorf 1994.
• Social ethics and economics. Aspects of a Christian social ethic. Lit, Hamburg 1994.
• Christian social ethics in a plural society. Posthumous ed. by Marianne Heimbach-Steins, Andreas Lienkamp , Joachim Wiemeyer. Lit, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3527-8 .

literature

• Alexander Filipović : The scientific legacy of Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Furger. Archiving and inventory final report. Bamberg 2001.
• Marianne Heimbach-Steins : In memoriam Franz Furger. In: Christian social ethics in plural society. Lit, Münster 1998, pp. 289-293.
• Manfred Hermanns : Social ethics through the ages. Personalities - Research - Effects of the Chair for Christian Social Studies and the Institute for Christian Social Sciences at the University of Münster 1893–1997. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2006, ISBN 978-3-506-72989-7 , pp. 389-446 and 489-494.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Furger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Helmut Zenz: Franz Furger on the Internet