Georg Hermes (theologian)

The grave of Georg Hermes in the old cemetery in Bonn.

Georg Hermes (born April 22, 1775 in Dreierwalde ; † May 26, 1831 in Bonn ) was a Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher .

Life

Georg Hermes, the son of a farmer, studied theology and philosophy at the University of Münster from 1792 to 1798. He first took up a job as a high school teacher (1798). He was ordained a priest in 1799. After his first work, the Inquiry into the Inner Truth of Christianity , appeared, he was appointed Professor of Dogmatics in Münster in 1807 .

From 1820 he taught at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn . From 1825 he belonged to the Cologne Cathedral Chapter . Hermes was a student of Ferdinand Überwasser (1752–1812). As a representative of the Catholic Enlightenment , he founded so-called Hermesianism , a critical , psychological and anthropocentric system for the rational justification of the Catholic faith.

Hermesianism contained as a basic trait an overcoming of moral doctrine in its religious motives in Immanuel Kant . His teaching found widespread dissemination especially at the educational establishments in Prussia , which was promoted by the Archbishop of Cologne, Ferdinand August von Spiegel . The teaching of Hermesianism was in 1835 by Pope Gregory XVI. banned by the Breve Dum acerbissimas . His works were placed on the forbidden books index .

The Prussian state, which supported Hermesianism, found a bitter opponent in the Archbishop of Cologne, Clemens August Droste zu Vischering . Zealous defenders of Hermesianism were Clemens-August von Droste zu Hülshoff , a cousin of the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , and Peter Joseph Elvenich . The philosopher Wilhelm Esser is also one of his students .

Works

• Inquiry into the Inner Truth of Christianity , 1804.
• Introduction to Christian Catholic theology , 2 volumes, 1819–1829.
• Christian Catholic Dogmatics , edited by Johann Heinrich Achterfeld , 3 volumes, 1834–1835.

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Hermes, Georg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 760-762.
• Karl Eschweiler: Catholic theology in the age of German idealism . The Bonn theological qualification papers from 1921/22. Edited from the estate and provided with an introduction by Thomas Marschler . Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-86991-180-9 (therein pp. 73-98: The theological criticism: Georg Hermes ).
• Karl Eschweiler: The two ways of modern theology: Georg Hermes - Matth. Jos. Scheeben. A critical examination of the problem of theological knowledge . Benno Filser, Augsburg 1926 ( full text ).
• Wilhelm Esser : Memorandum on Georg Hermes. Was a doctor of theology and philosophy, professor of theology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and assessor of the Spruch-Collegii . Cologne 1833 ( digitized version ).
• Thomas Fliethmann: Believe sensibly. The theory of theology in Georg Hermes . Echter, Würzburg 1997.
• Eduard Hegel:  Hermes, Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 671 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Franz Heinrich Reusch :  Hermes, Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 192-196.
• Heinrich Schrörs: History of the Catholic theological faculty in Bonn 1818 - 1831 . Boisserée, Cologne 1922.
• Herman H. Schwedt : The Roman judgment on Georg Hermes (1775-1831). A contribution to the history of the Inquisition in the 19th century , 1980.

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Hermes in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Georg Hermes  in the German Digital Library