Gerhard Bernhard Winkler

Gerhard Bernhard Winkler (born April 24, 1931 in Wilhering ) is an Austrian Roman Catholic clergyman, Cistercian and church historian.

life and work

Bernhard Winkler was born as the son of the head of the nursery of the Cistercian monastery Wilhering and grew up next to the monastery. He attended the academic high school in Linz . After graduating from high school, he joined the monastery in 1951 and took the religious name Gerhard . He studied in Vienna and at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana (USA). In 1955 he was ordained a priest. He received his doctorate twice at the University of Vienna , first in 1956 in Catholic theology with the thesis The Parish Association in Upper Austria incorporated into Wilhering Monastery and its legal development (published under the title Die Pfarren des Wilhering Monastery. Legal-historical development of an incorporated pastoral care group . Wagner, Linz 2014 ), then in 1960 in German studies (with Hans Rupprich ) with the work The Sonnets of B. Chelidonius on A. Dürer's Marienleben and their relationship to the Marienleben of Carthusian Philipp (unprinted).

From 1960 to 1969 he was a high school teacher for German and English, as well as engaged in the incorporated parishes of his monastery. After a time as a research assistant (1969–1972), he qualified as a professor at the University of Bochum in 1972 for the subject of church history with the text Erasmus von Rotterdam and the introductory texts to the New Testament. Formal structures and theological meaning (Aschendorff, Münster 1974). From 1974 to 1983 he was Full Professor of Middle and New Church History at the University of Regensburg , from 1983 to 1999 Professor of Church History at the University of Salzburg . After his retirement he continued his intensive publication activities with eight further specialist books. Bernhard von Clairvaux and the Cistercian order are at the center of his research .

Other works

• The post-tridentine synods in the empire. Salzburg Provincial Councils 1569, 1573, 1576 . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne 1988.
• Bernhard of Clairvaux. The one and comprehensive church. Unity in diversity. Tyrolia, Innsbruck and Vienna 2001 (collective publication).
• The papacy. Development of authority from antiquity to the present . Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2002.
• Georg Michael Wittmann (1760-1833). Bishop of Regensburg between revolution and restoration . Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2005.
• Monastikon. Contributions to the cultural and historical environment of the Cistercian order, to its theology and spirituality . Patrimony, Heimbach 2012.
• A concise history of the Catholic Church in usum scholarum . Patrimony, Heimbach 2013.
• The parishes of Wilhering Abbey. Legal historical development of an incorporated pastoral care sprinkle . Wagner, Linz 2014.
• Bernhard von Clairvaux versus Petrus Abelard. The general will to salvation and the "rebirth out of the water and the Spirit" (Joh, 3,5) . Patrimony, Heimbach 2015.
• Monk or canon. Bernhard von Clairvaux versus Norbert von Xanten . Patrimonium, Aachen 2017.

Editorial activity

• Bernhard von Clairvaux: Complete works in Latin / German . 10 volumes. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 1990-1999.
• (also translator) Desiderius Erasmus : Selected writings. Vol. 3. In Novum Testamentum praefationes [u. a.]. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1990, most recently 2016.

Web links

• Winkler, Gerhard, in: Biographia Cisterciensis (Cistercian Biography)
• Personnel page of the University of Salzburg, with picture
• Personal page of the Patrimonium-Verlag, with picture
• Winkler as a contemporary witness, illustrated