Gottlieb Söhngen

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Gottlieb Clemens Söhngen (born May 21, 1892 in Cologne , † November 14, 1971 in Munich ) was a German theologian and philosopher .

Life

After attending the Kaiser Wilhelm High School in Cologne, Gottlieb Söhngen studied theology and philosophy in Munich, Bonn , Cologne and Tübingen . His teachers included Oswald Külpe and Clemens Baeumker , with whom he wrote his dissertation on analytical and synthetic judgments in 1914 . A historical-critical study on the logic of judgment received his doctorate.

In 1917 he was ordained a priest in Cologne . From 1924 to 1930 he held the office of managing director of the Albert Magnus Academy in Cologne. In 1930 he received his doctorate in theology on the subject of being and object. The scholastic axiom ens et verum convertuntur as the foundation of metaphysical and theological speculation . In 1931 he completed his habilitation at the University of Bonn on the subject of participation in divine knowledge . There he taught as a private lecturer until 1937, where he was influenced by the theologian Arnold Rademacher .

He followed the call to the Lyceum Hosianum Braunsberg in East Prussia in 1937. He returned to Bonn in 1946 and accepted a visiting professorship. Then Söhngen taught from 1947 in Munich as a professor of propaedeutics and fundamental theology . Here he attempted a synthesis of contemporary philosophy and scholasticism in terms of application to contemporary issues. It is largely due to his initiative that Joseph Ratzinger - later Pope Benedict XVI. - against the fierce resistance of the influential faculty colleague Michael Schmaus - was habilitated with the work The Understanding of Revelation and the Theology of History of Bonaventura . Söhngen had already suggested Ratzinger's doctoral thesis People and House of God in Augustine's Doctrine of the Church .

On April 4, 1968, Pope Paul VI awarded him . the papal honorary title House Prelate of His Holiness .

Söhngen died on November 14, 1971 in Munich. At the Requiem in the St. Agnes parish church in Cologne , his student Joseph Ratzinger preached:

“His greatness and also his fate lay in the breadth of his thinking. Because anyone who asks so comprehensively cannot present a complete synthesis. Söhngen knew that; he knew that the hour of theological sums had not yet struck again. He knew that he would have to be content with fragments. But he always tried to look at the whole as a fragment, to think the fragments in terms of the whole and to design them as reflections of the whole. This also indicates his basic spiritual attitude: Söhngen was a radical and critical questioner. Even today one cannot ask any more radically than he did. But at the same time he was a radical believer. "

- Joseph Ratzinger at the Requiem in Cologne on November 19, 1971

Söhngen was also active as the editor of the series border questions between theology and philosophy from 1936 to 1942. He was considered a critic of neo-scholasticism .

Publications (selection)

  • About analytical and synthetic judgments. A historical-critical investigation into the logic of judgment , dissertation 1915
  • Being and object. The scholastic axiom Ens et verum as the foundation of metaphysical and theological speculation , theological dissertation 1930
  • Analogia fidei , 2 volumes, 1934
  • Symbol and reality in the cult mystery , 1937
  • The Essence of the Mystery , 1938
  • The unity of theology in Anselm's Proslogion , 1938
  • Cardinal Newman . His idea of ​​God and his thinker figure , 1946
  • The Sacramental Nature of the Mass Sacrifice , 1946
  • The Spirit of Faith and the Spirit of Science , 1947
  • Humanity and Christianity , 1947
  • Unity in theology , 1952
  • Philosophical exercise in theology. Realize, Know, Believe , 1955
  • Law and gospel. Their analog unity theological, philosophical, civic , 1957
  • The way of western theology. Basic ideas for a theology of the 'way' , 1959
  • Analogy and metaphor. Little Philosophy and Theology of Language , 1962
  • Basic questions of a legal theology , 1962
  • Christ's Presence in Faith and Sacrament , 1967

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus Graulich : On the way to a theology of canon law. The foundations of law by Gottlieb Söhngen (1892–1971) and the concepts of more recent canon law. Also habilitation thesis Mainz 2004. Paderborn 2006, p. 22.
  2. ↑ See his article on neo-scholasticism in the 2nd edition of the LThK.
personal data
SURNAME Söhngen, Gottlieb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Söhngen, Gottlieb Clemens (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1971
Place of death Munich