Johann Baptist Metz

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Johann Baptist Metz (1971)

Johann Baptist Metz (born August 5, 1928 in Welluck ; † December 2, 2019 in Münster ) was a German Roman Catholic priest and fundamental theologian . He was a student of Karl Rahner , whose Complete Works he co-edited from 1995 to 2018. He is considered one of the most important and influential theologians since the Second Vatican Council and as the founder of the new political theology .

Life

Metz grew up in a small Catholic town in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate and was deployed in the Wehrmacht at the end of the war . In retrospect, he described the experiences of the war as relevant to his later sensitivity to the question of theodicy and suffering in history. After graduating from high school at what is now the Gregor-Mendel-Gymnasium in Amberg , Metz began studying theology and philosophy in Bamberg in 1948 and moved to Innsbruck the following year , where he belonged to a closer circle around Karl Rahner, his became main teacher. He was back in 1952 with a philosophical dissertation on Heidegger and the problem of metaphysics at the Jesuit Emerich Coreth Dr. phil. PhD. In 1954 he was ordained a priest in Bamberg and entered the pastoral service. He also wrote two monographs as well as u. a. various articles for the lexicon for theology and the church published by Karl Rahner . His theological doctorate took place in 1961 with the text Christian Anthropocentrism on Thomas Aquinas . He then began his habilitation with Karl Rahner in Munich , but was appointed to the newly established, full professorship for fundamental theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster , which he held until 1993.

Metz had been a member of the International Pauline Society since the early 1960s , to which he had been introduced by his teacher Karl Rahner, and became an active promoter of the dialogue between Christians and Marxists. Metz was also involved in the peace movement in the 1960s, for example in the Bensberger Kreis , which was founded by the left- wing Catholics Eugen Kogon and Walter Dirks .

Metz became known with the Marxist-oriented philosopher Ernst Bloch in 1963 when they met at a conference. From this encounter a friendship arose between the theologian and the philosopher, which among other things resulted in Metz's contribution to the Festschrift for Bloch. Adorno, whose writings he was already familiar with, he met two years later at a conference of the German National Academic Foundation . It was impulses from the critical, also neo-Marxist social philosophy, from Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin , Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse , through which Metz developed the transcendental theological-anthropocentric theology of his teacher Karl Rahner into a new political theology .

From 1968 to 1973 Metz was consultor of the Papal Secretariat for the Unbelievers and from 1971 to 1975 advisor to the Würzburg Synod of the German Dioceses and main author of the synod document Our Hope , which was of central importance for the reception of the Second Vatican Council in Germany. Since the council, Metz had endeavored to be “offensive loyalty” to the council and knew that this request was in harmony with Karl Rahner. For this purpose, too, together with Yves Congar , Hans Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx, they founded the international theological journal Concilium in 1965 , which is one of the most important periodicals of Catholic theology worldwide.

In 1979, Metz Heinrich Fries was to succeed Heinrich Fries on the fundamental theological chair of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , but this was prevented by the Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger, and the Bavarian Minister of Culture, Hans Maier .

Since the late 1970s, Metz was the main initiator of a Catholic theology after Auschwitz and, for example, spoke at the Catholic Day in Freiburg in 1978 about “Christians and Jews after Auschwitz”. The political theologian was also one of the intellectuals whom Jürgen Habermas asked for contributions on the key words “on the spiritual situation of the time”.

Since the 1970s, Metz had been in a controversial conversation with Jürgen Habermas about the relationship between religion and emancipation, communicative and anamnetic reason, theory and practice.

In the last years of his life he worked with the Viennese fundamental theologian Johann Reikerstorfer , who was also the editor of his “Gesammelte Schriften”. The edition comprises nine volumes, which trace the development of Metz's thought, and an index volume.

Johann Baptist Metz died on December 2, 2019 at the age of 91 in Münster .

Founder of the “new” political theology

Metz can be seen as the founder of what he himself called the “new” political theology - in contrast to the “old” political theology of Carl Schmitt . This new approach, influenced by German left-wing Catholicism (including Walter Dirks ) and the Frankfurt School , was in critical exchange with the theology of liberation in Latin America .

It was the special concern of Metz to reintroduce the “authority of the suffering” into theology or to remind it of it again; He saw the theodicy question as a permanent mandate to church and theology to preserve the “memoria passionis” and in this way to contribute to a humanization of the world in openness to its eschatological perfection by God. Therefore theology must make use of an eschatological reservation.

Academic group of students

His circle of students included numerous theologians and religious didactics, but also philosophers and educationalists. The representatives of the new political theology Tiemo Rainer Peters , Metz's long-time assistant at the University of Münster, and Edmund Arens , who did his doctorate at Metz and completed his habilitation with him, are among his circle of students and assistants, as are the liberation theologians Paulo Suess and Kuno Füssel and the theologian and educational scientist Helmut Peukert . The religious educator Reinhold Boschki did his doctorate at Metz on Elie Wiesel . Jürgen Manemann , who did his doctorate at Metz, endeavors to further develop the new political theology as political philosophy . The theologian Francis Schüssler Fiorenza , professor at the Harvard Divinity School , and his wife, the feminist theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza , also studied with Metz.

honors and awards

Metz received an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1994 , in 2002 he was awarded the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation and in 2007 he was awarded the Theological Prize of the Salzburg University Weeks in recognition of his complete work . Further honorary doctorates followed in 2009 and 2013, first from Santa Clara University , then from the University of London . On December 15, 2018, Metz was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . Prime Minister Armin Laschet praised Metz as one of the "most important theologians of the 20th century".

Publications

  • Christian anthropocentrism. About forms of thought of Thomas Aquinas. Munich 1962, DNB 453347983 .
  • To the theology of the world. Mainz 1973 (Topos-TB), ISBN 3-7867-0411-2 .
  • Belief in history and society. Studies on a practical fundamental theology. Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-7867-0659-X .
  • Time of the order? On the mysticism and politics of succession. Freiburg 1977, ISBN 3-451-17724-2 .
  • Beyond civil religion. Talk about the future of Christianity. Mainz / Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7867-0826-6 .
  • Interruptions. Theological-political perspectives and profiles. Gütersloh 1981, ISBN 3-579-01041-7 .
  • “Landscape of Screams”. On the drama of the theodicy question. Edited by Johann Baptist Metz. Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-7867-1890-3 .
  • God's speech (Religion - History - Society. Fundamental Theological Studies, Vol. 1) . Edited by Johann Baptist Metz, Johann Reikerstorfer and Jürgen Werbick. Münster 1996, 2nd edition 2001, ISBN 3-8258-2470-5 .
  • On the concept of the new political theology 1967–1997. Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-7867-2029-0 .
  • Christology after Auschwitz. Statements following theses by Tiemo Rainer Peters (Religion - History - Society Vol. 12) . Edited by Johann Baptist Metz and Jürgen Manemann. Münster 2001, ISBN 3-8258-3979-6 .
  • Memoria Passionis. A provocative memory in a plural society. Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-451-28941-5 .
  • Mysticism of the open eyes. When spirituality breaks out. Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-29890-5 .

literature

  • James Matthew Ashley: Interruptions. Mysticism, Politics and Theology in the Work of Johann Baptist Metz , Notre Dame 1998.
  • Tiemo Rainer Peters : Johann Baptist Metz. Theology of Missing God. Grünewald, Mainz 1998.
  • Michael J. Rainer, Hans-Gerd Janßen (Hrsg.): Ban on images , Yearbook Political Theology 2, LIT Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-2795-X .
  • C.-W. Macke: Productive non-simultaneity. The theologian Johann Baptist Metz turns 70 today. In: FR. August 5, 1998.
  • Wolfgang Ockenfels : Politicized Faith? On the tension between Catholic social teaching and political theology . Institute for Social Sciences, Walberberg 1987, ISBN 3-922183-19-0 .
  • Norbert Reck: Johann Baptist Metz (born 1928). The new political theology. In: H. Brosseder (ed.): Thinker in faith. Theological trailblazers for the 21st century. Don Bosco, Munich 2001, pp. 86-96.
  • Benjamin Taubald: Anamnetic Reason. Investigations into a concept of the new political theology. Munster 2001.
  • A reminder against indifference. The theologian Johann Baptist Metz is 80 years old . In: Münchner Kirchenzeitung. 31 (2008), p. 4.
  • Johann Reikerstorfer (Ed.): To the social fate of theology. A Vienna symposium in honor of Johann Baptist Metz . With contributions by E. Jüngel, JB Metz et al. LIT, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-4175-8 .
  • John Cochrane: Memoria et Promissio. About the anamnetic constitution of the Christian faith according to JB Metz and the cultural amnesia in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" and "Endspiel". LIT, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0335-3 .
  • Jürgen Manemann, Bernd Wacker (Eds.): Political Theology - counter-read , LIT Berlin 2008, LIT Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8258-9096-4 .
  • Thomas Polednitschek, Michael J. Rainer, José Antonio Zamora (eds.): Theological-political assurances. A workbook from the group of students and friends of Johann Baptist Metz. LIT, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-1548-6 .
  • Julia Prinz: Endangering Hunger for God. Johann Baptist Metz and Dorothee Sölle at the Interface of Biblical Hermeneutic and Christian Spirituality. Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0495-4 .
  • Hermann Fechtrup, Friedbert Schulze, Thomas Sternberg (eds.): Between the beginning and the end. Thinking about time, hope and history. With contributions by JT Fraser, H. Lübbe, H. Maier, JB Metz, GL Müller, R. Saage. Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-4338-6 .
  • Henning Klingen, Peter Zeillinger, Michael Hölzl (eds.), Extra ecclesiam ...: On the institution and criticism of the church. Yearbook political theology 6/7, LIT Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-50431-9
  • Ansgar Kreutzer : Political Theology for Today. Updates and concretions of a theological program. Herder, Freiburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-451-34909-6 .
  • Hans-Gerd Janßen, Julia DE Prinz, Michael J. Rainer (Hrsg.): Theology in endangered times. Keywords of near and far companions for Johann Baptist Metz on his 90th birthday , LIT, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-643-14106-4 .

Web links

Commons : Johann Baptist Metz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Theologian Johann Baptist Metz died” on kathisch.de of December 3, 2019
  2. ↑ Ekkehard Schuster, Reinhold Boschert-Kimmig: Still hope. In conversation with Johann Baptist Metz and Elie Wiesel , Mainz 1993, pp. 22–25.
  3. ↑ Johann Baptist Metz: A biographical overview: How I have changed . In: Ders .: On the concept of the new political theology 1967–1997 , Mainz 1998, p. 41ff.
  4. ^ Johann Baptist Metz: Heidegger and the problem of metaphysics. Attempted presentation and critical appraisal , Innsbruck 1953.
  5. ↑ http://www.uni-muenster.de/FB2/haben/fundamentaltheologie/metz.html
  6. ^ Johann Baptist Metz: Christian anthropocentrism. On the way of thinking of Thomas Aquinas , Munich 1962.
  7. ↑ Thomas Mittmann: Catholic academies and Catholic days as agencies of church “self-modernization” in the Federal Republic in the “long 1960s” . In: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte 104 (2010), pp. 79–99, here p. 88.
  8. ↑ Johann Baptist Metz: God before us. Instead of a theological argument , in: Siegfried Unseld (Ed.): Ernst Bloch to honor. Contributions to his work , Frankfurt 1965, pp. 227–242.
  9. ^ Schuster, Boschert-Kimmig: Nevertheless hope , pp. 26–28.
  10. ↑ "Our Hope" - A Confession of Faith . Würzburg Synod. Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved on May 21, 2019.
  11. ↑ But don't . In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1980, pp. 65-71 ( online ).
  12. ↑ printed as Johann Baptist Metz: Ökumene nach Auschwitz. On the relationship between Jews and Christians in Germany . In: Ders., Eugen Kogon (Hrsg.): Gott nach Auschwitz. Dimensions of the mass murder of the Jewish people , Freiburg i. Br. 1979, pp. 121-144.
  13. ↑ Johann Baptist Metz: Productive Non-Simultaneity, in: Jürgen Habermas (Ed.): Keywords for the “spiritual situation of the time” , Vol. 2, Munich 1979, pp. 529-538.
  14. ^ Edmund Arens: A Troublesome Alliance. Jürgen Habermas and Johann Baptist Metz, in: Neue Wege 112 (2018), H. 7/8, pp. 28-30.
  15. ^ Johann Baptist Metz Collected Writings | Herder.de. Retrieved February 10, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Johann Baptist Metz is dead. In: domradio.de. Retrieved December 2, 2019 .
  17. ↑ http://www.uni-muenster.de/FB2/haben/fundamentaltheologie/peters.html
  18. ↑ https://www.unilu.ch/fileadmin/fakultaeten/tf/professuren/fundtel/dok/Curriculum_Vitae_Edmund_Arens-1.pdf
  19. ↑ a b Thomas Polednitschek et al. (Ed.): Theological-political assurances. A workbook from Johann Baptist Metz's circle of students and friends , Berlin 2009, pp. 394–397.
  20. ↑ http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/katholisch-theologische-fakultaet/lehrstuehle/religionspaedagogik/prof-boschki.html
  21. ↑ https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/theologe-johann-baptist-metz-erhaelt-nrw-landesverdienstorden/
  22. ↑ https://www.land.nrw/de/pressemitteilung/ministerpraesident-armin-laschet-wuerdigt-johann-baptist-metz-als-einen-der
personal data
SURNAME Metz, Johann Baptist
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 2019
Place of death Muenster