Josef Kleutgen

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Josef Wilhelm Carl Kleutgen (occasionally Joseph Kleutgen , alias Giuseppe Peters ; born April 9, 1811 in Dortmund , † January 13, 1883 in St. Anton near Kaltern , South Tyrol ) was a German theologian and Jesuit . He is considered the "father of neo-scholasticism " and was an important theological advisor to Pope Pius IX. (1846 to 1878) one of the men who played a key role in the formulation of the infallibility dogma .

Life

In 1829 Kleutgen successfully graduated from high school and at the age of 19 began to study philosophy and philology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . At the beginning of his studies Kleutgen became a member of the liberal fraternity Germania Munich in 1830 . As a result of the July Revolution there was also student unrest in Munich, because of which the university was closed and all foreign students were expelled. Kleutgen was suspected of being a rebel and fled to Jena, where he wanted to continue his studies in 1831 and joined the Jena fraternity . As early as Easter 1832 he moved to the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster to study Catholic theology there with Theodor Katerkamp, among others . Here he took the side of the conservative theologians who opposed the connection between faith and modern philosophy. Instead, he was guided by the eternal values ​​of Catholicism, theological tradition and the papacy. In the following year Kleutgen finished his studies in Paderborn and entered the seminary there.

On April 28, 1834 Kleutgen entered the Jesuit order , which was banned in Germany, and went to Switzerland, where he began his two-year novitiate at the seat of the order province responsible for Germany, the Kollegium Spiritus Sanctus in Brig ( canton Valais ) . The use of the pseudonym Giuseppe Peters and the acceptance of Swiss citizenship should protect him from the Prussian authorities who wanted to question him because of his involvement in the Munich riots and also announced that they would be drafted into military service. In 1836 he moved to the St. Michael College in Freiburg im Üechtland , where he studied philosophy and theology. In 1837 he was ordained a priest .

From 1841 to 1843 he taught in Brig until the school was nationalized. From 1843 Kleutgen went to Rome on behalf of his order , where he held several offices of his order. He became an employee at the Collegium Germanicum and in the administration of the Jesuits. During the Revolution of 1848, the Pope fled Rome to Gaeta and Kleutgen, like all the other Jesuits, had to go into hiding. After the defeat of the Roman Republic in 1849 and the return of the Pope, Kleutgen became an appraiser of the index congregation .

Between 1858 and 1862 Kleutgen worked under the order general Pierre Jean Beckx as secretary in the mother house of the order. In 1868 Kleutgen left Rome because of depression and withdrew to Viterbo with the permission of his order . As early as 1869, however, he was appointed to the council theologian of the Jesuit Walter Steins , Archbishop of Calcutta and member of the German delegation at the first Vatican . Kleutgen, along with Steins and Bishop Konrad Martin, was not only involved in the preparations, but also played a key role in drawing up Martin's draft for the De fide catholica and De ecclesia Christi constitutions. The Council's dogma of infallibility is said to have been formulated largely by him.

After the occupation of Rome by Italian troops in 1870, Kleutgen fled to Viterbo again, before living as a preacher and lecturer in rhetoric in Tyrol from 1870 to 1878 . Then he was brought back to Rome as prefect of studies at the Gregoriana . For the encyclical Aeterni Patris by Pope Leo XIII. Kleutgen created the basis; this is considered one of his last works.

In 1879 Kleutgen suffered a stroke . A convalescent vacation in Chieri ( Piedmont ) brought no relief, as another seizure hit him after a short time. In 1880 he gave up all activities in Rome and retired to Tyrol in 1881 , where he worked in Innsbruck for some time . He died on January 13, 1883 at the age of 71 in St. Anton ( Kaltern municipality ). On the occasion of his death, Pope Leo XIII. Kleutgen as "Princeps philosophorum" ("Prince among the philosophers").

From his time as a professor, Konstantin Gutberlet , Franz Seraph Hettinger , Josef Hergenröther and Mathias Joseph Scheeben should be mentioned as his most important students.

Effect as a theologian

For Popes Pius IX. and Leo XIII. Kleutgen was an essential theorist of the conservative doctrine of neo-scholasticism . A kind of life's work was the four-volume work Die Theologie der Vorzeit , in which he presented his conservative teaching from 1853 to 1870. From his practice as a consultator in the Index Congregation, he developed the doctrine of the “ordinary teaching post” of the Pope and the Curia, which culminated in the doctrine of the “infallibility of the Pope when he proclaims a dogma ex cathedra”.

As a committed representative of neo-scholasticism , Kleutgen was able to line up alongside his religious colleagues such as Carlo Maria Curci , Carlo Passasslia and Giovanni Perrone . In Germany Kleutgen was a great defender of neo-scholasticism, whose basis he u. a. also saw in ancient philosophy. Kleutgen stood against the " modernists " such as B. his former colleague Anton Günther , but also theologians like Georg Hermes or Johann Baptist von Hirscher .

Condemnation by the Inquisition

It was only after the Vatican Secret Archives were largely opened for research that aspects of Kleutgen could be identified that complement his personality. In 2013, the church historian Hubert Wolf published the story of an inquisition trial from 1859 to 1862 against members of the monastery of Sant'Ambrogio della Massima . This shows that Kleutgen was “addicted” to a peculiar mysticism and, as a celibate priest, maintained intense sexual relationships, especially with a nun (Maria Luisa Ridolfi). Kleutgen continued to work in Rome under the pseudonym Giuseppe Peters, only having signed official documents with his real name since 1847. As Peters he was confessor of the Franciscan Sisters of the Convent of Sant'Ambrogio della Massima. This was a monastery with a strict enclosure , founded by the mystic Agnese Firrao , who, contrary to all church rules, was venerated as a saint in the monastery. Further serious violations of church discipline occurred in the monastery , in particular when the German Princess Katharina von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen entered the monastery as a novice and questioned the practices. Assassinations were carried out against her, whereupon her cousin Archbishop Hohenlohe freed her from the monastery in 1859 because of a cry for help.

As part of the investigations by the Inquisition from 1859 to 1862, Kleutgen's role as Giuseppe Peters was revealed. Kleutgen had had a sexual relationship with a woman as early as 1848, with whom he lived as a Jesuit in hiding for camouflage. In the monastery of Sant'Ambrogio, both he and some of the nuns, especially the novice master of the convent, Maria Luisa Ridolfi, had systematically broken the enclosure. Kleutgen again had a sexual relationship with Ridolfi. He had not only tolerated the inadmissible veneration of Agnese Firrao, but carried it out and promoted it himself and also contributed to the veneration of Ridolfi as holy and supported her frauds around alleged letters of St. Mary and the embezzlement of large amounts of money. He had broken the secret of confession many times and, as a confessor, imposed on the nuns of the monastery an unlawful obligation of secrecy under canon law about the inadmissible processes and, in the opinion of the court, represented a doctrine and morality that was "neither honest nor healthy". Kleutgen was sentenced as a heretic on February 18, 1862 for these offenses , whereupon he solemnly renounced. He was banished from Rome for two years and went to the Galloro guest house of the Jesuits near Ariccia . He used the time to continue working on his main work Theology of Prehistory . Already in exile he worked closely with Cardinal Karl August von Reisach . In October 1863 he was pardoned and returned to Rome, where he resumed teaching at the Collegium.

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Wilhelm Baum wrote in his article in the Neue Deutsche Biographie about Kleutgen: “The determination of the Catholic theology to scholasticism in the post-Tridentine understanding and the suppression of German theology - especially the Catholic Tübingen School - was one of the most disastrous mistakes made by the Catholics Church in recent times. "

Hubert Wolf concludes from Kleutgen's personal weaknesses that an entire theological school with hundreds of employees, namely neo-scholasticism, unfairly reached an influential position in the universal church: “It had been a long way to enforce neo-scholasticism as the only legitimate Catholic theology . There had also been fierce resistance within the Jesuit order, for which Carlo Passlia in particular stood. Kleutgen had not been too good at inspiring Maria Luisa to write a heavenly letter to Mary, by which his main theological opponent within the Society of Jesus was discredited and eliminated as homosexual. After the neo-scholasticism had become the ultimate Jesuit theology, Leo XIII. finally to the theology of the Catholic world. "

Wolf blames Kleutgen's personality, which was shaped by severe personal defeats, to be largely responsible for this. His childhood was determined by illnesses and his family disappointed him when a half-brother was released from the novitiate of the Jesuits for moral misconduct. Another brother became a priest, but then converted to Protestantism and became a Lutheran pastor in Kleutgen's hometown of Dortmund. Kleutgen would then no longer have been able to cope with the condemnation as a heretic, whereby among his misconduct, in addition to those that corresponded to his thoroughly mystical theology, the violation of the confessional secrecy and sexual relations were serious offenses that were precisely incompatible with his moral rigor.

The effect of Kleutgen's neo-scholastic theology did not come to an end in the 21st century either: it is considered exemplary in circles of religious conservatives in the USA. William Marshner, one of the pioneers in this direction, translated Kleutgen's main work "Philosophy of Prehistoric Times" into English in 2019.

Fonts (selection)

  • Ars dicendi. Priscorum potissimum praeceptis et exemplis illustrata. Marietti, Turin 1885.
  • The Gospel of St. Matthew along with a treatise on the wonderful. Explained briefly after its internal connection. Herder, Freiburg 1882.
  • The ideals and their true realization. A word for understanding the German classics. Hamacher, Frankfurt / M. 1868.
  • Institutiones theologicae in usum scholarum. Blow, Regensburg.
  1. De ipso deodorant. 1881 (no longer published).
  • Smaller works. Theissing Verlag, Münster.
  1. Life of pious servants of God. 1867.
  2. Letters from Rome. 1869.
  3. About the old and new schools. 1871.
  4. Sermons 1. 1873.
  5. Sermons 2. 1874.
  • The supreme teaching power of the Roman bishop. Groppe Verlag, Trier 1870.
  • Ancient philosophy defended. Two volumes. Publishing house Minerva, Frankfurt / M. 1974 (repr. Of the Innsbruck edition 1878).
  • Defending ancient theology. Four volumes (in five). Theissing Verlag, Münster 1860–1873. - Appeared as supplements to the theology of prehistoric times :
  1. On the condemnation of ontologism by the Holy See. 1868.
  2. To my justification. 1868.
  3. On the intellectus agens and innate ideas. To the doctrine of faith. 1875.
  • About the unity of the person of Jesus Christ. In: The Catholic. Journal for Catholic Science and Church Life / 2. Episode. Vol. 49 (1869), pp. 166-193, 286-312, 404-427, 525-541, 641-679.
  • About the persecution of the Church in our day. 3 speeches. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1866.
  • About the wishes, fears, and hopes relating to the upcoming church meeting. Theissing Verlag, Münster 1969.

literature

  • Wilhelm Bartz: The problem of faith in dispute with Josef Kleutgen. Paulinus-Verlag, Paderborn 1950.
  • Konrad Deufel: Church and Tradition. A contribution to the history of the theological turning point in the 19th century using the example of the church-theological struggle program P. Josef Kleutgen, SJ Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 1976.
  • Leonhard Gilen: Kleutgen and the theory of the cognitive image . Hain publishing house, Meisenheim am Glan 1956.
  • Michael Kappes:  Josef Kleutgen. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 54-56.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Friedrich Lauchert :  Kleutgen, Joseph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 216-218.
  • Ludwig Lercher (Ed.): P. Josef Kleutgen, SJ His life and his literary effectiveness. To the secular memory of his birth. Pustet, Regensburg 1910.
  • Thomas Marschler: Scheeben and Kleutgen - their relationship in the mirror of two unpublished letters. In: Nicolaus U. Buhlmann & Peter Styra (eds.): Signum in bonum. Festschrift for Wilhelm Imkamp on his 60th birthday. Pustet, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7917-2362-4 , pp. 459-484.
  • Detlef Peitz: The beginnings of neo-scholasticism in Germany and Italy (1818-1870). nova & vetera, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-936741-38-7 , pp. 146-198.
  • Hubert Wolf : The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64522-8 . ( Review of the Süddeutsche Zeitung ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , p. 106.
  2. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, p. 431.
  3. ^ Extract from Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story ( Memento from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 649 kB)
  4. ↑ DFG research projects by Hubert Wolf - ongoing research project No. 4 (PDF; 34 kB). Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  5. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, p. 334.
  6. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, pp. 373-375.
  7. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, pp. 290-294.
  8. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, p. 375.
  9. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, p. 395.
  10. ^ Wilhelm Baum:  Kleutgen, Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 57 f. ( Digitized version ).
  11. ↑ Hubert Wolf : The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64522-8 , p. 432/33.
  12. ↑ Hubert Wolf: The nuns of Sant'Ambrogio. A true story. 2013, p. 335.
  13. ^ Pre-Modern Philosophy Defended. St. Augustine's Press, South Bend IN, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Kleutgen, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kleutgen, Josef Wilhelm Carl (full name); Kleutgen, Joseph; Peters, Giuseppe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and Jesuit
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1883
Place of death St. Anton near Kaltern , South Tyrol