Otto Bardenhewer

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Bertram Otto Bardenhewer (born March 16, 1851 in Gladbach , † March 23, 1935 in Munich ) was a German Catholic theologian . Bardenhewer achieved scientific importance in particular through his work in the field of patrology .

Life

Otto Bardenhewer was born on March 16, 1851 in Gladbach, the son of a lawyer. After attending elementary school and a Progymnasium in his place of birth, he attended the boarding school of the Lazarists in Neuss . He finished his school education in 1868 with the Abitur. Bardenhewer then studied Catholic theology for eleven semesters at the University of Bonn . In the 9th semester he was able to work on Hermes Trismegistos, a Muslim author from the 11th / 12th. Century, the philosophical PhD. After visiting the seminary he received in the March 13, 1875 in Cologne , the ordination . Due to the university-political framework conditions shaped by the Kulturkampf , several attempts by Bardenhewer to obtain a full professorship at the University of Münster , which at that time only had the status of a "Philosophical and Theological Academy", were unsuccessful. In 1876 Bardenhewer earned a second doctorate (Doctor of Theology) at the University of Würzburg with a dissertation on the Daniel commentary by Hippolyte . From January 1879 he worked for nine semesters as a private lecturer in Old Testament exegesis at the University of Munich . In the summer semester of 1884 Bardenhewer was appointed professor for the subject "Old Testament" at the University of Münster. Just two years later he was offered a professorship at the University of Munich, where he was given a full professorship for “Biblical Hermeneutics and New Testament Introduction and Exegesis”. In this function he worked until his retirement at the end of the winter semester 1923/24 at the age of 73. Bardenhewer died on March 23, 1935 in Munich.

During his studies in Würzburg, Bardenhewer became an active member of the Catholic student association K.St.V. Walhalla Würzburg in the KV , later he was in Munich still honor philistine of the Munich KV connections K.St.V. Ottonia Munich, Saxonia, Südmark and Alemannia .

Scientific achievements

Although Bardenhewer was always active as an exegete during his scientific career and also published works in the field of Mariology , Bardenhewer's scientific importance is based exclusively on his work in the field of patrology. In 1894, Herder Verlag in Freiburg im Breisgau published his one-volume textbook "Patrology". The work, which was reprinted in 1901 and 1910, was also published in French, Italian, English and Spanish translations. Bardenhewer had already announced in the foreword to the first edition of his "Patrology" that he wanted to present a more detailed account of the literary history of the early church. Bardenhewer put this project into practice with the “History of Early Church Literature” published in five volumes between 1902 and 1931. Both the “Patrology” and its five-volume opus deal in chronological order with the life, writings and teaching of the Church Fathers combined with a breakdown by language and region. In particular, the "history of early church literature" is still of considerable scientific value due to its enormous wealth of detail, which from then on remained unmatched. In 2007 a reprint of the 2nd edition of the five-volume work was reprinted in the Scientific Book Society in Darmstadt. Bardenhewer also became known through the publication of the second series of the Library of the Church Fathers , a book series published between 1911 and 1939 in 83 volumes in which the texts of the Church Fathers were edited in German. As an author, Bardenhewer contributed to this series of books the general introduction to the works of Ephrem the Syrian (Volume 37, Pages I-XLVII) and a translation of selected writings by Cyril of Alexandria . Bardenhewers theological stance was based strictly on the guidelines of the Roman Catholic official church. So he understood his work and the field of patrology explicitly only as the history of the early church and not, like his famous Protestant colleague Adolf von Harnack, as a representation of early Christian literature. Bardenhewer saw the church fathers as "interpreters and advocates of a teaching tradition which can only be traced back to the apostles". Bardenhewer was often criticized by Harnack and other representatives of "liberal theology" for this attitude, which defied any reinterpretation of the traditional scriptures.

Bardenhewers role in the "Schnitzer Affair"

Bardenhewer's extremely loyal to the Church - in 1910 he voluntarily took the so-called anti - modernist oath, although as a university professor he was not obliged to take it - also forms the background for Bardenhewer's role in the affair of the Munich theologian Joseph Schnitzer , through which the former briefly attracted nationwide attention theological specialist groups. Schnitzer, professor for the history of dogma, had published a magazine article on February 1, 1908, which opposed the papal encyclical Pascendi , for which he was suspended on February 6, 1908 because of "dogmatic errors". Bardenhewer, who was dean of the theological faculty at the time, had prepared a confidential report for Archbishop Franz Joseph von Stein of Munich , in which he declared Schnitzer's positions heretical . In his lecture on February 10, 1908, he repeated this view to students. After Bardenhewer's statements were reported in the daily press, there was considerable commotion at the university and beyond. Among other things, students tried to disrupt Bardenhewer's lectures. On February 20, 1908, the Senate of the University of Bardenhewer issued a formal reprimand for his polemics against a faculty colleague. Bardenhewer rejected criticism of his behavior throughout his life.

Works

  • Patrology. Freiburg im Breisgau 1894 (2nd edition, 1901; 3rd edition, 1910) (textbook), Archives
  • History of early church literature. Volume 1, Freiburg / Br. 1902 (2nd edition 1913); Volume 2, 1903 (2nd ed., 1914); Volume 3, 1912 (2nd ed., 1923); Volume 4, 1924 (2nd ed., 1924); Volume 5, 1932. Online (reprinted in the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2007). ISBN 978-3-534-20191-4 . ( Review at sehepunkte´, issue May 15, 2009) , Volume 1, Archives , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Volume 4 , Volume 5
  • Library of the Church Fathers. Kempten / Munich 1911 ff. (83 volumes) (Ed.)
  • Saint Hippolytus of Rome Commentar on the book of Daniel. An attempt at literary history. Diss. Würzburg 1876
  • The Annunciation - A Commentary on Luke 1, 26-38. Freiburg / Br. 1905.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfons Fürst: Otto Bardenhewer, exegete and patrologist, page IX
  2. ↑ S. Koß in Biographical Lexicon of KV Volume 5 p. 17
  3. ^ Otto Bardenhewer: History of early church literature, volume 1, page XXXIV, new edition Darmstadt 2007
  4. ↑ Schöllgen, LThK, 3rd edition, Volume 2, page 2
  5. ^ Schnitzer, The Encyclical Pascendi and the Catholic Theology, International Journal for Science, Art and Technology, February 1, 1908, Sp. 129–140, partial print in: Neuner, Der Streit um den Catholic Modernismus, Frankfurt / M. 2009, pp. 387-391
  6. ^ Alfons Fürst: Otto Bardenhewer, exegete and patrologist, pages X-XII
personal data
SURNAME Bardenhewer, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bardenhewer, Bertram Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German patrologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Gladbach
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1935
Place of death Munich