Otto Karrer

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Otto Karrer (born November 30, 1888 in Ballrechte im Breisgau ; † December 8, 1976 in Lucerne ) was a Roman Catholic theologian , ecumenist , religious philosopher and spiritual writer. He translated many works by theologians of antiquity as well as the spiritual literature of all centuries and dealt with contemporary poetry. Although he never held a professorship , he is considered an influential theologian of the 20th century.

Life

Ballrechte-Dottingen

Otto Karrer, son of a farmer, attended the local elementary school and the state Bertholds-, then the Friedrich-Gymnasium Freiburg . In 1908 he began studying Catholic theology in Innsbruck . In the third year of his studies he became a novice of the Society of Jesus , initially in Tisis (Vorarlberg). The philosophy study took place at the order's own training center Valkenburg (Holland). He then taught at the Stella Matutina in Feldkirch , where he was also Prefect of Studies . Karrer again completed his theological studies in Valkenburg. On June 20, 1920 he was ordained a priest there . As a complement to his studies, he attended lectures on medieval history in Bonn and on art history from Heinrich Wölfflin in Munich .

Karrer immersed himself in the early history of the Jesuit order and worked mainly on the third order general Franz von Borja . As early as 1921 he published his biography, which was approved by leading church historians, but was criticized by the order general Vladimir Ledochowski for highlighting the differences between Ignatius and Franz.

Franz von Borja, third general of the Jesuits

Karrer also worked on the complete edition of the works of Ignatius von Loyola . In 1922 he received his doctorate in both philosophy and theology in Valkenburg. At the request of the Prefect of the Vatican Library , his friar Cardinal Franziskus Ehrle , he was sent to Rome - he was supposed to complete his training in order to succeed Bernhard Duhr SJ as a religious historian.

Further studies about Robert Bellarmin , whose beatification was pending, personal experiences as well as revision led to a deep "church crisis" in 1923 and to Karrer's exit from the Jesuit order. He hastily entered the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria on August 29, 1923 and a short time later the Protestant seminary in Nuremberg . His trial catechesis and sermon there are still preserved.

However, within a few weeks, Karrer turned away from the Lutheran Church in disappointment and rejoined the Roman Catholic Church . A re-admission to the Jesuit order stood in the way of the order's constitutions. Karrer's former novice master Paul de Chastonay , who was always favored by him, mediated his acceptance into the clergy of the diocese of Chur . He was only allowed to exercise the priestly functions again after a retreat in the monastery of the Immenseer Missionaries in Wolhusen . His “past” stood in the way of teaching at a (Catholic) college or university, which Karrer would have been able to do after his previous education. He therefore settled as a writer first in Weggis , then (1928) in Lucerne , where he lived until his death, and worked as a pastor at the local Pauluskirche. His economic situation always remained precarious. In 1935 he was naturalized in Switzerland.

Lucerne

His main field of work was now the editions of works or letters from Meister Eckhart , Franz von Sales , John Henry Newman and others. A great text history of mysticism and his collaboration on the magazine Hochland made his name widely known.

In 1942 Karrer's little pamphlet became Prayer, Providence, Miracles. A conversation was placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum (and the right to preach was withdrawn from him for a year), but released after a personal conversation with the responsible book censor Msgr. Vigilio Dialpaz in Rome; due to the circumstances of the time, however, no new edition was possible.

In the summer of 1942 he helped members of the Austrian Maier-Messner resistance group to submit a memorandum to the British authorities.

During the Second World War, he helped many refugees from Germany and its areas of influence from Switzerland. His correspondence, u. a. with Waldemar Gurian , proves this. In particular, through his mediation, Gurian and Otto M. Knab were able to publish the German Letters in Lucerne from 1934 to 1938 , an information sheet about the church struggle and church persecution of National Socialism. The small text Fate and Dignity of Man expressly served to deal with the human image of National Socialism.

Already in the post-war period (1945) and then increasingly during the Second Vatican Council (in which he took part in the press box) he founded ecumenical discussion groups, the results of which he published in an ecumenical series of publications. One of his interlocutors was the Reformed theologian Oskar Cullmann . Bishop Christianus Caminada defended him against critical defamation. Karrer's translation of the New Testament also became ecumenically significant: "It seemed to me to be a happy sign that Protestant theologians also helped with some pointers," he wrote in a review of his life. Karrer gave lectures and courses at the Salzburg University Weeks.

It was not until July 19, 1963, that Karrer was fully rehabilitated by the Vatican ( Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani ) and received all priestly rights again without restriction. Vatican authorities soon call him "one of our most valued collaborators". The then general of the Jesuit order, Pedro Arrupe , made Karrer an offer in 1967 to rejoin the order without any legal formalities, which Karrer gladly accepted.

In 1958 he received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1965 the Central Switzerland Culture Prize “for his entire work as a writer, translator and editor and for his work in the service of understanding among Christian denominations”. In 1967 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen .

Otto Karrer died on December 8, 1976 in Lucerne after a long illness. Since 2002, the Theological Faculty of the University of Lucerne has been carrying on the concerns of the (dissolved) Otto Karrer Society and organizes an annual Otto Karrer lecture given by well-known personalities. In Ballrechte a street is named after Otto Karrer.

Works

  • Saint Francis of Borja: General of the Society of Jesus, 1510-1572. Freiburg 1921
  • Of. St. Ignatius of Loyola spiritual letters and instructions. Freiburg 1922
  • Francis de Sales, ways to God. Collected texts. Munich 1923
  • Master Eckehart speaks. Collected texts. Munich 1925
  • Augustine: The Religious Life. Collected texts. 2 vol., Munich 1925
  • The great embers. Text history of mysticism. 3 volumes, Munich 1926/27
  • Liturgical prayer book from the first Christian centuries. Munich 1928
  • The religious in humanity and Christianity. Freiburg 1934
  • Early Christian witnesses, The early Christianity according to extra-biblical documents up to AD 150, 1937
  • Human fate and dignity. Einsiedeln 1940
  • Prayer, providence, miracles. A conversation. Lucerne 1941
  • Is scripture enough? 1944
  • Yearbook of the soul. From the wisdom of the Christian centuries. Munich 1951
  • The new Testament. Bible translation, Munich 1950, revised 1954, 1959
  • About the unity of Christians - the Peter question - a conversation with Emil Brunner, Oskar Cullmann, Hans von Campenhausen. Frankfurt 1953
  • The kingdom of God today. Collected Essays. Munich 1956
  • Christian unity - gift and task. Lucerne 1963
  • The Second Vatican Council - Reflections on Its Historical and Spiritual Reality. Munich 1966
  • Highlights from letters to me 1933 - 1975. Frankfurt 1976

Karrer's full bibliography has 716 titles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Viktor Conzemius: God's search for traces: twenty Christian profiles of the modern age. Freiburg 2002. p. 268.
  2. ↑ Viktor Conzemius: God's search for traces: twenty Christian profiles of the modern age. Freiburg 2002. p. 280.
  3. ↑ Radomír Luža : The Resistance in Austria 1938 - 1945. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-215-05477-9 , p. 198 .
  4. ↑ Streiflichter from letters to me 1933 - 1975. Frankfurt 1976.
  5. ↑ Autobiographical in: Streiflichter from Letters to Me 1933 - 1975. Frankfurt 1976. P. 185.
  6. ↑ Bernd Marz: Border Crosser of Faith . Würzburg 1995. p. 171. without further evidence
personal data
SURNAME Karrer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Ball rights
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1976
Place of death Lucerne