Paul Simon (Provost)

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Paul Simon (born August 23, 1882 in Dortmund , † November 25, 1946 in Paderborn ) was a Roman Catholic theologian .

Life

Paul Simon studied philosophy and theology in Paderborn and Münster as well as at the universities in Innsbruck, Freiburg and Strasbourg; he was a student of Norbert Peters , Albert Ehrhard , Bernhard Bartmann and Clemens Baeumker . In 1907 he was ordained a priest by Bishop Wilhelm Schneider . He was initially active in teaching at grammar schools in Werl and Münster. In 1919 he was appointed head of the Paderborn Collegium Leoninum by Bishop Karl Joseph Schulte . At the same time he became full professor of the new chair for patrology and classical philology of theTheological Academy Paderborn . In 1925 he received a call as professor of scholastic philosophy and apologetics at the University of Tuebingen . In 1932 he was rector of the University of Tübingen, and in 1933 dismissed from civil service at his own request. The Paderborn Metropolitan Chapter elected him in March 1933 as Provost of the Cathedral in Paderborn; the election was made by Pope Pius XI. approved.

Several of the writings he wrote after the National Socialists “came to power ” were sharply anti-Nazi and were banned. According to Knut Backhaus , the treatise published in 1934 under the title Mythos or Religion in the series “Der Christ in der Zeit” of the Bonifatiuswerk , from which excerpts were published anonymously in the Paderborn journal “Theologie und Glaube” co-edited by Simon, was “ Probably the most thorough examination ”of Alfred Rosenberg's myth of the 20th century on the part of Catholic specialist theology, with Simon particularly eloquently fighting and ironically impaling the National Socialist racial doctrine. The readers will remember his suggestion to view Winnetou as the prototype of the " Nordic man ".

Simon was with a few others (such as Max Joseph Metzger , Matthias Laros and Robert Grosche ) an early pioneer of the ecumenical movement and organized the first Evangelical-Catholic theological conference in Germany, which took place secretly in Berlin in 1934. In the 1930s, Simon introduced the Paderborn Archbishop Lorenz Jaeger , who was appointed in 1941, to ecumenical thinking. His contacts with Protestant theologians went back to the time before the First World War . Since that time he has also been committed to a liturgical renewal in the Catholic Church together with Ildefons Herwegen , who later became the abbot of Maria Laach . Shortly before his death, Simon was instrumental in founding the Jaeger- Stählin -kreis in Werl, an ecumenical platform whose theological direction he exercised together with Edmund Schlink .

Simon was a member of the Catholic student associations KDStV Hercynia Freiburg im Breisgau , VKDSt Saxonia Münster and AV Guestfalia Tübingen in the CV and honorary member of the Wingolf Nibelungen zu Tübingen . He was a co-founder of the Catholic Association of Academics (1913) and became friends with the later center politician Heinrich Brüning since studying together in Strasbourg (1906) . He was also friends with the Hochland publisher Carl Muth .

Fonts (selection)

  • Reunification of the Church and unity of the West. In: Theologie und Glaube 21 (1929), pp. 1–20
  • Myth or religion (Der Christ in der Zeit, series published by the Academic Bonifatius-Einigung, issue 7). Bonifacius printing works, Paderborn 1934 (prohibited)
  • The myth of the 20th century. In: Theologie und Glaube 26 (1934), pp. 273–301 (initially published without acknowledgment of the author)
  • Worldview. Bonifacius printing works, Paderborn 1935 (prohibited)
  • The class and the lay priesthood. Pustet , Salzburg 1938
  • The history of the Reformation as an ecumenical task (Hochland 37 (1939/40), issue 11). Kösel, Kempten / A. 1939
  • On the natural knowledge of God (two essays). Bonifacius printing works, Paderborn 1940
  • Church and churches. In: Paul Simon, Karl August Meißinger , Otto Urbach : On the conversation between the denominations. With a foreword by the Hochland editorial staff. Kösel / Pustet, Munich 1940
  • The human in the Church of Christ. Herder, Freiburg / B. (Banned in 1936), new edition 1948

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norbert Fiedler: From the "Academic Bonifatius Correspondenz" to the "Living Testimony". On the history of a religious-scientific journal. ( Memento of July 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Online publication on the website of the Bonifatiuswerk magazine Lebendigeszeugnis , accessed in July 2017.
  2. ↑ Knut Backhaus: “Triumphantly invaded the area of ​​the enlightened!” In: Annual and conference report of the Görres Society , Cologne 2001, p. 16.
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman Catholic theologian, professor and provost in Paderborn, professor in Tübingen
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1946
Place of death Paderborn