Piet Fransen (theologian)

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Piet Frans Fransen (born December 10, 1913 in Tournai , † December 2, 1983 in Leuven ) was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian and dogma historian . He belonged to the Jesuit order .

Life

Piet Fransen was the son of Franciscus Fransen, a professor of psychology in Ghent , and his wife Angela Thuysbaert. He attended the humanistic middle school in the French-speaking part of Belgium. In 1930, Fransen entered the Society of Jesus . He studied philosophy ( licentiate in 1941) and Catholic theology (licentiate in 1944) at the St. Johannes Berchmans College of the Jesuits in Eegenhoven near Leuven and was ordained a priest in 1943 . With his work on the dogmatic significance of the canons of the Council of Trent on divorce , which he submitted to the Gregoriana in Rome in 1947 and which has received wide attention to this day , he was awarded a doctorate in theology in 1952 by dogmatist Heinrich Lennerz SJ (1899–1961) , who came from Kempen on the Lower Rhine PhD .

Since 1948 he taught dogmatic theology at the Theological College of the Jesuit order in Leuven and was at its acquisition in the Catholic University from 1967 to 1969 the first dean of the Centrum voor Kerkelijke Studies (CKS) in Leuven, a central theological training facility for religious clergy of various communities , and from 1969 chairman of the English section of this institute. He took on teaching positions at numerous foreign Jesuit universities, including the Canisianum at Maastricht University (1956), Heythrop College at London University (1957 and 1968), Lovanium in Kinshasa (1958), Fordham University in New York (1960 and 1962) and the University of San Francisco (1968). From 1969 until his death he held the chair for dogmatics and moral theology at the Dutch-speaking sub-university in Leuven ( Katholieke Universiteit Leuven ).

As part of his international teaching activities, Fransen was particularly closely associated with the University of Innsbruck , where he held regular lectures as an honorary professor for dogmatic theology from 1962 until the late 1970s . Mention should be made in this context of his frequent collaboration with Karl Rahner , who worked at the Innsbruck Jesuit College Canisianum before the Second Vatican Council . Rahner allowed himself to be represented by Fransen several times during his absence at the Jesuit college due to his work as a council theologian for the Vienna Cardinal König . In 1970 the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck awarded Piet Fransen an honorary doctorate .

Piet Fransen appeared as the editor and collaborator of several theological journals (including Bijdragen , Tijdschrift voor Theologie , Louvain Studies , Collationes ) and was particularly active as a journalist during the first two sessions of the Second Vatican Council. In the preparation of the new draft of the Revelation Constitution Dei Verbum , which was negotiated in the third council period, suggestions from Frans were incorporated alongside many other contemporary theologian opinions. From 1970, Fransen played a key role in setting up the Centrum voor Conciliestudie Vaticanum II in Leuven, of which he was one of the founding members together with the canon lawyer Willy Onclin (1905–1989), the moral theologian Victor Heylen (1906–1981), the Reformation historian Karel Blockx (1925–1925–) 1983) and the archivist Jan Grootaers (1921–2016). Fransen is the author of various articles and treatises on dogmatic theological keywords in renowned theological lexicons and standard works (including in the German-speaking area the 2nd edition of the LThK , the specialist lexicon Sacramentum Mundi co-edited by Karl Rahner , Herder's Theologisches Taschenlexikon and the compendium Mysterium Salutis initiated by Magnus Löhrer ) . He was a member of the Theological Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Belgium , the Commission for Christian-Jewish Relations in Belgium ( Commissie voor de Joods-Christelijke Betrekkingen in Belgium ) and the French Society for Marian Studies ( Société Francaise d'Études Mariales , SFEM). Fransen also had ecumenical contacts with Protestant theologians, especially in northern Germany and England.

Of the more than 200 publications by Fransen up to 1974, his treatises on the doctrine of grace and the theology of the sacraments as well as his research on the history of the Council were particularly appreciated. His studies of certain individual sacraments ( confirmation , ordination , anointing of the sick ) remained authoritative until after his death. Fransen had the distinctive ability to convincingly trace the theological models of thought on which the different dogmatizations were based from their historical context and to make them understandable. He was interested in the historical conditioned nature of dogmatic formulations and the resulting consequences for the church's doctrine and its contemporary understanding. His preoccupation with the Flemish mystic Jan van Ruysbroeck determined his interest in mysticism , which can be seen as a key to his understanding of faith and the church. His ecclesiology was closely linked to his theological considerations on grace and focused on the concept of koinonia ; it belongs to the complex of communion-ecclesiology of the Council's time.

Piet Fransen is described as a lovable, humorous and peaceful personality who exuded a bond with God. He spoke, taught and published in Dutch , French , German and English . Although he grew up mainly in the French-speaking part of Belgium, he saw himself as a dedicated Flemish . Fransen died completely unexpectedly a few days before his 70th birthday.

Selection of works

  • The formula “si quis dixerit ecclesiam errare” at the 24th session of the Council of Trent (July to November 1563) (Freiburg 1951, publication of an extract from the dissertation)
  • As ed. U. Author d. Einl .: Kerk der Zondaren by Karl Rahner (Antwerp 1951, extended translation from Rahner's Church of Sinner , Freiburg 1948, on dealing with the church abuse scandals of the Nazi era )
  • Pour une psychologie de la grace divine , in: Lumen vitae 12 (1957), pp. 209-240
  • Faith and the Sacraments (London 1957)
  • Gods Genade en de mens. De christen in onze tijd (Antwerp 1959)
  • Grace and mandate. Brief introduction to theology and grace doctrine (Vienna 1961)
  • L'autorité des Conciles , in: GEM Anscombe (ed.): Problèmes de l'autorité , pp. 59–100 (Paris 1962)
  • De genade: werkelijkheid en leven (Antwerp 1965)
  • Intelligent Theology (3 vols., Chicago 1967–1969)
  • The New Life of Grace (Tournai, London and New York 1969)
  • The topic "Divorce after adultery" at the Council of Trent (1563) , in: Concilium 6 (1970), pp. 343–348 (abridged version of the results of ongoing doctoral studies)
  • Development of the doctrine of grace in the history of dogma , in: Johannes Feiner, Magnus Löhrer (ed.): Mysterium Salutis 4/2, Benziger, Einsiedeln 1973, pp. 631–772
  • As ed. With Giuseppe Alberigo and co-author alongside the co-editor, Edward Schillebeeckx , Franz-Xaver Kaufmann u. a .: Authority in the church (anthology of various authors, Löwen 1983)
  • Herman-Emiel Mertens, Frank de Graeve (eds.): Hermeneutics of the councils and other studies (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium [BETL], 69)
    (anthology with complete bibliography and a collection of 18 important articles by Fransens, mostly in English for the first time , Leuven 1985)

Note: Various publications by Fransen in English and German have been published under the author name Peter Fransen .

literature

General
On Fransen's dissertation topic
  • Luigi Bressan : Il canone tridentino sul divorzio per adulterio e l'interpretazione degli autori (Analecta Gregoriana, 194). Università Gregoriana Editrice, Rome 1973 (critical examination of Fransen's research on the divorce canon) (Italian).
  • Hans Jorissen : The decision of the Council of Trento on divorce and remarriage and their background. In: Theodor Schneider (Ed.): Divorced, remarried, rejected? Answers of theology (Quaestiones Disputatae, 157). Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, pp. 112–126 (appreciation and discussion of Fransen's research on the divorce canon).
  • Andreas Wollbold: Pastoral work with divorced remarried people: Gordian knot or unimagined possibilities? Friedrich Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 2015, pp. 113–117 (discussion of Fransen's interpretation of the divorce canon in the context of the most recent remarried debate).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Christian Brugger: Damnatio Memoria? The Council of Trent and Catholic Teaching on Divorce. Published online in: Ryan T. Anderson, Serena Sigillito (Eds.): Public Discourse (The Witherspoon Institute), October 17, 2014; accessed on February 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ Karim Schelkens: Het Centrum voor Conciliestudie Vaticanum II. In: VRB Informatie (bulletin of the Vereniging van religieus-wetenschappelijke bibliothecarissen ) 35 (2005), No. 1-4, pp. 13-33 (32).
  3. ^ Leonhard Hell, Karim Schelkens: Vatican II. Dei Verbum. In: Oda Wischmeyer (Ed.): Handbook of Biblical Hermeneutics. From Origen to the present. De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, pp. 623–632 (on Fransen: p. 630 and note 21).
  4. ^ Professor emeritus Jan Grootaers overleden. In: Kerknet , April 7, 2016; accessed on February 11, 2017.
  5. ↑ Karim Schelkens: Het Centrum voor Conciliestudie Vaticanum II. In: VRB Informatie 35 (2005), No. 1–4, p. 14; see. Homepage of the research center, accessed on February 11, 2017.
  6. ↑ Personnel . In: Bijdragen. International Journal for Philosophy and Theology , Vol. 32 (1971), Issue 1, p. 116.
  7. ↑ Examples: The New Life of Grace (1969) (Seabury Press, New York), Considerations about the Firmalter (1962) (Journal for Catholic Theology 84, pp. 401-426, Innsbruck).
personal data
SURNAME Fringes, Piet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fransen, Piet Frans (full name); Fransen, Pieter; Fransen, Pieter Frans; Fransen, Peter (author name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian Catholic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Tournai
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1983
Place of death Lions