Wilhelm Weber (priest)

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Wilhelm Weber (born December 12, 1925 in Meggen , † October 4, 1983 in Münster , Westphalia ) was a German Catholic theologian and social and economic ethicist.

Life

Wilhelm Weber was born on December 12, 1925 in Meggen / Westphalia, today Lennestadt, as the son of the miner Josef Weber and his wife Maria, née. Hoheisel was born. After attending grammar schools in Paderborn, Arnsberg and Bad Driburg, he studied philosophy and Catholic theology at the Philosophical-Theological Academy in Paderborn and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome .

He was influenced by the moral theologian Franz Hürth , the exegete Augustin Bea , who later became a cardinal , and above all the social philosopher Gustav Gundlach . He was ordained a priest in Rome on October 10, 1952 . He completed his theology studies in Rome in 1953 with a licentiate .

He performed his first pastoral work as a vicar in Linden . In 1955 the professor of Christian social sciences Joseph Höffner brought him to the University of Münster as a research assistant . In 1951, Höffner took over the traditional chair as the successor to Franz Wärme and Heinrich Weber and founded the Institute for Christian Social Sciences. Weber received his doctorate from Höffner in 1957. theol. with a dissertation on the Spanish social philosopher Luis de Molina as "probably the most important scholastic economic ethicist of the 16th century" and in 1961 as a Dr. rer. pole. with a thesis on money and interest theories of the 16th and 17th centuries.

When Höffner became Bishop of Munster in 1962 , Weber moved to Mainz University to do his habilitation there. The habilitation thesis was devoted to currency ethics. He received the license to teach Christian social sciences in the summer of 1964.

In the same year, the Minister of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia , Paul Mikat , appointed him to succeed Joseph Höffner as full professor of Christian social sciences at the University of Münster and as director of the institute of the same name. In addition to the foundations of Christian social doctrine, the program of his courses included social, economic, work and professional ethics as well as political ethics and developments and changes in capitalism and socialism.

In addition to the doctoral theses and the post-doctoral thesis, he published 200 books, essays and lexicon articles on the aforementioned areas of social ethics and current issues. He saw himself particularly challenged by liberation theology and the New Left , which were inspired by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School .

Weber was asked as an expert by federal and state governments, by the German Bishops' Conference and by the Association of Catholic Entrepreneurs , whose spiritual and scientific advisor he was for almost two decades. For several years he was the spokesman for the working group of Catholic social scientists at German universities. In 1971 Joseph Höffner, who had meanwhile been appointed Archbishop of Cologne , appointed him as an advisor to the second Synod of Bishops in Rome.

In response to liberation theology, the Bishop of Essen , Franz Hengsbach , founded the study group “Church and Liberation”, to which theologians from Germany and Latin America, including Wilhelm Weber, belonged. The work for the study group led Weber to numerous countries in Latin America and also to the Sandinista ruled Nicaragua . Weber published his experiences there under the title Way of the Cross Nicaraguas. Travel impressions from a long-suffering country . This publication was considered a taboo by students and some theologians. The subsequent disruption of his course caused Weber to have a heart attack from which he could no longer fully recover.

Honors

He received ecclesiastical recognition through the appointment as prelate by Pope John Paul II. In 1982 he became an honorary member of the Catholic student union Unitas Winfridia in Münster.

Wilhelm Weber Prize

The award named after Wilhelm Weber was founded in 1994 by the manager Heinz-Josef Kiefer . Today it is awarded by his family to personalities and institutions who have rendered outstanding services to the ideas and practical implementation of Christian social teaching and the Christian social sciences. The decision on the award winners is made by a five-person board of trustees chaired by Markus Kiefer. Prize winners included a .: Michael Novak (1994), Carl-Heinz Pierk and Johann Wilhelm Naumann , editor-in-chief and publisher, for the newspaper Die Tagespost (1999), Klaus Töpfer (2003), Georg Sabin and Lech Polonski (2005), Edith Raidt (2007 ), Lothar Roos (2011), Theo Waigel (2016), Thomas Rusche (2017), Reiner Siebert (2018), Carsten Linnemann (2019), Angelika Niebler (2020).

Fonts (selection)

Monographs:

  • Business ethics on the eve of liberalism. The climax and conclusion of the scholastic economic analysis by Ludwig Molina SJ (1535–1600). Aschendorff, Münster 1959.
  • Money and Interest in the Spanish Late Scholasticism (= writings of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster, Vol. 13). Aschendorff, Münster 1962.
  • Stable monetary value in an orderly economy. Current issues of monetary ethics. Aschendorff, Münster 1965.
  • The entrepreneur. A controversial social figure between ideology and reality. Hanstein, Cologne 1973.
  • Person in society. Essays and lectures against the background of Christian social teaching 1967–76. Schöningh, Paderborn 1978. ISBN 3-506-79690-9 .
  • Money, Faith, Society. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1979.
  • But when the salt becomes stale ... The influence of social-scientific worldviews on theological and ecclesiastical speech and action. Echter, Würzburg 1994. ISBN 3-429-00908-1 .

Editing:

  • with Joseph Höffner: Writings of the Institute for Christian Social Sciences of the Westphalian Wilhelms University. 5 volumes. Aschendorff, Münster 1965 ff.
  • with Anton Rauscher: Treatises on social ethics. 25 volumes. Schöningh, Paderborn 1969 ff.
  • with Franz Greiß and Philipp Herder-Dorneich : The human being in the socio-economic process. Festschrift for Wilfrid Schreiber on his 65th birthday. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Burr (ed.): Unitas manual . tape 1 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 1995, p. 368 .
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Weber Prize 2017: SØR Managing Director Thomas Rusche honored. In: focus.de. April 28, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017 .
  3. ↑ CSU politician receives Wilhelm Weber Prize 2020. In: focus.de. June 19, 2020, accessed June 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian and social and economic ethicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Meggen , Lennestadt
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1983
Place of death Muenster