David Berger (born 8 March 1968 in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

) is a German theologian, author and gay activist.

Biography

From 1991 to 1998, Berger studied philosophy,

Catholic theology Catholic theology is the understanding of Catholic doctrine or teachings, and results from the studies of theologians. It is based on canonical scripture, and sacred tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the magisterium of the Catholic ...

and German language and literature in Würzburg,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

. Berger is a German

neo-Thomist Neo-scholasticism (also known as neo-scholastic Thomism Accessed 27 March 2013 or neo-Thomism because of the great influence of the writings of Thomas Aquinas on the movement) is a revival and development of medieval scholasticism in Catholic t ...

and took a critical stance to the work of

Karl Rahner Karl Rahner (5 March 1904 – 30 March 1984) was a German Jesuit priest and theologian who, alongside Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar, is considered to be one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of t ...

. Berger was a professor of the

Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PAST; la, Pontificia Academia Sancti Thomae Aquinati) is a pontifical academy established on 15 October 1879 by Pope Leo XIII. The academy is one of the pontifical academies housed along with ...

in Rome and also worked as a religious education teacher at a high school in

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

, Germany. The Catholic Church has since revoked his licence to teach. In 2010, Berger's homosexuality was publicized. He then published his book ''Der heilige Schein: Als schwuler Theologe in der katholischen Kirche'' ("The holy appearance: Being a gay theologian in the Catholic church"), in which he claimed that 20 to 40 percent of the Catholic clergy were homosexual. He subsequently was the editor-in-chief of the gay periodical ''Männer'' (Berlin). He increasingly took a critical stance towards Islam and immigration, which in February 2015 led to him being dismissed from that position and to Berger distancing himself from the German

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

movement. Berger continues as an independent blogger and supports, among other things, the German anti-migration party AfD.

Works by Berger

* ''Natur und Gnade in systematischer Theologie und Religionspädagogik von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart''. S. Roderer. Regensburg 1998. . * ''Thomas von Aquin und die Liturgie. Ed. Thomisticae''. Cologne 2000. (translation in English and French). * ''Thomismus. Große Leitmotive der thomistischen Synthese und ihre Aktualität für die Gegenwart''. Ed. Thomisticae. Cologne 2001. . * ''Thomas von Aquins "Summa theologiae". Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft''. Darmstadt 2004. . * ''Was ist ein Sakrament? Der hl. Thomas von Aquin und die Sakramente im allgemeinen''. Franz Schmitt. Siegburg 2004. . * ''Thomas von Aquin begegnen''. Sankt-Ulrich. Augsburg 2002. (translation in Hungarian: Budapest 2008). * ''In der Schule des hl. Thomas von Aquin. Studien zur Geschichte des Thomismus''. nova et vetera. Bonn 2005. . * ''Der heilige Schein: Als schwuler Theologe in der katholischen Kirche''. 2010. . * Editor: ** ''Karl Rahner – Kritische Annäherungen''. Franz Schmitt. Siegburg 2004. . ** together with Jörgen Vijgen: ''Thomistenlexikon''. nova et vetera. Bonn 2006. .

References

External links

Philosophia Perennis – David Berger's blog

Personal homepage of Berger (engl/German)About David Berger. Where two worlds coincide (engl.)

* ttp://www.fr-online.de/politik/katholische-kirche-feuert-schwulen-theologen/-/1472596/4510226/-/index.html Frankfurter Rundschau: Kirche feuert schwulen Theologen (German)
kath.net: Ansonsten muss ich dies als Verleumdung betrachten (German)

* ttp://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/theologian-pope-francis-comments-are-bad-for-catholic-gays-a-914121.html Der Spiegel: Gay Comments – Pope Francis Not as Liberal as He Seems
Die Welt: "Der heilige Schein"

Pinknews: Over half of catholic priests are gay says vatican insider
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, David 1968 births Living people 20th-century German Catholic theologians 21st-century German Catholic theologians Dissident Roman Catholic theologians Catholic philosophers LGBT Roman Catholics German gay writers German male non-fiction writers German critics of Islam 21st-century German LGBT people