Matthias Joseph Scheeben (
Meckenheim
Meckenheim (; ksh, Meckem) is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km south-west of Bonn.
Notable people
* Norbert Röttgen
Norbert Alois Röttgen (born 2 July 1965) is ...
,
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...
, 1 March 1835 –
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 ...
, 21 July 1888) was a German Catholic theological writer and
mystic. "The generations that followed Scheeben regarded him as one of the greatest minds of modern Catholic theology."
[
]
Life
Scheeben studied at the Gregorian University
The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school (pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy.
The Gregorian originated as ...
at Rome under Carlo Passaglia
Carlo Passaglia (2 May 1812 – 12 March 1887) was an Italian Jesuit.
Life
He was born at Lucca.
Passaglia was soon destined for the priesthood, and was placed under the care of the Jesuits at the age of fifteen. He became successively doct ...
, Luigi Taparelli
Luigi Taparelli (born Prospero Taparelli d'Azeglio; 1793–1862) was an Italian Jesuit scholar of the Society of Jesus and counter-revolutionary who coined the term social justice and elaborated the principles of subsidiarity, as part of his nat ...
and Giovanni Perrone Giovanni Perrone (11 March 1794 – 26 August 1876) was an Italian Jesuit and renowned theologian.
Life
Perrone was born in Chieri, Piedmont. After studying theology and obtaining a doctorate at Turin, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome at age ...
from 1852 to 1859 and lived in Collegium Germanicum. He was ordained to the priesthood on 18 December 1858. He taught dogmatic theology at the diocesan seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
of Cologne from 1860 to 1875.["Matthias Joseph Scheeben". ]Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
. Robert Appleton Company. Scheeben was an impassioned advocate of religious freedom during the Kulturkampf
(, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...
.[Marshall, Bruce D., "Renewing Dogmatic Theology", ''First Things'', May 2012]
/ref>
Theology
In Scheeben's own words, the practical aim of his theology was "to make the Christian feel happy about his faith. Because the beauty and eminence of our faith consist in this: that through the mysteries of grace it raises our nature to an immeasurably high plane and presents to us an inexpressibly intimate union with God."
Mysticism
Scheeben's mind reveled in speculating on Divine grace, the hypostatic union
''Hypostatic union'' (from the Greek: ''hypóstasis'', "sediment, foundation, substance, subsistence") is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one h ...
, the beatific vision, the all-pervading presence of God; he was a firm believer in visions granted to himself and others, and his piety was all-absorbing. Very few minds were attuned to his. His pupils were allegedly overawed by the steady flow of his long abstruse sentences which brought scanty light to their intellects; his colleagues and his friends but rarely disturbed the peace of the workroom where his spirit brooded over a chaos of literary matters.[
]
Works
The list of Scheeben's works opens with three treatises dealing with grace:
#''Natur und Gnade: Versuch einer systematischen, wissenschaftlichen Darstellung der natürlichen und übernatürlichen Lebensordnung im Menschen'' (Mainz: Franz Kirchheim, 1861). This work by Scheeben was translated from German into English by Cyril Oscar Vollert, SJ. Vollert's English translation was published under the title ''Nature and Grace'' (St. Louis & London: B. Herder Book Co., 1954).
# ''Quid est homo: sive controversia de statu purae naturae, qua ratio simul et finis oeconomiae Dei erga homines supernaturalis: uberrime demonstratur ex Patrum praesertim sententia'' (Mainz: Franz Kirchheim; Rome: Joseph Spithöver, 1862). This was not an original work by Scheeben, but rather a new edition of a work which Antonio Casini, SJ[Antonio Casini, SJ (August 5, 1687 - January 4, 1755). Common variations of his name include: Antonius Casini, Antonius Casinius, and Antonio Cassini.] (1687-1755) had published in 1724. Scheeben's 1862 edition of Casini's work contained the text of the original work, plus an Introduction and notes provided by Scheeben. According to Cyril O. Vollert (see Vollert's "Foreword" to Scheeben's ''Nature and Grace''), Scheeben's purpose in publishing this edition of Casini's work was "to supply a patristic foundation for ''Nature and Grace''." Casini's original work was titled ''R. P. Antonii Casini e Societate Jesu, Controversia de statu purae naturae in compendium redacta: et ad linguarum Ebraicae et Graecae publicam exercitationem adhibita a Philippo Dazon in Collegio Romano auspiciis eminentiss. ac reverendiss. principis Melchioris de Polignac S.R.E. cardinalis amplissimi'' (Romae: Typis de Martiis, 1724).
#''Die Herrlichkeiten der göttlichen gnade.'' Freiburg: 1863. 8th ed. by A.M. Weiss, 1908. "... the work is popular in scope and became enormously successful. An English translation, ''The Glories of Divine Grace'', appeared during Scheeben’s lifetime ..." (Vollert x)
#''Mysterien des Christenthums''. Freiburg: 1865–97. Trans. ''The Mysteries of Christianity''. This is "... Scheeben's most famous book ... There is no other work quite like it in the vast history of Christian literature." (Vollert xi)
#Five pamphlets in defence of the Vatican Council, directed against Ignaz von Döllinger
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger (; 28 February 179914 January 1890), also Doellinger in English, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. Among his writings which proved con ...
, Johann Friedrich von Schulte
Johann Friedrich von Schulte (April 23, 1827 – December 19, 1914) was a German legal historian and professor of canon law who was born in Winterberg, Westphalia. He was a leading authority on Catholic canon law.
In 1854 he became a lecturer at ...
, and other Old Catholics
The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...
.
#''Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik''. 7 parts. Freiburg: 1873–87.
The author did not finish this last; he died whilst working on "Grace". The missing treatises were supplied in German by Dr. Leonhard Atzberger Leonhard may refer to:
*Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), Swiss mathematician and physicist
*Leonhard Hutter (1563–1616), German theologian
*Karl Leonhard (1904–1988), German psychiatrist
*Jim Leonhard (1982– ), American football safety
*LEONHAR ...
(Freiburg, 1898). In English the missing treatises were supplied by Wilhelm and Scannel, who whilst strictly adhering to Scheeben's thought, reduced the bulky work to two handy volumes entitled: ''A Manual of Catholic Theology based on Scheeben's Dogmatik'' (3rd ed., 1906). The process of publishing an English translation of the unabridged original text began in 2019, when Michael J. Miller's translation (titled, ''Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics, Book One: Theological Epistemology, Part One: The Objective Principles of Theological Knowledge'') was published by Emmaus Academic. The publisher hopes to continue this monumental task in service of making this classic of Scheeben available, unabridged, to English readers.
Scheeben also wrote a two-volume work "Mariology," later translated into English.
He founded and edited (1867–88) the ''Kölner Pastoralblatt'' and edited for thirteen years ''Das ökumenische Concil vom Jahre 1869'', later (after 1872) entitled ''Periodische Blätter zu wissenschaftlichen Besprechung der grossen religiösen Fragen der Gegenwart''.
References
External links
*''Mariology'' (Complete in one volume)
Softcover.Hardcover.
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheeben, Matthias
1835 births
1888 deaths
People from Rhein-Sieg-Kreis
People from the Rhine Province
19th-century German Catholic theologians
19th-century Christian mystics
Roman Catholic mystics
German male non-fiction writers
Catholic Mariology