Overview

Erich Przywara, S.J. (1889-1972), is one of the important Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century. Yet, in the English-speaking world Przywara remains largely unknown. Few of his sixty books or six hundred articles have been translated. In this engaging new book, Thomas O'Meara offers a comprehensive study of the German Jesuit Erich Przywara and his philosophical theology. Przywara's scholarly contributions were remarkable. He was one of three theologians who introduced the writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman into Germany. From his position at the Jesuit journal in Munich, Stimmen der Zeit, he offered an open and broad Catholic perspective on the cultural, philosophical, and theological currents of his time. As one of the first Catholic intellectuals to employ the phenomenologies of Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he was also responsible for giving an influential, more theological interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Przywara was also deeply engaged in the ideas and authors of his times. He was the first Catholic dialogue partner of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Edmund Husserl was counted among Przywara's friends, and Edith Stein was a close personal and intellectual friend. Through his interactions with important figures of his age and his writings, ranging from speculative systems to liturgical hymns, Przywara was of marked importance in furthering a varied dialogue between German Catholicism and modern culture. Following a foreword by Michael A. Fahey, S.J., O'Meara presents a chapter on Pryzwara's life and a chronology of his writings. O'Meara then discusses Pryzwara's philosophical theology, his lecture-courses at German universities on Augustine and Aquinas, his philosophy of religion, and his influence on important intellectual contemporaries. O'Meara concludes with an in-depth analysis of Pryzwara's theology-focusing particularly on his Catholic views on person, liturgy, and church.

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Reviews

Students of twentieth-century German theology have been aware of Przywara's creative development of the neo-scholastic notion of analogia entis (the analogy of being). However, until O'Meara's book, his wide-ranging interests and his place in German Catholic life have remained largely unknown, in part because little of his voluminous work (sixty books, over six hundred articles) has been translated. Thus this excellent work fills a gap for both theologians and historians...Overall, this is an important work the first in English that informs us about the historical setting of Przywara and critiques not only Przywara's main philosophical and theological works, but also his secondary works and secondary interests that demonstrate Przywara's broad scope [including] poetry, music, spiritualities, and popular cultural movements. -The Catholic Historical Review

Students of twentieth-century German theology have been aware of Przywara's creative development of the neo-scholastic notion of analogia entis (the analogy of being). However, until O'Meara's book, his wide-ranging interests and his place in German Catholic life have remained largely unknown, in part because little of his voluminous work (sixty books, over six hundred articles) has been translated. Thus this excellent work fills a gap for both theologians and historians. /// Overall, this is an important work-the first in English that informs us about the historical setting of Przywara and critiques not only Przywara's main philosophical and theological works, but also his secondary works and secondary interests that demonstrate Przywara's broad scope [including] poetry, music, spiritualities, and popular cultural movements. -- The Catholic Historical Review

Students of twentieth-century German theology have been aware of Przywara's creative development of the neo-scholastic notion of analogia entis (the analogy of being). However, until O'Meara's book, his wide-ranging interests and his place in German Catholic life have remained largely unknown, in part because little of his voluminous work (sixty books, over six hundred articles) has been translated. Thus this excellent work fills a gap for both theologians and historians. Overall, this is an important work - the first in English that informs us about the historical setting of Przywara and critiques not only Przywara's main philosophical and theological works, but also his secondary works and secondary interests that demonstrate Przywara's broad scope [including] poetry, music, spiritualities, and popular cultural movements. - The Catholic Historical Review Thomas O'Meara's portrait of Erich Przywara's (1889-1972) contribution to Catholic thought in Germany between the two world wars fills a significant lacuna in the English-speaking world.... O'Meara gives a well-drawn, complex, and fascinating sketch of an 'analyst of the moment.' - The Thomist Erich Przywara was an astute observer of culture, a musician, philosopher, theologian, and priest, and he has long deserved such a fine tribute as O'Meara has here provided. - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Author Information

Thomas F. O'Meara is William K. Warren Professor Emeritus of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of several books, including Thomas Aquinas, Theologian (University of Notre Dame Press, 1997). Rev. Michael A. Fahey, S.J., was the Emmett Doerr Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Marquette University.

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