Albert Maria Weiss

Albert Maria Weiss OP (22 April 1844 – 16 August 1925) was a German Roman Catholic priest and theologian.

Biography

Albert Weiss was born at Indersdorf in Upper Bavaria. After attending the Benedictine grammar school in Munich, Weiss studied theology and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1867. Having received his doctorate in theology in Munich (1870), he was appointed lyceal professor in 1873. In 1876 he entered the Dominican Order in Graz and taught at the order's Austrian house institute. In 1890 he became professor of social science at the newly founded University of Fribourg/Switzerland, first at the philosophy faculty, from 1890 to 1892 at the legal faculty, and from 1890 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1919 at the theological faculty. In 1897 he received the chair of apologetics, and in 1896/1897 and 1902/1903 he was dean of the theological faculty. Between 1892 and 1895 he was superior and professor in Graz and Vienna.

His main research interests were patristics, medieval scholasticism and mysticism. As a Catholic publicist he fought political liberalism. Within the church, he was a sharp critic of the modernist school of the time, as well as of any activity of Catholic laity independent of the church hierarchy, for example in Christian trade unions and Christian social parties. In this respect, he was one of the most important sources of ideas for the anti-modernist encyclical Pascendi. Weiss supported the ideas of Karl von Vogelsang and was close to the Union of Fribourg, a Catholic association concerned with social and economic issues. In addition to his teaching duties, he undertook diplomatic missions in Luxembourg and Austria.

Albert Maria Weiss, who was also known under the pseudonym Heinrich von der Clana. He died in Freiburg im Üechtland.

Works

• Die altkirchliche Pädagogik: dargestellt in Katechumenat und Katechese der ersten sechs Jahrhunderte (1869)
• Apologie des Christenthums vom Standpunkte der Sitte und Cultur (1888–1892; 5 volumes)
• Die Kunst zu leben (1901)
• Die religiöse Gefahr (1904)
• Lebens- und Gewissensfragen der Gegenwart (1911; 2 volumes)
• Liberalismus und Christentum (1914)
• Lebensweisheit in der Tasche (1915)
• Jesus Christus, die Apologia perennis des Christentums (1922)
• Lebensweg und Lebenswerk: Ein modernes Prophetenleben (1925)

References

• Arnold, Claus (2007). Kleine Geschichte des Modernismus. Freiburg: Herder, pp. 109–15.
• Dirsch, Felix (2006). Solidarismus und Sozialethik. Ansätze zur Neuinterpretation einer modernen Strömung der katholischen Sozialphilosophie. Berlin: LIT, pp. 154–67.
• Langer, Michael (2011). "Zwischen Antijudaismus und antisemitischer Versuchung. Katholische Theologen und das Judentum im 19. Jahrhundert". In: Michael Kohlstruck & Andreas Klärner, eds., Ausschluss und Feindschaft. Studien zu Antisemitismus und Rechtsextremismus. Festschrift für Rainer Erb. Berlin: Metropol, pp. 51–66.
• Gaudard, Gaston. "Weiss, Albert Maria". In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
• Höfer, Josef; Karl Rahner & Michael Buchberger (1930–1938). Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche. Freiburg: Herder.
• Hoyer, Wolfram (2019). "Weiss (Weiß), Albert Maria (Adalbert Gottlieb)". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). 16. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 83–84.
• Rivinius, Karl Josef (1998). "Weiss, Albert Maria". In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). 13. Herzberg: Bautz, pp. 647–52.
• Türler, Heinrich; Marcel Godet & Victor Attinger (1921–1934). Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Neuenburg: Attinger.
• Weiß, Otto (1998). Modernismus und Antimodernismus im Dominikanerorden. Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Sodalitium Pianum. Regensburg: Pustet, pp. 133–212.
• Wienstein, Friedrich (1899). Lexikon der katholischen deutschen Dichter. Vom Ausgange des Mittelalters bis zur Gegenwart. Hamm: Breer & Thiemann.

External links

• Works by Albert Maria Weiss at German National Library