Raymund Schwager
Encyclopedia
Raymund Schwager was a Swiss Roman Catholic theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

.

Life

He was born in Balterswil
Balterswil
Balterswil is a village and former municipality in the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland.The municipality also contained the villages Lützelmurg, Zielwies, Ifwil and Lochwies.-History:Balterswil is first mentioned in 885 as Baldherreswilare'....

 into a Swiss farming family as the second of seven children. After primary and secondary school he joined the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 in 1955. Following Jesuit custom he studied philosophy (1957-1960 in Pullach near Munich, Germany), and theology (1963-1967 in Lyon-Fourvière, France), separated by educational work as a prefect in a Jesuit boarding school (1960-1963: „Stella Matutina“ in Feldkrich, Austria).

He was ordained a priest on July 31, 1966 and completed his formal education with the doctorate in theology (1967-1969 in Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...

, Switzerland). During those years he also spent some time in Spain, the home country of the Jesuits’ Basque founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, on whom he wrote his thesis.

For seven years (1970–1977) Fr. Schwager was a member of the editors of the journal Orientierung in Zurich and traveled, giving speeches and presentations. In 1977 he became Professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology in Innsbruck, Austria. From 1985-1987, and again from 1999-2003 he was Dean of that faculty. Raymund Schwager was a co-founder of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion (1991), its first president (1991–1995) and an honorary member of its advisory board from 1999 until his unexpected death on February 27, 2004.

Theology

Raymund Schwager’s thinking was above all inspired by three sources: First, his deep Christian faith and spirituality in the tradition of St. Ignatius and nourished by the biblical writings; second: a mode of arguing he called “dramatic”, a term he took from Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church...

 but to which he gave new meaning in his theology; third: mimetic theory and the friendship he sustained with its author, René Girard
René Girard
René Girard is a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science. His work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy...

.

In theology Schwager took up controversial questions like sacrifice and substitution, and relentlessly worked to clarify the way we are to conceive of God. By tackling questions that others tried to avoid, Schwager advanced theological thinking and facilitated solutions that previously had not been thought of. He reached these goals via his hallmark “Dramatic Theology”: The history of revelation, as it has been recorded in the biblical writings, is not linear. Divine revelation therefore is not like a theoretical treatise. History is made up of a web of different interdependent actions – initiatives and responses – by different agents – human and divine. Thus we have to read the Bible like a drama that captures this dramatic back and forth, and each act in the drama of salvation gives new meaning to every cue-line and to the whole play. Only retrospectively can we infer what it is all about and come to a theory, yet a theory that remains always dependent on the whole drama and its acts; separated from it, it petrifies and loses validity.

Also inter-religious dialogue and symbolic actions for peace by world religious leaders ranked high on Schwager’s list of important events. He especially valued Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

's activities in this respect: his travels and encounters with other religious leaders, his prayer meetings in Assisi
Assisi
- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...

and his confession of guilt for the church on the First Sunday of Lent in 2000. Acknowledging the shortcomings of oneself and one’s own community without scapegoating others or the past of one’s own community is a prerequisite for true and lasting peace, Raymund Schwager was convinced.

Writings

Among his numerous writings in books and articles Schwager’s most important works in English translation are:
  • Must There Be Scapegoats? Violence and Redemption in the Bible. (German: Brauchen wir einen Sündenbock?) Transl. by M. L. Assad. Crossroad, New York, N. Y., 2000. ISBN 0-8245-1867-5
  • Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His Life. New York: Crossroad Pub. Co, 1998. Trans. J. G. Williams. ISBN 0-8245-1711-3
  • Jesus in the Drama of Salvation. Toward a Biblical Doctrine of Redemption. Trans. J. G. Williams & P. Haddon (Ger.: Jesus im Heilsdrama. Entwurf einer biblischen Erlösungslehre). New York: Crossroad 1999. ISBN 0-8245-1796-2
  • Banished from Eden: Original Sin and Evolutionary Theory in the Drama of Salvation London: Gracewing, 2006. Trans. J. G. Williams. (Ger.: Erbsünde und Heilsdrama: Im Kontext von Evolution, Gentechnik und Apokalyptik. Münster: LIT Verlag, 1997.) ISBN 0-8524-4606-3

External links

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