Romano Guardini (1885–1968) was a Catholic
priestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
,
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
.
Guardini was born in
VeronaVerona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in 1885, but his family moved to
MainzMainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the...
when he was one year old and he lived in Germany for the rest of his life. After studying chemistry in Tübingen for two semesters, and economics in Munich and Berlin for three, he discerned a vocation to the priesthood.
Romano Guardini (1885–1968) was a Catholic
priestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
,
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
.
Life and work
Guardini was born in
VeronaVerona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
in 1885, but his family moved to
MainzMainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the...
when he was one year old and he lived in Germany for the rest of his life. After studying chemistry in Tübingen for two semesters, and economics in Munich and Berlin for three, he discerned a vocation to the priesthood. He studied
TheologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
in
Freiburg im BreisgauFreiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Located in the extreme south-west of the country, Freiburg straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the...
and Tübingen, and was ordained priest in Mainz in 1910. He briefly worked in a pastoral position before returning to Freiburg to work on his doctorate in Theology under Engelbert Krebs. He received the doctorate in 1915, for a dissertation on
BonaventureBonaventure , born John of Fidanza , was an Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher, the eighth Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor. He was a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was canonized on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588...
. He completed his “
HabilitationHabilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and...
” in
Dogmatic TheologyDogmatic theology is that part of theology dealing with the theoretical truths of faith concerning God and his works, especially the official theology recognized by an organized Church body, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Dutch Reformed Church, etc...
in Bonn in 1922, again with a dissertation on Bonaventure. Throughout this period he also worked as a chaplain to the Catholic youth movement.
In 1923 he was appointed to a chair in
Philosophy of ReligionPhilosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy that asks questions about religion. As with all philosophies, the topics at hand are generated by those who participate...
at the University of Berlin, which he held until forced to resign by the Nazis in 1939. In the 1935 essay “Der Heiland” (The Saviour) he had openly criticized Nazi mythologizing of the person of Jesus, and emphasized the Jewishness of Jesus. From 1943 to 1945 he retired to Mooshausen, where his friend Josef Weiger had been parish priest since 1917.
In 1945 Guardini was appointed professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen, and resumed lecturing on the Philosophy of Religion. Finally, in 1948, he became professor at the University of Munich, where he remained until retiring, for health reasons, in 1962. His ill health prevented him playing any active role in the
Second Vatican CouncilThe Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October, 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December, 1965...
.
Romano Guardini died in Munich on 1 October 1968. He was buried in the priests’ cemetery of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Munich. His estate was left to the Catholic Academy in Bavaria that he had co-founded.
Reputation and influence
Guardini's books were often powerful studies of traditional themes in the light of present-day challenges, or conversely examinations of current problems as approached from the
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
, and especially Catholic, tradition. He was able to get inside such different worldviews as those of
Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students...
,
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
,
AugustineAugustine of Hippo , Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin, was an Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian....
,
DanteDANTE is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various National Research and Education Networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
,
Pascal Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a civil servant...
, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and make sense of them for modern readers.
His first major work,
Vom Geist der Liturgie (The Spirit of the Liturgy), published during the First World War, was a major influence on the
Liturgical MovementThe Liturgical Movement began as a movement of scholarship for the reform of worship within the Roman Catholic Church. It has grown over the last century and a half and has affected many other Christian Churches including the Church of England and other Churches of the Anglican Communion, and some...
in Germany, and so ultimately on the liturgical reforms of the
Second Vatican CouncilThe Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October, 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December, 1965...
.
Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
offered to make him a cardinal in 1965, but he respectfully declined.
As a philosopher he founded no “school”, but his intellectual disciples could in some sense be said to include
Max MüllerFriedrich Max Müller , more commonly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...
,
Josef PieperJosef Pieper was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy. Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, The Philosophical Act, and Guide to Thomas Aquinas...
,
Luigi GiussaniMonsignor Luigi Giovanni Giussani , Italian Catholic priest, educator, public intellectual and founder of the international Catholic movement Comunione e Liberazione .-Biography:...
, Felix Messerschmid, Heinrich Getzeny,
Rudolf SchwarzRudolf Schwarz may refer to:* Rudolf Schwarz , German architect* Rudolf Schwarz , Austrian-born British conductor...
,
Jean GebserJean Gebser was a prodigy, a student of the transformations of human consciousness, a linguist, and a poet.-Biography:...
, and Joseph Ratzinger (now
Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State...
). Even
Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt was an influential German-Jewish political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers...
and
Iring Fetscher were favourably impressed by his work. He had a strong influence in
Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
; in
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
, for example, an influential group of Christian socialists, among whom
Edvard KocbekEdvard Kocbek was a Slovenian poet, writer, essayist, translator and political activist. He is considered as one of the best authors who have written in the Slovene language, and one of the best Slovene poets after Prešeren...
,
Pino MlakarPino Mlakar was a Slovenian ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher. He was born Novo mestoIn 1927 he graduated from the Rudolf Laban Choreographic Institute in Hamburg....
, Vekoslav Grmič and
Boris PahorBoris Pahor is a Slovene writer from Italy. He is considered to be one of the most important living authors in the Slovene language and has been nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts....
, incorporated Guardini's views in their agenda.
In 1952, Guardini won the
Peace Prize of the German Book TradeThe Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize given yearly at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main, Germany...
.
The 1990s saw something of a revival of interest in his works and person, reflected in the reissuing of several of his books in the original German and in English translation. In 1997 his remains were moved to the
Sankt Ludwig Kirche, the University church in Munich, where he had often preached.
Guardini's book,
The Lord, published in English translation by Henry Regnery Publishing in the late 1940s, remained in print for decades and, according to Henry Regnery, was "one of the most successful books I have ever published." The novelist
Flannery O'ConnorMary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist.An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
thought it "very fine" and recommended it to a number of her friends.
Major works available in English
- The End of the Modern World. Sheed & Ward, 1957. More recently in a revised edition by ISI Books, 1998. ISBN 978-1882926237
- The Art of Praying: The Principles and Methods of Christian Prayer. Sophia Institute Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0918477217
- The Lord. Regnery Publishing, 1996. ISBN 978-0895267146
- The Essential Guardini: An Anthology, edited by Heinz R. Kuehn. Liturgy Training Publications, 1997. ISBN 978-1568541334
- The Spirit of the Liturgy. Crossroad Publishing, 1998. ISBN 978-0824517779
- Living the Drama of Faith. Sophia Institute Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0918477774
- Learning the Virtues. Sophia Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0918477644
- The Death of Socrates. Kessinger Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1432554309
External links