Jakob Frohschammer
Encyclopedia
Jakob Frohschammer was a German
theologian and philosopher.
. Destined by his parents for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he studied theology
at Munich
, but felt an ever-growing attraction to philosophy
. Nevertheless, after much hesitation, he took what he himself calls the most mistaken step of his life, and in 1847 entered the priesthood. His keenly logical intellect, and his impatience of authority where it clashed with his own convictions, quite unfitted him for that unquestioning obedience which the Church demanded. It was only after open defiance of Valentin Riedel, the bishop of Regensburg, that he obtained permission to continue his studies at Munich.
He died at Bad Kreuth
in the Bavaria
n Highlands on the 14th of June 1893.
. This was supplemented in 1855 by the controversial Menschenseele und Physiologie ("Physiology and the Soul of Man").
Undeterred by the offence which these work gave to his ecclesiastical superiors, he published in 1858 the Einleitung in die Philosophie und Grundriss der Metaphysik in which he assailed the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas
that philosophy was the handmaid of theology. In 1861 appeared Ueber die Aufgabe der Naturphilosophie und ihr Verhaltnis zu Naturwissenschaft, which was, he declared, directed against the purely mechanical conception of the universe, and affirmed the necessity of a creative power. In the same year he published Ueber die Freiheit der Wissenschaft, in which he maintained the independence of science, whose goal was truth, against authority and reproached the excessive respect for the latter in the Roman Church with the insignificant part played by the German Catholic in literature and philosophy.
himself in an apostolic brief of the 11th of December 1862 and students of theology were forbidden to attend his lectures. Public opinion
was now keenly excited; he received an ovation from the Munich students, and the king, to whom he owed his appointment, supported him warmly. A conference of Catholic savants, held in 1863 under the presidency of Döllinger
, decided that authority must be supreme in the Church. When, however, Döllinger and his school in their turn started the Old Catholic movement, Frohschammer refused to associate himself with their cause, holding that they did not go far enough, and that their declaration of 1863 had cut the ground from under their feet.
Meanwhile he had, in 1862, founded the Athenum as the organ of Liberal
Catholicism. For this he wrote the first adequate account in German of the Darwinian
theory of natural selection
, which drew a warm letter of appreciation from Darwin himself. Excommunicated in 1871, he replied with three articles, which were reproduced in thousands as pamphlets in the chief Europe
an languages: Der Fels Petri in Rom (1873), Der Primat Petri und des Papstes (1875), and Das Christenthum Christi und das Christenthum des Papstes (1876).
of David Strauss
as of the doctrine of papal infallibility
. His later years were occupied with a series of philosophical works, of which the most important were: Die Phantasie als Grundprincip des Welt processes (1877), Ueber die Genesis der Menschheit und deren geistige Entwicklung in Religion, Sittlichkeit und Sprache (1883), and Ueber die Organisation und Cultur der menschlichen Gesellschaft (1885). His system is based on the unifying principle of imagination (Phantasie), which he extends to the objective creative force of Nature, as well as to the subjective mental phenomena to which the term is usually confined.
In addition to other treatises on theological subjects, Frohschammer was also the author of Monaden und Weltphantasie and Ueber die Bedeutung der Einbildungskraft in der Philosophie Kants und Spinozas (1879); Ueber die Principien der Aristotelischen Philosophie und die Bedeutung der Phantasie in der selben (1881); Die Philosophie als Idealwissenschaft und System (1884); Die Philosophie des Thomas von Aquino kritisch gewürdigt (1889); Ueber das Mysterium Magnum des Daseins (1891); System der Philosophie im Umriss, pt. i. (1892). His autobiography was published in A. Hinrichsen's Deutsche Denker (1888).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theologian and philosopher.
Biography
Frohschammer was born at Illkofen, near RegensburgRegensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
. Destined by his parents for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he studied theology
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...
at Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, but felt an ever-growing attraction to philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. Nevertheless, after much hesitation, he took what he himself calls the most mistaken step of his life, and in 1847 entered the priesthood. His keenly logical intellect, and his impatience of authority where it clashed with his own convictions, quite unfitted him for that unquestioning obedience which the Church demanded. It was only after open defiance of Valentin Riedel, the bishop of Regensburg, that he obtained permission to continue his studies at Munich.
He died at Bad Kreuth
Kreuth
Kreuth is a municipality in the district of Miesbach in Bavaria in Germany.-Schloss Ringberg:The castle Ringberg was owned by the dukes of Bavaria and was donated to the Max Planck Society in 1973.-Wildbad Kreuth:...
in the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n Highlands on the 14th of June 1893.
Beginnings
He at first devoted himself more especially to the study of the history of dogma, and in 1850 published his Beitraege zur Kirchengeschichte, which was placed on the Index Expurgatorius. But he felt that his real vocation was philosophy, and after holding for a short time an extraordinary professorship of theology, he became professor of philosophy in 1855. This appointment he owed chiefly to his work, Ueber den Ursprung der menschlichen Seelen (1854), in which he maintained that the human soul was not implanted by a special creative act in each case, but was the result of a secondary creative act on the part of the parents: that soul as well as body, therefore, was subject to the laws of heredityHeredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
. This was supplemented in 1855 by the controversial Menschenseele und Physiologie ("Physiology and the Soul of Man").
Undeterred by the offence which these work gave to his ecclesiastical superiors, he published in 1858 the Einleitung in die Philosophie und Grundriss der Metaphysik in which he assailed the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
that philosophy was the handmaid of theology. In 1861 appeared Ueber die Aufgabe der Naturphilosophie und ihr Verhaltnis zu Naturwissenschaft, which was, he declared, directed against the purely mechanical conception of the universe, and affirmed the necessity of a creative power. In the same year he published Ueber die Freiheit der Wissenschaft, in which he maintained the independence of science, whose goal was truth, against authority and reproached the excessive respect for the latter in the Roman Church with the insignificant part played by the German Catholic in literature and philosophy.
Denunciation and excommunication
He was denounced by the popePope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
himself in an apostolic brief of the 11th of December 1862 and students of theology were forbidden to attend his lectures. Public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
was now keenly excited; he received an ovation from the Munich students, and the king, to whom he owed his appointment, supported him warmly. A conference of Catholic savants, held in 1863 under the presidency of Döllinger
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility...
, decided that authority must be supreme in the Church. When, however, Döllinger and his school in their turn started the Old Catholic movement, Frohschammer refused to associate himself with their cause, holding that they did not go far enough, and that their declaration of 1863 had cut the ground from under their feet.
Meanwhile he had, in 1862, founded the Athenum as the organ of Liberal
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
Catholicism. For this he wrote the first adequate account in German of the Darwinian
Darwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
theory of natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
, which drew a warm letter of appreciation from Darwin himself. Excommunicated in 1871, he replied with three articles, which were reproduced in thousands as pamphlets in the chief Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an languages: Der Fels Petri in Rom (1873), Der Primat Petri und des Papstes (1875), and Das Christenthum Christi und das Christenthum des Papstes (1876).
Other writings
In Das neue Wissen und der neue Glaube (1873) he showed himself as vigorous and opponent of the materialismMaterialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
of David Strauss
David Strauss
David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied...
as of the doctrine of papal infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
. His later years were occupied with a series of philosophical works, of which the most important were: Die Phantasie als Grundprincip des Welt processes (1877), Ueber die Genesis der Menschheit und deren geistige Entwicklung in Religion, Sittlichkeit und Sprache (1883), and Ueber die Organisation und Cultur der menschlichen Gesellschaft (1885). His system is based on the unifying principle of imagination (Phantasie), which he extends to the objective creative force of Nature, as well as to the subjective mental phenomena to which the term is usually confined.
In addition to other treatises on theological subjects, Frohschammer was also the author of Monaden und Weltphantasie and Ueber die Bedeutung der Einbildungskraft in der Philosophie Kants und Spinozas (1879); Ueber die Principien der Aristotelischen Philosophie und die Bedeutung der Phantasie in der selben (1881); Die Philosophie als Idealwissenschaft und System (1884); Die Philosophie des Thomas von Aquino kritisch gewürdigt (1889); Ueber das Mysterium Magnum des Daseins (1891); System der Philosophie im Umriss, pt. i. (1892). His autobiography was published in A. Hinrichsen's Deutsche Denker (1888).