MOHLER, JOHANN ADAM (17961838)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 649 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MIC-MOL

MOHLER, JOHANN ADAM (17961838) , German theologian, was born at Igersheim in Wurttemberg on the 6th of May 1796, and after studying philosophy and theology in the lyceum at

Ellwangen

ELLWANGEN

, entered the university of Tubingen in 1817. Ordained to the priesthood in 1819, he was appointed to a curacy at Riedlingen, but speedily returned as " repetent " to Tubingen,
where he became privatdozent in 1822, extraordinary professor of theology in 1826 and

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

professor in 1828. His lectures drew large audiences, including many Protestants. The controversies excited by his Symbolik (1832) proved so unpleasant that in 1835 he accepted a

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

to the university of

Munich

MUNICH (Ger. Munchen)

. In 1838 he was appointed to the deanery of Wiirzburg, but died shortly afterwards (April 12, 1838).
Mohler wrote Die Einheit in der Kirche oder des Prinzip des Katholicismus (Tubingen, 1825) ; Athanasius der Grosse u. d. Kirche seiner Zeit (2 vols., Mainz, 1827) ; Symbolik, oder Darstellung der dogmatischen Gegensdtze der Katholiken u. Protestanten nach ihren offentlichen Bekenntnissschriften (Mainz, 1832; 8th ed., 18711872; Eng. trans. by J. B. Robertson, 1843); and Neue Untersuchungen der Lehrgegensdtze zwischen den Katholiken u. Protestanten (1834). His Gesammelte Schriften u. Aufsdtze were edited by Dollinger in 1839; his Patrologie by Reithmayr, also in 1839; and a Biographie by B. Worner was published at Regensburg in 1866. It is with the Symbolik that his name is chiefly associated; the

interest

INTEREST

excited by it in

Protestant

PROTESTANT

circles is shown by the fact that within two years of its

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

it had elicited three replies of considerable Importance, those namely of F. C. Baur, P. K. Marheineke and C. J. Nitzsch. But, although characterized by learning and acuteness, as well as by considerable breadth of spiritual sympathy, it cannot be said to have been accepted by Catholics themselves as embodying an accurate objective view of the actual

doctrine

DOCTRINE

of their church. The liberal school of thought of which Mohler was a prominent exponent was discouraged in official circles, while Protestants, on the other hand, complain that the author failed to grasp thoroughly the significance of the Reformation as a

great

GREAT

movement

MOVEMENT

in the spiritual history of mankind, while needlessly dwelling on the doctrinal shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of its leaders.

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