Los efectos de la Encíclica «Aeterni Patris» en la filosofía y la teología de lengua alemana

Abstract

In order to study the effects of the Encyclicl Aeterni Patris on the Germanic areas of thinkers, the author starts by considering an interpretation of the Encyclical proposed by the German priest Fr. Ehrle and labelled by Prof. Hödl as the "double identity" - identifying the true philosophy with the cristian philosofy, and the christian philosophy with the scholastic Thomistic- According to Hödl, this interpretation, with its risk of giving an absolute value to this philosophy in the Church, determined to a great extent the effects the Encyclical caused in the catholic culture of the German-speaking people. Undoubtedly the encyclical affirms a deep relationship between christian philosophy and scholastic philosophy, particularly that of St. Thomas; but one can not then indiscriminately equate the two, thus greatly diminishing the historic importance of this papal document. The author then shows the influence of this position of "double identity" on a great number of philosophical and theological manuals of the first half of the 20th century, evaluating its contributions and indicating its limitations. According to the author, the most notable results of Aeterni Patris in German lands must be seen in relationship with two interrelated phenomenon: the flourishing of associations of Catholic intellectuals, and the impressive rise in popularity of research in the Middle Ages. These associations were the intellectual home of a philosophical and theological renovation, for they knew how to maintain a distance from the more pressing immediate questions, realizing the deep apostolic and cultural significance of their philosophical and theological work. The main contribution of Professor Hödl is the description of the paths followed by the German specialists of mediaeval thought, which include figures such as the aforementioned cardinal Ehrle, Grabmann, Denifle, Geyer, Hertling, Landgraf, Stegmüller, Lang, Schmaus and many others, among whom we could inclucle, for our part, Hödl himself, who dedicated himself to the patient task of cataloguing and editing texts and sources, writing the history of ideas and problems, without neglecting to finally deepen in the reflection of all his discoveries from a moder-day perspective. After alluding to the risks and ambiguities inherent in certain corrent tendencies of the so-called "fundamental Thomism", the author comes to the following final conclusion: After inspecting the effects of Aeterni Patris in German-speaking countries, from both inside and outside, one could say that certain lines of "Neothomism" did not understand well enough the encyclical's recommendation to study St. Thomas, (and the scholastics in general), by going straight to the sources and by means of channels that already carried spoiled water, i.e. channels that had already deformed the original ideas. It seems that this explains to a great extent the history of the effects of the encyclical. On the other hand, medioeval research showed more and more that this direct contact necessarily implied a minute study of texts and authors, without which it would be impossible to understand in all its richness the message of these thinkers of the Middle Ages. In this sense, while we enter these second hundred years of Leon XIII, this historico-conceptual research has provided the raw material to materialize, with greater rigor and scientific category, the final wish of an encyclical whose centennial we commemorate.