14 Facts About Erich Przywara

Erich Przywara was a Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian of German-Polish origin, who was one of the first Catholics to engage in dialogue with modern philosophers, especially those of the phenomenological tradition.

Erich Przywara is best known for synthesizing the thought of prominent thinkers around the notion of the analogy of being, the tension between divine immanence and divine transcendence, a "unity-in-tension".

From 1913 to 1917 Przywara taught at Stella Matutina, in Feldkirch, Austria, where he served as the prefect of music.

Erich Przywara was extremely prolific, authoring between 1922 and 1932 as many as 17 books and 230 articles and reviews.

In 1938 Erich Przywara published Deus Semper Maior, a massive three-volume commentary on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola which is well known in the Jesuits.

Erich Przywara gave regular lectures in the old Burgersaalkirche and conducted small seminars in private residences on such topics as Holderlin, Nietzsche, and Rilke.

Erich Przywara returned to Munich and in 1950 retired from community religious life to live in the country in a little village called Hagen, near Murnau.

Erich Przywara died in 1972 and was interred at the Jesuit cemetery in Pullach.

Erich Przywara was, moreover, one of the first Catholic theologians to engage in dialogue with Jewish rabbis in Essen and Frankfurt, corresponding both before and after the war with the chief Berlin rabbi, Leo Baeck.

For Erich Przywara, following the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, the distinction between essence and existence runs through the whole of created reality, indeed, it defines created reality in its difference from God, the creator, whose essence is to be; and therein, for Erich Przywara, lies the ground of the analogy of being.

In Humanitas, for instance, Erich Przywara continued his analysis of modern theology and philosophy, in this case focusing on anthropology in particular.

Just like his earlier Himmelreich, Erich Przywara continued writing exegetical works.

Erich Przywara planned to write commentaries on the Gospels, but in the end, published only a commentary on the Gospel of John while his writings on Matthew remain unpublished.

Erich Przywara offers a theological diagnosis of the times through his Mariological, ecclesiological, and Christological readings of the Old Testament.