WELT Bernhard (Welte Bernhard)

(1906-1983)
Born March 31, 1906 in Meц?kirch (hometown of Martin Heidegger, with whom Welte has long term friendship). After graduating from high school in Constanta (1918) studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Freiburg and Munich. In 1929, ordained to the priesthood and for 14 years was secretary of the Archbishop of Freiburg Konrad Greber. In 1938 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the dogma anointing after baptism, . and in 1946 - gabilitatsionnuyu (giving the right to hold professorships) work 'philosophical belief' Karl Jaspers and the possibility of interpreting it as part of Thomistic philosophy,
. In 1952-1973 - Professor at the Department of the University of Freiburg 'border issues' (later renamed the Department of Christian religious philosophy). In 1955-1956 - Rector of the University. On the philosophical and theological views Welte strongly influenced by the interaction of 'Freiburg circle' with such thinkers, . as Max Muller, . Reinhold Schneider, . Karl Farber, . Robert Scherer, . Henry Oksner, . who sought to overcome the narrowness neosholasticheskoy theology and find new ways of theological thinking,
. In 1960 Welte traveled to give lectures in South America, Lebanon, Jerusalem. In 1973, theologian, went to an academic dismissal.

At the funeral of M. Heidegger (28 May 1976) Welte gave a farewell speech search and discovery (Suchen und Finden).

In 1978, theologian, was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Died Welte in Freiburg on Sept. 6, 1983.

Thinking Welte formed under the influence of many philosophers (Aquinas, Hegel, Nietzsche, Blondel), creative impulses, he drew from the mystics Meister Eckhart, the philosophy of Karl Jaspers and especially M. Heidegger. In an effort to overcome the barrier between belief and knowledge Welte started from the scholastic axiom: fides querens intellectum (faith who seek understanding). In his anthropology, he sought to create "some philosophical background for understanding of Christianity ', as the fullness of the Christian understanding of human

. Think about emerged in modern times the voltage between the conditions and structures secular world, . one hand, . and content of religious experience, . experience of transcendence, . another, . Welte revealed the primordial nature of the phenomena of human existence (Dasein),
. In human nature, where the final is intertwined with the infinite, Welte showed initial predponimanie Christian salvation. Showing, . that currently in the world can identify the set of 'signs' of transcendence, . he is using the phenomenological method described quite everyday things, . phenomenon, . Events, . at first glance, having no relation to theology, . - Number, . human communication, . football,
. Convenient point of comprehension of the sacred in life (and hence, . opportunity to receive religious experience) is, . according Welte, . experience nothing, . given the experience of death, . in his works theologian analyzed the underlying dimension of this fundamental existential experience,
. Within the Christological formulation of the question, he revealed the essence of church tradition as a call times and developed methods of historical hermeneutics.

Using the tools of phenomenology, Welte has sought to mediate between the current life situation and the Christian faith, and therefore insisted on the openness of theology in relation to modern philosophy. Welte entered traditional theology, marked neosholasticheskogo thinking, in the space postmetafizicheskogo thinking. Given the experience of the historicity of human existence and understanding of the variability of thinking and language, . Welte has the task - not only to preserve, . and translated into the language of modern and traditional, . passed through many times, . theology and church preaching the faith,


. By main work Welte include: Memories of the eternal (Auf der Spur des Ewigen, . 1965), . Understanding of salvation (Heilsverstndnis, . 1966), . Between the finite and infinite (Im Spielfeld von Endlichkeit und Unendlichkeit, . 1975), . Philosophy of religion (Religionsphilosophie, . 1978), . Meister Eckhart (Meister Eckhart, . 1979), . What is faith? (Was ist Glauben?, . 1982).,