Anton Dereser
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2024) |
Anton Dereser (also known as Thaddaeus a Sancto Adamo, OCD) (3 February 1757,
.Dereser was a Catholic representative of the Enlightenment, and promoted a rationalistic interpretation of the Bible. He had a marked tendency to take independent positions and defy authority—both secular and ecclesiastical—which involved him in numerous controversies and nearly cost him his life during the French Revolution.
As the Catholic Encyclopedia noted of him in 1913, "Dereser's combative character got him in trouble everywhere, and, though believing himself a good Catholic, he was imbued with a rationalistic, anti-Roman spirit", which made him "imbued with the shallow Rationalism of his time" and therefore "explaining away everything supernatural in Scripture and religion". This made all his writings "tainted" in the eyes of the Church authorities, though only one was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (see below) and that without the name of the author - testifying to the Church's appreciation of his talent, in spite of its dislike of his rationalism.
Life
His
In 1791 he was sent to
In 1799 he became professor of Semitic languages, exegesis and pastoral theology in Heidelberg. The
Thence he went to
Works
- One of his works, Commentario biblica in . . . Tu es Petrus (Bonn, 1789) was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
- His principal work was the translation of the Pentateuch. The German Bible translation of Brentano and Dereser (Frankfurt, 1815–1828, 16 vols.) was revised by Johann Martin Augustin Scholz(1828–1837, 17 vols.).
- Other works, chiefly Latin, included
- on the Necessity of the Knowledge of Oriental Languages for the Study of Scripture (Cologne, 1783);
- Hermeneutics of the Old and New Testament (1784 and 1786);
- Dissertations on the Destruction of Sodom (1784);
- on Saint John the Baptist(1785);
- on The Power and Duties of the Pope according to St. Bernard (1787);
- on A number of books and portions of the Old Testament with translations (partly metrical) and annotations;
- on the Temptation of Christ (1789);
- on His Divinity and on Pharisaism (Strasbourg, 1791);
- on the Foundation of the University of Bonn (1786);[1]
- a German Breviary (Augsburg, 1793, several times reprinted)
- a German Prayer Book (Rottenburg, 1808).
- Dereser also edited marriages should be indissoluble; the author later retracted it.
See also
References
- ^ In its present incarnation, the University of Bonn is considered to have been founded in 1818; Dereser's book referred to the 1786 upgrading of its predecessor, the Academy of Bonn
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Anton Dereser". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
