FELTEN, JOSEPH. - Exegete and cultivator of modern New Testament criticism, b. at Düren on 9 Feb. 1851, d. at Bonn on 11 Dec. 1929. From 1877 professor of theology at St. Cuthbert's College in Ushaw, near Durham; from 1888 professor of exegesis at Bonn, and from 1921 retired.
His principal work is: Neotestamentliche Zeitgeschichte oder Judentum und Meidentum zur Zeit Christi und der Apostel (2 vols., Regensburg 1910; 2nd ed. there 1925; Ital. trans., 4 vols., Turin 1913 and 1944). Upon its appearance it was received as a work destined to become a classic (cf. J. Lebreton, in Revue pratique d'apologétique, 10 [1910], pp. 379-80), but in the 2nd ed. he was unable to bring it up to date with new research (cf. J. Lebreton, in Recherches de science religieuse, 16 [1926], pp. 536-48). Nevertheless, it still retains its high value. Also worthy of mention are: Papst Gregor IX. (Regensburg 1886); Robert Grosseteste, Bischof von Lincoln (there 1887); Die Apostelgeschichte (Freiburg im Br. 1892); Die zwei Briefen des hl. Petrus und der Judasbrief (Regensburg 1929). Celestino Testore