MAGER, ALOIS. - Benedictine, philosopher and psychologist, b. at Zimmern near Rottweil (Swabia) on 21 Aug. 1883, d. at Salzburg on 26 Dec. 1946. Having entered Beuron in 1903 and been ordained a priest in 1909, he continued his studies in Neo-Scholastic philosophy at Louvain, and in German philosophy and experimental psychology at Munich.
From 1924 he was for 22 years professor of philosophy at the Theological Faculty of Salzburg, giving impetus to Catholic university life and to the Weeks of Higher Culture, whose proceedings he edited from 1931 to 1937.
His studies at Louvain, later concentrated in the dissertation Aristoteles und die spanische Mystik, determined his scholarly direction and his predominant interest: mysticism, in which he became a recognized authority: the work Mystik als seelische Wirklichkeit. Eine Psychologie der Mystik (Graz-Salzburg 1946) is a true manual of ascetics and mysticism and his spiritual-scholarly testament.
Other works to be mentioned: Die Enge des Bewusstseins (Stuttgart 1919); Die Staatsidee des hl. Augustinus (Munich 1920); Wandel in der Gegenwart Gottes (Augsburg 1921); Theosophie und Christentum (Berlin 1922 and 1926); Neue Versuche zur Messung der Geschwindigkeit der Aufmerksamkeitssenderung (Leipzig 1925); Vorlesungen über experimentelle Psychologie (Beuron 1929); Um Konnersreuth. Neueste religionspsychologische Dokumente (Würzburg 1931); Christus und der Forscher (Augsburg 1931); Mystik als Lehre und Leben (Innsbruck 1934); Des hl. Thomas Erklärungen zu den drei Büchern des Aristoteles «Über die Seele» übertragen und eingeleitet (Vienna 1937). He was moreover a tireless contributor to many journals, e.g., Benediktinische Monatschrift (1919-46), Theol. Revue, Etudes Carmelitaines, Gloria Dei, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche.
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Adalberto Metzinger