PESCH, CHRISTIAN. - Jesuit, theologian, b. at Mühlheim (Cologne) on 25 May 1853, d. at Valkenburg (Holland) on 26 Apr. 1925.
Having entered the Society of Jesus on 30 Sept. 1869, he taught dogmatic theology from 1884 to 1895 to his German confreres exiled at Ditton-Hall (England) and from 1895 to 1912 to the same confreres, who had moved to Valkenburg; thereafter he devoted himself solely to his work as a writer.
(phot. Pont. comm. arch. sacra)
FISH - The word ΙΧΘΥC scratched in a mausoleum of St. Sebastian. Note the tau = Cross placed between the first two letters (3rd century). Rome.
In addition to a copious collaboration with the cultural periodicals Stimmen aus Maria Laach, Stimmen der Zeit and Zeitschr. für Kath. Theol., he wrote: Praelectiones dogmaticae (9 vols., Freiburg im Br. 1895-99; 4th and 5th ed. in 1925); also abridged for use in seminaries (4 vols., ibid. 1913-14). Studies on particular subjects: Zur neueren Literatur über Nestorius (ibid. 1914); De inspiratione S. Scripturae (ibid. 1916; 2nd ed., ibid. 1925; supplement ibid. 1926), notable especially for its positive part; Nestorius als Irrlehrer (Paderborn 1921); Die selige Jungfrau Maria, die Vermittlerin aller Gnaden (Freiburg im Br. 1923). Furthermore, from 1900 to 1916 he published a series of 6 studies on theological questions of current interest in the collection founded by him: Theologische Zeitfragen; worth remembering are the 4th: Glaube, Dogmen und geschichtliche Tatsache (ibid. 1908; Italian version, Rome 1909); and the 5th: Glaubenspflicht und Glaubensschwierigkeiten (ibid. 1908; Italian version: Il dovere della fede, Rome 1911). Of an ascetical nature: Die hl. Schutzengel (ibid. 1917) and on the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Unser bester Freund (ibid. 1923).
Rich in patristic, historical and exegetical culture, a spirit admirably balanced in discussion, his value lies above all in having secured the conspicuous results of the positive critical method for the traditional structure of Scholasticism, inspired by St. Thomas, de Lugo and Suárez. The Praelectiones dogmaticae remain always, even today, one of the most complete modern theological texts. In the era of modernism Father contributed in an effective and decisive way to eliminating it from Germany.
Bibliography2 works
Celestino Testore