PILGRIM, Friedrich. - German lay thinker, sociologist, and theologian, b. at Imbach near Solingen in 1819, d. at Monheim on the Rhine on 21 Nov. 1890. Educated in Protestant rationalism, he soon felt its inadequacy and began to seek solutions to his doubts in science and philosophy. Having been attracted by the antipope Clement VII, who did not so much confirm his first studies, he finally found the truth in reading the works of St Augustine and in Catholicism, to which he converted on 23 Dec. 1846 at Koblenz.
Having found inner peace, P. retired to Monheim, where he devoted all his time to preparing his writings. Having a thorough knowledge of German idealism, in which he had been formed, P. sought to highlight, in his own style, the objective reality of the work of Redemption and its continuation in the Church of Christ. Linking this idea with another that was fundamental to him—the unity of all men in God and in Christ—he sought to apply it in his studies on Church and State. Thus were born his principal works: Physiologie der Kirche (Magdeburg 1860, French ed. Paris 1864), an attempt at an exposition of the sociology of the Church, and Neue Grundlagen der Wissenschaft vom Staate (Berlin 1870), a synthesis of a doctrine of the State based on Christian principles.
Though he had little inclination for the unstable vicissitudes of political life, for a time he was associated with the Rheinischer Bote (1859–64) and in 1870 was one of the founders and for a brief period also an editor of Germania, taking a stand for the new Prussian German Empire.
Writings: besides those already cited v.: Kontroversen mit den Ungläubigen (Freiburg in Br. 1855); Soziale Fragen beobachtet aus dem Prinzip der kirchlichen Gemeinschaft (1875); Leben und Wirken hervorragender Protestanten (1875);