ROHLING, AUGUST. - Catholic exegete, who compromised himself through two prolonged controversies, one "antisemitic," the other "millenarian," b. 15 Feb. 1839 in Neuenkirchen (Westphalia), d. at Salzburg on 21 Jan. 1931. A priest in 1863, he obtained his doctorate (Das Abschiedslied des Moses) in Jena in 1867; he was a professor in Münster in 1871, in Milwaukee in 1874. Ordinary professor of the Old Testament in 1876 at Prague, in 1899 he was relieved of teaching and lived as a simple priest at Gorizia, Freiberg and Salzburg (Austria).
A balanced judgment on R. is difficult. It is certain, however, that he must not be considered merely as an "antisemitic agitator" (as S. L. Lieben does, in Jüd. Lex., IV [1928], col. 1468 ff.); nor is there any need to pass over in silence or diminish his professional merits as an exegete (as J. Deutsch does, in Jew. Enc., X [1907], p. 442). His Biblical Commentaries according to Catholic Principles, published at Münster (Psalms, 1871; Isaiah, 1872; Daniel, 1876; Proverbs, 1879) are respectable works, on a par with the Semitic philology of the time; so too is the version of certain biblical books, published in 1873-74 under the pseudonym "Ibar." Indeed these commentaries make it possible to regret that the controversies diverted R. from promoting biblical science as he might have done during the 92 years of his life.
On the antisemitic controversy, v. Enc. Catt., I, col. 1500. The millenarian controversy is expressly placed by R. in connection with the other. He admitted, with Schell (v.), a conversion of the damned, or rather he believed that Christ will return to reign visibly from Jerusalem over a fully redeemed humanity. This humanity, R. thinks, is pilgrimaging without end (or temporal term); in it would be manifested all the earthly glory of the Old Testament prophecies that promise a new paradise. R. gives the prophecies a more spiritual fulfillment and stigmatizes as "Pharisees" the theologians who admit the eternity of the pains of Hell, thereby closing heaven to the majority of humanity; they weaken the promise and are responsible for the present-day apostasy of the masses. He condemns "erroneous scholasticism"; the fault of the rabbis was to be "Judaic scholastics." In none of the controversies does R. seem to have been an "ignoramus" (as P. Delitzsch, H. L. Strack and certain Judaic authors affirm), but rather he succumbed to his violent and stubborn character, which blinded him.
Deplorable is his Talmudjude, perhaps the worst antisemitic work ever written by a Catholic, in absolute contrast with the principles of justice and charity. Still today it offers a mine to the baleful antisemitic movements. On the other hand, it is also to be deplored that the work is put to an anti-Catholic use; e.g. D. Jacob, in Enc. Jud., II (1928), coll. 1017-18, postdates its publication to 1874 and frames it within an outbreak of "Catholic-Christian" antisemitism, solemnly inaugurated by a speech of Pius IX in 1872. But the work was brought to light in 1871, and the work of R.'s personal passion and the sentiments of the Pontiff in the face of the defenders of his spoliation cannot be considered on the same level.
Despite the attacks against certain theses of Catholic theology and the rebellion against non-infallible Roman decrees, R. always upheld pontifical infallibility and had great devotion to the Madonna: he upheld the opportuneness of the definition of the Assumption as early as 1907. After 1907 he seems to have ceased all literary activity.
Millenarian works: Der Zukunftsstaat (1894, placed on the Index in 1897); Ein unechtes Indevdehret (1898, a vigorous reply to the decree); Auf nach Sion! (1901, several versions); Die Alleinherrschaft des Glaubens (1903); Schell und Stuffer (1903); Die ewige Menschheit (1906); Die Zukunft der Menschheit als Gattung nach der Lehre der Kirchenväter (1907).
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Pietro Nober