SCHEEBEN, MATHIAS JOSEPH. – Theologian, born at Mackenheim (near Bonn) on 1 March 1835, died at Cologne on 21 July 1888.
He earned degrees in philosophy and theology in Rome at the Gregorian University and was formed in the school of Liberatore, Kleutgen, Perrone, Passaglia, and Franzelin. Ordained a priest in 1858, in 1860 he became professor of dogmatics at the Priesterseminar of Cologne, where he remained until his death. He immediately revealed a speculative talent in the exposition and defence of the supernatural, in three works that form a complete whole: Natur und Gnade (Mainz 1861); Quid est homo, sive controversiae de statu naturae purae (a new edition of the work of A. Casini [18th century], ibid. 1862), in which the positive foundations of the doctrine of Grace are expounded; Die Herrlichkeiten der göttlichen Gnade (Freiburg im Breisgau 1863; Italian trans. Turin 1933), an original reworking of the work of E. Nierenberg (17th century), intended to make the doctrine of Grace accessible to all.
Prepared by articles in the Mainz journal Der Katholik, his most original work appeared at Freiburg im Breisgau in 1865: Die Mysterien des Christentums (Italian trans. Brescia 1949). During the troubled period of the First Vatican Council, S. Döllinger (v.) Schulte (v.) in the periodical Das oecumenische Konzil von Jahre 1869, which was continued (under the direction of S. himself from 1882 onward) in Periodische Blätter zur wissenschaftlichen Besprechung der grossen theologischen Fragen der Gegenwart. Through lively articles in the Kölner Pastoralblatt, he spread the doctrine of papal infallibility among the clergy and the people. At the same time
he published his final work, a synthesis of his thought: Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik (4 vols., Freiburg im Breisgau 1873–87); left incomplete in the sections on sacramental and eschatological doctrine, it was completed by L. Atzberger in 1898 and 1903. Of the critical edition of S.’s works (Gesammelte Schriften), published under the direction of J. Höfer, four volumes have already appeared, with substantial introductions and commentaries (ibid. 1941 and 1942).
Educated in the centre of Catholicism, he brought the spirit of Rome to Germany and, with the resources of his uncommon intellect, succeeded in constructing a theology ancient in substance but new in method and highly religious in inspiration: above all, he was the theologian of the supernatural. His Thomism was sincere but not closed, drawing also from S. Anselm as well as from S. Bonaventure, from Hugh and Richard of St Victor as well as from Petavius and Thomasson; his historical knowledge was, for his time, broad and based on firsthand sources. The example of his learned teachers (Passaglia, Schrader, Franzelin) and of the school of Tübingen (Möller) made its mark on his innate tendency toward exegetical and patristic research (especially Greek, and more particularly Alexandrian). These elements were brought to life through the structural organicity of his work, from which emerges that nexus mysteriorum inter se, which so pleased the Fathers of the First Vatican Council. Mentioned in Natur und Gnade, the theory of the “supernatural communications” was extensively developed in the Mysterien: in three concentric but progressively wider cycles, it makes it possible to contemplate the Word, who descends from the bosom of the Father into the womb of Mary in order to give himself to all humanity in sinu Ecclesiae in the mystery of the Eucharist. The centrality of the Word serves a higher theophany of the Trinity: the anthropocentrism of humanism and of the “Reformation” rises into the Christocentrism of the Scotist school, only to be resolved in the theocentrism of S. Thomas.
Not only the design, but also the individual parts of the structure benefited from S.’s work; the doctrines of Grace (deification), Faith, the Sacraments (character), and the Church as the mystical body received new and original developments. S., who during his lifetime had no disciples (his students, having already completed their theological studies, heard him only during the single year they remained at the Priesterseminar), became increasingly known and appreciated after his premature death. His works, reprinted and partly commented upon, were translated into the principal languages, and many authors today, especially in mariology and ecclesiology, draw inspiration from the theologian of Cologne. An exemplary priest, S. remains one of the finest figures of Catholicism in Germany and one of the most complete theologians of the 19th century.