SCHEEBEN, MATHIAS JOSEPH. - Theologian, b. at Mackenheim (near Bonn) on 10 March 1835, d. at Cologne on 21 July 1888.
He earned degrees in philosophy and theology at Rome’s Gregorian University and was formed in the school of Liberatore, Kleutgen, Perrone, Passaglia, and Franzelin. Ordained priest in 1858, he became in 1860 professor of dogmatic theology at the Priests’ Seminary in Cologne, remaining there until his death. He immediately revealed himself as a speculative mind in his elucidation and defense 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* (new edition of the work by A. Casini [18th c.], ibid. 1862): here the positive foundations of the doctrine of grace are set forth; *Die Herrlichkeiten der göttlichen Gnade* (Freiburg im Br. 1863; Italian trans. Turin 1933): an original reworking of the work by E. Nierenberg (17th c.), intended to make the doctrine of grace accessible to all.
Prepared by articles in the Mainz journal *Der Katholik*, his most original work appeared in Freiburg im Br. in 1865: *Die Mysterien des Christentums* (Italian trans. Brescia 1949). During the agitated period of the First Vatican Council, Scheeben Döllinger (v.) and Schulte (v.) in the periodical *Das oecumenische Konzil von Jahre 1869*, which was later continued (under his own direction from 1882) in the *Periodische Blätter zur wissenschaftlichen Besprechung der grossen theologischen Fragen der Gegenwart*. Through lively articles in the *Kölner Pastoralblatt*, he disseminated among clergy and laity the doctrine of papal infallibility. At the same time he published his final work, a synthesis of his thought: *Handbuch der katholischen Dogmatik* (4 vols., Freiburg im Br. 1873–87); left incomplete on sacramental and eschatological doctrine, it was completed by L. Atzberger in 1898 and 1903. A critical edition of Scheeben’s complete works (*Gesammelte Schriften*), edited under the direction of J. Höfer, has already issued four volumes with substantial introductions and commentary (ibid. 1941 and 1944).
Educated at the heart of Catholicism, he brought the Roman spirit to Germany and, with the resources of his uncommon intellect, succeeded in constructing a theology that was ancient in substance yet new in method and in its highly religious inspiration. Above all, he was the theologian of the supernatural. His mind was sincere yet not closed, drawing on St. Anselm as on St. Bonaventure, on Hugh and Richard of St. Victor as on Petavius and Thomassin. His historical learning was, for his time, broad and firsthand: the example of his erudite teachers (Passaglia, Schrader, Franzelin) and of the school of Tübingen (Möhler) left its mark on his innate bent toward exegetical and patristic research (especially Greek, and in particular Alexandrian). These elements were vitalized by the organic structure of his own work, from which emerges that *nexus mysteriorum* which so pleased at the First Vatican Council. Alluded to in *Natur und Gnade*, it was fully developed in *Die Mysterien*: the theory of “supernatural communications,” arranged in three concentric cycles ever widening, shows the Word descending from the Father’s bosom into Mary’s womb and giving Himself to all humanity in the bosom of the Church in the mystery of the Eucharist. The centrality of the Word serves a higher theophany of the Trinity: anthropocentrism in humanism and the “Reformation” rises in the Christocentrism of the Scotist school, only to resolve itself in the theocentrism of St. Thomas.
Not only the design but also the individual parts of his construction benefited from Scheeben’s work. The doctrine of grace (deification), of faith, of the sacraments (character), of the Church as mystical body received new and original developments. Though in his lifetime he had no disciples (his students, who had already completed their theological studies, heard him only in the single year they remained at the Priests’ Seminary), after his premature death he came increasingly to be known and valued. His works, reprinted and in part annotated, were translated into the principal languages, and many authors today—especially in moral theology and ecclesiology—draw inspiration from the theologian of Cologne. A model priest, Scheeben remains one of the finest figures of Catholicism in Germany and one of the most complete theologians of the 19th century.