Schwalm, Benoît

SCHWALM, BENOÎT. - Dominican theologian and philosopher, b. at Nancy on 15 Oct. 1860, d. at Pass-Prest (St. Paul du Var) on 17 Nov. 1908. A religious in 1878, he studied at Flavigny, at Belmonte (Spain) and at Valders (Tyrol); he taught philosophy at Corbara (1884-86) and sociology at Flavigny (1893-99).

He concerned himself particularly with the social problems of the time, which he examined in depth and sought to resolve in the light of Thomistic philosophy, showing its modernity. He wrote many articles on the conditions of the clergy, the position of the Church from the political and social point of view, socialism, the right of property, and the relations between the individual and society in La science sociale (1892-94) and in Revue thomiste (1894-1898). His thought on sociology is collected in the Leçons de philosophie sociale (2 vols., Paris 1911). He also addressed with a sense of balance and rigorous orthodoxy the problems of the new apologetics and of the philosophy of immanence; the following are remembered: L'Acte de foi est-il raisonnable?, in Revue thomiste, 4 (1896), pp. 36-63; Les illusions de l'idéalisme et leurs dangers pour la foi, ibid., pp. 413-41; he also wrote: La vie privée des juifs à l'époque de Jésus-Christ (Paris 1910); Le Christ d'après st. Thomas d'Aquin (ibid. 1910). S. was one of the first to combat the errors of the Modernists.

Alfonso D'Amato