Michael Schmaus

Michael Schmaus (17 July 1897 – 8 December 1993) was a German Roman Catholic theologian specializing in dogmatics.

Life

Schmaus was born in Oberbaar, Bavaria.

He was ordained a priest in 1922 and got his doctorate in Catholic Dogmatic Theology under Martin Grabmann in 1924.

After teaching at the Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Freising, at the local seminary and at the University of Munich, he was a professor of dogmatic theology at the German-speaking part of the Charles University in Prague (1928-1933) and from 1933 on at the Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster.

From 1946 until his retirement in 1965 he was professor of Catholic dogmatic theology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Among his students were Joseph Ratzinger - the future Pope Benedict XVI - with whom he associated with his habilitation for Fundamental Theology.

He was Peritus (Theological expert) for part of the Second Vatican Council.

On 12 November 1983, Pope John Paul II gave him the honorary title of protonotary apostolic.

He was best as a synthesizer rather than an originator. His two works on Catholic dogma are still standard works.

He died in Gauting, Upper Bavaria in 1993.

Works

• Katholische Dogmatik (Catholic Dogma), 3 volumes, 1938-1941
• Dogma (A different work), 6 volumes 1968, ISBN 0 87061 095 3

Links and Literature

All those cited here are in German.

• Schmaus, Der Glaube der Kirche
• Veröffentlichungen von und über Michael Schmaus im Opac der Regesta Imperii
• Literature by and about Michael Schmaus in the German National Library catalogue
• Peter Kollmannsberger: Die schöpfungstheologische Frage nach dem Personsein des Menschen in den Dogmatiken von Michael Schmaus und Johann Auer. Dissertationsschrift (Universität Passau). Schuch, Weiden 1992; ISBN 3-926931-09-4
• Manfred Eder (1995). "Michael Schmaus". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 9. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 322–327. ISBN 3-88309-058-1.