Professor Dr. Eugen Biser
- Eugen Biser
(Foto: Elke Jentzmik)
Eugen Biser, Professor Dr. phil., Dr. theol., Dr. theol. Honoris Causa, Dr. phil. Honoris Causa for Christian Philosophy and the Philosophy of Religion at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU), is one of the leading theologists of the age.
He was born on 6 Jan 1918 in Oberbergen in the Kaiserstuhl region of Germany. In 1938 be began his studies in Catholic theology at the University of Freiburg, continuing uninterrupted during the war years in spite of a serious injury, and graduating in 1946. Having taken Holy Orders, he taught a full teachers’ workload of religious studies while writing his master’s theses in Theology (1956) and Philosophy (1961) which were followed by a doctoral thesis in Fundamental Theology (1965), which set him on course for a career in academia.
- Third Age Department at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: Lecturing Professor Biser, April 18th, 2007 (Foto: Michael Leh)
Between 1965 and 1969 he taught at the Philosophical and Theological College in Passau and, from 1969 to 1974, at the University of Wuerzburg. At the same time he acted as Interim Professor at the Universities of Marburg, Bochum and Saarbruecken respectively. In 1974 he was offered the Romano-Guardini Chair at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, which he held until his retirement in 1986. Until 2007 he led the University of the 3rd Age department, which he had founded at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
Aside from his teaching, which his innumerable guest speaking engagements extended far beyond the university, Eugen Biser has also produced an outstanding body of work of high scholarship; this includes some 100 books and a vast number of essays reflecting the great range of his knowledge, which cuts across categories and defies restriction. Whatever the complexity of the subject matter at hand, Eugen Biser’s first interest lies in understanding and interpreting the Christian message through and for people.
- Professor Biser (1986)
(Foto: Gerd Pfeiffer)
Guiding Christianity back to its core has been the particular object of his attention. His great sensitivity to the current problems both of the Church and the world mark him out as a future-orientated and, in the best sense of the word, a modern thinker. His visionary and innovative force extends well beyond the Christian realm, increasing its fundamental relevance to people and to society in general.
Eugen Biser is Honorary President of the Council of the foundation which bears his name, a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, and Dean, Class VII (Religions of the World) of the European Academy of Science and the Arts in Salzburg.
Professor Biser is an Honorary Papal Prelate, a holder of Bavaria’s Maximilian Order for Science and the Arts, of the Bavarian Order of Merit, Austria’s Cross of Honour for Science and the Arts, the Catholic Academy of Bavaria’s Romano Guardini Prize, the Getrud von LeFort prize, the Peter Wust Prize and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Graz and the Ukrainische Freie Universität in Munich.
