Tilman Pesch (1 February 1836, at

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

– 18 October 1899, at Valkenburg, Limburg, the Netherlands), was a German

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

philosopher.

Life

He became a Jesuit on 15 October 1852, and made his

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

at Friedrichsburg near

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

; he studied classics two years at

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

, philosophy two years at

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

; taught four years at Feldkirch, Austria; studied theology one year at Paderborn and three years at

Maria-Laach Maria Laach Abbey (in German language, German: ''Abtei Maria Laach'', in Latin: ''Abbatia Maria Lacensis'' or ''Abbatia Maria ad Lacum'') is a Benedictine order, Benedictine abbey situated in Glees, Germany, Glees, on the southwestern shore ...

, after which he made his third year of novitiate at Paderborn. He then taught philosophy at Maria-Laach (1867–69). From 1870 to 1876 he worked in the ministry, and again taught philosophy eight years (1876–84), at the Castle of Bleijenbeek in Afferden. Pesch was tireless as a missionary in Germany. He was often arrested under the charge of being a Jesuit. Pesch taught the best in

scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...

, but appreciated what was good in other systems of philosophy. His Latin writing contain the latest results of natural science applied to the illustration of truth by scholastic methods.

Works

The literary activity of Pesch began in 1876. He contributed to ''Philosophia Licensis''; ''Institutiones philosophiæ naturalis'' (1880); ''Institutiones logicales'' (1888); ''Institutiones psychologicæ'' (1896–98). The last fifteen years of his life were devoted entirely to writing and to the ministry. Treatises were: ''Weltphänomenon'' (1881); ''Welträtsel'' (1884), ''Seele und Leib'' (1893), and ''Christliche Lebensphilosophie'' (1895). The last work reached its fourth edition with three years. Besides scholarly writing, he published popular philosophical and Apologetic articles and pamphlets. The most important of these were the articles published in the "Germanica" above the pseudonym "Gottlieb"; they were later arranged in three volumes, ''Briefe aus Hamburg'' (1883), ''Der Krach von Wittenburg'' (1889), and ''Wittenberg und Rom'' (1889), arguing against common criticisms of the Catholic Church. His most popular book was ''Das Religiöse Leben'', of which thirteen large editions appeared.

References

;Attribution * This source cites: ** (Roermond), n. 8, 721 **Heinrich Thoelen, (Roermond, 1901), 602. 1836 births 1899 deaths 19th-century German Jesuits University of Bonn alumni Catholic philosophers 19th-century German philosophers German male writers Clergy from Cologne {{RC-philosopher-stub