Dietrich von Hildebrand
| Dietrich von Hildebrand | |
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| Born |
12 October 1889 Florence, Italy |
| Died |
26 January 1977 (aged 87) New Rochelle, New York |
| Alma mater |
University of Munich University of Göttingen |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | |
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Dietrich von Hildebrand (12 October 1889 – 26 January 1977) was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian.
Hildebrand was called "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church" by Pope Pius XII. Pope John Paul II also greatly admired the work of Hildebrand, remarking once to his widow, Alice von Hildebrand, "Your husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Benedict XVI also has a particular admiration and regard for Hildebrand, whom he knew as a young priest in Munich. The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about Hildebrand: "When the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time."
A vocal critic of the changes in the church brought by the Second Vatican Council, Hildebrand especially resented the new liturgy: "Truly, if one of the devils in C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy, he could not have done it better."
Born and raised in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, Hildebrand grew up in a German household, the son of sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schäuffelen, who lived in a former Minim friary. He received his early education from private tutors. Although raised in a home without religion, Hildebrand developed a deep belief in Jesus at a very young age.
Sent to Munich at the age of fifteen for his Abitur, Hildebrand enrolled at the University of Munich two years later, where he joined a circle of students who first followed the philosopher Theodor Lipps but soon were swayed by the teachings of Edmund Husserl. Through this circle he came to know Max Scheler. Because of Scheler's writings Hildebrand converted to Catholicism in 1914. In 1909 he attended the University of Göttingen, where he completed his doctorate in philosophy under Husserl and Adolf Reinach, whom he later credited with shaping his own philosophical system.
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