Servais-Theodore Pinckaers

Servais Pinckaers, O.P.
Servais Pinckaers, O.P.
Born	(1925-10-30)October 30, 1925 Liège, Belgium
Died	April 7, 2008(2008-04-07) (aged 82) Fribourg, Switzerland

Servais-Théodore Pinckaers O.P. (Liège, 1925 – Fribourg, 2008) was a noted moral theologian, Roman Catholic priest, and member of the Dominican Order (Order of Preachers). He has been especially influential in the renewal of a theological and Christological approach to Christian virtue ethics.

Servais Theodore Pinckaers was born in Liège (Belgium) in 1925 and raised in the village of Wonck (now part of the municipality of Bassenge) in Belgium’s Walloon region. In 1945 he entered the Dominican Order and pursued his studies in theology at the Belgian Dominican Studium at La Sarte, obtaining his license in theology (1952) under the direction of Jérôme Hamer, writing his thesis (tesina) on Henri de Lubac’s Surnaturel. He pursued doctoral studies at the Pontificium Athenaeum Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, attending the classes of such notables as Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Paul Philippe and Mario Luigi Ciappi. His dissertation, written under the direction of Louis-Bertrand Gillon, was a study of the medieval theology of hope, entitled “La vertu d’espérance de Pierre Lombard à saint Thomas” (1954).

Upon completion of his studies, Fr. Pinckaers returned to the Dominican Studium at La Sarte to teach moral theology from 1954-1965. (He was at La Sarte when in 1958 one of the friars of the community, Dominique Pire, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his labors on behalf of Europe's many war refugees (displaced persons)). It was also at La Sarte that Fr. Pinckaers undertook his first efforts to renew the contemporary understanding of moral theology, foreshadowing the Vatican Council’s call to renewal by several years. The fruits of these labors, which had been published as articles in various places, were subsequently drawn together in his groundbreaking study, Le renouveau de la morale (1964; Preface by Marie-Dominique Chenu). It was also at La Sarte that he wrote the textual analysis and commentary for Questions 6 through 21 of the Prima Secundae (i.e., Aquinas' treatise on Human Acts) for the Revue des Jeunes’ bilingual edition (Latin and French) of the Summa Theologiae (1961 and 1965). Fr. Pinckaers referred to his time at La Sarte, both as a student and later as a professor, as the time when he attained the insights that he would subsequently present and develop in his later work. These central insights for the renewal of moral theology are (1) the primacy of the Word of God, as a living Word that speaks to every generation and which is higher than any merely human word; (2) the foundational importance of the fathers of the Church, especially Augustine; and (3) the lasting value of St. Thomas’ method and insights.