Does the name Peter Knauer mean anything to you? Probably not: He might not be the most prominent name in contemporary Catholic theology, even though he has gathered a considerable circle of students around him over the course of his life. I did not study with him myself, but I met him as a young student of theology during a summer school near the Lake of Constance between Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and he became one of my most important theological teachers.
Peter Knauer, a Jesuit since 1953, was Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Jesuit University of St. Georgen in Frankfurt (Germany) from 1980 to 2003. His main work was published seven times under the title “Faith comes from hearing” (Der Glaube kommt vom Hören) (Rom 10:17) with the subtitle “Ecumenical Fundamental Theology” (Ökumenische Fundamentaltheologie).
Even if my current work in liturgical studies does not have much to do with Knauer’s systematic theology, one of Knauer’s convictions still influences my thinking today. Statements of faith are never to be understood cumulatively, but always as the unfolding of one single truth that cannot be read from the world, but must be told (revealed) to us:
Knauer’s conviction that there is only one truth in faith, to which everything else can be traced back, gives rise to an almost provocatively simple approach to ecumenism: Every dogmatic controversy between Christian churches is based on semantic misunderstandings. Everyone means the right thing, but everyone is talking past each other.
Peter Knauer was one of the first theologians in the German-speaking world to set up a personal website that still exudes the retro charm of the 1990s: peter-knauer.de. The website is an impressive testimony to Knauer’s love of human languages: Many of his articles, handouts, and teaching materials can be downloaded in German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, or other languages: some of them translated by himself, some by friends and students. When I wrote to him that I was learning Esperanto, for a while I only received e-mails from him in Esperanto: Peter Knauer was a regular guest at Esperanto congresses for decades, celebrating the Eucharist according to the Esperanto missal.
The last time he was in Innsbruck, he visited me in my office and gave me a kind of private lecture on misleading Bible translations from Hebrew and Greek, on Christian-Islamic dialog, on business ethics, on Ignatius of Loyola, and Benedict of Nursia. And, on the question of how best to translate the formula pro multis effundetur in the Eucharistic Prayer into the vernacular, he gave me the astonishing suggestion “shed for so many.”
Why am I telling you this? On July 21, 2024, Peter Knauer passed away in his hometown of Berlin at the age of 89. If you would like to get to know him, you can no longer do so in person, but you can do so through his fundamental theology and a wealth of material on his website.
Requiescat in pace.