DIERINGER, FRANZ XAVER

Theologian; b. Rangeningen, Germany, Aug. 22, 1811; d. Veringendorf, Sept. 8, 1876. He studied at Tübingen and was ordained at Freiburg im Breisgau in 1835. After teaching in seminaries he was called to the chair of dogma and homiletics at the University of Bonn, where hermesianism had all but destroyed the reputation of the theological faculty. Dieringer founded and edited a journal, Katholische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Cologne 1844–49; since 1849 called Katholische Vierteljahrschrift ), to provide a forum for orthodoxy; and for many years his writing and teaching did much to restore balance to theological thought in Germany. Among many other writings he is noted for his Lehrbuch der katholischen Dogmatik (Mainz 1847), which long remained a widely used manual, and for his Laienkatechismus (Mainz 1865), which presented theology in popular form. He also wrote against A. gÜnther. He was a founder and for many years president of the Verein vom hl. Karl Borromäus. In 1853 he was named a canon of Cologne, though permitted to retain his chair at Bonn. Three times he was proposed for the episcopacy, but he was vetoed twice by the Prussian government and in 1874 by the government of Baden, whose terms he was unwilling to meet. Though he had taught papal infallibility, when the question came up in connection with vati can council i, he at first opposed its definition as inopportune and later as wrong in itself. After it was defined, he accepted it but resigned his professorship and his dignities to become a parish priest.

Bibliography: e. mangenot, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 4.1:755. a. franzen, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:380.

[a. rock]