Lehmkuhl, August
LEHMKUHL, AUGUST
Jesuit moralist; b. Hagen, Westphalia, Sept. 23, 1834; d. Valkenburg, Holland, June 23, 1918. He taught scripture and later moral theology at Maria Laach. He then taught at Ditton Hall, England, until 1880, when he returned to the Continent and devoted himself exclusively to writing. In 1883 he published his major work, the Theologia Moralis (2 v. Freiburg). In it he applied the principles of St. thomas aquinas and St. alphonsus liguori to contemporary problems in moral theology. It has gone through numerous editions and revisions. His other major work was his Casus Conscientiae (2 v. Freiburg 1902–04). In the area of social and economic justice he wrote Arbeitsvertrag und Streik (Freiburg 1899); Die Soziale Not und der Kirchliche Einfluse (1892); and Die Internationale Regelung der Sozialen Frage (Freiburg 1893). In these and other articles he was a pioneer in attempting an exact and scientific analysis of sociopolitical problems from the viewpoint of moral theology. He was an ardent defender of many of the demands of the working class.
Bibliography: g. gundlach, Staatslexicon, h. sacher, ed. (Freiburg 1957–) 5:335–336.
[r. m. bush]