RAHNER, HUGO

Historian and theologian; b. Pfullendorf, Germany, May 3, 1900; d. Munich, Dec. 21, 1968. He entered the Jesuit novitiate of the North German Jesuit Province in 1919, three years before his younger brother Karl, who was later to become a more widely known theologian. Hugo Rahner studied at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and received doctorates in philosophy and theology.

From 1935 he taught at Innsbruck, specializing in early Church history and patrology but writing on a wide variety of topics. In Theology of Proclamation (1939; Eng. tr. 1968) he contended that the priest's most important task was "the reconstruction of our traditional knowledge, the fashioning out of our dogmatic theology what can be of immediate use in performing the great work to which we are called—preaching" (pp. 12–13). In Man at Play (1949; Eng. tr. 1965) he analyzed the significance of play from a religious standpoint. The theme of Mary as a symbol of the Church was developed in his book Our Lady and the Church (1951; Eng. tr. 1961). He set forth a Christian humanism in Greek Myths and Christian Mystery (1957; Eng. tr. 1963), endorsing the action of the early Church in preserving the culture of Greece and Rome. He also sought to show that the piety of the ancient world had been incorporated and sanctified by the Church. The founder of his order was the subject of several of his literary efforts. He wrote The Spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola (1949; Eng. tr. 1953) and Ignatius the Theologian (1964; Eng. tr. 1968), edited Letters to Women by Ignatius Loyola (1965; Eng. tr. 1960), and with the photographer Leonard von Matt produced St. Ignatius of Loyola: A Pictorial Biography (1956). With his brother Karl he wrote Prayers for Meditation (1962).

Bibliography: j. holdt, Hugo Rahner: Sein geschichts–und symboltheologisches Denken (Paderborn 1997). k. h. neufeld, Die Bruder Rahner: Eine Biographie (Freiburg im Breisgau 1994). a.p. kustermann and k. h. neufeld, "Gemeinsame Arbeit in bruderlicher Liebe": Hugo und Karl Rahner; Dokumente und Wurdigung ihrer Weggemeinschaft (Stuttgart 1993).

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