Franz Joseph Dölger

Who was Franz Joseph Dölger?

Franz Joseph Dölger was a German Catholic theologian and church historian born in Sulzbach am Main.

He studied theology at the University of Würzburg, being ordained into the priesthood in 1902. Afterwards he worked as a chaplain in Amorbach and Würzburg, and in June 1904, obtained his doctorate in theology.

In the winter and spring of 1904–05, he participated in a study group to Rome, Sicily and North Africa. Subsequently, he became associated with the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome, followed by an appointment as associate professor of religious history at Westphalian Wilhelms-University in Münster. Later in his career, he served as a professor at the Universities of Breslau and Bonn.

Dölger's primary focus involved investigations of the early Christian church and its relationship with non-Christian societies. He also published scholarly works on the sacrament of confirmation, on exorcism, on baptism, and on the Eucharist in ancient Christianity. In 1929 he founded the journal "Antike und Christentum", of which he contributed a series of detailed studies of the early church.

Today, the Franz Joseph Dölger-Institute at the University of Bonn is named in his honor.