Johann Adam Möhler

Who was Johann Adam Möhler?

Johann Adam Möhler was a German Roman Catholic theologian.

He was born at Igersheim in the Duchy of Württemberg, and after studying philosophy and theology in the lyceum at Ellwangen, entered the University of Tübingen in 1817. Ordained to the priesthood in 1819, he was appointed to a curacy. He returned to Tübingen where he became privatdozent in 1825, extraordinary professor of theology in 1826 and ordinary professor in 1828. His lectures drew large audiences, including many Protestants. The controversy aroused by his Symbolik was such that in 1835 he left for the University of Munich, because of polemics with the Protestant Tübingen theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur.. In 1838 he was appointed to the deanery of Würzburg, but died shortly afterwards.

He died young but was very influential for other theologians, such as Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and others.

As a Church historian, he has a more confessional and conservative orientation and organic thinking.