Joseph Biner

Who was Joseph Biner?

Joseph Biner was a Roman Catholic canonist, historian, and theologian. His fame rests principally on his erudition. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1715 and received the usual training of its members. He was later professor of canon law in the universities of Ingolstadt, Dillingen and Innsbruck. He entered zealously into all the controversies with the sectaries of his time, especially with the Swiss Protestants. As a consequence, all his works have a polemical tinge.

In 1739 appeared his Catholische Anmerkung über die neueste uncatholische Controvers-Schreiber, directed against certain opponents in Zürich. This was followed in 1744 by Indifferentismus, a treatise on religious indifference and liberalism in dogmatic teaching. Biner published Heiligkeit der Kirche in 1750, discussing the marks of the "true Church" and giving sketches of eminent Catholics. The best of his polemical works is De Summâ Trinitate, Fide Catholicâ et Hierarchiâ Ecclesiasticâ. It appeared in 1765 and shows him at his best as a theologian and canonist. His last controversial treatise, which appeared the same year and was published like all the others at Vienna, is entitled: Kurzer Begriff der heutigen Glaubenstreitigkeiten. It is an examination and refutation of various Protestant confessions of faith.