Josef Donat

Born on May 31, 1868, in Philippsdorf in Bohemia, he later became an Austrian Catholic theologian and philosopher. After studying at gymnasiums in Mariaschein and Leitmeritz, he entered the Jesuit order in 1887 and went on to pursue philosophical and theological studies in Pressburg and Innsbruck.

He taught for decades at the University of Innsbruck, where sources describe him first as a lecturer and then as professor of Christian philosophy; he also served from 1932 to 1937 as rector of the Canisianum theological college there. After the theology faculty was closed in 1938, he continued teaching philosophy in exile at Sion in Switzerland.

His surviving bibliography shows the range of his work: Latin textbooks such as Logica and the multi-volume Summa philosophiae christianae, alongside The Freedom of Science, a book that brought his ideas to English-language readers. He died in Sion on April 4, 1946.