author
Josef Donat
1868–1946
A Jesuit philosopher and theologian, he spent decades teaching in Innsbruck and helped shape Catholic philosophical education in the early 20th century. His best-known work, the multi-volume Summa philosophiae christianae, was widely used as a standard text.
1 Audiobook
The Freedom of Science
by Josef Donat
About the author
Born on May 31, 1868, in Philippsdorf in Bohemia, Josef Donat entered the Jesuit order in 1887. After his studies, he taught philosophy in Pressburg and later joined the University of Innsbruck, where he became a professor of Christian philosophy and also served as rector of the Canisianum theological college.
Donat is remembered chiefly as a philosopher and teacher. His Summa philosophiae christianae, first published in 1910, appeared in eight volumes and went through multiple editions, gaining a reputation as an important textbook of Christian philosophy. He also wrote on subjects such as psychoanalysis, showing an interest in relating modern intellectual developments to his own philosophical system.
After the Innsbruck theological faculty was dissolved in 1938, he continued teaching philosophy at the Pontifical Faculty in Sion, Switzerland. He died there on April 4, 1946.