HILDEBRAND, DIETRICH VON

Catholic philosopher and moral theologian, outspoken defender of traditional Catholic teaching, b. in Italy, 1889, d. New Rochelle, N.Y., Jan. 30, 1977. His father, Adolph (1847–1921), was a sculptor; his paternal grandfather, Bruno (1812–78), a political economist. Von Hildebrand received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Göttingen, Germany (1912), was converted to Catholicism in 1914, and was a professor on the faculty of the University of Munich from 1924 to 1933. When Hitler came to power in 1933, von Hildebrand, known to be anti-Nazi, was forced to flee to Florence. Later he joined the faculty of the University of Vienna, but when Austria fell he escaped and joined the faculty of the Catholic University of Toulouse, France. With the fall of France he went to Spain and then to the U.S. where he joined the Fordham University faculty in 1942. He was professor of philosophy there until his retirement in 1960. By the time he had become a professor emeritus he had already written 30 books and more than 100 articles on philosophy and morality. Among his main works Christian Ethics (1952) and True Morality and Its Counterfeits (1955) were especially praised. In the era of Vatican II in quick succession appeared his The Sacred Heart (1965) and Man and Woman (1966), as well as two books coauthored by his wife (the former Alice Jourdain), a philosophy teacher at Hunter College: The Art of Living (1965) and Morality and Situation Ethics (1966). Next came his strong summons to Catholic conservatives. Trojan Horse in the City of God (1967), a refutation of secularism and what he described as contemporary errors and horrors. Later he published his defense of Paul VI's encyclical Humanae vitae (1969) in his In Defense of Purity (1970) and Celibacy and the Crisis of Faith (1971).

Von Hildebrand's early writings reflect three dominant influences: the phenomenology of his professor e.husserl, his own conversion to Catholicism, and the ethical approach of M. Schelers. Von Hildebrand's later writings were an attempt to respond to what he considered the most serious crisis in the entire history of the church. In an interview granted to E. Wakin (May 1969) he insisted there could be no change in the revealed doctrine of the church, only development, in Newman's sense of making explicit what was implicit. While von Hildebrand rejoiced over Vatican II's attempts to vivify mere convention and eliminate bureaucratic legalism, he deplored such other results as the loss of a sense of the supernatural and the eagerness to cater to the values of a desacralized, dehumanized, and depersonalized world. Progressives, he maintained, absolutize current views and relativize traditional orthodoxy. The greatest service the church can render the world is to help individual souls progress in sanctity. St. francis of assisi is the model; he did not set out to change the world, but to follow Christ; by doing that, he did change the world. What is needed are a few great saints who would reverse all secularist and liberal trends and reinstate the true orthodox faith.

Bibliography: e. wakin, U.S. Catholic 34 (1969) 6–13.

[e. j. dillon]