Salzburg: “Theological Prize” awarded to David Steindl-Rast
Renowned award of the “Salzburg University Weeks” honors “spiritual initiator and interreligious bridge builder” – 95-year-old was unable to receive the award in person due to COVID-19 disease
Salzburg (KAP) – The author, religious and spiritual teacher Br. David Steindl-Rast has been awarded the “Theological Prize” of the Salzburg University Weeks. The prize, which honors the theological lifework of the 95-year-old, was awarded on Wednesday evening in Salzburg – albeit in the absence of Steindl-Rast, who is suffering from COVID. Steindl-Rast conveyed his words of thanks in the form of a video interview that was shown at the award ceremony. The laudatory speech took place in the form of a dialogue between three companions or scientists.
According to the jury’s statement, the award winner is a “spiritual initiator and interreligious bridge builder” of world renown. “His work is groundbreaking for theological reflection, which wants to orientate itself in the horizon of religious plurality, but does not just want to compare religious positions theoretically, but really wants to get into conversation.” As a “master of interreligious understanding” he is for many people to this day ” inspiring”.
Among others, Bishop Alois Schwarz of St. Pölten, Archbishop of Bamberg Ludwig Schick, Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg Hansjörg Hofer and Archabbot of St. Peter, Korbinian Birnbacher, attended the ceremony. The prize, worth 5,000 euros, was donated by Abbot Nikolaus Poch and the Abbey of the Scots. It was received by Fr. Johannes Pausch, a fellow brother and preferred prior of the Europakloster Gut Aich. At Steindl-Rast’s request, the prize money should go to a doctors’ organization that organizes eye operations for blind children in Africa.
Open spirituality from Christian roots
P. Pausch, the up-and-coming theologian Sarah Pieslinger and the Salzburg religious scholar Prof. Martin Rötting paid tribute to Steindl-Rast’s work in a laudatory speech in the form of a dialogue and moderated by Hochschulwochen chairman Martin Dürnberger. This is characterized by the special gift of the Benedictine monk, to draw from their own Christian tradition and at the same time to translate this tradition into a language that says something even to religiously unmusical people, the laudators agreed.
Pausch emphasized, visibly moved, that he “only learned to believe through Brother David”. The theologian Pieslinger, who is writing her dissertation on Br. David Steindl-Rast, classified the honoree in a series of international “spiritual influencers”. Steindl-Rast distinguishes himself by the fact that he knows how to “teach people a spirituality of life” that draws on Christianity, but also shows a great deal of openness to other religious traditions. Rötting showed that Steindl-Rast’s ability to connect spiritually was not based on “everyday spirituality” but was “deeply Benedictine”. He always integrated the “clarity and simplicity” with which Steindl-Rast “brings deep religious insights into a language that everyone understands”.
Steindl-Rast: “All of life is theology”
The honored thanked for the honor in the form of a pre-recorded video, in which he simultaneously discussed the basics of his own theology with Fr. Pausch. “The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes to me that all of life should ultimately be theology,” Steindl-Rast continued – in the sense that life represents a “great mystery” that believers and non-believers alike believers could approach. This commonality should be cultivated in theology, in pastoral work and in interreligious dialogue and rediscovered again and again.
Biographical Notes
Br. David Steindl-Rast was born on July 12, 1926 in Vienna. He is at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the University of Vienna. After completing his doctorate in psychology and anthropology, he moved to the USA, where he has been a member of the Benedictine monastery of Mount Savior in New York State since 1953. He was a co-founder of the “Center for Spiritual Studies” and has been involved in interreligious dialogue since 1966. People all over the world have his network www.thankbar-leben.org connected. He is still a much sought-after speaker, speaker and author. He lives in the USA and in the European monastery Gut Aich near Salzburg. Most recently, David Steindl-Rast published the book “Finding Orientation. Key Words for a Fulfilled Life” in 2021.
After two years in which the “Salzburg University Weeks” were held exclusively digitally, the renowned Salzburg Summer University will again take place “analogue” and live on site this year: Until August 7th, renowned scientists will be discussing under the title “What’s next ?On the future of the knowledge society”. (Information:
www.salzburger-hochschulwochen.at)
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