KLUPFEL, ENGELBERT

Theologian; b. Wipfeld near Würzburg, Jan. 18, 1733; d. Freiburg im Breisgau, July 8, 1811. He was baptized Andrew, but took the name Engelbert when he entered the Augustinian Order in 1751. After philosophical studies (1751–58) at Fribourg (Switzerland), Erfurt, Freiburg, and Constance, he taught philosophy and theology (1763–67) in the order's houses at Oberndorf (Neckar), Mainz, and Constance. In 1767 he was named professor of theology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and remained there until 1805. In his De statu naturae purae (Freiburg 1768) and De eximiis dotibus humanae naturae ante peccatum (Freiburg 1769), he embraced the teaching on grace of the young Augustinian school begun by H. noris. Despite his being influenced by the spirit of his times in the denial of papal infallibility, his two-volume work Institutiones theologiae dogmaticae (Vienna 1789) is free of rationalistic errors; it was prescribed as the official theological manual for Austria. His purely positive theological method, in reaction to scholasticism, developed valuable insights for the history of dogma. Also noteworthy are his Christus Dominus sacerdos (Freiburg 1772) and Nova bibliotheca ecclesiastica Friburgensis (7v. Freiburg 1775–90); in the latter he attacks the rationalism of J. S. Semler.

Bibliography: w. rauch, Engelbert Klüpfel, ein führender Theologe der Aufklärungszeit (Freiburg 1922). h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. in 6 (3d ed. Innsbruck 1903–1913); v.1 (4th ed. 1926) 5.1:651–654. f. lang, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 6:355.

[a. zumkeller]