Carl Hilty

Carl Hilty ( born February 28, 1833 Are mountain town, community Grabs in the canton of St. Gallen, † October 12, 1909 in Clarens ) was a Swiss constitutional lawyer and a lay theologian.

Life

Hilty was born the son of a doctor and attended elementary school in Canton and Chur. He studied at the University of Göttingen and received his doctorate in 1854 at the University of Heidelberg for Doctor iuris utriusque. After a short time as a lawyer in Chur in 1856 he went on the Swiss military. From 1874 he taught at the University of Berne first Swiss constitutional law, and later additionally general constitutional and international law and Swiss history. As a Swiss delegate, he went to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Only teachers of constitutional law, Hilty was the National Council for the Democrats and head of the military justice system before he was appointed to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He is best known from the late 19th century primarily by his philosophical and theological writings. His statements on the question " What is education? " grounded in the realization that true education and happiness can be reached only through the overcoming of human discord. With its three volumes "happiness" - published in 1890, 1895 and 1899 - Hilty also had great success in publishing.

The lucky volumes reached extremely high requirements, even went during his lifetime in the tens of thousands. There were translations and editions in Russian, Scandinavian and even in America a collection of essays. These books also belonged to the reading of Konrad Adenauer, which they have given, especially in the dark Nazi era spiritual orientation.

His work reflects his talents in politics, law, life coaching ( psychology / medicine) and religion ( he was not academically trained theologian, is this not recognized until today ) resist and formed the basis for his journalistic work (primarily his, still isolated traditional quotes! ), which is reflected in the happiness research of modernity. Hilty defined as elements of happiness that " closeness to God " and "work", by which he had understood the active, political Contribute to the kingdom of God.

Theologically, he distances himself after initial approval of David Friedrich Strauss. Rothe and August Tholuck tell him more, even Adolf von Harnack. Up close he is to Blumhardt. He had subscribed to the leaves from Bad Boll. In the Institutio Christianae Religionis of John Calvin, he sees the best Protestant doctrine, even if he rejects his doctrine of predestination. In literature, he recommends, inter alia, the pilgrimage to the blessed eternity of John Bunyan, then Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling, Gerhard Tersteegen and the songs of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, but also the Old Testament sermons of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Hilty sees the Christozentrität his faith the highest acquisition of his life.

In addition to lectures on federal history, especially its self- published Political yearbooks of the Swiss Confederation (1886-1909) constitute a "work by a great extent and depth of unutilized " (F. sea bass ). Hilty was with Johanna gardener, the daughter of a German -down as a political refugee in Switzerland, professor, married. He died in a hotel in Clarens on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he had written his last text " Pax Perpetua " for political peace between States finished. On his grave stone in Bern ( Bremgarten cemetery, family grave ), the words " Amor vincit omnia " are ( "Love conquers all ").

An interesting effect history has experienced in the last hundred years in Japan, triggered by the Russian- German philosopher and musician Raphael of Koeber Carl Hilty. His main writings on ethics / religion and politics have been reissued in two volumes in 2010.

His model represents an up to now unique, authentic link between Christian faith and liberal thinking

Quotes

"Education comes not from reading but from thinking about what they read. "

" Find resistant to live in great thoughts and to despise the petty; that leads, generally speaking, the easiest of the many complaints and worries of life away. The largest and at the same time generally intelligible idea is the belief in God, as Christ has taught him. When your happiness is at your heart, so go get that Christianity by no theology or ecclesial explain but seek it for yourself at the source, in the Gospels, and even in these, preferably in your own words of Christ that is unmatched in any other wisdom have. "

" All true Christians have a certain childishness; where it is completely absent, especially in the clergy, since I do not trust you. "

Works

• For sleepless nights. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1901.
• Blocks. Aphorisms and quotations from ancient and modern times. Edward Erwin Meyer, Leipzig / Aarau / Vienna 1910.
• The Gospel of Christ with some explanatory notes. Huber, Leipzig / Frauenfeld 1910.

• Blocks to happiness. / Epictetus's Little Handbook of morality. Edited by Raphael Baer. Bear, Niederuzwil 2010, ISBN 978-3-9523212-4-9.
• Responsibility: Political Yearbook of the Swiss Confederation, 1886-1910. Edited by Raphael Baer. Bear, Niederuzwil 2010, ISBN 978-3-9523212-5-6.
• From the sanctity of marriage / My principles in family education / The lack of contribution of the state-run schools for self-education and life. In: Raphael Baer ( ed.): marriage, family, society. Red Jerzy Kułaczkowski. Bear, Niederuzwil 2011, ISBN 978-3-9523212-6-3, pp. 717-730, 731-740, 741-750.
• Modern Holiness / The New Reformation. In: Raphael Baer ( ed.): Sankt Gallus: History - Legend - interpretation. Bear, Niederuzwil 2011, ISBN 978-3-9523212-7-0, pp. 97-104, 136 f