Albin van Hoonacker

Albin-Augustin van Hoonacker (19 November 1857 in Bruges - 1 November 1933 in Bruges) was a theologian, professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, a member of The Royal Academy of Belgium and Knight of the Order of Leopold.

Life

Albin van Hoonacker came from a respectable middle-class background. The family were religious Catholics; his two sisters became nuns and two of his brothers, like him, priests. After leaving school, he first studied at the seminary in Roulers, where he mastered Greek and Latin, then at the seminary in Bruges. After his ordination in1880 the Bishop of Bruges, Mgr Faict, sent him to the University of Louvain, to continue his theological studies. In 1886 he was awarded his doctorate in theology there for a dissertation on the subject of the Creation.

After a short period in Kortrijk he returned to Louvain, working for the diocese. At the same time, he was deepening his knowledge and expanding his horizons by attending training courses in Semitic languages (Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic).

In 1889 he engaged in a polemical discussion in a Brussels newspaper with the legal scholar, journalist and socialist senator Edmond Picard on the historical value of the Bible, which brought him great respect in Belgian Catholic circles.

In the same year the Rector of the University, Mgr. Abbeloos, proposed to the Belgian bishops that he should be appointed to the newly created chair of "Histoire critique de l'Ancien Testament". At a time when the historical-critical exploration of the Bible among Catholics was still highly controversial, van Hoonacker thus became the first professor to teach the Critical History of the Old Testament. He remained in that post until 1927. Up to that time there had only been a single lecture-course at the university on biblical exegesis, that given by Thomas Lamy.

From 1888 onwards he published many papers on the critical investigation of the Pentateuch and of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. In his teaching and research he made use of the results and methods developed by other European scholars including those inclined to "modernism" such as Alfred Loisy and Marie-Joseph Lagrange.

In 1899 he published his study "Le sacerdoce lévitique dans la loi et dans l'histoire des Hébreux",(French): "The Levitical priesthood in the law and in the history of the Hebrews"] which was critical of the positions of Graf and Wellhausen on the origin of the Hexateuch. He also crossed swords with Abraham Kuenen by putting forward a new hypothesis about the chronology of Nehemiah and Ezra.

When at the initiative of Pope Leo XIII the Pontifical Biblical Commission was set up to counter the new difficulties in biblical exegesis, van Hoonacker was one of the first seven members appointed (September 18, 1901). Although somewhat sceptical about this appointment, he drafted proposals for documents to be prepared by the Commission, especially concerning Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch and the origin of Acts.

After the condemnation of modernism by Pope Pius X. in his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis of 1907 and the excommunication of Alfred Loisy a year later, van Hoonacker also came under suspicion in Rome. He witnessed the criticism by the ecclesiastical authorities of the work of his pupil Henri Poels as well as the adverse reaction to the appointment of his colleague Paulin Ladeuze, as rector of the university in Louvain. These events led to his decision in 1909 to suppress the publication of his critical remarks on the book by Franz Egger the Bishop of Brixen, "Absolute oder relative Wahrheit der heiligen Schrift? Dogmatisch-christliche Untersuchung einer neuen Theorie". [(German): "Absolute or relative truth of the Holy Scriptures? Dogmatic-Christian investigation of a new theory."] His criticism was eventually published posthumously. Then in 1913 he was informed by Lagrange that his 1908 book "Les douze petits prophètes traduits et commentés"(French): "The twelve minor prophets translated and annotated] was to be placed on the Index. This did not take place, however, thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Mercier.

On the outbreak of war in 1914 and the German occupation of Belgium, van Hoonacker fled to England and settled in Cambridge. There he established friendly relations with Baron von Hügel. While in England he was invited to give the 1914 Schweich Lectures, on the subject of the Elephantine colony. After the war he returned to Louvain, and carried on his work until retirement in 1927.

In 1920 he joined the Royal Flemish Academy, and increasingly showed his support for the Flemish movement. In 1922 he became one of the first professors in Belgium to offer a lecture course delivered in the Dutch language. It was also at this time that he wrote his pamphlet "Over de vernederlandsing in het onderwijs". [(Dutch): "Bringing the use of Dutch into education"] In 1927 he was given the Freedom of the City of Bruges. He continued publishing until his death in 1933.

Works

*De rerum creatione ex nihilo [(Latin): "Concerning the creation of things from nothing] (Diss. Fac. Theol., Tl. 38), Louvain, van Linthout, 1886, 315 pages
*L'origine des quatre premiers chapitres du Deutéronome, [(French): "The origin of the first four chapters of Deuteronomy"] Louvain, Lefever, 1887, 47 pages
*Observations critiques sur les récits concernant Bileam, [(French): "Critical observations on the Balaam stories"] Louvain, Leféver, 1888, 16 pages
*La critique biblique et l'apologétique, [(French): "Biblical criticism and apologetics"] Louvain, Lefever, 1889, 26 pages
*Néhémie et Esdras. Nouvelle hypothèse sur la chronologie de l'époque de la Restauration juive, [(French): "Nehemiah and Ezra. New hypothesis about the chronology of the Jewish Restoration"] Louvain, Istas, 1890, 85 pages
*Zorobabel et le second temple. Étude sur la chronologie des six premiers chapitres du livre d'Esdras. [(French): "Zerubbabel and the second Temple. Study of the chronology of the first six chapters of the book of Ezra"] Ghent & Leipzig, Engelcke, 1892, 91 pages
*Néhémie en l'an 20 d'Artaxerxès I. Esdras en l'an 7 d'Artaxerxès II. Réponse à un mémoire d'A. Kuenen, [(French): "Nehemiah in year 20 of Artaxerxes I. Ezra in year 7 of Artaxerxes II. Reply to a thesis by A. Kuenen" (In fact, Kuenen died just as van Hoonacker was preparing this book for publication.)] Ghent & Leipzig, Engelcke, 1892, 91 pages
*Le lieu du culte dans la législation rituelle des Hébreux, [(French): "The place of the cult in the ritual legislation of the Hebrews"] Ghent & Leipzig, Engelcke, 1894, 92 pages
*Nouvelles études sur la restauration juive après l'exil de Babylone, [(French): "New studies on the Jewish restoration after the exile from Babylon"] Paris, Leroux, 1896, 313 pages
*Le sacerdoce lévitique dans la loi et dans l'histoire des Hébreux, London, Williams & Norgate, 1899, 465 pages
*Les douze petits prophètes traduits et commentés. Paris, Gabalda, 1908, 759 pages
*Une communauté Judéo-Araméenne à Éléphantine, en Égypte, aux VIe et Ve siècles avant J.-C. [(French): "A Judeo-Aramaean community at Elephantine, in Egypt, in the 6th and 5th centuries BC"] (The Schweich lectures, 1914), London, 1915, 91 pages
*De jongste waarnemingen op het gebied der geschiedenis van het semietische alfabet, [(Dutch): "Latest ideas about the history of the semitic alphabet"] Ghent, Erasmus, 1921, 112 pages (in de series "Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie")
*Grondbeginselen der moraalfilosofie, [(Dutch): "Foundations of moral philosphy"] Leuven, 1922, 192 pages
*Een Israëltisch volksman uit de achtste eeuw vóór C. [(Dutch): "An Israelite demagogue from the eighth century BC"] Ghent, 1931, 170 pages, (in the series "Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie")
*Het boek Isias vertaald uit het hebreeuwsch en in doorlopende aanteekeningen verklaard. [(Dutch): "The book of Isaiah translated from the Hebrew and explained with running notes"] Brugge 1932, 311 pages

Posthumous publications

*Quelques notes sur "Absolute und relative Wahrheit in der heiligen Schrift". Une contribution inédite du chanoine Albin van Hoonacker à la Question Biblique [(French): "Some notes on "Absolute and relative truth in Holy Scripture". An unedited contribution from Canon van Hoonacker on the Biblical question"] (1909), submitted by J. Coppens in EthLov. 18, 1941, 201-336;
*De compositione litteraria et de origine Mosaica hexateuchi disquisitio historico-critica. Een historisch-kritisch onderzoek van professor van Hoonacker naar het ontstaan van de Hexateuch op grond van verspreide nagelaten aantekeningen. [(Latin, with Dutch summary): "A historical-critical investigation into the literary composition and Mosaic origin of the Hexateuch'] edited with an introduction by J. Coppens, Acad. Royale de Belgique, Verhandelingen, Bd. XI, Brüssel, 1949;
*Le rapprochement entre le Deutéronome et Malachie, [(French): "Reconciliation of Deuteronomy with Malachi"] (1908), submitted by F. Neirynck, in EthLov. 59, 1983, 86-90.

Biography

*J. Coppens, "Le chanoine Albin van Hoonacker. Son enseignement, son oeuvre et sa méthode exégétiques", [(French): "Canon Albin van Hoonacker. His teaching, his work and his exegetic method"] Paris, Gembloux, 1935

Notes and Translations

External links

[http://www.bbkl.de/v/van_hoonacker_a_a.shtml VAN HOONACKER, Albin-Augustin ] at www.bbkl.de Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon.