Peter Henrici, born the 31 March 1928, at Zurich (Switzerland), is a Swiss Jesuit priest, renowned Blondelian philosopher and professor (1960–1993) at the Gregorian University. He was Auxiliary Bishop of Chur from 1993 to 2007.
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Born in 31 March 1928 at Zurich, Henrici happens to be a cousin of the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.[1] Henrici joined the Society of Jesus and began to practice his profession in 1947. After studies in philology at the University of Zurich, he pursued further studies in philosophy and theology at different universities in Rome, Munich and Lyon. He was ordained as a priest in 1958, and in 1965 he made his final religious profession as a Jesuit.
From 1960 to 1993 Henrici taught History of Contemporary Western Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy up to his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Chur. He was one of the much sought after professors at the Gregorian. His occasional lecture courses were often given to classes that were packed to overflowing. In the 1990–91 'A Philosophical Discourse for Theology' in the Faculty of Theology, for example, he gave a thrilling overview of the contributions of philosophy to Christian theology beginning from the doctrine of analogy in Plato and coming down to Heidegger. Again, in the 1990 graduate seminar on 'Methods of Interpreting a Philosophical Text,' with a chapter from Blondel's L'Action (1893), he gave hands-on training in the methods of Internal and External Structure, Lexicology, Metaphorology, Internal and External Sources, Redaktionsgeschichte, Wirkungsgeschichte, and Deutungsgeschichte (self- and other-interpretation).
Since 1993, he served as Visiting Professor at the Theologischen Hochschule, Chur, and honorary professor at the University of Zurich. In 2008 he was named honorary professor of the Theologischen Hochschule, Chur.
In 1993, Henrici was named Auxiliary Bishop in Chur (Switzerland) and Titular Bishop of Absorus. Henrici was one of the two auxiliary bishops appointed to Chur in an attempt by the Holy See to defuse the crisis caused by the conservative policies of Bishop Wolfgang Haas.
His resignation as Auxiliary Bishop was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on 5 February 2007, on the ground of age.
Henrici has numerous publications to his credit, among which Hegel und Blondel (1958), a reworking of his doctoral thesis; Aufbrüche christlichen Denkens (1978), as also many translations, among others of the works of Jean Danielou, Maurice Blondel, and Pierre Favre.