Karl Schmitz-Moormann devoted himself to the most difficult
intellectual issues pertaining to Christian theology, philosophy, and the
natural and social sciences. A portion of this legacy is in print, and we
rejoice that one of his most important books will be published posthumously
next year, by Pilgrim Press.
In nearly every group in which he found himself, Karl was the most learned person. The range of knowledge that he worked with, historical and contemporary, is itself mind-boggling. I consider him to be without peer in interpreting Christian theology within the framework of evolultionary theory. He was perhaps the premier scholar of Teilhard de Chardin in the world, and he stands as the leading member of the Teilhardian school of thought in this generation. He was in the midst of a project at his death that would demonstrate that the theological interpretation of the natural sciences was one of the oldest and most impressive traditions of theology since the early centuries. He revealed to me that a patriarch of my own church, Philip Melanchthon, was a major figure in this tradition in the sixteenth century. And in addition to all this, he earned his bread and butter at the Hochschule for Social Work in Dortmund by becoming a learned expert in such fields as geriatrics and addictions. His heritage was rooted in a scientific family, and almost by osmosis --combined with hard work--he became a polymath in the natural and social sciences. He was so deeply rooted in his Christian theology and in the sciences that his effort to relate them was marked by an uncompromising insistence that the most rigorous assertions of theology deal in turn with the most challenging theories of science.
When we speak of Karl in a personal way, we must not overlook this intellectual vocation--he took it with utter seriousness, and he made it his personal contribution to the church and to the world of thought in general. It is a major dimension of who he was as a person.
Karl was a full-orbed human being, however; his intellectual efforts were incarnated in a deep Catholic faith and a strong spontaneous interest in people. He is one of the most loyal friends I have ever known. He was a winsome and joyous man.
Let me offer four vignettes that speak of these dimensions of faith, joy and the love of people.
Neva and I first met Karl and Nicole, so far as I remember, years ago at Star Island--in the early 80s, at the end of July that year. Toward the end of the week, Karl said he would like to come to Chicago later in August. I naturally believed that he and Nicole wanted to to do some sight-seeing, visit Chicago's museums, and the like. So, I made reservations for them at our seminary guest house and thought no more about it. When Karl and Nicole arrived, however, it was very clear that they had not only come to visit Chicago, but to visit Neva and me, to get better acquainted with us--to make new friends, to share basic human friendship. I realized immediately that Karl (and Nicole, of course) was offering himself as a friend, and in a short time he became an important person in my life.
Karl's joyfulness. Many of you know that Karl and Nicole would make regular trips to the wine country of France, with large plastic tanks in their car, which they would fill at their favorite vineyards and take back home. Karl had a marvelous wine-cellar built in to their contemporary townhouse in Bochum--underground off the first floor, very damp and cool, as it should be. He would empty the tanks of wine into bottles that were stored as proper wine should be stored. He and I were together one year at the conference center at Loccum, near Hannover. It was customary for the conferees--about 40 of us--to gather in a gracious lounge after the day's meetings, to drink wine and beer together, available at a little snack bar. This occasion was different. Karl announced that it was his birthday, and he would furnish the wine. He produced several cases of wine--from his excursion to the French vineyards--and he obviously took great joy in the fact that he could treat us all to fine wine in celebrating his birthday!
There was so much joy with Karl. Neva and I have a shelf that runs the length of our kitchen, lined with wine and whisky bottles that have special meaning for us. Four of those bottles carry the label, "Gutshofbrennerei Moormann--Feiner Kornbrand seit 1737"--a family distillery. On four occasions, when Karl and Nicole visited us, Karl handed me a bottle from this family distillery--the labels carry a crest and the contents: Wacholder, gin and the house specialty, black currant brandy, among them. Karl was a magnificent gift-giver!
When Karl suffered his first heart attack, it was in the midst of a soccer match. He literally took charge of his own trip to the hospital. I visited him in the hospital in Bochum a few days later--he and I had planned to travel together to a conference in Loccum. The Karl that I saw that evening, in his hospital bed, was a man full of peace. He spoke to me then in words that I shall never forget--and he repeated them to me several times afterwards. He said: "I had a close call, but I have also discovered that I can die, it is okay for me to die. I now know what really matters, and I am at peace with myself and with God." He was clearly in touch with the depth of God's love and a sense of what life and death could be in the hands of God. Karl understood what Saint Paul meant when he wrote, "whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."
Karl's death has affected me very deeply in the days since Wednesday morning when I first received the news from Wentzel van Huyssteen. It took a while for me to realize just why I have felt so lonely since that time. It is not so much that Karl has died, as it is that he is absent, absent now from my world, no longer the kind of personal presence that I have relied on so much. Our loss and loneliness will never fade away, but it will be overcome by our sense that Karl is still present, in a different way, but equally real. He is present in our memories, to be sure, and also in the gifts of love and inspiration that he bestowed upon us, as well as, in the writings he has left behind. But he is also present in the knowledge that we belong with him to the Lord, and that as we are companions in the Lord, we are never apart from Karl.