R.I.P. Walter Senner O.P.

On July 3, 2020 Father Walter Senner passed away in Mainz (Germany) after a long illness. Born on July 30, 1948 in Auggen-Breisgau (Germany), he entered the Order of Preachers in 1969 and received priestly ordination in 1974. In 1989 he received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) with a dissertation on and edition of John of Sterngassen’s commentary on the Sentences. From 1998 to 2005 he was a member of the Leonine Commission and from 2006 to 2018 he taught at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2013 he was conferred the degree of Master of Sacred Theology. He gave his farewell lecture on October 27, 2018. The lecture, entitled “Saint Thomas Aquinas: A Peaceful Life of Controversies”, can be viewed here.

The funeral will be held on July 13 at the St. Boniface church in Mainz and the burial in the Waldfriedhof Mombach (Mainz).

Father Senner specialized in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus and Meister Eckhart but also published widely on medieval Dominican spirituality and education. (For a list of his publications see here).

Ever since he accepted to direct my dissertation, I had the honor to come to know him as a meticulous scholar of the sources, a deeply religious friar and a humble and generous person.

Requiescat in pace!