Berg, Franz

Berg, Franz a German canon and professor of theology, was born in 1753 at Frickenhausen-on-the-Main. He received holy orders in 1777, and acted for some time as priest. In 1785 he was made professor extraordinarius and in 1790 ordinarius of theology at the Wiirzburg University. About that time he published his De Clemente A'lexandrino ejusque Morali Doctrina (Wurzburg, 1779), and his Oratio Aditialis de Origine Rituum Ecclesiasticorum, qui circa Aquam Versantur (1786). In his lectures he maintained that "Christianity was but a mere human work, the teaching of Jesus that of a wise man." His ambition led him to write against Schelling and Kant. His own philosophical system he laid down in his Epikritik der Philosophie (1805), in which he criticises the philosophical process and the science of knowledge. He died in 1821 at Wurzburg. See Schwab, Franz Berg, geistlicher Ruth und Professor der Kiorchengeschichte. zu Wilrzburg (1869); Krug, Encyklop.-philosoph. Lexikon, 1827, vol. i; Stein, in Wetzer u. Welte's Kirchenlexikon, s.v. (B. P.)