Josef Bohatec (1876–1954) born in Kochov in Moravia, now the Czech Republic. He was a prominent Protestant theologian and professor of Reformed dogmatics, canon law, and the philosophy of religion. He studied in Prague, Vienna, Halle, Berlin, and Erlangen, earning multiple doctorates and becoming a professor in Bonn and later at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Vienna, where he served as dean three times.
Renowned as a leading Calvin scholar and also recognized for his work on Immanuel Kant, Bohatec dedicated much of his academic life to exploring the theological and legal dimensions of Calvinism. He also played a role in church life as a presbyter in the Reformed Parish of Vienna-Innere Stadt. He was a contributing editor to Philosophia Reformata.
He received honorary doctorates from the universities of Bonn, Amsterdam, and Vienna; and honorary professorships from Pápa and Debrecen (both in Hungary). In 1982, decades after his death, he became the first Protestant theologian honored on the Catholic Theological Faculty’s honor roll at the University of Vienna, reflecting his lasting academic and ecumenical impact.
A Chronology of events
1876: Born on January 26 in Kochov, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), as the son of a farmer from minor nobility.
Early 1890s–1900s: Attended gymnasium in Brünn (Brno). Studied theology, philosophy, classical philology, Germanic philology, Romance philology, and law at universities in Vienna, Prague, Halle-Wittenberg, Berlin, and Erlangen.
1903: Earned a DPhil in Prague with a dissertation titled “Schleiermacher’s Concept of Religion.”
1905: Earned licentiate in theology in Vienna with an analysis of John Calvin’s doctrine of providence (published in 1909).
1906–1907: Worked as a religion teacher in Vienna-Leopoldstadt.
1908–1913: Served as inspector of the Reformed preachers’ seminary in Elberfeld (Wuppertal). Met and later married Martha Melmer, daughter of a wealthy industrialist from the Siegerland region.
1909: Published his first major Calvin study on providence in a commemorative volume for Calvin’s 400th birthday, edited by Bohatec for the Wuppertal-Elberfeld congregation.
1912: Completed habilitation at the University of Bonn in church history and systematic theology with the study “Cartesian Scholasticism in the Philosophy and Reformed Dogmatics of the 17th Century.”
1913: Appointed associate professor (Extraordinarius) of Reformed Theology at the University of Vienna.
1916: Promoted to full professor (Ordinarius) at the University of Vienna.
1919: Teaching obligations expanded to include church law, philosophy, and education; also lectured in practical theology, church history, and biblical studies.
Post-1919: Declined a call to the newly founded Hus Faculty in Prague after World War I, remaining loyal to the Vienna Faculty despite the loss of the Eastern European dimension of the Austrian Protestant Church.
1926: published a series of important articles on the organic in Calvin: “De Organische Idee in de Gedachtenwereld van Calvijn,” in Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde
1934: Published Calvin und das Recht (Calvin and the Law) in Feudingen, Westphalia. Also published an article in the Swiss journal Zwingliana titled “Die Entbundenheit des Herrschers vom Gesetz in der Staatslehre Calvins” (The Ruler’s Release from the Law in Calvin’s Doctrine of the State).
1935: Published essay “The Sovereignty of God and the State according to Calvin’s Conception” in the Dutch journal Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde.
1937: Published Calvins Lehre von Staat und Kirche mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Organismusgedankens (Calvin’s Doctrine of State and Church with Special Consideration of the Organism Idea) in Breslau.
1938–1945: Lived and worked under National Socialist rule in Austria (after the Anschluss); continued Calvin studies in seclusion, focusing on political ethics as a form of resistance.
1946/47: Taught at the University of Vienna until the end of the academic year, then granted emeritus status.
1947–1951: Served as honorary professor at the University of Vienna until his 75th birthday.
1950: Published Budé und Calvin
1952: Wife Martha died in December.
1954: Moved to the Siegerland region shortly before death. Died on June 6 in Siegen-Weidenau; buried there next to his wife.
Select bibliography
Bohatec, Josef “De Organische Idee in de Gedachtenwereld van Calvijn,” Antirevolutionaire Staatkunde: Orgaan van de Dr. Abraham Kuyperstichting terbevordering van de studie der Antirevolutionaire Beginselen 2e Jaargang (Kampen: Kok, 1926), 32–45, 153–64, 362–77.
Provisional English translation: “The organic idea in Calvin’s thought”:
On Bohatec
Herman Dooyeweerd “Herinneringen Aan Mijn Vriend Josef Bohatec† (1876-1954)” Philosophia Reformata 19 (1954): 49–57. Provisional translation
John Witte Jr. & Thomas J. Farmer, Josef Bohatec: The First Historian of the Calvinist Reformation of Rights, 39 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 1113 (2025).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol39/iss3/10
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