The Writer Antonio Fogazzaro (1842–1911) and Bishop Geremia Bonomelli (1831–1914) – Pioneers of the Catholic Reception of the Evolutionary Origin of Man

In this paper, the author discusses Darwinism and evolutionism in an Italian context. It also presents two personages of Catholic thinking in Italy in the 1890s who were open to the idea of the evolutionary origin of man. Antonio Fogazzaro (1842–1911), a Catholic writer, anticipated in his vision what can later be found in the work of P. Teilhard de Chardin. Bishop Geremia Bonomelli (1831–1914) accepted the thesis of the American pioneer of the Catholic concept of the evolutionary origin of man, John Augustine Zahm. It is of interest that none of the above mentioned authors mentions Raffaello Caverni, who spoke in the same spirit as early as 1877. G. Mivart, an English pioneer in the Catholic reception of the evolutionary origin of man, is also not recalled. Fogazzaro does point out, however, the heritage of Antonio Rosmini, who anticipated in some way the possibility of the evolutionary origin of man in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although Fogazzaro and Bonomelli did not have any influence on the Czech theological scene at the turn of the twentieth century, the literary works of Fogazzaro were widely translated into Czech.

Keywords: Evolution; Origin of Man; Darwinism; Theology of Creation; History of Theology; Exegesis; the Old Testament