SVD Founding Generation, Anthropos Tradition, and Interculturality

SVD Founding Generation, Anthropos Tradition, and Interculturality
SVD Mission in Contexts: Creative Responses in a Wounded World
Roger Schroeder, SVD

The 2008 SSpS and 2012 SVD General Chapters focused on the theme of interculturality for the Arnoldus Family,[2] but this vision and goal is not new for those congregations. This article will trace this history and development for the SVD only, on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the SVD. After providing an initial definition of interculturality, we will begin with an exploration of the roles of three key persons of the SVD Founding Generation in the development of what we today refer to as the “Anthropos Tradition”, which will be explained later. It was articulated by Wilhelm Schmidt, supported by Arnold Janssen, and lived out by Josef Freinademetz. Much of this material is drawn from the work of SVD archivist Jürgen Ommerborn. Secondly, we will trace the reorganization of Anthropos Institute into Anthropos Institute International and the development of the vision of the Anthropos Tradition. The third section will examine the link between the Anthropos Tradition and interculturality up to the present day.[3]

[1] This chapter was published in Verbum SVD 64, no. 3-4 (2023), 298-317. It was drawn from a PowerPoint lecture by Roger Schroeder, presented originally for 1) an SSpS-SVD Interculturality two-week program held at the Arnold Janssen Spirituality Center, Quezon City, the Philippines, on June 19, 2023; and 2) the SVD community of Marsfield, Australia, June 28, 2023. For another treatment of this topic, see: “Anthropos Institute International and Interculturality,” in Giants’ Footprints: 90th Anniversary of Anthropos Institute (1931-2021), Collectanea Instituti Anthropos 53, Stanisław Grodź, S.M. Michael, and Roger Schroeder, eds. (Baden-Baden, Germany: Academia Verlag, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2021), 197-206.

[2] Arnold Janssen founded the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), and along with Mother Maria Helena Stollenwerk and Mother Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns, the Mission Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS) and the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration (SSpSAP), respectively.

[3] See S.M. Michael SVD, “Interculturality and the Anthropos Tradition,” Verbum SVD 54, no. 1 (2013), 60-74.