HEILER, FRIEDRICH (1892–1967), German theologian and historian of religions. Born into a pious Roman Catholic family in Munich, Heiler studied theology, philosophy, Asian languages, and psychology at the University of Munich and received his doctorate in 1917 with a study of prayer that is still a classic, Das Gebet. One year later he published Die buddhistische Versenkung (Munich, 1918), a study of Buddhist contemplation. His work attracted the interest of the Swedish archbishop Nathan Söderblom, who invited him to Sweden. There he became active in the Lutheran church. In 1920 he accepted a professorship in comparative religion at the University of Marburg, where he remained until his retirement. During the Nazi era he was transferred from the Faculty of Theology into the Faculty of Arts and became its first dean after 1945.

Heiler's book on prayer shows his talent for explaining a central religious phenomenon in a purely inductive way...