Georg Hermes (22 April 1775, Dreierwalde – 26 May 1831, Bonn) was a German Roman Catholic theologian who advocated a rational approach to theology.
During his lifetime, his theology was greatly in vogue in Germany, but declined after the posthumous papal condemnation of "Hermesianism" by Pope Gregory XVI.
Hermes was highly esteemed by his students and had a devoted group of adherents, of whom the most notable was Peter Josef Elvenich (1796–1886), who became professor at Breslau in 1829.
Hermes himself was very largely influenced by the Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte,[3] and although in the philosophical portion of his Einleitung he strongly criticizes both these thinkers, rejecting their doctrine of the moral law as the sole guarantee for the existence of God, and condemning their restricted view of the possibility and nature of revelation, enough remained of purely speculative material to render his system controversial.
In 1845, a systematic attempt was made anonymously by FX Werner to examine and refute the Hermesian doctrines, as contrasted with the orthodox Catholic faith (Der Hermesianismus, 1845).