Pope Benedict has issued a new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Follow the link to read the full text. There has been some press comment by Christopher Howse in the Telegraph and Christopher Caldwell in the FT, but it’s always good to look at the actual document!
What’s it all about?
As I read it the basic assertion that begins the encyclical and gives it its name is that charity is a universal value, but becomes emptied of significance if our understanding and living out of it is not founded on truth, meaning the truth revealed in Christ. If our understanding of truth is relative, our morality will also lose its certainty and love may come to mean whatever we want it to mean.
The encyclical goes on to wrestle at length with what the ‘development of the peoples’ of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio looks like in today’s different climate (giving extensive space not only to the articulation of Benedict’s own position but to how that coheres with previous papal pronouncements). The underlying belief that humankind has an inbuilt development is retained (more could be made of this in relationship to the theology of evolution). The need for such developments to be rooted in the recognition of our spiritual nature and its imperatives is re-asserted. Every human life is valuable and that value derives from being made in God’s image revealed in Christ – so this is a Christian humanism. (There is again more that could be said here on the theology of nature: the encyclical casts this is in terms of our Christian responsibility or vocation of care to the environment and would resist I think the tendency to see all species and even inanimate creation as of equal value to the human.)
This is not a political manifesto. The present developments in economics and politics are noticed and critiqued, but the fundamental challenge they are exposed to is not that of an alternative programme: but to accept that like any other process of human development they will gain their meaning and achieve their good ends only insofar as they regain their rootedness in Christ. In that sense, Benedict’s encyclical is thoroughly Christian document, and one that deserves our attention, even if for a non-Vaticanspeak-speaker it is hard to get to grips with.
Here is it’s conclusion
Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) and then encourages us: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). As we contemplate the vast amount of work to be done, we are sustained by our faith that God is present alongside those who come together in his name to work for justice. Paul VI recalled in Populorum Progressio that man cannot bring about his own progress unaided, because by himself he cannot establish an authentic humanism. Only if we are aware of our calling, as individuals and as a community, to be part of God’s family as his sons and daughters, will we be able to generate a new vision and muster new energy in the service of a truly integral humanism. The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity.
Filed under: Christianity, Resources, Teaching, Anglican, caritas in veritate, comment, encyclical, papal, Pope
July 11, 2009 • 10:50 am Comments Off
Caritas in Veritate
What’s it all about?
As I read it the basic assertion that begins the encyclical and gives it its name is that charity is a universal value, but becomes emptied of significance if our understanding and living out of it is not founded on truth, meaning the truth revealed in Christ. If our understanding of truth is relative, our morality will also lose its certainty and love may come to mean whatever we want it to mean.
The encyclical goes on to wrestle at length with what the ‘development of the peoples’ of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio looks like in today’s different climate (giving extensive space not only to the articulation of Benedict’s own position but to how that coheres with previous papal pronouncements). The underlying belief that humankind has an inbuilt development is retained (more could be made of this in relationship to the theology of evolution). The need for such developments to be rooted in the recognition of our spiritual nature and its imperatives is re-asserted. Every human life is valuable and that value derives from being made in God’s image revealed in Christ – so this is a Christian humanism. (There is again more that could be said here on the theology of nature: the encyclical casts this is in terms of our Christian responsibility or vocation of care to the environment and would resist I think the tendency to see all species and even inanimate creation as of equal value to the human.)
This is not a political manifesto. The present developments in economics and politics are noticed and critiqued, but the fundamental challenge they are exposed to is not that of an alternative programme: but to accept that like any other process of human development they will gain their meaning and achieve their good ends only insofar as they regain their rootedness in Christ. In that sense, Benedict’s encyclical is thoroughly Christian document, and one that deserves our attention, even if for a non-Vaticanspeak-speaker it is hard to get to grips with.
Here is it’s conclusion
Filed under: Christianity, Resources, Teaching, Anglican, caritas in veritate, comment, encyclical, papal, Pope