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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

CTC402: Vatican II in its Context Assessment Task 2: Coursework essay Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and the two documents, Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate. Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto. (Terence) πας ο ων εκ της αληθειας ακουει µου της φωνης (Jn 18:37) 1

By electing to make man and human reality their point of departure for engaging with questions about ultimate meaning and purpose, the Council Fathers of Vatican II signalled, through their near-unanimous endorsement of the Pastoral Constitution On the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), 2 their commitment to an approach that many within and outside the Church have found both inspiring and productive. This Constitution is based on an imaginative and creative synthesis of philosophical and theological ideas and insights. The general approach that this synthesis has made possible has enabled the Church to construct and promulgate a redefinition of religious freedom that complements and reinforces some of the best insights enshrined in landmark ‘secular’ statements such as the United Nations’ Universal declaration of Human Rights (1948). It also made possible a reevaluation of the Church’s position with regard to non-Christian world religions and provided a stimulus for honest dialogue that is currently bearing much fruit.

Modern translations (JB, GNB et al) translate ακουει as ‘listen’. Given the anthropology of Gaudium et Spes (see below) ‘hear’ would seem to be more appropriate. Whether they know it or not, people who hear truth hear the voice of Christ. 1

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Promulgated 7th December 1965. For Gaudium et Spes and the other Conciliar documents in this paper I will be using the translation in Austin Flannery OP (Ed.), Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, Costello 1975

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

Gaudium et Spes has been described as a ‘Christian doctrine of humanity or a Christian anthropology’3 and it is possible to discern the influence of three thinkers who contributed in decisive ways to the document’s gradual evolution: the German theologian, Karl Rahner SJ (1904-84), appointed as a peritus for Vatican II; the French Jesuit and historian Henri de Lubac (18961991); the present Pope, John Paul II, who as Karol Wojtyla attended the Council as archbishop of Kraków (from 1964). The main philosophical influences on Rahner were Kant (1724-1804), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and the Belgian Jesuit, Joseph Maréchal (18781944), founder of the school of Transcendental Thomism. Rahner’s anthropological position is that the whole person (intellect, will, spirit) is dynamically oriented towards God, this orientation determining what is meant by human essence or nature. Any thorough study of human nature necessarily involves the study of God. As Richard McBrien writes, “Whatever we might say about the ultimate meaning of human existence is something said at the same time about God, who is the author, sustainer, and destiny of human existence. And whatever we might say about God, therefore, is something said also about human existence.” 4 Given man’s orientation and nature, the question of human autonomy, for so long considered un-Christian in its emphasis on subjectivity and the limits of knowledge, acquires a new significance and resonance. The most authentic questions that man can raise, to do with freedom, truth, conscience, human purpose and destiny, – that give rise to the ‘joy and hope, the grief and anguish’ mentioned in the opening words of Gaudium et Spes (1) - are at the same time the most theological. McBrien goes so far as say that “we cannot accept teachings as ‘truths revealed from God’ if they have no apparent connection with our own understanding of ourselves, an understanding derived from our experience as human beings.” 5

3

See McDonagh Op cit. p 98

4

Richard P McBrien, Catholicism, Harper SanFrancisco 1994, p. 146.

5

Op cit, p 147

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

While the biblical teaching that man is made in the image of God could not be denied, its full theological significance, particularly with reference to man’s capacity to receive God’s self-communication, was a matter that caused serious rifts in the thinking of the Church before the Council. Henri de Lubac, in his books Catholicisme: les aspects sociaux du dogme (1938) and Surnaturel (1946) vigorously argued (contrary to certain theological manuals used to train the clergy) that the imago Dei was not some extraneous property added on to a ‘pure’ form of human nature.6 This extrinsicist view was, in fact, a gross distortion of a doctrine of Aquinas’ concerning man’s natural desire for a supernatural vision of God. As de Lubac writes in Catholicisme, “the vision of God is a free gift, and yet the desire for it is at the root of every soul.” (de Lubac 1988, 327). Ironically, it was the ‘extrinsicists’ who were proposing a nouvelle théologie. The finitum capax infiniti represents the tradition Catholic position on man’s inherent openness to the possibility of the Beatific Vision. Pope John Paul II has a long association with Gaudium et Spes. He worked on the drafting of ‘Schema 13’ (alongside de Lubac) it was he who proposed (as Archbishop Wojtyla) that the schema should be styled a ‘Pastoral Constitution’ rather than just a ‘Declaration’ or a ‘Letter’. He regarded, and continues to regard, the words of the document as constitutive of the Church’s most authentic teaching. Speaking in 2000 he said “these are words as dear to me as ever […] Here is found the true synthesis to which the Church must always look when in dialogue with the people of this or of any other age: she is aware of possessing a message which is the vital synthesis of the expectation of every human being …” 7 The basis of man’s inalienable dignity, according to John Paul, is the real possibility of communion with God that is written into the very pith of his nature. Because of this, all pastoral and spiritual authority “must be directed towards developing and making evident the dignity of man.” 8 6

Interestingly, Rahner goes so far as to say that human nature is a ‘remainder concept’ (Restbegriff) that can only be referred to once the intrinsic supernatural dimension of man has been abstracted. See Theological Investigations, vol 1, pp 300 – 02, 310-15, Darton Longman and Todd Ltd (1961). 7

L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 28-29 Feb. 2000, p. 1

8

Sign of Contradiction, p. 144

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

Having identified some of the key influences that shaped the Constitution, the next task is to highlight sections that have a direct bearing on the Conciliar documents Dignitatis Humanae 9 and Nostra Aetate 10. Gaudium et Spes, in 93 sections, consists of a Preface, signalling the basis and intent of the document (1-10) followed by Part 1 (11-45) ‘The Church and Man’s Calling’ and Part 2 (46-93) ‘Some Problems of Special Urgency’. It is in the introduction and the four chapters of Part 1 that we find a Christian anthropology for our times. Sections 16 and 17 focus on conscience and freedom. 16 begins with a statement (strongly redolent of Newman) about the sovereign authority of human conscience, a “law which [man] does not impose on himself, but which holds him to obedience.” Conscience is to be regarded as the final court of appeal and to obey it “is the very dignity of man”. 17 is concerned with the importance of (authentic) human freedom. Freedom is the necessary condition of man’s realising the core human dignity of his essential relatedness to God and his capacity for enjoying communion with God. ”Man’s dignity demands that he act according to […] a free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within.” According to Dignitatis Humanae, human dignity – that recurring leitmotif of Gaudium et Spes (cf 19, 26, 29, 40) – is expressed and realised primarily through responsible freedom and the exercise of conscience: “the right to religious freedom is based on the very dignity of the human person as known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.” (DH, 2; see also 1,3,9). Because man is “invited to converse with God” (GS, 19 – my emphasis), the possibility of dialogue requires that his participation should be fully authentic and free from any form of external pressure or constraint. Dignitatis Humanae states that “man’s response to God … must be free … every form of coercion by men should be excluded (10)… The human person is to be guided by his own judgement and to enjoy freedom.” (11) Man is “impelled by his nature” to seek truth (Rahnerian orientation to God combined with a ‘natural’ capacity for seeing 9

Declaration on Religious Liberty (DH), promulgated 7th December 1965

10

Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (NA), promulgated 28th October 1965

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

God). Once this truth becomes apparent he is bound to adhere to it and to live his whole life in accordance with its demands. “In all his activity a man is bound to follow his conscience in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life.” (DH, 3, emphasis added). According to Douglas Bushman11 Pope John Paul frequently refers to Gaudium et Spes 21 and 22 as statements that encapsulate the motif of his whole pontificate. The anthropology of Gaudium et Spes is ultimately christocentric and the passages following those referring to conscience and freedom confirm that, while man must be free to plumb his depths so that he can encounter the Divine reality at the core, that same reality is Christ-shaped since it is Christ who mediates to all men the final solution of the unsolved puzzle of his life (21). The following section on the Community of Mankind (23-32) presents human relatedness as part of God’s plan (24). 26 refers to human interdependence and 27 to the primacy of the human person. Within this context we read “respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and religious matters.” (28), such respect being the condition for different forms of dialogue. Against the backdrop of these passages and the general character of Gaudium et Spes as outlined, certain aspects of the relatively brief Nostra Aetate begin to reveal their importance. Nostra Aetate affirms that “all men form but one community … because all stem from one stock which God created to people the entire earth.” (1). The ‘puzzle of life’ to which “men look to their different religions for an answer” (1) is solved in Christ and furthermore “all this holds true not only for Christians but also for all men of good will in whose hearts grace is active invisibly. For since Christ died for all, and since men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” (GS, 22, emphasis added). Donald Nicholl remarks that Nostra Aetate was an early attempt by the Council to work out the implications of Gaudium et Spes, section 22. 12 11

See The Christ-centred Anthropology of Gaudium et Spes www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Dossier/2000-08/article2.html 12

Other Religions (Nostra Aetate) from A Hastings (ed.), Modern Catholicism (1991), p. 126

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

Some further points need to be made regarding the relationship between these documents. Beginning with Dignitatis Humanae, John Courtnay Murray called it “the most controversial document of the whole Council.” 13 The sticking-point for many who opposed the Declaration was the notion that the Church’s position had developed from one of condemning the proposition that “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion, guided by the light of reason, he shall believe true” 14 to the belief that man is bound to follow the light of his conscience especially in matters pertaining to the truth. The anthropology embraced by the Church in Gaudium et Spes, however, is fully consistent not only with the notion of doctrinal development within the Church but with the idea that the Church can learn from ‘secular’ insights into human rights, even if this required “a major act of humility”. 15 The ultimate source of truthful insights is God mediated through the human and divine natures of Christ. It is, indeed, the task of the Church to draw forth “new things” (DH, 1) from the sacred traditions and teaching of the Church that “are always in harmony with the old.” (1) Concerning Nostra Aetate, critics have suggested that the corollary of its acceptance that profound truth and holiness may be found outside of Catholicism in non-Christian religions is a religious pluralism that leads inescapably to indifferentism. However, one of the theological influences behind the ground-breaking section 22 of Gaudium et Spes, Karl Rahner, did not consider all religions to be equivalent. For him the question was whether other religions gave access to the same saving grace as Christianity. His approach allows him to show reserve about the claims of nonChristian religions while allowing that they may nevertheless mediate the grace of God by the lifestyles they evoke. Perhaps the last word should go to Donald Nicholl who urges caution on matters pertaining to inter-faith dialogue:

13

Edd Walter M Abbott, SJ and Joseph Gallagher, The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press, 1966), 673. Cf J C Murray SJ, We hold these truths: Catholic reflections on the American proposition (New York: Sheed and Ward 1960) 14

Raymond Corrigan SJ, The Churchand the Nineteenth Century (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company 1938). Appendix A, 290. 15

See John H Miller, Vatican II: An Interfaith Appraisal (1966), The Declaration on Human Freedom by Rev. John Courtney Murray SJ, p.566.

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246

”Any attempt at the moment to produce cut-and-dried formula regarding the uniqueness of Christ would … abort inter-faith experience and close off the widening horizons.” 16 The opening statements of Gaudium et Spes, affirming the Church’s links with mankind by the deepest of bonds, echoes the famous dictum of Terence that nothing human is alien to whatever is rooted in human being. These documents, by drawing out the fuller significance of this rootedness, point the way to a new, radical humanism that has the power to reconcile ‘all who are on the side of truth’. (2028 words) BIBLIOGRAPHY JA Komonchak, Mary Collins, Dermot Lane (Eds), The New Dictionary of Theology, Gill and Macmillan, 1990. David Ford, The Modern Theologians, Blackwell, 1997. Gerald A McCool, A Rahner Reader, DLT, 1975 Richard P McBrien, Catholicism, Harper SanFrancisco, 1994 Henri de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, Ignatius, 1988. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Cape, 1994.

16

Op cit. p 132.

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Vatican II in its Context: - Discuss the relationship between Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate Student Code: 030246