Catholic Social Teaching and Pope Benedict XVI

Chapter 2: Methodological Considerations

14 CHAPTER 2 Methodological Considerations This volume develops in some depth the methodological approaches found in Caritas in veritate. This chapter focuses on three different methodological aspects—the theological, the ethical, and the ecclesial. Theological Methodology A primary issue in theological methodology concerns the audiences addressed and the sources used in the encyclical—the distinctive theological sources based on the Catholic faith tradition and the sources that Christians share with all human beings. The encyclicals, beginning with Rerum novarum in 1891 and continuing through Pacem in terris in 1963, based their teaching primarily and almost exclusively on natural law, which is common to all human beings. Since these encyclicals did not base their teaching on distinctively Christian sources, all human beings could understand the teachings. Pre–Vatican II Catholic theology clearly distinguished between the natural order and the supernatural order. The natural order referred to life in this world and was governed by the natural law. Thus, for example, Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in terris begins by insisting that the laws governing how states relate to one another are to be found where the Creator and father of all things wrote them, that is, in human nature.1 The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World recognizes that the split between faith and daily life is one of the more serious errors of our age (no. 43, O–S, 202).2 In light of the general developments of Vatican II, this document explicitly calls for faith, grace, Jesus Christ, and scripture as distinctively theological aspects of the Christian life to affect the daily life of Christian people. Methodological Considerations 15 However, another aspect influenced the future development of papal social teaching. John XXIII had explicitly addressed Pacem in terris not only to the Church but also to all people of good will (O–S, 137). This encyclical was well received and discussed in the broader human and secular society.3 Subsequent popes continued this approach of addressing both the Church and all people of good will in their social encyclicals, thereby using some human sources of moral wisdom and knowledge that are shared by all humankind. However, there exists a definite tension in trying to address these two audiences—the Church and the broader human community. As a result of trying to address all people of good will, the papal encyclicals even after Vatican II did not employ a coherent, consistent, and integrated theological approach or method. For example, Pope John Paul II’s 1987 encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis devotes only one of its seven sections to a theological reading of modern problems (nos. 35–40, O–S, 449–55). This document thus makes no attempt to develop a coherent, consistent teaching on social issues based on an integrated theological approach. A document written primarily for a Church audience and based on a fully integrated theological approach would obviously not be that appealing to all those who do not share such an approach. Likewise, in the public sphere, especially in the Western world, political and social leaders usually rely primarily on arguments proposed on the basis of human reason, which all humankind shares. In fact, according to one report, an early draft of Sollicitudo rei socialis included a chapter on Jesus Christ, but the final version omitted this chapter for fear of its potential impact on non-Christians and secular society.4 Caritas in veritate breaks new ground by proposing a coherent and integrated theological approach to the discussion of social and economic issues in the tradition of Catholic social teaching. The very first sentence of the encyclical insists that the social question is addressed from a distinctively theological methodology. “Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the development of every person and all humanity” (no. 1, O–S, 526). The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment our humanity brings to it. “Caritas in veritate is the principle around which the Church’s social doctrine turns” (no. 6, O–S, 528). The theological corollary to this is that the human alone cannot bring about true integral human development in this world. “Development requires a transcendent vision of the person, it 16 CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND POPE BENEDICT XVI needs God: without him, development is either...