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Gaudium et Spes: The
Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
[Sections 1 - 24]
Preface
1. Nothing genuinely human fails
to raise an echo in their hearts (Why?
Salvation is for all mankind. In
Christ,
God became a human person, thus uniting himself to all mankind.)
2. The council focuses its
attention on the world of men (not merely heaven and angels and such).
- created and sustained by love
- fallen; in bondage to sin
- emancipated by Christ
crucified and risen, who breaks the stranglehold of the Evil One, in
order to
renew the world
3. Though mankind is stricken
with wonder at its own discoveries and its power, it often raises
anxious
questions about the current trend of the world, about the place and
role of man
in the universe, about the meaning of its individual and collective
strivings,
and about the ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity.
- Hence the focal point of our
total presentation will be man himself, whole and entire, body and
soul, heart
and conscience, mind and will.
Introductory Statement:
The Situation of Men in the Modern World
4. Hope and Anguish
5. Changed Conditions
- math and natural science;
impact on culture
- technology
6. Changes in the Social Order
7. Psychological, Moral, and
Religious Changes
8. Imbalances
9. Desires of Mankind
(especially those left behind by the benefits of these changes)
10. Man’s Deeper Questioning
- the most basic question: What is
man?
Part
I: The Church and Man’s Calling
11. For faith throws a new
light
on everything, manifests God's design for man's total vocation, and
thus
directs the mind to solutions which are fully human.
- This council, first of all,
wishes to assess in this light those values which are most highly
prized today
and to relate them to their divine source. Insofar as they stem from
endowments
conferred by God on man, these values are exceedingly good. Yet they
are often
wrenched from their rightful function by the taint in man's heart, and
hence
stand in need of purification.
What does the Church think of
man?
Chapter 1: The
Dignity of the Human Person
12. Man as Made in God’s
Image:
- But what is man? About himself
he has expressed, and continues to express, many divergent and even
contradictory opinions. In these he often exalts himself as the
absolute
measure of all things or debases himself to the point of despair. The
result is
doubt and anxiety.
- made in the image of God; but
not solitary: fundamentally communal (contrast with Hobbes and most
social
contract theories)
13. Sin (note that the Council
has accounted for the paradoxical character of mankind: exalted and yet
debased)
14. The Make-Up of Man
15. Truth and the Mind
16. Moral Conscience
17. Liberty
18. The Question of Death
19. The Forms and Roots of Atheism
- The
root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God.
From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to
converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by Gods
love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according
to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to
His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have never recognized
this intimate and vital link with God, or have explicitly rejected it.
Thus atheism must be accounted among the most serious problems of this
age, and is deserving of closer examination.
- The word atheism is applied to phenomena which
are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied
by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about
Him. Still others use such a method to scrutinize the question of God
as to make it seem devoid of meaning.
- Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences,
contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific
reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is
any absolute truth.
- Again some form for themselves such a fallacious idea of God that
when they repudiate this figment they are by no means rejecting the God
of the Gospel.
- Some never get to the point of raising questions about God, since
they seem to experience no religious stirrings nor do they see why they
should trouble themselves about religion.
- Moreover, atheism results not rarely from a violent protest against
the evil in this world,
- or from the absolute character with which certain human values are
unduly invested, and which thereby already accords them the stature of
God.
- Modern civilization itself often complicates the approach to God not
for any essential reason but because it is so heavily engrossed in
earthly affairs.
- believers themselves frequently bear some responsibility for this
situation. To the extent that they neglect their own training in
the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their
religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather
than reveal the authentic face of God and religion.
20 Systematic Atheism
- Modern atheism often takes on a systematic expression which stretches
the desires for human independence to such a point that it poses
difficulties against any kind of dependence on God. Those who profess
atheism of this sort maintain that it gives man freedom to be an end
unto himself, the sole artisan and creator of his own history. They
claim that this freedom cannot be reconciled with the affirmation of a
Lord Who is author and purpose of all things. Favoring this doctrine
can be the sense of power which modern technical progress generates in
man.
- Not to be overlooked among the forms of modern atheism is
that which anticipates the liberation of man especially through his
economic and social emancipation. This form argues that by its nature
religion thwarts this liberation by arousing man's hope for a deceptive
future life, thereby diverting him from the constructing of the earthly
city. Consequently when the proponents of this doctrine gain
governmental power they vigorously fight against religion, and promote
atheism by using, especially in the education of youth, those means of
pressure which public power has at its disposal.
21. The Church’s Response to
Atheism
- she strives to detect in the atheistic mind the hidden causes for the
denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the questions which atheism
raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes these questions
ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly.
- The Church holds that the recognition of God is in no way
hostile to man's dignity, since this dignity is rooted and perfected in
God. For man was made an intelligent and free member of society by God
Who created him, but even more important, he is called as a son to
commune with God and share in His happiness.
- She further teaches that a hope related to the end of time does not
diminish the importance of intervening duties but rather undergirds the
acquittal of them with fresh incentives. By contrast, when a divine
instruction and the hope of life eternal are wanting, man's dignity is
most grievously lacerated, as current events often attest; riddles of
life and death, of guilt and of grief go unsolved with the frequent
result that men succumb to despair.
- Meanwhile every man remains to himself an unsolved puzzle, however
obscurely he may perceive it. For on certain occasions no one can
entirely escape the kind of self-questioning mentioned earlier,
especially when life's major events take place. To this questioning
only God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons man
to higher knowledge and humbler probing.
- The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to
be sought in a proper presentation of the Church's teaching as well as
in the integral life of the Church and her members. For it is the
function of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies
her ceaselessly,(17) to make God the Father and His Incarnate Son
present and in a sense visible.
- This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature
faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master
them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to this faith and
continue to do so. This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by
penetrating the believer's entire life, including its worldly
dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love, especially
regarding the needy. What does the most reveal God's presence, however,
is the brotherly charity of the faithful who are united in spirit as
they work together for the faith of the Gospel and who prove themselves
a sign of unity.
- While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church
sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike,
ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all
alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from
sincere and prudent dialogue. Hence the Church protests against the
distinction which some state authorities make between believers and
unbelievers, with prejudice to the fundamental rights of the human
person. The Church calls for the active liberty of believers to build
up in this world God's temple too. She courteously invites atheists to
examine the Gospel of Christ with an open mind.
- Above all the Church knows that her message is in harmony
with the most secret desires of the human heart when she champions the
dignity of the human vocation, restoring hope to those who have already
despaired of anything higher than their present lot. Far from
diminishing man, her message brings to his development light, life and
freedom.
22. Christ as the New Man
Chapter 2: The
Community of Mankind
23. One of the salient features
of the modern world is the growing interdependence of men one on the
other, a
development promoted chiefly by modern technical advances. Nevertheless
brotherly dialogue among men does not reach its perfection on the level
of
technical progress, but on the deeper level of interpersonal
relationships.
These demand a mutual respect for the full spiritual dignity of the
person.
24. The Trinity and the
Communitarian Dimension of Man (Man in the Image of God)
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