Überlegungen zum Selbstverständnis katholischer Soziallehre
The two main questions that catholic social teaching has to deal with are: In how far is the message of Jesus Christ relevant to the social-political field? How can the contents of this doctrine be conveyed in a pluralistic society? This essay shows the different ways of finding an answer to these q...
| Summary: | The two main questions that catholic social teaching has to deal with are: In how far is the message of Jesus Christ relevant to the social-political field? How can the contents of this doctrine be conveyed in a pluralistic society? This essay shows the different ways of finding an answer to these questions in the course of the development of catholic social teaching since "Rerum novarum" in 1891. From this results that one can distinguish between three main types of argumentation, each of which is closely connected with the changing way the church sees herself. The first type is based on natural right and operates in a deductive way. The second concentrates on actualizing common principles, whereas the third type restricts social doctrine only to a carismatic practice for the individual case. Complaints about the inefficacy of catholic social teaching never seem to stop. If one, however, considers the living testimony of the gospel in a real Community as the central point of this doctrine, one realizes that this is certainly more convincing within a large variety of "Weltanschauungen" than a type of reasoning based on a rationality that is only called to be generally accepted. This must involve a constant self-reform of the church in order not to interfere with her own message. Catholic social teaching should not merely reflect the practice of life. It should be turned into practice in its entirety, so that theoretic findings and knowledge on the one hand and fruitful faith on the other may form an integrated whole. |
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| ISSN: | 0044-2895 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie
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