Gaudium et Spes

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Gaudium et Spes

• The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
  Modern World

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Outline of Presentation

1. Background Context of the document
2. Story of the docs drafting
3. Structure of final draft
4. Significant Shifts and Innovations
5. Compromises and Weaknesses
6. Remaining Issues for the Church
7. The Enduring Symbolic Value of GS

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General Remarks

• not among the preparatory documents for the
  council
• emerged from the floor of the council
• by far the longest of the sixteen documents
• the only document published with subtitles

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• promulgated the very last working day of the
  Council
• addressed to all humanity (not just to Catholics,
  or Christians)
• came to be symbolic of the Councils style
• dialogic
• collaborative
• participative

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Previous Social Teaching Encyclicals

• from Rerum Novarum (1891) to Pacem in Terris
  (1963)
• using a deductive methodology, these documents
  attempted to ground social teaching on the prior
  foundation of a philosophical and theological
  anthropology
• couched in the categories of Scholastic Theology
• appealed to natural law
• GS will come to use a more inductive method
  (but with elements of the old)

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History of the Drafting

• at the very end of the first session (4 Dec
  1962), a plan for the Councils program was
  proposed by Cardinal Josef Suenens
• a focus not only on the church ad intra (the
  internal life of the church)
• but also on the church ad extra (the church and
  its mission in the world)

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History (contd)

• the long list of topics for the councils
  discussion was then revised and reduced according
  to this plan
• no. 17 on the list was Schema XVII
• later became Schema XIII
• then finally Gaudium et Spes

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Ad intra / Ad extra Distinction

• While this distinction was helpful for dividing
  up the workload of the Council,
• it can be a misleading distinction
• IF it is taken to mean that church and world
  are like oil and water
• This issue of how to best name the relationship
  plagues the whole debate
• and remains somewhat unresolved in GS
• The world is not something apart from the church,
  nor the church from the world

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The Drafting Commission

• A Mixed Commission
• drawn from members of the
• Doctrinal Commission
• Commission for the Lay Apostolate
• but various sub-commissions were set up to deal
  with the many sections

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• the various drafts were prepared in French, and
  then translated into Latin
• fourth session translations provided in the
  major European languages (first time)

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Theological tensions

• a significant influence of the French-speaking
  theologians
• Chenu, Congar
• tension with the theological vision of the
  German-speaking theologians
• Rahner, Ratzinger

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Structure of the final version

• Preface and Introduction (1-3 4-10)
• Part 1 The Church and the Human Vocation
• Introduction Responding to the Promptings of the
  Spirit (11)
• Chapter 1 The Dignity of the Human Person
• Chapter 2 The Human Community
• Chapter 3 Humanitys Activity in the Universe
• Chapter 4 Role of the Church in Todays World

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Structure (contd)

• Part 2 Some More Urgent Problems
• Preface (46)
• Chapter 1 The Dignity of Marriage and the Family
  (47-52)
• Chapter 2 Proper Development of Culture (53-62)
• Chapter 3 Economic and Social Life (63-72)
• Chapter 4 The Political Community (73-76)
• Chapter 5 Fostering Peace and Establishment of a
  Community of Nations (77-90)
• Conclusion Role of Individual Christians and of
  Local Churches (91-93)

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A Pastoral Constitution

• John XXIIIs original desire that the Council
  have a pastoral focus
• Special footnote on the significance of title
• The constitution is called pastoral because,
  while resting on doctrinal principles, it sets
  out the relation of the church to the world and
  to the people of today. In Part I, therefore, the
  pastoral emphasis is not overlooked, nor is the
  doctrinal emphasis overlooked in Part II.
• The doctrinal principles (Part 1) and the
  pastoral applications (Part 2) are intertwined

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Four Interrelated Levels of Doctrine

• 1. Anthropology
• the nature of the human person
• GS, 3 It is the human person, therefore, which
  is the key to this discussion, each individual
  human person in here of his totality, body and
  soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.
• 2. Christian Ethics in Contemporary Society
• the nature of moral human action

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• 3. Ecclesiology
• the nature and mission of the church
• GS, 3 The church is not motivated by earthly
  ambition but is interested in one thing only to
  carry on the work of Christ under the guidance of
  the Holy Spirit.
• Gaudium et Spes as complement to Lumen Gentium

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• 4. Christology
• the human and divine natures of Christ
• any teaching on the nature of the human person is
  to be grounded in teaching about Christ as the
  model for human personhood
• GS, 10 The church believes that the key, the
  centre and the purpose of the whole of human
  history is to be found in its Lord and Master.

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Interrelated Leitmotifs

• solidarity
• dialogue
• reading the signs of the times

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Solidarity

• GS, 1 The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish
  of the people of our time, especially of those
  who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and
  hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of
  Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human
  fails to find an echo in their hearts. For theirs
  is a community of people united in Christ and
  guided by the Holy Spirit in their pilgrimage
  towards the Fathers kingdom, bearers of a
  message of salvation for all humanity. That is
  why they cherish a feeling of deep solidarity
  with the human race and its history.

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Dialogue

• the motif of the divine-human dialogue
• the motif of churchs dialogue with the world
• a church open to learning (GS 44)

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Paul VI and the Dialogue motif

• Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam
• 6 August 1964 (during the third session)
• the influence of personalist philosophies
• Gabriel Marcel
• Martin Buber

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GS, 3

• And so the council can find no more eloquent
  expression of this peoples solidarity, respect
  and love for the whole human family, of which it
  forms a part, than to enter into dialogue with it
  about all these various problems, throwing the
  light of the Gospel on them and supplying
  humanity with the saving resources which the
  church has received from its founder under the
  promptings of the Holy Spirit.

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GS 92

• Four concentric circles of dialogue
• dialogue within the church itself
• dialogue with other Christians
• dialogue with other religious believers
• dialogue with non-believers

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Reading the signs of the times

• starting with contemporary context (inductive
  method)
• attentiveness to the God of history
• GS 4
• GS 11
• GS 44

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GS 4

• To discharge this function with the guidance of
  the Paraclete Spirit, to continue the work of
  Christ (GS, 3), the church has the duty in every
  age of examining the signs of the times and
  interpreting them in the light of the gospel, so
  that it can offer in a manner appropriate to each
  generation replies to the continual human
  questionings on the meaning of this life and the
  life to come and on how they are related. There
  is a need, then, to be aware of, and to
  understand, the world in which we live, together
  with its expectations, its desires and its
  frequently dramatic character.

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GS 11

• Impelled by its belief that it is being led by
  the Spirit of the Lord who fills the whole earth,
  Gods people works to discern the true signs of
  Gods presence and purpose in the events, needs
  and desires which it shares with the rest of
  modern humanity. It is faith which shows
  everything in a new light and clarifies Gods
  purpose in his complete calling of the human
  race, thus pointing the mind towards solutions
  which are fully human

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GS 11 (contd)

• The councils first aim is to subject the
  values most highly regarded today to this light
  and to relate them to their divine source, since
  these values are very good insofar as they
  proceed from the God-given character of the human
  person, but are in need of purification from the
  distortion they often receive from the corruption
  of the human heart

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GS 11 (contd)

• What is the churchs view of woman and man?
  What does it consider is to be commended in
  constructing todays society? What is the
  ultimate significance of human activity in the
  world as a whole? These questions require answers
  which will show more clearly that the people of
  God and the human race of which it is a part are
  of service to each other, and that the churchs
  mission is seen to be a religious one and by that
  very fact an outstandingly human one.

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GS 44

• It is for Gods people as a whole, with the help
  of the Holy Spirit, and especially for pastors
  and theologians, to listen to the various voices
  of our day, discerning them and interpreting
  them, and to evaluate them in the light of the
  divine word, so that the revealed truth can be
  increasingly appropriated, better understood and
  more suitably expressed.

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GS 62

• meaning/expression of doctrine
• evaluating and interpreting everything with an
  authentically Christian sense of values
• it is hoped that more of the laity will receive
  adequate theological formation and that some of
  them will dedicate themselves professionally to
  these studies and contribute to their
  advancement. But for the proper exercise of this
  role, the faithful, both clerical and lay, should
  be accorded a lawful freedom of inquiry, of
  thought, and of expression, tempered by humility
  and courage in whatever branch of study they have
  specialized.

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Three Major Innovations

1. primarily a Biblical vision
2. an increased historical awareness
3. a relating of the Churchs mission and its social
   vision

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1. A Biblical Vision

• a biblical vision more than natural law
• an appeal to revelation
• and secondarily an appeal to the order that God
  has inscribed in human nature

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2. Historical Awareness

• Deductive methodology
• from general unchanging principles to their
  application
• from abstract natural law to concrete new
  situations
• the rise of historical consciousness (19-20th
  centuries)
• an appreciation of the changing historical
  conditions of social, cultural and political
  spheres
• all elements of the human situation are
  conditioned by history

34
Inductive methodology

• from an examination of the concrete situation to
  the application of the Gospel in that situation
• What are the features problems of the
  contemporary world that require solutions?
• GS 5 The human race is moving from a more
  static view of things to one which is more
  dynamic and evolutionary, giving rise to new
  combinations of problems which call for new
  analyses and syntheses.
• an emerging methodology of the council

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3. Relating the Churchs mission and its social
vision

• Lumen Gentium the church ad intra
• looking to within
• what is the nature of the church?
• Gaudium et Spes the church ad extra
• looking to outside
• given the nature of the church, what is the
  mission of the church?

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The Mission of the Church

• the religious mission of the church
• to proclaim and to realize the Reign of God
• The Reign of God is to permeate all aspects of
  human life and society
• Shift from church as an end in itself
• to church as a servant of the Reign of God

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GS, 40-42

• Part One, Chapter IV
• summary of the basis of the churchs social
  mission

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Four Specific Tasksof the Churchs Proper Mission

• to defend human dignity
• to promote human rights
• to cultivate the unity of the human family
• to make clear the meaning of human life

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Relation of the Church to the Reign of God

• the church is not equivalent to the Reign of God
• related, however, in two ways
• the Reign of God transcends every political
  authority
• therefore, the religious mission is to critique
  political ideology
• the Reign of God relates to diverse dimensions of
  social and economic reality
• therefore, the religious mission is related to
  the right ordering of the social and economic
  order

40
Summary of Shifts in Church Teaching

• Methodology
• from deductive to inductive
• Historical Consciousness
• from ahistorical to an historical approach

41

• Evolutionary not static view of reality
• GS, 5 The human race is moving from a more
  static view of things to one which is more
  dynamic and evolutionary, giving rise to new
  combinations of problems which call for new
  analyses and syntheses.
• Modernity
• From rejection of modernity to engagement with
  its strengths

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Shifts (contd)

• The world
• from the world as Godless to the world as the
  place of Gods redeeming activity
• Natural Law
• parallel to the inductive/more historical
  approach
• Notion of the human person
• a move away from an eternal nature of the human
  person, to one historically situated

43

• Church and State
• from achieving Christendom to the Church as
  leaven, as prophetic witness
• Conscience
• War

44

• Marriage from contract to covenant
• previous legalistic framework
• contract
• shift to a personalist framework
• intimate partnership and covenant
• the ends of marriage
• not only reproduction and the rearing of children
• also conjugal love

45
Other Docs the social mission

• (1) Decree on Laity
• Laity have a twofold role
• to work for evangelization
• to renew the temporal order
• Presupposition
• Christs work of redemption is primarily related
  to the salvation of the human being
• but involves the renewal of the whole temporal
  order (AA, 5-7)
• a shift in the theology of grace from extrinsic
  to intrinsic

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• (2) Decree on the Churchs Missionary Activity
• to work for Christs redemption includes the
  right ordering of social and economic affairs
• the churchs missionary activity involves
  collaborating with all peoples
• for eliminating hunger, disease, ignorance
• for establishing peace and justice and human
  working conditions for workers (AG, 12)

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Some Weaknesses and Open Questions

• overly optimistic about progress
• too 60s
• not enough emphasis on evil and the effects of
  original sin
• ecological crisis not mentioned
• in fact, a perpetuation of some of the mentality
  causing it

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• Little attention is given in the document to
  environmental pollution, the depletion of
  non-renewable resources, and general
  environmental exploitation. The council fathers
  language concerning nature and the relation of
  humankind to nature is rather disturbing.
  Humanity should consolidate its control over
  creation (9), subject to himself the earth and
  all that it contains (34), subdue the earth
  (57), and hold increasing domination over
  nature (63) The council fathers seem oblivious
  both to the environmental problems already
  evident in the world and the impact of framing
  the human/nature relationship in terms of
  domination. (Lois Ann Lorentzen)

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Issues taken off the agenda by Paul VI

• divorce
• mixed marriages
• birth control