introduction to catholic social teaching

1. introduction to catholic social teaching Anna FloerkeScheid, Ph.D. Duquesne University Part 2 Unit 4 Click here for instructions.

2. Instructions • Navigation through the course will occur by clicking on the following action buttons located in the lower right corner of each screen: The HOME button will be placed in the center of each slide and will bring you to the Table of Contents for further navigation. The NEXT and BACK buttons will move you through the course content. The EXIT button will be placed at the end of each Unit and will return you to the course menu.

3. Instructions • This course is meant to be self-paced, though there will be opportunities to interact with your local and global JPIC groups. • Course content and activities should be completed in the order that they are presented to maximize student success. • The Table of Contents will be your starting point for each Unit

4. Activity Icons • Each type of course activity has a unique icon located in the upper right corner of the screen. • In this course you will: Online journal Local discussion Read online Create doc Reflect Watch video Global discussion Quiz/test

5. PART2:Unit 4:The Dignity of the human person

6. Unit 4 Table of Contents This unit is divided into several components. Start with the About This Unit OR click on the link below to navigate to the component where you left off. Revisit as needed. • Instructions • About This Unit • Aims of the Unit • What You Will Learn • 4.1 Preparatory Questions for Part II • 4.2 Micro-Lecture: Pillars of Catholic Social Thought • 4.3 Reading: The Bible • 4.4 Reading: Gaudium et Spes • 4.5 Notes and Critical Concepts • Unit Summary

7. What is this unit about? This unit deals with a foundational theme for Catholic social thought: the dignity of the human person. CST rests, in part, on the notion that all human beings are endowed with dignity and worth based on their having been created, loved, and called by God.

8. Aims of the Unit By the time you are finished with this unit, you should: • Have a good understanding of how the principle of human dignity functions in Catholic social thought • Have an understanding of how this principle emerges from Scripture • Be able to identify ways in which human dignity is threatened or promoted in the world today

9. What You Will Learn • The context of the major CST document Gaudium et Spes • The structure and methods used in Gaudium et Spes • Different ways that the imago Dei (image of God) is understood, and its connection to the principle of human dignity • The way that CST understands human dignity as demonstrated in Gaudium et Spesand through Scripture

10. 4.1 Preparatory Questions

11. Journal Your course journal is a place for you to record your responses to the preparatory questions and reflection questions posed throughout the course, as well as any notes you take on readings or in group discussions. You are encouraged to use the material that you write in the course journals as starting points for the online discussions. Your course journal may be either hand written, or typed into a computer. Before beginning Part I, Unit 1, respond to the following questions in your course journal.

12. Journal • Before beginning Part 2, Unit 4, respond to the following questions in your course journal (see the following slides).

13. Journal 1) What does it mean to you to be human? Does your humanity or the humanity of others shape the way you think people should act? Are there some ways of acting that people should always do, often do, rarely do, or never do based on what it means to you to be human?

14. Journal 2) Consider a recent important political speech or election in your part of the world. Was poverty discussed at all by key players in the speech/election? If so, how was it discussed? If not, why do you think it was missing? How might analysis of the speech/election change if it were viewed from the perspective of someone living in poverty?

15. Journal 3) List 2 or 3 communities that you are part of. What makes you a member of each communities? What, if any, expectations are associated with membership in the communities? What resources help you to meet these expectations? What obstacles prevent you from living up to these expectations?

16. 4.2micro-lecture: “Pillars of catholic social thought”

17. Micro-Lecture • Video File (YouTube link). • A transcript of the audio file.

18. 4.3 Reading: THE BIBLE

19. Reading Click here to complete the reading. Read Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 8:1-9.

20. 4.4 Reading: Gaudium et Spes

21. Reading Click here to complete the reading. Read Gaudium et Spes, paragraphs 12-19.

22. 4.5 Unit FOUR notes and critical concepts

23. Gaudium et Spes: General Context • This is perhaps the fundamental, and certainly the pivotal (in the true sense of the word in that it acts as a pivot point between the practices and doctrine of the Church of the Middle Ages and those of the modern era) social document of the Catholic Church. • Gaudium et Spes represents a new stance of openness in the Church to the modern world. We’ve left behind the era of the Syllabus of Errors and its stance of defensiveness in the face of a changing world.

24. Gaudium et Spes: General Context • It is called a “constitution.” A constitution is a foundational document for a nation, an organization, etc. Such a document grounds that organization, nation, etc., and from that document, the organization grows and develops its laws, practices, and customs. • This is no ordinary document of CST. Because it is so fundamental and pivotal, and because its own method is to read the signs of the times in the light of the gospel, it is helpful to situate it in a very broad global socio-political context.

25. Gaudium et Spes: Socio-Political Context • Two horrific world wars occurred in the 50 years before Vatican II. • During and after WWII, harrowing images of the Holocaust and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki emerged. These events still act as moral touchstones today, i.e., we now have to consider how ethics has changed given that human beings have shown themselves capable of these levels of hatred, dehumanization, and destruction. • The world was experiencing a nuclear arms race and the Cold War. • At the same time, signs of hope emerged, including the creation of the United Nations; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

26. Gaudium et Spes: Socio-Political Context • In the U.S., the civil rights movement was underway. • South Africa was experiencing an anti-apartheid movement. • Several African nations began claiming and winning independence from colonial rule, thus ending the era of colonization in Africa as an accepted, overt practice. • Cuba’s Fidel Castro established communism in the Western Hemisphere.

27. Gaudium et Spes: Socio-Political Context • The Berlin Wall was erected in Europe. • The U.S. intervened and engaged with the Vietnam War from 1960-1975. • During this time, the world mostly experienced a technical “peace” but with intense tensions. • In sum, Major changes were taking place throughout the world. These changes resonated with people; people wanted change.

28. Gaudium et Spes: Theological Context • Theologically, it was also a time of great change. • Previously, the church had been in a stance of defensiveness against the modern world and, specifically, against the idea that doctrine could develop or adapt, an idea that had been condemned by Pope Pius X.

29. Gaudium et Spes: Theological Context • There had been censorship of several Catholic theologians and biblical scholars; many of these were the same theologians whose ideas would be vindicated by Vatican II. • John Henry Newman: development of doctrine • Nouvelle Théologie,which dealt with the social dimensions of the Catholic faith • In the midst of this censorship, there was hope and affirmation for biblical theologians that they should/could study the Bible in original languages. This would affect Vatican II’s understanding of the role of the Bible and lead them to encourage the use of Scripture in theological undertakings.

30. Gaudium et Spes: Authorship • Unlike most papal statements, it was written by a committee. Note: While most papal statements are not written in committee, they are also rarely written directly by the pope. • It was begun during the era of Pope John XXIII and was finished in the era of Paul VI.

31. Gaudium et Spes: Authorship Its writing involved: • A diverse group of bishops from around the world – perhaps the most diverse group ever – showing a real attention to the global signs of the times. • Not only clergy or members of the hierarchical magisterium, but many biblical and systematic theologians, as well as theological ethicists. • Laypeople. In fact, the inclusion of the discussion of marriage and family in the document, came about because of the push by laypeople

32. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Each of the first three chapters of Part I of Gaudium et Spesfollows a similar fivefold pattern: 1) Themes from a theology of creation 2) Philosophical grounding of these themes using reason and natural law 3) Distortions in creation/society due to human sin 4) How the Christian faith responds to the themes under consideration 5) Christological approach to these distortions

33. Gaudium et Spes: Structure For example, in Chapter Two, “The Community of Humankind”: • The theme is the centrality of social/community life and how it impinges upon human dignity.

34. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Step 1 In the Genesis account of creation, human beings are created together as partners to one another. They are not created to live alone; they need community and are, in fact, destined for community.

35. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Step 2 Human beings have a social nature. For example, a natural law argument would state that we have “by our nature” a need for social life; reason tells us we cannot live alone.

36. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Step 3 Distorted economic, political, and social structures can be occasions for sinfulness, rooted in our pride and selfishness; sin exists in society as a whole. The corruption of human beings leads to corruption of social structures, systems, and society. This is called social sin.

37. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Step 4 Christian faith responds by calling on us to promote the common good rather than merely individual goods by urging love of neighbor – and even enemy – and by promoting equality among persons and social justice as “among the primary duties of modern man.”

38. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Step 5 Jesus Christ offers grace: through the Incarnation, God seeks to dwell in human community with us – even founding the community of the Church to build solidarity and communitarianism.

39. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Important aspects of this structure: • Both natural law (reason) and theology (faith) are used to support social concerns. • Earlier social encyclicals relied almost exclusively on a natural law approach – this is a transformation. • It still appeals to natural law by using reason to appeal to all people. However, it roots itself more firmly in the Christian theological tradition.

40. Gaudium et Spes: Structure Important aspects of this structure (continued): • It is an attempt to translate the meaning of Christianity for the modern, pluralist world. • It emphasizes the social mission of the Church as flowing directly from the Christian faith. • It gets to the heart of CST: Catholicism does not promote a mere individualistic morality; instead, social duties are among our primary duties, and societies should cultivate moral and social virtues.

41. The Dignity of Every Human Person • All people are made imago Dei– this is the doctrine that recognizes that all people are createdin the image and likeness of God.

42. The Dignity of Every Human Person • There are different ways of understanding the imago Dei: • Jacques Maritain is a major figure in the Christian foundation of human rights. He argues that reason/intellect is what gives us our dignity; we should not violate human dignity because our common humanity is rooted in our common experience of reason.

43. The Dignity of Every Human Person There are different ways of understanding the imago Dei (continued): • Other theologians point to our relationality as the source of the image of God. Just as God is a Trinity (three persons in relation), so we are the image of God insofar as we are in relationship with others and insofar as we have the capacity for relationship. • All agree that being made in the image of God does not mean that God physically looks like us (God has no body, is neither male nor female, has no race, nor other physical traits or characteristics).

44. The Dignity of Every Human Person • Christian theology affirms that our having been created in the image of God means that all people are vested with dignity – with worth and value based simply on their having been created and loved by God – and are called to relationship with God. • There is nothing that a person can do or undergo that takes away their dignity or worth as a human being.

45. The Dignity of Every Human Person • Some examples of the violation of human dignity are: torture; child abuse; gender and racial discrimination; lack of access to healthcare; lack of access to employment, food, water, education, or other basic necessities; and over-consumption of material goods. Can you think of any others? • Some examples of the promotion of human dignity are: access to adequate food, water, healthcare, and other basic necessities; gender and racial equality; nonviolent protest against injustice; and care for vulnerable persons (i.e., children, the elderly, the disabled, etc.). Can you think of any others?

46. Unit Summary Unit 4 introduced you to a major document of CST. You learned about its context, authorship, methods, and structure. You studied the way that it discusses the fundamental concept of human dignity. You also learned how CST understands the concept of human dignity as emerging from the doctrine of the imago Dei, the scripturally based belief that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.

47. You have completed Unit 4 Please return to the Table of Contents using the HOME button to review any material or EXIT to the course menu.