Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

powerful grace of Christ“ that man is able to live as the honor of God and his own dignity as
man require“ (Pius XII, September 25, 1949). It is essential that Christian social teaching occupy
itself with natural social orders ultimately in the light of the Christian order of salvation.
Through this orientation, Christian social teaching receives its theological imprint, whereby it
is to be noticed that, as a result of the Christocentrism of all creation, what is right according
to natural law is in a true and profound sense Christ-related, i.e. is Christian and belongs to
the one economy of salvation (Cf. Col 1:16; 2:10; Eph 1:22). This statement in no way implies
an alienation of sacred from earthly realities. Rather, Christian social teaching explicitly
recognizes the relative autonomy of the cultural domains (of the state, the economy, science,
art, etc.). It is not only in politics that we should „give to Caesar what is Caesar’s“ (Mt.
22:21). The medieval confusion of the religious and the profane realms was not a Christian
ideal. „Certain habits of mind, sometimes found too among Christians, which do not sufficiently
attend to the rightful independence of science,“ are explicitly regretted by the Second
Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, 36).
2. Starting with creation and redemption, Christian social teaching sees in the essentially social
nature of man, not only the likeness of God the Creator, but also the one redeemed
„through the blood of Christ and divine grace, elevated „to a higher order,“ and called to divine
filiation (Pius XII, February 23, 1944). It is therefore necessary to elaborate Christian
social teaching through the development of specifically theological categories above and beyond
natural law. For example, the social importance of the radical connection and solidarity
of all people is to be investigated in greater detail as it arises from the doctrine of creation, the
making of man and woman, the redemption through Jesus Christ, the divine filiation, and the
mystical body of Christ. The social effects of sin and its consequences as well as the historico-theological
importance of the doctrine of the antichrist and of the overcoming of world
history by the returning Christ are to be included in the consideration. Like everything created,
the social realm is also in need of salvation and is related to Christ.
3. Finally, from a social-theological point of view, the important task of warning against
every social utopianism devolves upon Christian social teaching. Before the Ascension, the
disciples asked: „ Lord, are you going to restore the rule to Israel now?“ (Acts 1:6), a question
that runs through the Christian centuries like a scandal. Again and again, sectarians arose and
promised an earthly paradise. Christian social teaching knows that there will be no paradise
before the last day, in spite of all prophets from the East and the West. Not even the most
zealous lay apostles are able to create an ideal Christian order, for „the whole world is under
the evil one“ (1 Jn. 1:19). At the end of time, earthly orders and institutions will in no way
have reached the state of Christian perfection, but will be overcome and judged by the returning
Christ (Cf. Rom 3:6).
Since the eighteenth century, the utopia of innerwordly salvation has sought ever and again to
camouflage itself with the unclear and ambiguous ideology of ‘progress’. Christlob Mylius
(1722-1754), editor of the newspaper Der Freygeist first introduced the expression ‘progress’
into the German language around the year 1750, in the middle of the age of Enlightenment.
The New Testament employs the word prokopé, which does not really mean ‘progress’ but,
somewhat more laboriously, the moving forward of a ship through oar strokes, and this in a
twofold sense. On the one hand, prokopé designates the progress in faith and in the following
of Christ bestowed upon us by God’s mercy (1 Tim 4:15. Phil 1:259) and thus the „furtherance
of the gospel“ (Phil 1:12). On the other hand, it means the progress of heresy which will
progress and spread „like a plague“ (2 Tim 2:16-17; 3:13). It therefore depends on what one
leaves behind and on that towards which one progresses. The disciples „abandoned their nets“
and went towards Jesus (Mt 4:20; 19:27). But man can also abandon the Lord and run after
false gods in his progress (Dt 11:16; Jos 22:16; Judg 2:12; Is 1:4). He can miss the „straight
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