Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

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oad“ (2 Pet 2:15), give up the „first love“ (Rev 2:4), and „become more and more godless“)2 Tim 2:16). Technical and economic progress do not directly and immediately prepare „new heavens and a new earth“ (Rev 21:1). True progress, which is sanctified by the mystery of the cross and resurrection, takes place rather through the increase of faith, hope, and love. Correctly understood, progressing and preserving (tradition) are not antitheses, but two fundamental attitudes vitally important to man. Not everything prior is worthy of preservation. In many realms there is a justified progression away from what has been. What is valid irrespective of the passage of time, that is worthy of preservation. Here a constant „return to the beginnings“ is necessary. When you drink, think of the source,“ says the proverb. „Whoever seeks the source must swim against the stream,“ writes the Polish poet, Jercy Lec. The Christian should not swim as a conformist, but should be a breakwater instead. In the meantime the two ideologies of progress, which captivated numerous people and nations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have been seriously shaken. Neither the technocratically accelerated progress of the economy and of material prosperity nor the revolutionary construction of a socialist order of society is able to bring people happiness and freedom. John Paul II. sees the „true cause” of the „collapse of Marxism” leaving aside the „inefficiency of the economic system”, in the „spiritual void brought about by atheism.“ He says that it left „the younger generations without orientation” („Centesimus annus“24,2), But he also argues that the „alienation“ to be found in „western societies“ is also ultimately based in theology. If, he says, man’s innate „capacity for transcendence“ is blocked out then a „reversal of means and ends“ may occur. People „use one another“ as tools for the „satisfaction of their individual and secondary needs“ and thus become incapable of „voluntary selfgiving“ (Cf.41). This would lead not only to the destruction of the family but to the undermining of the „democratic ideal”. If there were no ultimate transcendent rationale for human dignity, „democratic systems“ could be in danger of destroying themselves through the antagonism of „particular interests” and thus of losing the strength to achieve consensus for the good of all (Cf.46/47). The goal of Christian social teaching - especially in its socio-political, socio-ethical, and socio-pedagogical orientation - is neither an earthly paradise nor a neo-triumphalistic glorification of the ‘mundane world’, but that social order in which man is able to fulfill the will of God and to lead a Christian life. Consequently, both social utopianism and a spiritualist ghetto-Christianity, which would grant the Christian faith no power to order the social realm and would leave the world to its fate, are to be rejected. Hope in what is to come does not make us escapist, but inwardly free, so that we are able to shape earthly realities from the power of the faith. 4. Even if the most important task of Christian social teaching is to investigate the sociometaphysical, socio-ethical, and socio- theological foundations, it must nevertheless always be concerned to understand „the signs of the times“ (Mat 16:3). Otherwise, it would fall into the danger of succumbing to an abstraction that remains foreign to the present, however true to principles it may be. From this it follows that Christian social teaching must carefully consider and utilize the assured findings of empirical and systematic sociology, social history, social psychology, demography, and so on, especially in the present age in which tempestuous social, technical, and economic developments are radically transforming people’s modes of existence and ways of life. Christian social teaching struggles with the tension between the divine and the historically variable in the Church, between what is given as a fact and what is given as a task, between necessity and freedom. 18
5. In this outline, the presentation of divinely established immutable values and orders is to be combined with the analysis of the conditions of the present age. In so far as it is possible in a brief outline, all relevant questions of general and special Christian social teaching will be discussed. 19
Page 1 and 2: Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLIS
Page 5 and 6: 2. The Family in the Service of Spi
Page 7 and 8: e) Competition is what steers the o
Page 9 and 10: e) The Ethos of Advertising .......
Page 11 and 12: 3. The Contribution of the Church .
Page 13 and 14: on the basis of the classical socia
Page 15 and 16: INTRODUCTION § 1 The Concerns and
Page 17: powerful grace of Christ“ that ma
Page 21 and 22: ern society considers everything
Page 23 and 24: human sociality.“ 3 In the prayer
Page 25 and 26: CHAPTER TWO: COMMUNITY, SOCIETY, LO
Page 27 and 28: a) The flight into the impersonal
Page 29 and 30: difficult to comprise Christian soc
Page 31 and 32: intended; it is the totality of ins
Page 33 and 34: ure and, above all, to the misuse o
Page 35 and 36: tional economic co-operation (Gaudi
Page 37 and 38: tive law, and that, on the other ha
Page 39 and 40: In view of this sharp rejection of
Page 41 and 42: „justice“ according to this law
Page 43 and 44: 1. When the legal partners encounte
Page 45 and 46: new formal object is exhibited here
Page 47 and 48: PART TWO: THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL O
Page 49 and 50: wished to have the feminine princip
Page 51 and 52: to be emphasized that, precisely be
Page 53 and 54: than an enchantment (fascination),
Page 55 and 56: trivialize the serious problem of '
Page 57 and 58: tion towards a decrease in the divo
Page 59 and 60: Christian marriage and family are d
Page 61 and 62: the family. Its origin is not of th
Page 63 and 64: speaks of a new „metropolitan mat
Page 65 and 66: schooling for conjugal love. It is
Page 67 and 68: a) In primitive social relations, f
Page 69 and 70:
family“ is false. „While it mus
Page 71 and 72:
Abstracting from so-called 'asocial
Page 73 and 74:
the doing, separates work from play
Page 75 and 76:
great thing if I could make shoes.
Page 77 and 78:
§ 3 Work and Leisure 1. The Proble
Page 79 and 80:
ings, fields and work sites. In a s
Page 81 and 82:
the wage system bear inspection by
Page 83 and 84:
agreed wage. Above and beyond every
Page 85 and 86:
foreseen a few decades ago. For aut
Page 87 and 88:
) Personnel management and authorit
Page 89 and 90:
place here: the price of raw materi
Page 91 and 92:
economic realm; integration in the
Page 93 and 94:
ody. For that reason, if man wishes
Page 95 and 96:
development worthy of man, for the
Page 97 and 98:
lations of the Creator as he manife
Page 99 and 100:
a) The market economy and free comp
Page 101 and 102:
nomic and civil progress?“ (42,1)
Page 103 and 104:
subject to Soviet imperialism. Thro
Page 105 and 106:
doctrine of historical epochs the f
Page 107 and 108:
nist community of goods might have
Page 109 and 110:
piece-work bonuses, and the like. L
Page 111 and 112:
(the rector multitudinis), of reali
Page 113 and 114:
towards absolutism“ (Georges Ripe
Page 115 and 116:
oad strata of the population posses
Page 117 and 118:
) Dissemination of wealth through n
Page 119 and 120:
net profit of a national economy th
Page 121 and 122:
tion of a formula which should allo
Page 123 and 124:
intensive primary sector of agricul
Page 125 and 126:
a) No Objection to Pioneer Profits
Page 127 and 128:
3. Critical Evaluation Christian so
Page 129 and 130:
and juridical doctrinarians!“ 77
Page 131 and 132:
without any thought as to whether i
Page 133 and 134:
an agreement; every lawful power is
Page 135 and 136:
Christian philosophy of the state,
Page 137 and 138:
2. Objection to the Doctrine of the
Page 139 and 140:
§ 3 Rights and Duties of Governmen
Page 141 and 142:
sheds the blood of man, by man shal
Page 143 and 144:
). War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Page 145 and 146:
d). Ten Guiding Principles The Firs
Page 147 and 148:
the employment of nuclear weapons,
Page 149 and 150:
freedom of association, the freedom
Page 151 and 152:
when it is a question, not of a pol
Page 153 and 154:
constitution. Pressure groups disti
Page 155 and 156:
a) Church and state go back „to t
Page 157 and 158:
their faith, as it were, in the pol
Page 159 and 160:
l397), one also reads that, accordi
Page 161 and 162:
was furthered by the two world wars
Page 163 and 164:
Europe became conscious in the seco
Page 165 and 166:
medium-sized and small-scale compan
Page 167 and 168:
exist“ sufficient qualities and e
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Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

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