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Theology and Power: The Question of Truth

Stephan Kampowski

This essay draws inspiration from a curious yet telling expression used by the Italian theologian Massimo Faggioli in his work, A Council for the Global Church: Receiving Vatican II in History. When commenting on the efforts of John Paul II and Benedict XVI to interpret the Second Vatican Council, he refers to their “doctrinal policy” several times. The term “policy” has its natural habitat in the realm of politics. Statesmen implement policies to achieve particular results for the common good entrusted to them. Thus, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “policy” as “a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, party, ruler, statesman, etc.; any course of action adopted as advantageous or expedient.”

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Christening in either Arizona or at Mission Assistencia Santa Ysabel in San Diego (1910)

The Fatherhood of God, the Fatherhood of the Priest

Bishop Massimo Camisasca

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Power: Issue Three

"He Gave Them Power and Authority"

What authority does the pope have and why should we obey? How is the papacy, which is still a stumbling block for so many, a source of reassurance for the faithful? Or is it? What of the bishop’s authority? The priest’s? A living thing needs to grow and authority is at the service of that. It makes the Church—–Christ’s body—grow (augere) in accord with the order established by the one who brought it forth (the Auctor). Priestly authority is in the image of the Father's authority who shows it by generating the Son, then by creating the world in Him. Christ who received all authority from the Father handed it to the disciples. To have the “keys” to the Church, then, is to assure and guard the presence of the One who builds and grows it—“the Son of the Living God”—so that He might be with us always, till the end of time.

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Past Issues

Power: Issue Three

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Power: Issue Two

Parents' Rights

The principle recognizing the prerogative of parents to educate their children is no longer just a haven from the…
Power: Issue One

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Things: Issue One

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Humanum is about the human: what makes us human, what keeps us human, and what does not. We are driven by the central questions of human existence: nature, freedom, sexual difference and the fundamental figures to which it gives rise, man, woman, and child. We probe these in the context of marriage, family, education, work, medicine and bioethics, science and technology, political and ecclesial life. We sift through the many competing ideas of our age so that we might “hold fast to what is good” and let go of what is not. In addition to articles, witness pieces, and book reviews ArteFact: Film & Fiction searches out the human in the literary and cinematic arts.

Humanum is published as a free service by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C.