The first thing to ask about Caritas in Veritate , Charity in Truth, is why the in truth ? “Charity is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine,” the second paragraph of the new encyclical declares, to no surprise, at all: What else could a Christian account of the social realm possibly take as one of its theme? But the in Veritate part, that’s the kicker. Not that any Catholic pontiff would deny that Christ’s lesson of love—“love one another as I have loved you”—doesn’t occur in a structure of truth. Leave it to Benedict, however, to move that theme of truth to the center of his account of .Christian love in the social order. In this sense, the new encyclical is in line with all of Benedict’s earlier work on relativism and reason.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Moral Certitude and the Iran War
The current military engagement with Iran calls renewed attention to just war theory in the Catholic tradition.…
The Slow Death of England: New and Notable Books
The fate of England is much in the news as popular resistance to mass immigration grows, limits…
Ethics of Rhetoric in Times of War
What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times…
