The encyclicals Deus caritas est and Spe salvi raise two opposite objections against Christianity: Christian love seems too altruistic, opposed to one’s own happiness; while Christian hope seems too egoistic, opposed to proper concern for temporal society. The editors discuss these objections with New Testament scholar John Kincaid. They argue that a true understanding of the New Testament demands a full understanding of the common good (showing that love is neither altruism nor egoism, but communion in the good), and a deep understanding of the relation of the temporal and the eternal (showing that hope for eternal happiness and peace does not make us indifferent to the temporal happiness and peace, which are a participated likeness of the eternal). Integralism provides precisely the account of the common good, and of the relation of temporal and eternal that is necessary.
Bibliography
- Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 2005.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Spe salvi , 2007.
- Brant Pitre, Michael P. Barber, and John A. Kincaid, Paul, a New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology, 2019.
- John Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 2015.
- Henri de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, 1947/1988.
- Charles de Koninck, “In Defence of Saint Thomas: A Reply to Father Eschmann’s Attack on the Primacy of the Common Good,” in: Laval théologique et philosophique (1945).
- Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., Integralism: The Breadth and Depth of Catholic Social Teaching (Book Proposal, 2019).
Music: “Là ci darem la mano,” from W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, sung by Barbara Bonney and Thomas Hampson, accompanied by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Header Image: Max Slevogt, Don Giovannis Begegnung mit dem steinernen Gast, 1906.
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