Dei Filius

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Dei Filius (Latin for "God's Son") is the Latin title of one of the two Council documents of the First Vatican Council .

In particular, this treatise on the Catholic faith serves to defend the Catholic faith against “errors of the times” and also defines the relationship between faith and natural sciences for Catholics. Since the two Council documents ( Dei Filius and Pastor Aeternus ) were proclaimed as dogma , it defines the Catholic faith in a canonically binding manner for Catholics.

Dei Filius was published in Sessio III on April 24, 1870 as Constitutio dogmatica (Dogmatic Constitution).

Outline of the text

  • Preface
  • Chapter 1. God, the Creator of all things
  • Chapter 2. The Revelation
  • Chapter 3. Faith
  • Chapter 4. Faith and Reason
  • Canons
  • epilogue

meaning

Dei Filius stands in the tradition of the Syllabus errorum and the encyclical Quanta Cura Pius IX. of 1864. During these years the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church had to grapple with two major problems: Politically, the Papal States fought (in vain) for its survival. In 1870, the year in which Dei Filius was passed, it was incorporated into the newly created Italian national state ( Risorgimento ).

Theologically, the Vatican had to deal with different philosophical directions that endangered the life of faith: Indifferentism , rationalism and materialism , but also theological opposing positions such as pantheism , fideism and traditionalism are condemned in the various chapters and canons . In the knowledge of God, the question was whether man with his reason is able to recognize the existence and characteristics of God, which was denied by representatives of fideism.

In both the third chapter and in canons 3 and 4, Dei Filius emphasizes the importance of miracles for faith. Without making an explicit definition of “miracle”, the text presupposes that miracles as acts of power of God can override the natural laws wrought by God himself, and that such acts of God not only occur but have also happened in the course of history . The authors appeared to be of the opinion that if the belief in miracles were given up, the Christian faith would collapse.

Meaning of the canons

The canons contain in the traditional formulation ("Si quis ... anathema sit") the formulation of errors that are condemned by the council. The formulations were hotly controversial from the start. A bishop from the US state of Georgia said that instead of condemning the errors of some German idealists, one should rather condemn the "view that negroes have no soul".

Author's intention

The intention can be read from the preface to the text:

“... But now that the bishops of the entire world, by virtue of Our Authority in the Holy Spirit, are sitting in consultation with Us and judging, We have - based on the written and traditional Word of God, as We did , holy preserved by the Catholic Church and interpreted unadulterated - decided to proclaim and explain the salutary teaching of Christ from this chair of Peter before the eyes of all, but to reject and accept the opposite errors by virtue of the authority given to us by God condemn. "

literature

  • Robert Aubert: Vatikanum I. Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1965 (= history of the ecumenical councils 12).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Denzinger-Schönmetzer: Enchiridion Symbolorum (editio XXXIV). Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1965, p. 586
  2. ^ Hubert Jedin : Small Council History. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1978 p. 114
  3. ↑ a b Josef Neuner, Heinrich Roos: The faith of the church in the documents of the doctrinal proclamation. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg (7) 1965, p. 42
  4. ↑ Hans Waldenfels: Contextual Fundamental Theology. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1985, p. 158 f.
  5. ^ Hubert Jedin: Small Council History. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1978, p. 114