Redemptor hominis
The inaugural encyclical of Pope John Paul II from 1979 is headed with Redemptor Hominis , official publication: Redeemer of Man . In it he sets out his theological program: a return to Christ as the center of the church and the starting point of theology, of people in their personal existence as the “path of the church”.
Content (structure)
- I. THE HERITAGE
- 1. At the end of the second millennium
- 2. The first words of the new pontificate
- 3. With confidence in the spirit of truth and love
- 4. The reference to the first encyclical of Paul VI.
- 5. Collegiality and apostolate
- 6. The way to Christian unity
- II. THE MYSTERY OF SALVATION
- 7. Surrounded by the mystery of Christ
- 8. Salvation: a new creation
- 9. The divine dimension in the mystery of salvation
- 10. The human dimension in the mystery of salvation
“Man cannot live without love. He remains an incomprehensible being for himself; his life is meaningless if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not receive a living share in it. And that is precisely why Christ, the Redeemer, as already said, makes man himself fully known to man. This is - if one may put it that way - the human dimension in the mystery of redemption. In this dimension man finds the greatness, the dignity and the value that are given by being human. In the mystery of redemption man is "re-confirmed" and in a certain way created anew. He is newly created! “There are no longer Jews and Greeks, no more slaves and free people, no men and women; for you are all 'one' in Christ Jesus ”.
The person who wants to understand himself in depth - not only according to directly accessible, partial, often superficial and even only apparent criteria and standards of his own being - must deal with his restlessness, insecurity and also with his weakness and sinfulness, draw near to Christ with his life and death. He has to enter him with his whole self, so to speak, has to "appropriate" and assimilate the whole reality of the incarnation and redemption in order to find himself.
When this profound process takes place in him, he is not only induced to worship God, but is also deeply amazed at himself. What value must man have in the eyes of the Creator, if “he deserves such and such to have a great Redeemer "when" God has given his Son "so that he, the human being," does not perish but has eternal life ". This deep amazement at the worth and dignity of human beings is called the Gospel, Good News. This amazement justifies the mission of the Church in the world, also and perhaps above all "in the world of today". This amazement and at the same time the conviction and certainty, which is at its deepest root certainty of faith, but which also animates every aspect of true humanism in a hidden and mysterious way, is closely connected with Christ. "
- 11. The mystery of Christ as the basis of the mission of the Church and of Christianity
- 12. The mission of the Church and human freedom
- III. THE REDEEMED MAN AND HIS SITUATION IN THE WORLD OF TODAY
- 13. Christ is connected to everyone
“... Jesus Christ is the main way of the Church. He himself is our way to the house of the father and is also the access to every person. On this road that leads from Christ to man, on which Christ stands by everyone's side, the Church must not allow anyone to hold her back. This demands the temporal as well as the eternal salvation of man. If the church looks to Christ and to the mystery that makes up her life, then she cannot remain insensitive to everything that serves the true good of man, just as it cannot be indifferent to it when this is threatened. "
- 14. All the ways of the Church lead to people
“... Man in the full truth of his existence, his personal and at the same time community-related and social being - in the area of his own family, on the level of society and so many different environments, in the area of his own nation or people or perhaps only of one's own clan or tribe, ultimately also in the realm of humanity as a whole - this person is the first path that the church must take in fulfilling its mission: it is the first and fundamental path of the church, a path that is marked out by Christ himself and leads inexorably through the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption. ... Since man is the way of the church, the way of her daily life and experience, her tasks and efforts, the church of our time has to make itself again and again aware of the "situation" of man. It must know its possibilities, which always take a new direction and so come to light; but at the same time the church must know the threats that hang over man. It must be aware of everything that is obviously contrary to the endeavor to "make human life more and more humane" so that all areas of this life correspond to the true dignity of human beings. In a word: the Church must know everything that stands in the way of this process. ""
- 15. The fears of today's man
- 16. Progress or Threat?
- 17. Human rights: "letter" or "spirit"
- IV. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH AND THE FATE OF MAN
- 18. The Church, concerned with the vocation of man in Christ
- 19. The Church's Responsibility for the Truth
- 20. Eucharist and penance
- 21. The calling of the Christian: serve and rule
- 22. The mother of our trust
source
- Pope John Paul II: encyclical “Redemptor hominis” of March 4, 1979, ed. v. Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference (pronouncements of the Apostolic See; No. 6), as PDF [1] ;
- Latin / German (excerpts - only nos. 10 and 14) in: DH 4640 - 4649.
