Sensus fidei

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Sensus fidei , " Sense of Faith", also Sensus fidei fidelium , " Sense of Faith of the Believers" or Sensus fidelium , "Sense of the Believers" (from Latin sensus "Sense, feeling, judgment, opinion", fides "Faith, trust, loyalty" and fidelis "loyal, reliable, believing") is a term used in Roman Catholic theology. The “supernatural sense of faith” describes an “instinct for the truth of the gospel ”, a “very personal, deep knowledge of the ecclesiastical faith” which enables all members of the church - “from the bishops to the last believing lay people” - to “ to recognize and advocate genuine Christian doctrine and practice and reject what is wrong ”. Through “the personal ability of the believer to recognize the truth of the faith within the community of the church” constitutes the consensus fidelium (“unanimity of believers”), which is regarded as a sure criterion “to decide whether a certain doctrine or Practice is part of the apostolic faith ”.

Biblical basis

Church teaching is based on the statements of the New Testament in the Gospel of John , the Epistles of Paul and the Catholic Epistles , in which the support of the Holy Spirit was promised to the whole people of God in the anointing at baptism and confirmation :

  • "But the assistance, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have said to you." ( Jn 14:26  EU ; cf. Jn 14: 16- 17  EU , Joh 15,26  EU , Joh 16,12-14  EU )
  • "But the revelation of the Spirit is given to everyone so that it can benefit others." ( 1 Cor 12.7  EU , cf. 1 Cor 12.4-11  EU )
  • “The God of Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Father of glory, give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may know him. He enlightens the eyes of your heart so that you will understand the hope to which you are called through him, what riches the glory of his inheritance gives to the saints and how overwhelming his power shows itself to us, the believers, through the work of his power and strength . "( Eph 1,17-19  EU )
  • “For you, however, the following applies: The anointing that you received from him remains in you and you do not need to be instructed by anyone. All that his anointing teaches you is true and not a lie. Remain in him as his anointing taught you. "( 1 Jn 2.27  EU )
  • "Whoever has ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches." ( Rev 2 : 7  EU )

Origin of the term

At the time of the Church Fathers , “the faith of the whole Church” was considered a “safe point of reference for recognizing what belongs to the apostolic tradition”. Lay people took part in councils and participated in the election of bishops. As John Henry Newman researched, during the fourth century "the divine tradition conferred on the infallible church was proclaimed and maintained by the believers far more than the episcopate". In the Middle Ages, too, great respect and attention was paid to the sensus fidelium .

The theologian Melchior Cano , who took part in the Council of Trent , spoke in connection with the Loci theologici , the sources of knowledge of dogmatics based on church tradition , of the sensus fidelium as one of four criteria for deciding whether a doctrine or practice belongs to the catholic tradition. In the 19th century the theologians Johann Adam Möhler , Giovanni Perrone and John Henry Newman made significant contributions to understanding the sensus fidelium as a locus theologicus . For Möhler he represented “the subjective dimension of tradition” and “necessarily includes an objective element - the teaching of the church - because the Christian 'feeling' of believers, which lives in their hearts and is practically synonymous with tradition, becomes never divorced from its content ”. Giovanni Perrone saw in “the unanimous consent or 'conspiracy' of the faithful and their pastors” a “guarantee of the apostolic origin of this teaching”. It was due to the influence of Giovanni Perrone that Pope Pius IX. Before proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus in 1854, he asked all bishops worldwide about the extent to which this statement of faith would have in the faith and cult of the people, and he met singularis catholicorum Antistitum ac fidelium conspiratio , a " unique correspondence between Catholic rulers and believers ”.

The First Vatican Council defined the Pope's infallibility . It presupposed the sensus fidei fidelium , without specifically deliberating it and adopting it in a text because of the premature termination of the council. The Second Vatican Council supplemented the aspect of infallibility with the infallibility of the whole people of God and owed essential impulses for this to the theologian Yves Congar . In its dogmatic constitution on the Church, it defined Lumen Gentium :

“The holy people of God also take part in the prophetic ministry of Christ, in the dissemination of his living testimony, above all through a life of faith and love […]. The totality of believers […] cannot err in their belief. And she makes this her special quality known through the supernatural sense of faith ( mediante supernaturali sensu fidei ) of the whole people when she expresses her general agreement in matters of faith and morals, from the bishops to the last believing lay people (Augustine) . Through that sense of faith that is awakened and nourished by the spirit of truth, the people of God [...] hold on to the faith that has once been given to the saints (cf. Jud 3  EU ) inextricably. "

- Lumen gentium No. 12

The council thus overcame the “caricature” of a contrast between active hierarchy and passive laypeople and a strict separation between a “teaching church” ( Ecclesia docens ), the ecclesiastical teaching office , and a “learning church” ( Ecclesia discens ) or “listening church” , the laity, as it had solidified in the 19th century and was still represented by Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini at the Second Vatican Council .

Salary and range

The Catholic Church believes that believing Christians receive a supernatural "instinct for the truth of the Gospel" that is not given by being human as a result of the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit , whom they receive in baptism and confirmation ; this enables them to see genuine Christian teaching and practice, and to reject what is wrong. This instinct arises from belief and is one of its characteristics. The places where the sensus fidelium is realized include the liturgy and popular piety ; here he contributes to the “authenticity of the [...] symbolic and mystical language”.

Subjects of the sensus fidei are both the individual believer and the entire people of God . It is mediated historically, socially and culturally. The sense of faith of the individual Christian cannot be separated from the sensus fidelium , from the sense of faith of all believers, which, as sensus ecclesiae , common sense of faith of the church (rulers and laypeople), represents a “safe standard” “to recognize whether a particular doctrine or practice is in accordance with Catholic tradition ”. The laity are no longer understood as purely passive recipients of what the hierarchy teaches and the theologians explain, but rather they are “living and active subjects in the church”.

The church leadership sees some ecclesiastical, spiritual and ethical dispositions as prerequisites for participation in the Sensus fidelium :

  1. active participation in church life beyond formal membership in the church
  2. attentive and receptive listening to the Holy Scriptures, preferably in the liturgy, and a "heartfelt response" and the confession of faith
  3. Openness and acceptance of the role of reason in relation to belief
  4. "Mindfulness of the Church's Magisterium and the willingness to listen to the teaching of the Pastors of the Church as an act of freedom and deep conviction"
  5. Holiness, humility, freedom and joy: "Holiness is participation in the life of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and commitment to others."
  6. Efforts to build the Church.

The active role of the faithful concerns the development of the Christian faith and the formation of doctrinal statements as well as the further development of the moral teaching of the church on appropriate human behavior that conforms to the Gospel. The Second Vatican Council confirmed the “sensus fidelium” as an important factor in the development of doctrine, so that the Magisterium is obliged to refer to the faith of the Church as a whole and to consult the faithful:

“The whole of the believers who have the anointing of the Holy (cf. 1 Jn 2:20, 27) cannot err in their faith. And this particular quality of her she makes known through the supernatural sense of faith of the whole people when she expresses her general agreement in matters of faith and morals, from the bishops to the last of the lay faithful. It is through that sense of faith that is awakened and nourished by the spirit of truth that the people of God keep under the direction of the holy magisterium, in whose faithful allegiance they no longer receive the word of men, but actually receive the word of God (cf. 1 Thess 2, 13), the faith once handed down to the saints (cf. Jude 3). Through him it penetrates more and more deeply into faith with right judgment and applies it more fully in life. (LG 12) "

- 2nd Vatican Council

"Within the framework of the church as a whole, the laity have an independent authority in the tradition of the faith, insofar as they participate in and express the infallibility of the church."

Theology and theologians have a “critical-enlightening” role, the church teaching office a “distinguishing and regulating” function. Theology must “go to the school of the 'sensus fidelium' in order to discover the deep resonance of God's word there. On the other hand, the theologians help the believers to express the real 'sensus fidelium' ”.

According to the prevailing view of the church leadership, the assessment of the authenticity of the “sensus fidelium” ultimately falls neither to the believers themselves nor to theology, but to the teaching office. “Nevertheless, as has already been emphasized, the faith served by this is the faith of the Church that lives in all believers, therefore the Magisterium always exercises its important supervisory office within the communal life of the Church.” About this relationship between Magisterium and Sensus To protect fidei , a legal system is desirable that has yet to be developed in the church, according to the Catholic theologian Peter Hünermann . The church leadership points out that “there can be no simple equality between the“ sensus fidei ”and public or majority opinion”. However, regular consultation, “constant communication and dialogue on practical questions and matters of faith and morality among the members of the Church” is natural and important. Synods and pastoral councils at all levels of the Church, in which clergy, religious and lay people participate, are places of exchange of legitimate views on the basis of freedom of expression and speech.

literature

  • John Henry Newman : On the Lay Testimony on Doctrine of the Faith: Polemical Writing. In: ders .: Selected Works Vol. 4, Mainz 1959, pp. 253–292, 312–318.
  • Yves Congar : The layman. Draft of a theology of the laity. Stuttgart 1957 ( Jalons pour une théologie du laïcat , Paris 1953, translated into German by the Dominican community in Walberberg ).
  • Peter Scharr: Consensus fidelium. On the infallibility of the church from the perspective of a consensus theory of truth. Würzburg 1992 (studies on systematic and spiritual theology 6).
  • Dietrich Wiederkehr : The People's Sense of Faith - Competitor or Partner of the Teaching Office? Freiburg - Basel - Vienna 1994.
  • Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  • Christoph Ohly : Sensus fidei fidelium. To classify the sense of faith of all believers in the communion structure of the church in the historical mirror of dogmatic-canonical knowledge and the statements of Vatican II. (Munich Theological Studies. III. Canonical Department 57), EOS Verlag, St. Ottilien 2000, ISBN 3-8306-7024-9 .
  • International Theological Commission : Sensus fidei in the life of the Church , March 5, 2014 (German Bishops' Conference: Announcements of the Apostolic See No. 199, 89 pp.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Augustine : De praedestinatione sanctorum ad Prosperum et Hilarium 14:27
  2. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 1–3.
  3. ^ John Henry Newman: On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine. (Ed. With an introduction by John Coulson), London 1961, pp. 75-101, here pp. 75 and 77; Quoted in: International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the church” , March 5, 2014, No. 26, see also there No. 23–28 and Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  4. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 31.
  5. ↑ Johann Adam Möhler: Symbolism or representation of the dogmatic opposites of Catholics and Protestants, according to their public confessions: [1832], Ed. JR Geiselmann, Cologne and Olten 1958, § 38, quoted in: International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 35; on Perrone: No. 37f.
  6. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 4.43ff .; Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  7. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 2.49.82.
  8. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, no. 66.68; Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  9. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 88-105.
  10. ↑ Quoted from Gerhard Ludwig Müller : Katholische Dogmatik: for study and practice of theology. 6th edition, Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-451-28652-1 , p. 90
  11. ↑ Quoted from Gerhard Ludwig Müller : Katholische Dogmatik: for study and practice of theology. 6th edition, Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2005, ISBN 3-451-28652-1 , p. 90
  12. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 81; Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  13. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 72–74.
  14. ^ Peter Hünermann: Sensus fidei . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 465 ff .
  15. ↑ International Theological Commission: Letter “Sensus fidei in the life of the Church” , March 5, 2014, No. 113.123-125.