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Christianity Today, July (Web-only), 2009 |

SPEAKING OUT

Why You Can't Just 'Love Your Neighbor'

According to Benedict XVI's new encyclical, trying to love people without knowing the truth about them leads to mere sentiment and will do them harm.

Francis J. Beckwith | posted 7/10/2009 10:56AM

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Therefore, it is not surprising that in Caritas in Veritate Benedict does not endorse any specific policies on economic matters. As he points out, “The Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim `to interfere in any way in the politics of States’” (9, quoting from Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 13; notes omitted). The pope is, after all, the shepherd of a global church, one that includes a wide diversity of cultures, ethnicities, sensibilities, practices, and levels of economic development. These nations also run the gamut in terms of their forms of government.

But regardless of our differences, we share the same nature, the imago dei. We have intrinsic dignity because we are made in God’s image. However, we are also fallen creatures, prone to the same delusion and arrogance that captured the imaginations of our first parents. This means we can paint the Sistine Chapel as well as pollute Lake Erie. We can find a cure for polio while building gulags and concentration camps. We can fly our magnificent aircrafts into our monuments of prosperity in order to deliver in the name of God the angel of death. For these reasons, Pope Benedict XVI offers us an encyclical whose name affirms the only solution to what afflicts this mystery called man, Charity in Truth.

Francis J. Beckwith is professor of philosophy and church-state studies, and resident scholar in the Institute for the Studies of Religion at Baylor University. Former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, his most recent book is Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic (Brazos, 2009).

Related Elsewhere:

Christianity Today has more articles on Catholicism, including:

Thinking Epistemologically about Obama and Notre Dame | Francis Beckwith explains why Notre Dame's invitation is so controversial, and what it says about higher education. (March 27, 2009)

Q&A: Francis Beckwith | Former ETS president speaks about what he takes from evangelicalism back to the Roman Catholic Church. (March 9, 2007)

The Promise of Benedict XVI | Evangelicals can be glad that the new pope is not likely to be a mere caretaker. (May 26, 2005)

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July (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 8 comments.

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Jonah

Posted: July 20, 2009 8:42 PM


Great article! Pope Benedict God Bless you!

James

Posted: July 14, 2009 11:29 AM

In "a magazine of Evangelical conviction," an article by a convert to Catholicism about a papal encyclical. Cool, but it seems to only further deepens my view that we ("evangelical - whatever that means - Christians") continue our legacy of what should really be called "Cafeteria Christianity." If we are truly Protest-ants, why any articles about the thoughts of the Pope...UNLESS there are also articles about the thoughts of the Dalai Lama (and maybe there have been such articles?) and other religious leaders around the world to whom we claim no submission or allegiance. I love this pope (The "German Shepherd"), I loved JPII. In my opinion, they are/were wise and holy men...and, like many others, I'm coming to see that they rightly sit on the seat of Peter, as ordained by God (maybe Beckwith's conversion is rubbing off on us). What the Pope writes SHOULD have zero bearing on true Protest-ors, er, uh, "-ants". Then again, maybe Protest-ing isn't a Christ-like attribute after all?

David Scott

Posted: July 12, 2009 6:56 PM

Although, I personally am so far to the left that even the democrats appear to me to be "right-wing," I consider myself to be a strict constitutionalist. It is my opinion that since its inception there has been an organized and systematic assault by the conservatives in the United States on the civil liberties written into the US Constitution. The “War on Drugs”; “War on Terror”; “War on Communism” and a host of other wars waged by the right wing are really nothing more than a War on People--an excuse to erode civil rights to the point of non-existence. I invite you to my website devoted to raising awareness on this puritan attack on freedom: http://pltcldscsn.blogspot.com/

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