Redemptor Hominis
Encyclopedia
Redemptor Hominis is the name of the first encyclical
written by Pope John Paul II
. It lays a blueprint for his pontificate in its exploration of contemporary human problems and especially their proposed solutions found in a deeper understanding of the human person. The encyclical was promulgated
on March 4, 1979, less than 5 months after his installation
as pope
.
Redemptor Hominis proposes that the solution to these problems may be found through a fuller understanding of the person: both of the human person, and that of Christ
. As such, his first encyclical repeatedly stresses the pope's favored philosophical approach of personalism
, an approach that he used repeatedly throughout the rest of his papacy.
The encyclical also works to prepare the Church for the upcoming third millennium, calling the remaining years of the 20th century "a season of a new Advent
, a season of expectation" in preparation for the new millennium.
and the Redemption as, above all, evidence of God's love for humanity: "Man cannot live without love.... This ... is why Christ the Redeemer fully reveals man to himself." In response, anyone, no matter how weak, wishing to understand himself thoroughly, must "assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself."
, such as that found in his native Poland
, an "atheism
that is programmed, organized, and structured as a political system." John Paul confronts this on the philosophical level as inherently inhuman. Citing Augustine
's famous quote of "You made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you," John Paul argues that the human person naturally strives for God (as understood through whatever religion) as the full dimension of humanity. Thus, he states, systems such as Communism that deny this essential aspect of human nature are fundamentally flawed and inherently unable to satisfy the deepest human longings for the fullest expression of human life. This lays a philosophical underpinning to the pope's own remarkably successful actions confronting Communism in the political field.
He specifically denounces governments opposed to freedom of religion as an attack on man's inherent dignity: "the curtailment of the religious freedom of individuals and communities is not only a painful experience but it is above all an attack on man's very dignity."
, John Paul stresses the need of bringing the message of God to "all cultures, all ideological concepts, all people of good will" with a proper "missionary attitude." This attitude, he insists, must first begin with a proper regard of "what is in man," again stressing the personalist theme. He stresses that a proper expression of the missionary attitude is not destructive, but rather begins with building on what is already there.
John Paul uses this as a foundation to another of the central themes of his papacy: that of religious freedom. Building on the declaration of the Second Vatican Council
in Dignitatis Humanae
(Declaration on Religious Freedom), Pope John Paul teaches that any missionizing work by the Church must begin with a "deep esteem for man, for his intellect, his will, his conscience and his freedom." He goes on to the Catholic Church as the true repository of human freedom, while stressing the Church's respect for other religions; this is yet another implicit rebuke to Communist governments that suppress freedom of worship.
Rather, he insists that Christ reaches out to each person as an individual. Thus each person on his own may walk his own path of life and reach his fullest potential from that personal experience of Christ's love for him as an individual. In the same way, the Church's mission must also be to reach out personally to each and every person: "Since this man is the way for the Church, the way for her daily life and experience, for her mission and toil, the Church of today must be aware in an always new manner of man's 'situation.'"
John Paul points out that although man's technological and material accomplishments certainly stand as authentic signs of man's greatness, they provoke a disquieting question: "Does this progress, which has man for its author and promoter, make human life on earth 'more human' in every aspect of that life? Does it make it more 'worthy of man?'" Yet again, the true measure of good is the effect on the human person, not just mere accomplishment and accumulation. The encyclical teaches that even if contrary to its intention, any purely materialistic
system that essentially ignores the human person must in the end condemn man to being a slave of his own production.
Denouncing the imbalance of economic resources, another oft-repeated theme of his papacy, John Paul encourages an increased concern for the problems of the poor. Once more, he stresses that the key to this is an increased moral responsibility built on a deeper understanding of the dignity of the human person, as taught by Christ himself in his description of the Last Judgment
in the Gospel of Matthew
.
, John Paul emphasizes the responsibility of the Church in its prophetic mission to teach the truth to the world. He also indicates the importance of catechesis -- teaching the doctrines of the faith -- which found fruit in his papacy, most notably in his promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
.
, yet another theme that would mark John Paul's papacy. Emphasizing that "the Eucharist is the centre and summit of the whole of sacramental life," John Paul stresses the familiar Catholic theme of personal union with Christ brought so intimately through the reality of Christ's own person being offered to every person through the Eucharist.
John Paul also brings in the personalist theme in his manner of responding to a controversy of the post-Vatican II Church: the issue of communal penance. In some cases, the sacrament of Penance
at the time was being offered to groups of people together, without individual confession. John Paul insists against this that confession as an individual is "man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ."
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
written by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
. It lays a blueprint for his pontificate in its exploration of contemporary human problems and especially their proposed solutions found in a deeper understanding of the human person. The encyclical was promulgated
Promulgation
Promulgation is the act of formally proclaiming or declaring a new statutory or administrative law after its enactment. In some jurisdictions this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect....
on March 4, 1979, less than 5 months after his installation
Papal Inauguration
The Papal Inauguration is a liturgical service of the Catholic Church within Mass celebrated in the Roman Rite but with elements of Byzantine Rite for the ecclesiastical investiture of the Pope...
as pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
.
Summary of the encyclical
This first encyclical of Pope John Paul II examines major problems confronting the world at the time. John Paul II began his papacy during a crisis of self-doubt and internal criticism in the Catholic Church. He alludes to this in the encyclical's introduction, stating his confidence that the new movement of life in the Church "is much stronger than the symptoms of doubt, collapse, and crisis." He says that Jesus is real and living.Redemptor Hominis proposes that the solution to these problems may be found through a fuller understanding of the person: both of the human person, and that of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
. As such, his first encyclical repeatedly stresses the pope's favored philosophical approach of personalism
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
, an approach that he used repeatedly throughout the rest of his papacy.
The encyclical also works to prepare the Church for the upcoming third millennium, calling the remaining years of the 20th century "a season of a new Advent
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
, a season of expectation" in preparation for the new millennium.
The humanity of the mystery of the redemption
John Paul II points to the central doctrines of the IncarnationIncarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
and the Redemption as, above all, evidence of God's love for humanity: "Man cannot live without love.... This ... is why Christ the Redeemer fully reveals man to himself." In response, anyone, no matter how weak, wishing to understand himself thoroughly, must "assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself."
Critique of atheist governments
Without naming it explicitly, Redemptor Hominis confronts the system of atheist-based CommunismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, such as that found in his native Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, an "atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
that is programmed, organized, and structured as a political system." John Paul confronts this on the philosophical level as inherently inhuman. Citing Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
's famous quote of "You made us for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you," John Paul argues that the human person naturally strives for God (as understood through whatever religion) as the full dimension of humanity. Thus, he states, systems such as Communism that deny this essential aspect of human nature are fundamentally flawed and inherently unable to satisfy the deepest human longings for the fullest expression of human life. This lays a philosophical underpinning to the pope's own remarkably successful actions confronting Communism in the political field.
He specifically denounces governments opposed to freedom of religion as an attack on man's inherent dignity: "the curtailment of the religious freedom of individuals and communities is not only a painful experience but it is above all an attack on man's very dignity."
Missionary message and religious freedom
Foreshadowing his many successful travels around the worldPastoral trips of Pope John Paul II
During his reign, Pope John Paul II made 104 foreign trips, more than all previous popes combined. In total he logged more than . He consistently attracted large crowds on his travels, some amongst the largest ever assembled...
, John Paul stresses the need of bringing the message of God to "all cultures, all ideological concepts, all people of good will" with a proper "missionary attitude." This attitude, he insists, must first begin with a proper regard of "what is in man," again stressing the personalist theme. He stresses that a proper expression of the missionary attitude is not destructive, but rather begins with building on what is already there.
John Paul uses this as a foundation to another of the central themes of his papacy: that of religious freedom. Building on the declaration of the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
in Dignitatis Humanae
Dignitatis Humanae
Dignitatis Humanae is the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom. In the context of the Council's stated intention “to develop the doctrine of recent popes on the inviolable rights of the human person and the constitutional order of society”, Dignitatis Humanae spells out the...
(Declaration on Religious Freedom), Pope John Paul teaches that any missionizing work by the Church must begin with a "deep esteem for man, for his intellect, his will, his conscience and his freedom." He goes on to the Catholic Church as the true repository of human freedom, while stressing the Church's respect for other religions; this is yet another implicit rebuke to Communist governments that suppress freedom of worship.
Christ's union with each person
In another aspect of the personalist theme, John Paul writes that it is insufficient to talk of Christ's union with man as an impersonal union of Christ with mankind as an undifferentiated conglomerate: "We are not dealing with the 'abstract man,' but the real, 'concrete,' 'historical' man. We are dealing with 'each' man...."Rather, he insists that Christ reaches out to each person as an individual. Thus each person on his own may walk his own path of life and reach his fullest potential from that personal experience of Christ's love for him as an individual. In the same way, the Church's mission must also be to reach out personally to each and every person: "Since this man is the way for the Church, the way for her daily life and experience, for her mission and toil, the Church of today must be aware in an always new manner of man's 'situation.'"
Man's fears
John Paul writes that some of man's greatest fears are the result of his own creations: the ecological damage wrought by untrammeled exploitation of the earth, and the fear brought on by ever-increasing military power with its accompanying threat of widespread destruction, "an unimaginable self-destruction, compared with which all the cataclysms and catastrophes of history known to us seem to fade away."John Paul points out that although man's technological and material accomplishments certainly stand as authentic signs of man's greatness, they provoke a disquieting question: "Does this progress, which has man for its author and promoter, make human life on earth 'more human' in every aspect of that life? Does it make it more 'worthy of man?'" Yet again, the true measure of good is the effect on the human person, not just mere accomplishment and accumulation. The encyclical teaches that even if contrary to its intention, any purely materialistic
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
system that essentially ignores the human person must in the end condemn man to being a slave of his own production.
Denouncing the imbalance of economic resources, another oft-repeated theme of his papacy, John Paul encourages an increased concern for the problems of the poor. Once more, he stresses that the key to this is an increased moral responsibility built on a deeper understanding of the dignity of the human person, as taught by Christ himself in his description of the Last Judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
in the Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
.
The Church's teaching mission
Anticipating a theme that he would develop at much greater length in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis SplendorVeritatis Splendor
Veritatis Splendor is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II. It expresses the position of the Catholic Church regarding fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching. The encyclical is one of the most comprehensive and philosophical teachings of moral theology in the Catholic tradition...
, John Paul emphasizes the responsibility of the Church in its prophetic mission to teach the truth to the world. He also indicates the importance of catechesis -- teaching the doctrines of the faith -- which found fruit in his papacy, most notably in his promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official text of the teachings of the Catholic Church. A provisional, "reference text" was issued by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992 — "the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council" — with his apostolic...
.
The sacraments of Eucharist and Penance
The encyclical reaches its final sections with a section on the EucharistEucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
, yet another theme that would mark John Paul's papacy. Emphasizing that "the Eucharist is the centre and summit of the whole of sacramental life," John Paul stresses the familiar Catholic theme of personal union with Christ brought so intimately through the reality of Christ's own person being offered to every person through the Eucharist.
John Paul also brings in the personalist theme in his manner of responding to a controversy of the post-Vatican II Church: the issue of communal penance. In some cases, the sacrament of Penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...
at the time was being offered to groups of people together, without individual confession. John Paul insists against this that confession as an individual is "man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ."
Mary
Beginning a pattern that marked all of his subsequent encyclicals, John Paul focuses on Mary in the final section. In particular, he invites the Church (by which he means all members of the church, not only the hierarchy) to take Mary as mother, as its model for nourishing the world.See also
- PersonalismPersonalismPersonalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
- List of Encyclicals of Pope John Paul II
- Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and MaryAlliance of the Hearts of Jesus and MaryThe Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary refers to the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary...