AN ISSUE OF THE FIRST IMPORTANCE: REFLECTIONS ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF DIGNITATIS HUMANAE

It is said that John Henry Newman was the "father of the Second Vatican Council" because of his work on doctrinal development and the claims of human conscience. Of the sixteen documents produced by the council, Dignitatis Humanae ("Declaration on Religious Liberty") was recogniz...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:SYMPOSIUM: CHRISTIANITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Main Author: Hittinger, Russell 1949- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2015]
In: Journal of law and religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 30, Issue: 3, Pages: 461-474
Further subjects:B corporate religious liberty
B Religious Liberty
B right of conscience
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:It is said that John Henry Newman was the "father of the Second Vatican Council" because of his work on doctrinal development and the claims of human conscience. Of the sixteen documents produced by the council, Dignitatis Humanae ("Declaration on Religious Liberty") was recognized from the outset as a development of doctrine. Importantly, it was the second shortest of all the council's documents. Yet, for the past fifty years there has been lively debate about whether the development is consistent with previous church teachings and whether it is coherent on its own terms. This essay does not attempt to resolve all of the disputed issues regarding either consistency or coherence of the doctrine. Rather, I show, first, how and why Dignitatis Humanae was written in such a manner as to be surprisingly silent about its own place in the history of human rights as well as church teachings about church-state relations. Second, I attempt to interpret the silences in order to better situate ongoing debate about Dignitatis Humanae.
ISSN:2163-3088
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2015.26