Introduction: Dignitatis Humanae and the Rediscovery of Religious Freedom
EditorThis special Summer–Fall 2013 double issue of Communio takes up various aspects of the question of religious liberty.
Summer-Fall 2013
Dignitatis Humanae and the Rediscovery of Religious Freedom (photocopy)
Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity: An Interpretation of DH on the Right to Religious Liberty
David L. Schindler“[T]he juridical idea of freedom, in abstracting the negative meaning of a right from its positive link with truth, so far . . . renders the right to religious freedom arbitrary; while the Declaration’s idea of freedom, in affirming freedom’s positive . . . obligation to seek the truth . . . demands a genuinely universal right to religious freedom.”
The Nature and Scope of Religious Freedom in Our Contemporary Culture
Angelo Scola“[The longing for truth] respects the freedom of all, even of the person who calls himself agnostic, indifferent, or atheist.”
Religious Liberty and the Church’s Voice in Transforming Our Culture: An American Perspective
Donald Wuerl"The province of the Church is the world."
America and Religious Freedom
Carl A. Anderson"We have all heard quite a bit about the dictatorship of relativism. Perhaps it is time that we also discuss the despotism of tolerance."
Dignitatis humanae: Origins and Unexpected Consequences
George Weigel"Dignitatis humanae had a rough passage through the rocks and shoals of conciliar politics, the effects of which may still be seen . . . [but it has had a] complex, and sometimes unforeseen, impact on both Church and world."
Karol Wojtyła and DH: A Historical Perspective
Andrzej Dobrzyński"Despite the pressure of ideologies and political systems . . . the Pope called on us never to lose heart for the good of man and society."
Religious Freedom and Truth: The Contribution of Pope Benedict XVI
Nicholas J. Healy Jr.“Understanding the meaning of human existence in light of God’s revelation in Christ opens up a new sense of the idea of freedom in relation to truth as well as a new sense of the distinct integrity of the political order.”
Is Religious Liberty Possible in a Liberal Culture?
David S. Crawford“In trying to understand the meaning of religious freedom [the] problem is [one] of admissible forms of public discourse, given the culture generated by political and juridical liberalism.”
The Pretention of Universality: Liberal Culture and Religious Freedom
Jean Laffitte"We are facing a radical change of civilization."
The Right and the Good, and the Place of Freedom of Religion in Human Rights
Paolo G. Carozza"[T]he centrality of religious freedom to the protection of human dignity is, in fact, key to the coherence and viability of the entire human rights project."
Christian Culture and the Form of Human Existence
Antonio López"The first Christian cultural revolution is precisely the Christian whose existence is held together and moved by the love of Christ."
The Church in History: Status Viatoris
Glenn W. Olsen“Christians are called to form a Christian civilization, not in the first instance a pure civilization, but one where the Christian message has been brought to bear on the saeculum.”
“All Things Counter, Original, Spare, Strange”: Liberal Society and Pluralism
Frederick C. Bauerschmidt“[A] liberal vision of the world and society in which all of the members of society are, as citizens, fundamentally equal units is one that is constantly in danger of succumbing to a totalitarianism that obliterates all true plurality.”
Absolute Pluralism: How the Dictatorship of Relativism Dictates
Michael Hanby“Autonomy, severed from obedience . . . ‘is an ontological lie,’ but also a ‘political and practical lie’ that leaves us at the mercy of majority consensus. It is, rather, the calling of Christ and the eternal destiny he opens for us that makes obedience, and thus true freedom, possible.”
Liberalism, Religious Freedom, and the Common Good: The Totalitarian Logic of Self-Limitation
D. C. Schindler“[T]he Catholic view [of politics] in fact is more catholic, more inclusive, more respectful of the meaning of man and the human condition, of contemporary pluralism, than liberalism.”
Religious Liberty After Liberalism: Re-Thinking DH in an Age of Illiberal Liberalism
Patrick J. Deneen“The true ground condition for religious liberty is not official indifference to religion, but rather an insistence upon the pervasive presence of a belief in, and practices, of what DH calls ‘true freedom.’”