Abstract
What differentiates Christian political theology from secular politics and its limiting theoretical models mentioned earlier is that to be a Christian is to acknowledge an alternative authority, namely that of Christ’s sovereignty and with this the possibility of eternal life. Christ’s atoning for man’s sins through His sacrifice re-established the covenant with God and opened the way to salvation and eternal life. Such a conceptualization places the end goal outside of the framework of traditional political and social science models making them inadequate to fully integrate the impetus for religious institutions in post-conflict statebuilding.
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Notes
Cf. A Gill and A Keshavarzian, “State Building and Religious Resources: An Institutional Theory of Church-State Relations in Iran and Mexico,” Politics and Society 27, no. 3 (1999).
J. Brian Benestad, Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine, Catholic Moral Thought (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2011) 8.
Pope John XXIII, Pacem in terris (1963). No. 46.
Pope John XXIII, “Mater et Magistra” (1961), no. 217. See also Pope John XXIII, Pacem in terris: no. 51.
Nell-Breuning in contributing to the commentary on the Second Vatican Council notes that ‘the Council certainly does not want to impose, with impetuous zeal, juridical and political structures on peoples among whom the necessary conditions for their functioning have yet to be created,’ though, he notes, an all-out effort must be made to create these conditions. Oswald von Nell-Breuning, “Part II, Chapter IV: The Life of the Political Community.” In Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II: Volume V; Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, ed. Herbert Vorgrimler (London: Burns & Oates, 1967), 321. See also Pope John XXIII, Pacem in terris: no. 68. For an additional reference to the need for countries to reform political institutions and shift towards participatory forms of governance, see Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis: no. 44. The Catechism references Gaudium et spes when suggesting a preference for a democratic style system. Gaudium et spes. No. 74.
Quoted from Feral Tribune, no. 739, 16 November 1999, in Vjekoslav Perica, Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002): 173.
Quoted in Gerard F. Powers, “Religion, Conflict and Prospects for Peace in Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia,” Religion in Eastern Europe 16, no. 5 (1996).
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004). No. 116.
This section within Acts relating to the appointment of the seven begins by relating the complaints made by the Greek speaking Jewish disciples whose widows were not receiving sufficient support. This led to the impartiality of the apostles being questioned. See John Roberts Dummelow, ed. A Commentary on the Holy Bible by Various Writers (London: Macmillan, 1913). 825. Though, others saw this moment as an issue of organizational failure rather than a lack of impartiality that could nevertheless aggravate if not handled well. Ajith Fernando, Acts, ed. Terry Muck. The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995). 226. See also
C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, V1: Preliminary Introduction and Commentary on Acts 1–14, ed. J. A. Emerton, C. E. B Cranfield, and G. N. Stanton, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1994). 303. Either way, the response, namely the identification of seven disciples to lead charitable giving, is reactionary, it is aimed at preventing an emerging division between the disciples. Ajith Fernando in his commentary of this verse notes that the Apostles did not respond by talking about the importance of spiritual sustenance relative to earthly food, but rather ‘There was a genuine problem… Thus the apostles made an administrative decision.’ Fernando, Acts. Similarly, in another commentary the decision is described as ‘the Apostles, finding the distribution of charity too great a burden for them’, which reinforces the view of a pragmatic decision rather than a spiritual calling. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible by various writers. This is not to dismiss the importance of charity or to imply a two-tiered structure, one of spiritual calling the other material, as Fernando makes clear, but rather that it being a pragmatic decision does not allow us to find within it a spiritual justification for the Church’s involvement in the distribution of charity.
Christiansen explains that Benedict differentiates truth in the common understanding with Truth, with a capital letter, to refer to knowledge about human existence. Drew Christiansen, “Metaphysics and Society: A Commentary on Caritas in Veritate,” Theological Studies 71, no. 1 (2010): fn. 4.
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© 2015 Denis Dragovic
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Dragovic, D. (2015). Salvation as the Catholic Post-Conflict Statebuilding Imperative. In: Religion and Post-Conflict Statebuilding. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137455154_4
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