The Papal Encyclicals: 1903–1939
Overview
For nearly 2,000 years the bishops of Rome have addressed theological topics of especially timely concern through the circulation of papal letters. These letters became known as encyclicals, and since the later eighteenth century have become increasingly important in the popes’ exercise of their teaching office. In the mid-nineteenth century, the encyclical letter began to take on its contemporary form as a theological treatise applying Christian teaching to immediate circumstances. And in the twentieth century papal encyclicals have emerged as some of the most important theology produced worldwide. The Papal Encyclicals: 1740–1981 (5 vols.) presents 280 encyclicals in English from Benedict XIV to John Paul II. These letters approach matters of faith and morals, and answer important questions on dogmatics and social and ethical issues of the society during the time they were composed. Whether a student, scholar, or layperson, this collection is essential for studying and searching the papal teaching of the past 250 years.
Top Highlights
“This kingdom is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things.” (Page 274)
“‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.’5” (Page 272)
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.” (Page 274)
“Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and distrubance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.” (Page 428)
“This mutual moulding of husband and wife, this determined effort to perfect each other, can in a very real sense, as the Roman Catechism teaches, be said to be the chief reason and purpose of matrimony, provided matrimony be looked at not in the restricted sense as instituted for the proper conception and education of the child, but more widely as the blending of life as a whole and the mutual interchange and sharing thereof.” (Page 395)
- Title: The Papal Encyclicals: 1903–1939
- Author: Claudia Carlen
- Series: The Papal Encyclicals
- Publisher: Pierian Press
- Print Publication Date: 1990
- Logos Release Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Encyclicals, Papal; Catholic Church › Doctrines
- ISBNs: 9780876502709, 0876502702
- Resource ID: LLS:PAPENCY1903
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:34:50Z