The Papal Encyclicals: 1939–1958
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
“For as the substantial Word of God became like to men in all things, ‘except sin,’31 so the words of God, expressed in human language, are made like to human speech in every respect, except error.” (Page 73)
“They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it.” (Page 45)
“But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden59 or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Divine Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth.” (Page 44)
“But let all agree uncompromisingly on this, if they would not err from truth and from the orthodox teaching of the Church: to reject every kind of mystic union by which the faithful of Christ should in any way pass beyond the sphere of creatures and wrongly enter the divine, were it only to the extent of appropriating to themselves as their own but one single attribute of the eternal Godhead. And, moreover, let all hold this as certain truth, that all these activities are common to the most Blessed Trinity, in so far as they have God as supreme efficient cause.” (Page 53)
“Leo XIII, occurs to Us at once: ‘The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed Herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost.’23 For the Divine Redeemer began the building of the mystical temple of the Church when by His preaching He made known His precepts; He completed it when He hung glorified on the Cross; and He manifested and proclaimed it when He sent the Holy Ghost as Paraclete in visible form on His disciples.” (Page 42)
- Title: The Papal Encyclicals: 1939–1958
- 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
- Resource ID: LLS:PAPENCY1939
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:34:51Z