The Via Pulchritudinis: Privileged Pathway for Evangelisation and Dialogue
Overview
In Vatican II’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Catholic Church expressed the need for the Church to set itself before the needs of the cultures of the world. The document lays out the relationship between the Church and the cultures of the world—that they shouldn’t be alien to one another, but should enrich each other with every developing technology, artistic expression, professional sport, or socio-political framework. Through Gaudium et Spes, the Catholic Church recognized the necessity of culture in the development of the healthy human person, and established the council devoted to discovering what the relationship between the Church and the cultures of the world should look like. This mandate quickly expanded beyond its original mission. In a world of new-age religions and cultures where apathy and consumerism are law of the land, the Catholic Church must find ways to engage with cultural identities without adopting non-Christian values itself. The Pontifical Council for Culture published a number of writings which wrestle with the means and methods through which the Catholic Church engages with the rest of humanity in culture and society. These texts reflect the Pontifical Council for Culture’s effort to participate in and uphold human culture, so that “human culture must evolve today in such a way that it can both develop the whole human person and aid man in those duties to whose fulfillment all are called, especially Christians fraternally united in one human family.” (Gaudium et Spes 56).
Top Highlights
“Superficiality, banality and negligence have no place in the liturgy.” (source)
“Biblical illiteracy sterilises the capacity for comprehension of Christian art.24” (source)
“Beauty is the splendour of the truth and the flowering of Love.” (source)
“Christ has already made it possible to perceive the light of the glory at the very heart of the night of faith.” (source)
“manifests it by expressing its internal brightness” (source)
- Title: The Via Pulchritudinis: Privileged Pathway for Evangelisation and Dialogue
- Author: Pontifical Council for Culture
- Publisher: Libreria Editrice Vaticana
- Print Publication Date: 2006
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Aesthetics › Religious aspects; Evangelization › Catholic Church--Congresses
- Resource ID: LLS:VIAPULCHRITUDINIS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:05:47Z