The first and irreplaceable mission of the Christian parents is to be real educators for their children. Having called their children to the banquet of life, Christian parents have the foremost and specific right and, at the same time the, duty to be involved in a total and responsible manner in children’s growth and the whole education process. Aware of the fact that each of their children has the same human dignity as their parents’ dignity, such parents have the duty to educate and train children so that the latter can fully live their vocation, in accordance with human dignity, while promoting personal and common good.
According to the Documents of the Second Vatican Council, the education children have to receive from their parents is complex and shall include all aspects of human life: physical, psychological, religious, moral, social and vocational. To adequately fulfil their mission, parents will make responsible choices in choosing the kindergarten, primary and secondary school and high school for their children; such institutions shall support children and help them in their pedagogical itinerary. From Christian perspective, the most important commitment made by spouses when receiving the sacrament of Matrimony is to transmit faith to their children by Baptism, and to preserve and develop this gift received through catechesis, prayer and personal example. The current education crisis – the result of erroneous ideologies – often encountered also in our families, can be overcome by changing this wrong mentality. This mentality refuses to accept the fact that children are a gift God makes to human family and society, while arguing that children are rather obstacles for the development of their parents or a right owed to such parents. The teaching of the Second Vatican Council is the most appropriate guide for Christian parents called to fulfil their mission of providing their children with a genuine human and Christian education.
This article presents a general introduction to the anthropology of the Pope John Paul II treaty of Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, describing the ecclesial context, the author, its philosophical and cultural formation, the method and content of the treaty, and in the second part the fundamental concepts of the “adequate” anthropology of the Pope as well as the function of the protology for anthropology in general, and for theology of the body in particular. A special place is dedicated both for indicating the implications of the theology of the body and to illustrate its relationship with the Pope’s “adequate anthropology”, and for showing how, like Saint John Paul II, Pope Francis connects the protology with eschatology in a Christological key. Christ is the way to understand both the beginning of mankind and his end. For both popes, Christ is the full man and he is the way that shows man how he/she can truly find personal and mutual fulfillment in married life.
Il mistero, taciuto ma rivelato in Cristo, è l’evangelizzazione sia per i giudei che per i pagani. Anche se Romani ha spesso prestato il terreno per una duplice concezione dell’elezione al bene e al male, secondo la quale sin da principio alcuni si salvano e altri si perdono, da una comprensione globale e contestuale delle affermazioni paoline emerge un’unica elezione positiva e non negativa, quella realizzata in Cristo mediante la sua morte e la sua risurrezione. Se ci poniamo sul versante della comunità di Roma, come di ogni comunità che riceve questa lettera, Paolo esorta i cristiani di origine giudaica a non vantarsi dei propri privilegi donati da Dio nella storia della salvezza, e quelli di origine pagana a non esaltarsi di fronte all’incredulità di buona parte d’Israele: «Dio infatti ha rinchiuso tutti nella disobbedienza, per essere misericordioso verso tutti!» (Rm 11,32). Dall’universale misericordia di Dio viene la salvezza per tutti.
Lo studio parte dalla domanda generica “Che cos’è la teologia (cristiana)?”. Per rispondere a questa domanda è indispensabile una precisazione sulla teologia stessa come scienza e sul proprio metodo. Dopo aver precisato le note essenziali della teologia come scienza e le questioni riguardanti il suo metodo, si lancia un confronto con le altre scienze sullo sfondo della secolarizzazione. Nel panorama delle scienze, la teologia rimane la scienza che può spiegare all’uomo di oggi la sua identità, il mistero del mondo e della vita.
Die Frage nach der moralischen Kompetenz bezieht sich nicht nur auf das Wissen und Wollen hinsichtlich eines sittlichen Aktes, sondern ausdrücklich auch auf das konkrete Können der moralischen Fähigkeit des Menschen. So ist davon auszugehen, dass die sittliche Fähigkeit der menschlichen Personen im Bereich der sozialen Metanoia ihre allgemeine Kompetenz im Sittlichen impliziert. Die moralische Kompetenz wird nicht angeboren, sondern sie wird durch Vermitteln und Lehren erworben, wobei zwei fundamentale Aspekte innerhalb einer moralischen Entwicklung hervorzuheben sind: Der heran-wachsende Mensch wird in seiner Sittlichkeit durch die soziale Mit- und Umwelt bestimmt, gleichzeitig bestimmt er selbst diesen Prozess durch personale Partizipation an der moralischen Entfaltung seiner eigenen Anlagen. In diesem Sinne soll im vorliegenden Artikel die Rede vom im Sittlichen sozial bestimmten und bestimmenden Menschen sein.
In this article, my aim has been to emphasize the role played by Gen 1-2 (status naturae integrae) in the theological anthropology of John Paul II. I have attempted to present the relevance of the Elohist and Jahwist traditions about man’s creation for anthropology, emphasising the transition from the original solitude of Adam to the interpersonal communion that reflects the image of God’s Trinity. I also speak of the meaning of original nakedness, of the original unity and of the spousal features of the human body in the sphere of the hermeneutics of gift. I has aimed to show that for Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, man is a gift and in order to be happy, he/she must become a gift for others. In a hermeneutical context in which everything is a gift of God, including both time and space, man cannot find himself and his fulfillment unless he becomes a gift. The hermeneutics of the gift is one of the many common points addressed by Saint John Paul II and Pope Francis. The abundance with which the two Pontiffs use the term “gift” and the importance they award to this key concept leads us to the conclusion that, according to the recent Magisterium of the Church, the hermeneutics of the gift is itself a gift and a light for the Christian families in the third millennium.