Prof. Franz Josef Stegmann Bethlehem Social ... - Ordo Socialis

Stegmann
shall find again the results of human efforts and activities on earth – "freed from stain,
burnished, and transfigured" 6 – in the Kingdom of God.
According to her self-understanding, the Church received the commandment from her founder
Jesus Christ to continue his work of salvation. The Church therefore does not possess any
immediate secular mission. The Holy Scripture reports that Jesus scarcely referred to the
economic and political issues of his time. It is true, Jesus fervently took care of the poor, the
weak and the marginalised, but he did not extend social responsibility to the direct shaping of
political and economic conditions themselves. He did not call for a new political order, and he
did not demand the reform of the economic or social System – for example, to abolish
slavery. Jesus came into the world and shed his blood – stated Oswald von Nell-Breuning SJ,
a foremost social scientist and theologian, and doyen of Christian Social Teaching – "in order
to restore the relationship between mankind and God, which was disturbed by human sin". 7
Continuing his saving work, the Church must not immediately interfere in the political and
economic arenas and must not lay down and prescribe political or economic models.
A second consideration proceeds from the nature of politics and economy. Action in state and
industry and commerce – ie, political and economic action – is usually quite concrete; it is
concerned – not exclusively, but for the most part – with decisions about factual problems,
about questions of detail. The Christian message does not contain concrete instructions for the
solution of specific political or economic problems. For that, political competence and
knowledge of economic facts are needed. The Christian message gives — as we shall see later
— general guidelines for the social life of human beings. But the Church — Pope John Paul
11 underlines this in the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis of 1987 — "does not have
technical solutions to offer" and "does not propose economic and political systems or
programmes, provided that human dignity is properly respected and promoted". 8
As the respected theologian Karl Rahner emphasised:
"If and in so far as politics and economics consist in having a concrete programme at one's
disposal, it is impossible for there to be the one Christian policy in state and economy." 9
It therefore follows that it is not up to the Church to intervene directly in the world of politics,
commerce and industry, etc. or to prescribe exemplary "model structures" of a political,
economic or any other kind. Those who suggest that the relationship between Christian faith
and the secular world implies that the Church should give detailed political and economic
instructions, offend against her nature and against her mission. Neither a "politicisation of the
faith" nor a "clericalisation of economics" are compatible and reconcilable with the message
of Jesus.
1.2 "Autonomy of earthly affairs"
This conclusion leads to a second issue which is the reverse of the previous considerations:
state and economy, political and economic action — in general: the world, the secular spheres
and action in them — enjoy a real autonomy. When the Pharisees asked whether a believing
Jew was allowed to pay taxes to the pagan Roman Emperor — both an important economic
and political question — Jesus gave the well-known reply:
6
Second Vatican Council (1965), Art. 39,3‐5.
7
Oswald von Nell‐Breuning, Soziale Sicherheit. Zu Grundfragen der Sozialordnung aus christlicher
Verantwortung, Freiburg 1979, 201.
8
John Paul II, On Social Concern – Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), No. 41,1.
9
Karl Rahner, Theologische Deutung der Position des Christen in der modernen Welt, in: Karl Rahner, Sendung
und Gnade, Innsbruck 1961, 13‐47, 21
6