Humani generis
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''Humani generis'' is a papal encyclical that
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
promulgated on 12 August 1950, "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine". It primarily discussed, the encyclical says, "new opinions" which may "originate from a reprehensible desire of novelty" and their consequences on the Church.


Influences

There was speculation that Father Sebastiaan Tromp , professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, had assisted in drafting the encyclical. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877–1964), professor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, is said to have been a major influence on the content of the encyclical.


Content


Role of theology

''Humani generis'' states: "This deposit of faith our Divine Redeemer has given for authentic interpretation not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only to the teaching authority of the Church." In ''Humani generis'', Pope Pius held a corporate view of theology. Theologians, employed by the Church, are assistants, to teach the official teachings of the Church and not their own private thoughts. They are free to engage in all kinds of empirical research, which the Church will generously support, but in matters of
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
and
religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
, they are subjected to the teaching office and authority of the Church, the
Magisterium The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition". According to the 1992 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ...
.
The most noble office of theology is to show how a doctrine defined by the Church is contained in the sources of
revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...
��in that sense in which it has been defined by the Church.
''Humani generis'' is critical of some trends in modern theology, but does not mention or attack individual opinions or even groups of dissenting theologians. The Pope later refers to a new
axiom An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...
: "a new intellectual current, a new public mood within the Church, and, new behaviour patterns" of its members. He asked his fellow
bishops A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
, to heal this "intellectual infection", which should not be allowed to grow. In areas of both "human sciences and sacred theology", the encyclical authorized "research and discussions" where "reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution" were to "be weighed and judged."


Obstacles to finding God

''Humani generis'' begins with a recognition of several obstacles to seek and find
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
by the light of
reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
alone:
Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, Who watches over and controls the world by His providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things and if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. The human
mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...
, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men, in such matters, easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.
This is why man stands in need of being truthfully enlightened by God's revelation.


Four issues

Having thus established a main principle, the encyclical continues with a review of the philosophical currents of modern culture and their potential and dangers in light of divine revelation of faith in the distinct levels. It reviews recent theological, philosophical and scientific developments.


''Nouvelle théologie''

In describing erroneous development in the Catholic Church after World War II, the encyclical does not mention names, nor does it accuse specific persons or organizations. The encyclical states the and its followers viewed Catholic teaching as relative, that it departed from traditional neo-Thomism using relativistic historical analysis and engaging philosophical axioms, such as existentialism, or
positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
. The encyclical further states that the scholars expressed Catholic dogma with concepts of modern philosophy, immanentism or
idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...
or existentialism or any other system, and that some believed that the mysteries of faith could be expressed by truly adequate concepts but only by approximate and ever-changeable notions.Pius XII, Enc. ''Humani generis'', 15. The encyclical also stated:
Everyone is aware that the terminology employed in the schools and even that used by the Teaching Authority of the Church itself is capable of being perfected and polished; and we know also that the Church itself has not always used the same terms in the same way. It is also manifest that the Church cannot be bound to every system of philosophy that has existed for a short space of time. Nevertheless, the things that have been composed through common effort by Catholic teachers over the course of the centuries to bring about some understanding of dogma are certainly not based on any such weak foundation. These things are based on principles and notions deduced from a true knowledge of created things. In the process of deducing, this knowledge, like a star, gave enlightenment to the human mind through the Church. Hence it is not astonishing that some of these notions have not only been used by the Ecumenical Councils, but even sanctioned by them, so that it is wrong to depart from them.
Pius pleads with the "rebels" not to tear down but to build up. He demands not to neglect, or to reject, or devalue so many and such great resources which have been conceived, expressed and perfected over the centuries. A new philosophy like existentialism, "today, like a flower of the field in existence, tomorrow outdated and old-fashioned, shaken by the winds of time", he says, is a poor and unstable basis for the theology of the Church.


Evolution

The encyclical took up a nuanced position with regard to evolution. It distinguished between the soul, held as created divinely, and the physical body, whose development may be subject to empirical and prudent study:
The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter – for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.
The encyclical does not endorse a comprehensive acceptance of
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
, nor its outright rejection, because it deemed the evidence at the time not convincing. It allows for the possibility in the future: However, when one reads the entire encyclical, it is evident that it is not favorable to the theory of evolution.
This certainly would be praiseworthy in the case of clearly proved facts; but caution must be used when there is rather question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which the
doctrine Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a ...
contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved.
The position delinking the creation of body and
soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
has been more recently confirmed by
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
, who highlighted additional facts supporting the theory of evolution half a century later.


Polygenism

While the factual basis for creationism should be researched further, the encyclical issues a clear no to another scientific opinion popular at the time, polygenism, the scientific hypothesis that mankind descended from different groups of original humans (that there were many groups of Adams and Eves).
When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which through generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.


Old Testament critiques

A final critique is issued against negative interpretations which downgrade the
Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
to historical half-truths, or which impute error to the alleged ancient sacred writers.
If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents.
Therefore, whatever of the popular narrations have been inserted into the Sacred Scriptures must in no way be considered on a par with myths or other such things, which are more the product of an extravagant imagination than of that striving for truth and simplicity which in the Sacred Books, also of the Old Testament, is so apparent that our ancient sacred writers must be admitted to be clearly superior to the ancient profane writers.
''Humani generis'' encourages further research, taking into account and respecting the holiness of the
Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
scriptures to
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and
Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
alike.


Conclusion

Pope Pius XII, who usually employs diplomatic and carefully measured language in his writings, is convinced of the serious nature of those opinions threatening to (to quote the encyclical's subtitle) "undermine the foundation of Catholic doctrine", a most unusual tone for this pontiff.
Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
are the main topics of this encyclical. But, it extends further into the realm of
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
and
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
.


Legacy

Fr. Brian Van Hove states that ''Humani generis'' caused "a freezing of
systematic theology Systematic theology, or systematics, is a discipline of Christian theology that formulates an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It addresses issues such as what the Bible teaches about certain topics ...
into a Thomist
orthodoxy Orthodoxy () is adherence to a purported "correct" or otherwise mainstream- or classically-accepted creed, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical co ...
", remarking that the "freeze" was later ameliorated by
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
's 1993 '' Veritatis splendor''. For example, Fr. Henri de Lubac (later Cardinal de Lubac) wrote about his plan for a comprehensive theological project integrating "patristics, liturgy, history, philosophical reflection ..The lightning bolt of ''Humani generis'' killed the project."Quoted in von Balthasar, Hans Urs, ''The Theology of Henri de Lubac'', pp. 10-11.


See also

*
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
*
Magisterium The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition". According to the 1992 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ...
* Relativism *
Positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
* Historicism * Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church


Notes


External links


''Humani generis''
(hosted by the
Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
)
''Humani generis''
(hosted by Papal Encyclicals) {{Authority control Encyclicals of Pope Pius XII Catholic Church and science Christianity and evolution August 1950 1950 in Christianity