this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Right Statements
Subtitle: A Hermeneutical Key to Continuing Development in Magistral Teaching
Author(s): ELSBERND, M.
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 62    Issue: 4   Date: December 1986   
Pages: 308-332
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.62.4.556329

Abstract :
The contribution of the Catholic Church in the rights movement is a recurring theme in current literature in social morality. A popular tendency is to situate rights in an unchanged and unchanging social doctrine which was articulated by Leo XIII and subsequently applied to existent situations. Another current prefers to acknowledge the part played by the secular socio-political and socio-economic movements of the last 200 years. This article presents the results of a linguistic and historical study of rights in papal encyclicals from the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War II (1791-1939) in an attempt to ascertain the relationship between the Catholic Church and the 'secular' rights movement of the last 200 years. The relationship which shows itself suggests some tentative conclusions not only with regard to the Catholic Church vis a vis the rights movement but also with regard to the theological method which was emerging during that period.

Download article