Theology facing the challenges of the modern anthropological crisis: Preamble of the apostolic constitution veritatis gaudium

Abstract

The paper analyzes the preamble to the apostolic constitution Veritatis gaudium on ecclesiastical universities and faculties, in which Pope Francis outlines the basic orientations of ecclesiastical and theological studies in this time of crisis, which he considers to be not an era of changes but a change of eras. A new, digitized, globalized era is occupying a place of the Mosaic era, i.e. the era based on Torah, which has characterized our tradition. This changes the role of theology, which moves from the centre of culture to its periphery, and consequently changes as well the image that man has had of himself. In our Mosaic tradition, man understood himself in the theological perspective as created in the image of God. This humanist tradition now faces the challenges of new technologies that herald the era of post-truth, and post- or trans-humanism. In this anthropological crisis, the mission of theology is to proclaim a new, fraternal humanism from the periphery, to which, along with the humanist tradition, it has been pushed by a new technological culture. The specificity of the new humanism is to give voice even to the poorest. It presupposes freedom of the individual and of individual cultures, including technological ones, and sees its mission in approaching the modern culture in the spirit of dialogue in order to open it to the truth of the gospel, which reveals man as the goal of culture, of which main elements are the search for truth, dialogue, hope, integrity, and connectedness. This is the fundamental goal of the theological mind in the modern world.