Teoria della coscienza e stile della Verità. Note a margine di Dignitatis humanae
Abstract
The purpose of the article is neither to reconstruct how Dignitatis Humanae was conceived and developed, nor to concentrate on the problem of religious freedom which is the specific object of the counciliar text. What we want to consider is the constellation that guides the counciliar development of the very problem of religious freedom and that might be able to take some steps forward in the theological course of the present ecclesial season. Even after a superficial reading, we cannot avoid seeing the two most brilliant stars of this constellation. The first one is the idea of conscience about which Dignitatis Humanae propitiates and firmly hopes a kind of phenomenology; the second one is the way the Truth displays itself to the very conscience. The combination of right and duty, the mutual involvement between what is public and what is private, the Christian faith seen as something fulfilling the human quality of conscience represent the basic elements of the theory of conscience suggested by Dignitatis Humanae. The counciliar document offers a Christology which, highlighting Jesus's mild and at the same time strong attitude, suggests that the style through which the Truth that is Jesus shows itself to conscience is neither casual nor temporary, but it belongs to the very Truth which makes the conscience human