Human Calling in the Catholic Social Doctrine

Abstract

The article reveals the grounds of the Catholic social doctrine in the aspect of understanding of the purpose and meaning of human existence in the world. In this context it examines the ideas of the Patristic writers and determinative principles of the modern catholic theology, primarily those which are explained in papal encyclicals of the social and ethical direction. The author exposes the idea of intersubjectivity in the core of the Catholic view on Trinity and, accordingly, its role as a pattern for the ethos of human relations. The idea of calling is common in all branches of Catholicism in the terms of salvation of human beings. However, the understanding of its social aspect is comparatively more developed in the Western Catholicism. While from the beginning of Protestantism the idea of calling was adopted by the ethics of laity, in the Catholic tradition social calling of people has been widely discussed starting only from the end of the 19th century and especially later in the 20th century when the pope Pius XII implemented the term “social doctrine”. The study analyzes the concept of calling under the Catholic view, in particular in its understanding by pope Benedict XVI given in the encyclical “Caritas in veritate”. The main characteristics of the Catholic phenomenon of calling is revealed. They are the following: understanding of calling as a manifestation of God’s love; comprehension of the task of the development of the human personality; responsibility and active participation in the transformation of the world; obligation of productive activity and work; the eschatological understanding of the transcendental purpose of human existence in the world; footing on the argument of faith in the finding of the meaning of activity and realization of calling.

Keywords

• human calling
• catholic social doctrine
• good
• humanism
• personal development
• social progress
• responsibility