From Fear of Freedom to Freedom from Fear: Toleration Theology in Dignitatis Humanae

Dignitatis Humanae - The DECLARATION ON THE RIGHT OF PERSONS AND COMMUNITIES TO SOCIAL AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN RELIGIOUS MATTERS is one of the shortest of the sixteen documents that comprise the ‘canon’ of the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65. Variously hailed as ‘a decisive document in the history of humanity’ (Hünermann, 2006: 451) or the ‘ruin of the Church’ (Lefebvre in O’Malley, 2008: 217), the principles enshrined therein polarized opinion at the Council and led, fairly directly, to schism, albeit on a limited scale. Even today, the document remains something of a ‘hot potato’, for reasons this paper will attempt to explore. Either explicitly or implicitly, this short document takes a stance on truth, freedom, religion, politics, salvation – even the integrity of God - which rightly gives it an importance way beyond its word count. To explore the matter, this short paper will first offer a summary of the document in its immediate context before presenting background perspectives from antecedent biblical and ecclesial tradition and foreground perspectives from more recent pontifical pronouncements. This diachronic-Tarantino approach, aims to show that the tensions in the text are perennial and are to be expected, since they are rooted in a Divine-Human paradox. In essence, Dignitatis Humanae is controversial because it is about a fundamental God-given dignity of human beings: the right to be wrong.