The christian humanism of John Paul II

Abstract

In one of the central passages of his beautiful encylical Redemptor Hominis John Paul II: declares: What is in question here is man in all his truthful, in :his full magnitude. We are not dealing with the "abstract" man, but the real, "concrete", "historical" man. We are dealing with "each" man, for each.one is included in the mystery .of the Redemption and with each one Christ has united himself for ever through this mystery ( ... ) Man as "wished" by God, as "chosen" by him from eternity and called, destined for grace and ,glory - this is "each" man, "the most ,concrete" man, "the most real"; this is .mam in all the fullness of the mystery in which he has become a sharer in Jesus Christ, the mystery in which each one of the four thousand million human !beings living on our planet has become a sharer from the moment he is conceived beneath the heart of his mother ( ... ) :Man in the full truth of his existence, of 'his personal being -- in the sphere of his own family, in the sphere of society and very diverse ,contexts, in the sphere of his own nation or people (perhaps still only that of his clan or tribe) , and in the sphere of the whole ,of mankind -this man is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission: he is the primary and fundamentalist. way for the Church, the way traced out by Christ himself, the way that leads invariably through the mystery of the Incarnatlon and the Redemption (nn. 13-14)