Towards a new theory of religious freedom

Abstract

The Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae of the Second Vatican Council grounds the right to religious freedom in men as persons rather than in truth as such. This shift of emphasis points to a movement in Catholic theology away from the long held tolerance-theory. Up to the early 1950's the "official" attitude of the Catholic Church, as represented in its text books of Canon Law and even in the unthinking spontaneity of the faithful in general, was one of religious tolerance. Till then, as such, the Church never countenanced the right of religious freedom. However, the tolerance-theory, as expressed in the distinction between "thesis" and "hypothesis", whereby the establishment of the Confessional Catholic State was claimed to he the transhistorical ideal situation for the Church, has been superseded by a doctrine of religious freedom expounded in the Declaration of Vatican II. In this study we would like to trace the theological and historical background which led to a new theory of religious freedom before the doctrinal development in the area could take place in the Catholic Church.