Catholic theology

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Catholic theology begins with a question written, the Church teaches, into every human heart: "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself." That single sentence from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, opens a vast world of doctrine that has been developing for two thousand years. What does it mean for a human being to know God? How does an ancient community decide what is true teaching and what is heresy? Who has the authority to settle those questions? And what happens, according to this tradition, after we die? Catholic theology has constructed answers to every one of those questions, layer by careful layer, from the earliest councils to the present day.

• 2. Creeds and Scripture

  ›

  At the Council of Nicaea in 325, and then again at Constantinople in 381, bishops gathered to hammer out what Christians actually believed about Jesus. The result was the Nicene Creed, ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Every Sunday, Catholics still recite it at Mass. That creed was largely a response to Arianism, a teaching the councils rejected. Before it existed, there was the Apostles' Creed, developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries, which began as a baptismal formula used in the churches of Rome. A further creed, the Chalcedonian, emerged from the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It taught that Christ is to be acknowledged in two natures, divine and human, inconfusedly and inseparably united in one person. The Oriental Orthodox Churches never accepted it.

  Catholic theology also draws a sharp line between itself and Protestant Christianity on the question of scripture. Protestants hold to sola scriptura, the idea that the Bible contains all revealed truths necessary for salvation. Catholics reject that position. The Catholic biblical canon includes books from the Septuagint, which Catholics call deuterocanonical; Protestants call them apocryphal. Beyond the canon itself, Catholic reading of scripture distinguishes a literal sense and a spiritual sense. The spiritual sense breaks further into three: allegorical, moral, and anagogical. In the allegorical reading, the parting of the Red Sea becomes a sign of baptism. In the anagogical, a passage applies to eternity and the end of the world. Scripture, the tradition holds, must always be read within the living Tradition of the whole Church, and its authentic interpretation belongs to the bishops in communion with the pope.

• 3. The Trinity

  ›

  The word that Catholics use for the central mystery of their faith, Trinity, first appears in the writings of Theophilus of Antioch, who wrote of "the Trinity of God (the Father), His Word (the Son) and His Wisdom (Holy Spirit)." The term appears later in Tertullian and then, by the following century, is in general use; it is found across many passages of Origen. The doctrine holds that God is one, but exists in three distinct persons or hypostases: the Father, described as the creator and source of all life; the Son, Jesus; and the Holy Spirit, understood as the bond of love between Father and Son. No person holds merely a third of the whole. Each is considered fully God.

  The distinction lies in relations rather than substance. The Father is unbegotten. The Son is eternal yet begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son. 20th-century theologian Karl Rahner described the consequence: "In God's self communication to his creation through grace and Incarnation, God really gives himself, and really appears as he is in himself." For Catholics, this means the study of God's work in creation and salvation is itself a path into understanding the inner life of God.

• 4. Sin, Salvation, and Grace

  ›

  Catholic teaching locates the root of human suffering in a primeval event described in Genesis, what the tradition calls the fall. The Catechism is careful to note that the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language. Original sin, in this teaching, is not a personal fault of Adam's descendants. Rather, it is a deprivation of original holiness, a wounding that leaves human nature subject to ignorance, suffering, death, and an inclination toward sin called concupiscence.

  Soteriology, the branch of theology that deals with salvation, teaches that eternal life cannot be merited but is a free gift of God. Paul the Apostle, an early Christian convert, stated the stakes plainly: "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless." The New Testament records that Jesus appeared to his twelve apostles and disciples after his resurrection, and also to "more than five hundred brethren at once." Catholics believe that through Christ's death and resurrection, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and offered the promise of eternal life.

  The role of grace is understood differently across Christian traditions. Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy both teach that the human will must freely cooperate with grace. This differs from the Reformed view, which holds that human nature itself is evil and that God's grace overcomes even the unwilling heart. Lutheran doctrine teaches justification by grace alone through faith alone, though a shared understanding of justification has been reached with some Lutheran theologians.

• 5. Sacraments and Liturgy

  ›

  Seven sacraments structure Catholic life, and the greatest of them, according to the Catechism, is the Eucharist, described as "the source and summit" of Christian existence. At Mass, Catholics believe the bread and wine brought to the altar are transubstantiated through the power of the Holy Spirit into the true body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Because Christ's sacrifice on the Cross and the Eucharist "are one single sacrifice," the church does not claim to re-sacrifice Jesus but to re-present his sacrifice in an unbloody manner.

  The form of the Mass changed dramatically in the 16th century. In 1570, at the Council of Trent, Pope Pius V codified a standard book for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite. Everything in that decree concerned the priest at the altar; the congregation's participation was devotional rather than liturgical, and the text was in Latin. That Tridentine Mass endured universally until the Second Vatican Council approved the Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Novus Ordo Missae, which may be celebrated either in the vernacular or in Latin.

  In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the celebration is called the Divine Liturgy rather than the Mass, and the sacraments are often called the holy mysteries. Eastern liturgy divides into a first part sometimes called the Liturgy of the Catechumens, with scripture readings, and a second part derived from the Last Supper. The Eastern rites are considered more constant than the Roman Rite, reaching back to early Christian times. The liturgical action in the Eastern tradition is understood as transcending time, uniting those present with the community already in the heavenly kingdom.

• 6. The Afterlife

  ›

  The Nicene Creed closes with the words "We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." Catholic teaching maps three states of afterlife. Heaven is a permanent union with God, described as "unspeakable joy that lasts forever." Hell is the opposite: everlasting separation from God, reserved for those who freely chose sin and did not repent. The church explicitly teaches that God predestines no one to hell, and that no one can determine whether another person has been condemned. Catholicism teaches that God's mercy is such that a person can repent even at the point of death, citing the good thief crucified next to Jesus.

  Between heaven and hell lies purgatory, a temporary state of purification for those who are saved but not yet free enough from sin to enter heaven directly. The living can affect the fate of those in purgatory through prayer and through indulgences. Historically, most indulgences were measured in days, quarantines of 40-day periods, or years, meaning they were considered equivalent to that length of canonical penance by a living Christian. Popular misunderstanding treated them as reductions of literal time in purgatory. Pope Paul VI revised the rules on indulgences, replacing those time-based expressions with the term partial indulgence. The controversy over the granting of indulgences, particularly the widespread abuses that tied them to money and the criticism of the sale of indulgences, was the immediate occasion of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Switzerland.

• 7. Church Structure and Authority

  ›

  Apostolic succession is the belief that the pope and Catholic bishops are the spiritual successors of the original twelve apostles through an unbroken chain of consecration. The pope is elected by the College of Cardinals, who may choose from any male member of the church, though the elected must be ordained a bishop before taking office. Since the 15th century, a current cardinal has always been chosen.

  Men enter the hierarchy through the sacrament of Holy Orders, which creates bishops, priests, and deacons. Candidates for the priesthood must hold a college degree and complete four additional years of theological training. Only bishops can administer Holy Orders. Within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest Eastern Catholic Church, 90 percent of diocesan priests in Ukraine are married, and priests' children often became priests themselves, forming a hereditary caste. In the Latin Church, by contrast, the Catechism describes priestly celibacy as a sign of consecrated service, and only celibate men are ordained as priests, with very limited individual exceptions. In August 2016, Pope Francis established the Study Commission on the Women's Diaconate to determine whether ordaining women as deacons should be revived.

  Devotiont to the Virgin Mary runs through the whole structure of Catholic life. Mary is titled "Mother of God," "Queen of Heaven," and "the first disciple." She is called the greatest of the saints. Pilgrimages to Marian shrines including Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal are a common form of devotion. The feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, observed particularly in the Americas, mark her place in the liturgical calendar.