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GAUDIUM ET SPES
PREFACE
TAKEN
FROM THE ORIGINAL, PARTS 1 TO 20, WILL CONTINUE IN A FEW DAYS
1.
The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this
age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the
joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.
Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For
theirs is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by
the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they
have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man. That is
why this community realizes that it is truly linked with mankind and its
history by the deepest of bonds.
2.
Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more profoundly into the
mystery of the Church, now addresses itself without hesitation, not only to
the sons of the Church and to all who invoke the name of Christ, but to the
whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain to everyone how it
conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in the world of today.
Therefore,
the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the whole human
family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of which it
lives; that world which is the theater of man's history, and the heir of
his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs; that world which the
Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker's love, fallen indeed
into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ, Who was crucified
and rose again to break the strangle hold of personified evil, so that the
world might be fashioned anew according to God's design and reach its
fulfillment.
3.
Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and its
power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of the
world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the meaning
of its individual and collective strivings, and about the ultimate destiny
of reality and of humanity. Hence, giving witness and voice to the faith of
the whole people of God gathered together by Christ, this council can
provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, as well as its
respect and love for the entire human family with which it is bound up,
than by engaging with it in conversation about these various problems. The
council brings to mankind light kindled from the Gospel, and puts at its
disposal those saving resources which the Church herself, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, receives from her Founder. For the human
person deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be renewed.
Hence the focal point of our total presentation will be man himself, whole
and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.
Therefore,
this sacred synod, proclaiming the noble destiny of man and championing the
Godlike seed which has been sown in him, offers to mankind the honest
assistance of the Church in fostering that brotherhood of all men which
corresponds to this destiny of theirs. Inspired by no earthly ambition, the
Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under
the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give
witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and
not to be served.(2)
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT THE SITUATION OF MEN IN
THE MODERN WORLD
4. To
carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing
the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.
Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the
perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to
come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore
recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its
longings, and its often dramatic characteristics. Some of the main features
of the modern world can be sketched as follows.
Today,
the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound and rapid
changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world. Triggered by the
intelligence and creative energies of man, these changes recoil upon him,
upon his decisions and desires, both individual and collective, and upon
his manner of thinking and acting with respect to things and to people.
Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and social transformation,
one which has repercussions on man's religious life as well.
As
happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought serious
difficulties in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in every
direction, he does not always succeed in subjecting it to his own welfare.
Striving to probe more profoundly into the deeper recesses of his own mind,
he frequently appears more unsure of himself. Gradually and more precisely
he lays bare the laws of society, only to be paralyzed by uncertainty about
the direction to give it.
Never
has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth, resources and
economic power, and yet a huge proportion of the worlds citizens are still
tormented by hunger and poverty, while countless numbers suffer from total
illiteracy. Never before has man had so keen an understanding of freedom,
yet at the same time new forms of social and psychological slavery make
their appearance. Although the world of today has a very vivid awareness of
its unity and of how one man depends on another in needful solidarity, it
is most grievously torn into opposing camps by conflicting forces. For
political, social, economic, racial and ideological disputes still continue
bitterly, and with them the peril of a war which would reduce everything to
ashes. True, there is a growing exchange of ideas, but the very words by
which key concepts are expressed take on quite different meanings in
diverse ideological systems. Finally, man painstakingly searches for a
better world, without a corresponding spiritual advancement.
Influenced
by such a variety of complexities, many of our contemporaries are kept from
accurately identifying permanent values and adjusting them properly to
fresh discoveries. As a result, buffeted between hope and anxiety and
pressing one another with questions about the present course of events,
they are burdened down with uneasiness. This same course of events leads
men to look for answers; indeed, it forces them to do so.
5.
Today's spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life are part of
a broader and deeper revolution. As a result of the latter, intellectual
formation is ever increasingly based on the mathematical and natural
sciences and on those dealing with man himself, while in the practical
order the technology which stems from these sciences takes on mounting
importance.
This
scientific spirit has a new kind of impact on the cultural sphere and on
modes of thought. Technology is now transforming the face of the earth, and
is already trying to master outer space. To a certain extent, the human
intellect is also broadening its dominion over time: over the past by means
of historical knowledge; over the future, by the art of projecting and by
planning.
Advances
in biology, psychology, and the social sciences not only bring men hope of
improved self-knowledge; in conjunction with technical methods, they are
helping men exert direct influence on the life of social groups.
At
the same time, the human race is giving steadily-increasing thought to
forecasting and regulating its own population growth. History itself speeds
along on so rapid a course that an individual person can scarcely keep
abreast of it. The destiny of the human community has become all of a
piece, where once the various groups of men had a kind of private history
of their own.
Thus,
the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality to a more
dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a new series of
problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling for efforts of analysis
and synthesis.
6. By
this very circumstance, the traditional local communities such as families,
clans, tribes, villages, various groups and associations stemming from
social contacts, experience more thorough changes every day.
The
industrial type of society is gradually being spread, leading some nations
to economic affluence, and radically transforming ideas and social
conditions established for centuries.
Likewise,
the cult and pursuit of city living has grown, either because of a
multiplication of cities and their inhabitants, or by a transplantation of
city life to rural settings.
New
and more efficient media of social communication are contributing to the
knowledge of events; by setting off chain reactions they are giving the
swiftest and widest possible circulation to styles of thought and feeling.
It is
also noteworthy how many men are being induced to migrate on various
counts, and are thereby changing their manner of life. Thus a man's ties
with his fellows are constantly being multiplied, and at the same time
"socialization" brings further ties, without however always
promoting appropriate personal development and truly personal
relationships.
This
kind of evolution can be seen more clearly in those nations which already
enjoy the conveniences of economic and technological progress, though it is
also astir among peoples still striving for such progress and eager to
secure for themselves the advantages of an industrialized and urbanized
society. These peoples, especially those among them who are attached to
older traditions, are simultaneously undergoing a movement toward more
mature and personal exercise of liberty.
7. A
change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls accepted
values into question, especially among young people, who have grown
impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become rebels in their
distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society, they want a
part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and educators to
experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging their tasks. The
institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down from
previous generations do not always seem to be well adapted to the
contemporary state of affairs; hence arises an upheaval in the manner and
even the norms of behavior.
Finally,
these new conditions have their impact on religion. On the one hand a more
critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view of the world
and from the superstitions which still circulate purifies it and exacts day
by day a more personal and explicit adherence to faith. As a result many
persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God. On the other hand, growing
numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice. Unlike former days,
the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer
unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such
things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a
certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in
the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature,
the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil
laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken.
8.
This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly fashion,
combined with keener awareness itself of the inequalities in the world
beget or intensify contradictions and imbalances.
Within
the individual person there develops rather frequently an imbalance between
an intellect which is modern in practical matters and a theoretical system
of thought which can neither master the sum total of its ideas, nor arrange
them adequately into a synthesis. Likewise an imbalance arises between a
concern for practicality and efficiency, and the demands of moral
conscience; also very often between the conditions of collective existence
and the requisites of personal thought, and even of contemplation. At
length there develops an imbalance between specialized human activity and a
comprehensive view of reality.
As
for the family, discord results from population, economic and social
pressures, or from difficulties which arise between succeeding generations,
or from new social relationships between men and women.
Differences
crop up too between races and between various kinds of social orders;
between wealthy nations and those which are less influential or are needy;
finally, between international institutions born of the popular desire for
peace, and the ambition to propagate one's own ideology, as well as collective
greeds existing in nations or other groups.
What
results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships. Of such is
man at once the cause and the victim.
9.
Meanwhile the conviction grows not only that humanity can and should
increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that it
devolves on humanity to establish a political, social and economic order
which will growingly serve man and help individuals as well as groups to
affirm and develop the dignity proper to them.
As a
result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those benefits of
which with vivid awareness they judge themselves to be deprived either
through injustice or unequal distribution. Nations on the road to progress,
like those recently made independent, desire to participate in the goods of
modern civilization, not only in the political field but also economically,
and to play their part freely on the world scene. Still they continually
fall behind while very often their economic and other dependence on wealthier
nations advances more rapidly.
People
hounded by hunger call upon those better off. Where they have not yet won
it, women claim for themselves an equity with men before the law and in
fact. Laborers and farmers seek not only to provide for the necessities of
life, but to develop the gifts of their personality by their labors and
indeed to take part in regulating economic, social, political and cultural
life. Now, for the first time in human history all people are convinced
that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be extended to
everyone.
Still,
beneath all these demands lies a deeper and more widespread longing:
persons and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of man; one in
which they can subject to their own welfare all that the modern world can
offer them so abundantly. In addition, nations try harder every day to
bring about a kind of universal community.
Since
all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once powerful and
weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it lies the path
to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred.
Moreover, man is becoming aware that it is his responsibility to guide
aright the forces which he has unleashed and which can enslave him or
minister to him. That is why he is putting questions to himself.
10.
The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern world labors are
linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the heart of man.
For in man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the one
hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways;
on the other he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned
to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions he is constantly forced to
choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being, he
often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would.(1) Hence he
suffers from internal divisions, and from these flow so many and such great
discords in society. No doubt many whose lives are infected with a
practical materialism are blinded against any sharp insight into this kind
of dramatic situation; or else, weighed down by unhappiness they are
prevented from giving the matter any thought. Thinking they have found
serenity in an interpretation of reality everywhere proposed these days,
many look forward to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity wrought
solely by human effort; they are convinced that the future rule of man over
the earth will satisfy every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men
who despair of any meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who
think that human existence is devoid of any inherent significance and
strive to confer a total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone.
Nevertheless,
in the face of the modern development of the world, the number constantly
swells of the people who raise the most basic questions or recognize them
with a new sharpness: what is man? What is this sense of sorrow, of evil,
of death, which continues to exist despite so much progress? What purpose
have these victories purchased at so high a cost? What can man offer to
society, what can he expect from it? What follows this earthly life?
The
Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for all,(2)
can through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength to measure up
to his supreme destiny. Nor has any other name under the heaven been given
to man by which it is fitting for him to be saved.(3) She likewise holds
that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal
point and the goal of man, as well as of all human history. The Church also
maintains that beneath all changes there are many realities which do not
change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, Who is the same
yesterday and today, yes and forever.(4) Hence under the light of Christ,
the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of every creature,(5) the
council wishes to speak to all men in order to shed light on the mystery of
man and to cooperate in finding the solution to the outstanding problems of
our time.
PART
I
THE
CHURCH AND MAN'S CALLING
11.
The People of God believes that it is led by the Lord's Spirit, Who fills
the earth. Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher authentic signs
of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires in which
this People has a part along with other men of our age. For faith throws a
new light on everything, manifests God's design for man's total vocation,
and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human.
This
council, first of all, wishes to assess in this light those values which
are most highly prized today and to relate them to their divine source.
Insofar as they stem from endowments conferred by God on man, these values
are exceedingly good. Yet they are often wrenched from their rightful
function by the taint in man's heart, and hence stand in need of
purification.
What
does the Church think of man? What needs to be recommended for the
upbuilding of contemporary society? What is the ultimate significance of
human activity throughout the world? People are waiting for an answer to
these questions. From the answers it will be increasingly clear that the
People of God and the human race in whose midst it lives render service to
each other. Thus the mission of the Church will show its religious, and by
that very fact, its supremely human character.
CHAPTER I
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
12.
According to the almost unanimous opinion of believers and unbelievers
alike, all things on earth should be related to man as their center and
crown.
But
what is man? About himself he has expressed, and continues to express, many
divergent and even contradictory opinions. In these he often exalts himself
as the absolute measure of all things or debases himself to the point of
despair. The result is doubt and anxiety. The Church certainly understands
these problems. Endowed with light from God, she can offer solutions to
them, so that man's true situation can be portrayed and his defects
explained, while at the same time his dignity and destiny are justly
acknowledged.
For
Sacred Scripture teaches that man was created "to the image of
God," is capable of knowing and loving his Creator, and was appointed
by Him as master of all earthly creatures(1) that he might subdue them and
use them to God's glory.(2) "What is man that you should care for him?
You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory
and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting
all things under his feet" (Ps. 8:5-7).
But
God did not create man as a solitary, for from the beginning "male and
female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). Their companionship produces the
primary form of interpersonal communion. For by his innermost nature man is
a social being, and unless he relates himself to others he can neither live
nor develop his potential.
Therefore,
as we read elsewhere in Holy Scripture God saw "all that he had made,
and it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).
13.
Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of
his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set
himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God. Although
they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, but their senseless minds
were darkened and they served the creature rather than the Creator.(3) What
divine revelation makes known to us agrees with experience. Examining his
heart, man finds that he has inclinations toward evil too, and is engulfed
by manifold ills which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to
acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper
relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship
toward himself and others and all created things.
Therefore
man is split within himself. As a result, all of human life, whether
individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between
good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man finds that by himself
he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil successfully, so that
everyone feels as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord Himself came
to free and strengthen man, renewing him inwardly and casting out that
"prince of this world" (John 12:31) who held him in the bondage
of sin.(4) For sin has diminished man, blocking his path to fulfillment.
The
call to grandeur and the depths of misery, both of which are a part of
human experience, find their ultimate and simultaneous explanation in the
light of this revelation.
14.
Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily composition he
gathers to himself the elements of the material world; thus they reach
their crown through him, and through him raise their voice in free praise
of the Creator.(6) For this reason man is not allowed to despise his bodily
life, rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and honorable since
God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. Nevertheless,
wounded by sin, man experiences rebellious stirrings in his body. But the
very dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body and forbid
it to serve the evil inclinations of his heart.
Now,
man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily concerns,
and as more than a speck of nature or a nameless constituent of the city of
man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere
things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he enters into his
own heart; God, Who probes the heart,(7) awaits him there; there he
discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God. Thus, when he
recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being mocked
by a fantasy born only of physical or social influences, but is rather
laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.
15.
Man judges rightly that by his intellect he surpasses the material
universe, for he shares in the light of the divine mind. By relentlessly
employing his talents through the ages he has indeed made progress in the
practical sciences and in technology and the liberal arts. In our times he
has won superlative victories, especially in his probing of the material
world and in subjecting it to himself. Still he has always searched for
more penetrating truths, and finds them. For his intelligence is not
confined to observable data alone, but can with genuine certitude attain to
reality itself as knowable, though in consequence of sin that certitude is
partly obscured and weakened.
The
intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to
be, for wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a love for
what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom. man passes through visible
realities to those which are unseen.
Our
era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made by man
are to be further humanized. For the future of the world stands in peril
unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out that many
nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and can offer
noteworthy advantages to others.
It
is, finally, through the gift of the Holy Spirit that man comes by faith to
the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.(8)
16.
In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose
upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to
love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to
his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by
God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be
judged.(9) Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There
he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths.(10) In a wonderful
manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and
neighbor.(11) In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the
rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the
numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social
relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons
and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the
objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible
ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who
cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by
degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.
17.
Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries
make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure.
Often however they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever
pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an
exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that
man remain "under the control of his own decisions,"(12) so that
he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful
perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act
according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and
prompted from within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external
pressure. Man achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all
captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what
is good, and procures for himself through effective and skilful action, apt
helps to that end. Since man's freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the
aid of God's grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full
flower. Before the judgement seat of God each man must render an account of
his own life, whether he has done good or evil.(13)
18.
It is in the face of death that the riddle a human existence grows most
acute. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration
of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. He
rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates
the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against
death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot be reduced
to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the
extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation of biological life is
unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged
in his breast.
Although
the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church has been
taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man has been created by
God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery. In addition,
that bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not
sinned(14) will be vanquished, according to the Christian faith, when man
who was ruined by his own doing is restored to wholeness by an almighty and
merciful Saviour. For God has called man and still calls him so that with
his entire being he might be joined to Him in an endless sharing of a
divine life beyond all corruption. Christ won this victory when He rose to
life, for by His death He freed man from death. Hence to every thoughtful
man a solidly established faith provides the answer to his anxiety about
what the future holds for him. At the same time faith gives him the power
to be united in Christ with his loved ones who have already been snatched
away by death; faith arouses the hope that they have found true life with
God.
19.
The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God.
From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse
with God. For man would not exist were he not created by Gods love and
constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according to truth
unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator.
Still, many of our contemporaries have never recognized this intimate and
vital link with God, or have explicitly rejected it. Thus atheism must be
accounted among the most serious problems of this age, and is deserving of
closer examination.
The
word atheism is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one
another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man
can assert absolutely nothing about Him. Still others use such a method to
scrutinize the question of God as to make it seem devoid of meaning. Many,
unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that
everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or
by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth. Some
laud man so extravagantly that their faith in God lapses into a kind of
anemia, though they seem more inclined to affirm man than to deny God.
Again some form for themselves such a fallacious idea of God that when they
repudiate this figment they are by no means rejecting the God of the
Gospel. Some never get to the point of raising questions about God, since
they seem to experience no religious stirrings nor do they see why they
should trouble themselves about religion. Moreover, atheism results not rarely
from a violent protest against the evil in this world, or from the absolute
character with which certain human values are unduly invested, and which
thereby already accords them the stature of God. Modern civilization itself
often complicates the approach to God not for any essential reason but
because it is so heavily engrossed in earthly affairs.
Undeniably,
those who willfully shut out God from their hearts and try to dodge
religious questions are not following the dictates of their consciences,
and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves frequently bear
some responsibility for this situation. For, taken as a whole, atheism is
not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety of causes, including
a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and in some places against
the Christian religion in particular. Hence believers can have more than a
little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect
their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient
in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal
rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion.
20.
Modern atheism often takes on a systematic expression which, in addition to
other causes, stretches the desires for human independence to such a point
that it poses difficulties against any kind of dependence on God. Those who
profess atheism of this sort maintain that it gives man freedom to be an
end unto himself, the sole artisan and creator of his own history. They
claim that this freedom cannot be reconciled with the affirmation of a Lord
Who is author and purpose of all things, or at least that this freedom
makes such an affirmation altogether superfluous. Favoring this doctrine
can be the sense of power which modern technical progress generates in man.
Not
to be overlooked among the forms of modern atheism is that which
anticipates the liberation of man especially through his economic and
social emancipation. This form argues that by its nature religion thwarts this
liberation by arousing man's hope for a deceptive future life, thereby
diverting him from the constructing of the earthly city. Consequently when
the proponents of this doctrine gain governmental power they vigorously
fight against religion, and promote atheism by using, especially in the
education of youth, those means of pressure which public power has at its
disposal.
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