The Catholic Church's teaching on church-state relations at Vatican II: an interpretation, critique, and suggested reform

Thesis

This thesis seeks to answer three questions: What did the Catholic Church teach about church-state relations at the Second Vatican Council? What problems can we identify in that teaching? How should those problems be remedied?

To answer the first question, I present an original interpretation of the conciliar documents to argue that the church intended not to contradict its past teachings on church-state relations, as many wrongly think, but rather to change the church's pastoral a...

Expand abstract

Authors: Ciftci, M

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ecumenism; church-state relations; Hendrik Berkhof; political theology; church and state; Oliver O'Donovan; William Cavanaugh; Second Vatican Council; Oscar Cullmann; John Howard Yoder; Stanley Hauerwas; Dignitatis Humanae
• Subjects: Political theology; Church and state; moral theology; Christian ethics--Catholic authors; Christian ethics--Biblical teaching; Second Vatican Council; Political philosophy; Political science; Church polity and Christian union; Church history