Humble Infallibility
Humble Infallibility
In a historical and theological study, this chapter locates the Catholic dogma of papal infallibility in its context (nineteenth-century Europe and Vatican Council I, 1869–1870). It then traces the ways in which subsequent historical developments and official Church teachings address at least some of the most widespread misunderstandings of the dogma. It suggests that the meaning of the dogma becomes clearer when one understands that dogmas do not explain God and revelation so much as they affirm and protect those truths. The chapter concludes by underscoring the need to “take seriously the historical conditioning of official Church teaching, of dogmatic statements, and of even the inspired Word of God,” and to do so without falling into agnosticism and relativism.
Keywords: Catholics, Catholic dogma, papal infallibility, Word of God, revelation, Church teaching
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