Towards an ecumenical basis of Christian social service (caritas, diakonia) bridging Catholic and Protestant perspectives in the world : med katoliško in protestantsko perspektivo v svetu

Opatrný, Michal (author)

In 2005, the new Pope Benedict surprised more than just a Catholic audience with his first encyclical letter about Christian love. He performed a detailed theological analysis of the term love in the first part. In the second part of the encyclical letter, the Pope applied the term »Christian love« in practice as caritas – active love of one's neighbor. However, more than ten years earlier, Christian love was discussed similarly by German Protestant theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg. For Pannenberg, such love has become a crucial double question: first, does the true love of God consist in participation in his love of the world? Second, is the love of neighbor, in fact, the love of God? This article discusses possible answers from the perspective of Protestant and Catholic the-ology and interconnects them with the discourse in Caritas Theory and Diakonik (i.e., the Protestant counterpart of Caritas Theory). Besides the Protestant understanding of Christian service rooted in creation, the Catholic conception of pastoral service as the Church's service to the world, and the concept of the sign of the times, are crucial components of this analysis.

• Language: English
• Keywords: caritas, diakonia, diaconia, caritas studies, diakonik, christian service, christian social work, love of neighbor
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 14.08.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 17-33
• Numbering: Letn. 81, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190827
• UDC: 27-675-46:274
• ISSN on article: 2335-4127
• DOI: 10.34291/Edinost/81/01/Opatrny
• COBISS.SI-ID: 293019395
• Publication date in RUL: 05.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Edinost in dialog : revija za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog
• Publisher: Inštitut za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog pri Teološki fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, Inštitut za ekumensko teologijo in medreligijski dialog pri Teološki fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani, Inštitut Stanka Janežiča za dogmatično, osnovno in ekumensko teologijo ter religiologijo in dialog, Teološka fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2335-4127
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268194560

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Iskanje ekumenske osnove krščanskega socialnega služenja (caritas, diakonia)

Abstract

Leta 2005 je novi papež Benedikt XVI. s svojo prvo okrožnico o krščanski ljubezni presenetil tudi širšo, ne le katoliško javnost. V prvem delu je podal podrobno teološko analizo pojma ljubezni, v drugem pa je »krščansko ljubezen« prenesel v prakso kot karitas – dejavno ljubezen do bližnjega. Več kot desetletje prej je o krščanski ljubezni na podoben način razpravljal nemški protestantski teolog Wolfhart Pannenberg. Zanj je takšna ljubezen postala ključno dvojno vprašanje: prvič, ali resnična ljubezen do Boga pomeni udeležbo pri njegovi ljubezni do sveta; in drugič, ali je ljubezen do bližnjega pravzaprav ljubezen do Boga? Članek obravnava možne odgovore z vidika protestantske in katoliške teologije ter jih povezuje z razpravami v teoriji karitas in diakoniki, tj. protestantski ustreznici teorije karitas. Pri analizi so ključni protestantsko razumevanje krščanskega služenja, ukoreninjenega v stvarjenju, katoliško pojmovanje pastoralnega služenja kot služenja Cerkve svetu ter pojem znamenj časa.

• Keywords: karitas, Diakonia, karitasne študije, diakonik, krščansko služenje, krščansko socialno delo, ljubezen do bližnjega