My favorite scholar is the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). He tends to set up and with what he styles as contrasts, which as he operationally defines and explains his terms tend to be polar opposites. Ong famously works with what he refers to as orality-literacy contrasts - for example, in his 1982 book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (Methuen; see esp. pp. 36-57), his most widely translated book.
Consequently, I have no problem with Pope Francis' admiring Guardini's thought about polar opposites or with the pope's own practice of "the art of holding opposing realities" in tension. However, we today often hear about polarization. Polarization is real in American culture wars. Consequently, I would urge Czerny and Barone, or even Pope Francis himself, to use real-life examples of polarization in American culture wars and discuss how we might proceed to hold those seemingly polar positions in tension in a way that might turn out to be fruitful and instructive.
I discuss Borghesi's intellectual biography of Pope Francis in my wide-ranging 5,150-word 2018 review essay "Massimo Borghesi's Book on Pope Francis, and Walter J. Ong's Thought" that is available online through the University of Minnesota's digital conservancy:
In any event, the Prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Father Barone say, "Protecting diversity, the plurality of cultures and of identities, is the criterion for being siblings that aspires to universality that is neither abstract (FT 143) nor imposes itself so as to dominate and cancel out diversity (FT 144). Truly being siblings does not homogenize but allows one to remain oneself together with others. Otherwise, a 'false openness to the universal' 'ends up depriving the world of its various colors, its beauty and, ultimately, its humanity' (FT 145; 100). This passage from the particular to the universal, from the local to the global, takes place as a dialogue that is cordial or sincere, as Pope Francis calls it, a dialogue in which everyone involved is open to seeking the good of the other" (p. 111).
In footnote 16 on page 111, Czerny and Barone say, "The adjective cordiale recurs several times in the encyclical (FT 87; 146; 195; 274; 283), although not in the English translation. Cordiale indicates a way of relating to the other in a spontaneous manner open to feelings of friendship, in which one has the good of the other at heart. In the previous chapter, Francis expresses this sincere search for the promotion and development of others as benevolentia, as a strong desire for and inclination toward all that is good and offers the fullness of life (FT 112). This further clarifies the healthy polarity that is established between globally being siblings and social friendship. Being siblings seeks the universal good and uses dialogue between nations, characterized by an attitude of benevolence toward others, as its own means or instrument. Social friendship acts within a given society to seek the specific good and protect its own identity."
Clearly our co-authors have read the pope's lengthy 2020 encyclical carefully and thought through the meaning of his words carefully - to the point of criticizing the Vatican's translation of the encyclical! In an extended sense of the term translation, it is obviously the job of the Prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development to translate the pope's thought for others.
In a 2016 book published before the pope's 2020 encyclical was published, the lay American Protestant theologian Marcia Pally explores theologies of relationality in Commonwealth and Covenant: Economics, Politics, and Theologies of Relationality (William B. Eerdsmans Publishing, 2016).
I briefly discuss Pally's 2016 book in my OEN article "Marcia Pally Does the Heavy Lifting to Advance Bernie Sanders' Political Revolution" (dated April 16, 2016):
Just to be clear, I am the one who sees Pally doing the heavy lifting for Senator Sanders. She does not mention him in her book.
Now, in Czerny and Barone's Chapter Seven: "Building a Better and More Open World (Fratelli Tutti, chs. 5-7)," they say, "In recent decades, theological reflection has rediscovered the impotance of dialogue for a more mature and complete expression of faith. Vatican II already laid the groundwork for such a development by emphasizing the significance of 'dialogue' for understanding the salvation-history event of divine Revelation" (p. 123).
In note 12 on page 123, Czerny and Barone say, "The implications of a dialogic way of thinking have mostly been explored in the field of trinitarian theology, not only for the sake of a correct hermeneutics of the Christological form of Revelation, but also in the face of current pastoral issues in the Church and ethical issues in society. From the truth of the One and triune God, in which otherness is the fruit of substantial love, 'dialogue' emerges as a spiritual, cultural, and social event that is capable of developing an anthropology [i.e., a theological anthropology] that is in turn dialogical."
Subsequently, our co-authors also say, "Peace is a reflection of the 'circular life' (perichoresis) of the Trinity, the interwoven agape [love] of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This trinitarian love is not only at the origin of the act of creation, but also constitutes its ultimate goal. Peace is the prophecy of a redeemed world, an anticipation of humanity reunited in the heavenly Jerusalem. At the same time, peace is a 'sign of the times' that speaks of the presence of the Kingdom of God already at work in contemporary history, since it bears witness to the salvation unfolding in our history" (p. 132).
Now, in Czerny and Barone's Chapter Eight: "The Church and Religions Serving the Universal Call to Be Siblings (Fratelli Tutti, ch. 8)," they say, "In this final section of the encyclical, all the themes developed in the preceding chapters converge. A new style of Magisterium seems to take shape" (p. 147). Ah, but compared to what - that is, to what old style Magisterium?
Our co-authors also say, "A paradigm change can be found embedded in the ecclesiology developed at Vatican II. Rethinking the Church as an event of communion entails inwardly (ad intra) the harmonization of different transcultural models in a more attentive listening to the faithful's sense of faith (sensus fidei fidelium); it entails outwardly (ad extra) the willingness to turn to the world, renouncing a judgmental stance, in an openness to an equal encounter that begins with an effective respect for the others diversity, seen not as a threat from which to protect oneself, but as a gift that reflects the truth projected by the mystery of God" (p. 148).
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