institutions. In this context, it becomes clear that the church, though she has
positioned herself in civil society, has not abandoned the state or the import-
ance of its laws. As a natural reality of creation, the state too must be
redeemed. The claims of Christian humanism to change laws which are
contrary to Christian teaching, such as abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage,
and so on, are not alienations of the democratic state but rather a restoration
of the state to fulfilling itsfirst and most important calling. However, institu-
tions, as well as the laws that are a part of them, can become oppressive when
they lose respect for the individual human person—in other words, when they
lack the warmth and joy of benevolence.
The challenge for Christian humanism and Catholic social teaching is to
insert love into the institutions of society and thus make society beautiful.^63
On the one hand, it is necessary to do this, because otherwise institutions
become oppressive, manipulative, and inhuman—in a word, ugly. Justice
without love or benevolence becomes harsh and unbearable. On the other
hand, love is not an immediately applicable social principle in the same sense
as justice is. This is due to three reasons:
- The object of justice is the proper order of relationships between persons.
Love goes beyond this. Acts of justice are not directly acts of charity, even
though charity commands these acts of justice. The charitable person
does many things that go beyond the strict obligation of justice, corres-
ponding rather to gratuitous love for other people. - Social institutions are primarily governed by justice and symmetrical
reciprocity, not by asymmetrical love. Love is asymmetrical because it
does not follow thedo-ut-deslogic of exchange, it is unpredictable and
perpetually creative. Institutions to the contrary need stability, order,
and predictability. This means that institutions need legal structures that
regulate who is entitled to what. Such regulations are laid down by
general rules that spell out the conditions and requirements, under
which institutions interact with individuals. The example of jurispru-
dence in courts but also of social security systems is quite clear. Love
nevertheless is necessary in order to mitigate hard justice but also as the
‘living heart’in society that registers and reacts to new needs and social
injustices, with the sensitivity of a seismograph. - The social message of the gospel as a whole, whose core is the com-
mandment of love, is not an immediately applicable social programme
but requires the mediation of a political philosophy and of social science.
This idea was expressed by Paul VI, who distinguished‘principles of
(^63) Benedict XVI, EncyclicalCaritas in veritate§2 and §36, proposes to insert love not only
into the institutions of micro-relationships like the family or friendship, but also into the macro-
relationships like politics or the economy.
A Catholic Concept of Christian Humanism 219