law.^251 This kind of approval does not, however, aim to reconcile
differences or create a framework of toleration. Sometimes canon law
employs the termprobatioto characterize an issue that has been
judged as permissible by the law, although it is not fully approved.
Probatiothus refers to the permissible area between full approval and
revision of mistakes. This term does not, however, have much sig-
nificance in canon law.^252
It is nevertheless remarkable that Vatican II employs the legal term
‘recognition’to denote processes of substantial revision and new
thinking. To see the deeper significance of this matter, we need to
pay closer attention to the theology of the council.
3.6. Vatican II and the Ecumenical Movement
In addition to the legal concept ofrecognitio, the Second Vatican
Council employs the old theological terminology ofagnosco,agnitio
remarkably often. TheDogmatic Constitution of the Churchstates that
God gathers his people among those who‘acknowledge him in
truth’.^253 Some non-Christians, such as Muslims,‘acknowledge the
Creator’and are therefore related to the people of God. Other people
try to put into effect the will of God as known to them (voluntatem
agnitam); even if they do not know Christ they can obtain eternal
salvation.^254 The Declaration on the Church’s Relation to Non-Christian
Religionsspeaks of the‘acknowledgement of a supreme deity or even of
aFather’by the adherents of other religions. This acknowledgement
(agnitio)‘permeates their lives’. Buddhism acknowledges the inad-
equacy of this changeable world. The Catholic church calls people to
‘recognize...those spiritual and moral good things’that are found in
other religions.^255 In thePastoral Constitution, the church wants to
engage in dialogue with‘all those who recognize God’.GodtheFather
wants us to recognize our brother Christ in all people.^256
(^251) Overview in Riedel-Spangenberger 2004, 146–9.
(^252) So Rhode 2004, 301. (^253) Lumen gentium,9.
(^254) Lumen gentium, 16. (^255) Nostra aetate,2.
(^256) Gaudium et spes,92–3. Relevant other passages:Agnitio:Sacrosanctum con-
cilium,5;Dignitatis humanae, 11, 14;Ad gentes divinitus, 7, 42;Presbyterorum ordinis,
168 Recognition and Religion