Dei Filius

Filius Dei (Latin for " God's Son ") is the Latin title of one of the documents of the Council of the First Vatican Council.

In particular, this essay is about the Catholic faith of the defense of the Catholic faith against the " errors of the time ", and also defines the relationship of faith to science for Catholics. Since the two documents of the Council ( Dei Filius and Pastor Aeternus ) were proclaimed as a dogma, it defines the Catholic faith for Catholics church legally binding.

Dei Filius was published in the Sessio III, on 24 April 1870 as the Constitutio dogmatica ( Dogmatic Constitution ).

Structure of the text

• Foreword
• Chapter 1 God, the Creator of all things
• Chapter 2 The Revelation
• Chapter 3 Faith
• Chapter 4 Faith and Reason
• Canons
• Epilogue

Importance

Dei Filius is in the tradition of the Syllabus of Errors and the encyclical Quanta Cura ( Pius IX. ) Of 1864 During these years, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church had to deal with two major problems: . Politically fought the Papal States (in vain ) for its survival. He was executed in 1870, in the Dei Filius was adopted in the year, the newly created Italian state incorporated. (→ Risorgimento )

Theologically had to deal with various philosophical trends that endangered the life of faith of the Vatican: So in the different chapters and canons indifferentism, rationalism and materialism, but also condemns theological counter-positions such as pantheism, fideism and traditionalism. In the knowledge of God it came to the question of whether the man is with his reason able to recognize the existence and attributes of God, which was disputed by representatives of fideism.

Both in the third chapter as well as in the canons 3 and 4 emphasizes Dei Filius, the importance of miracles of faith. Without an explicit definition of "miracle " to make, sets the text requires that miracles can set the self- wrought by God laws of nature force as mighty acts of God, and that such mighty acts of God can not just happen, but are also done throughout history. The authors seem to be of the opinion that the Christian faith can collapse if the belief in miracles would be abandoned.

Importance of the canons

The canons contained in traditional wording (" Si quis ... anathema sit" ) the formulation of error, which are condemned by the council. The formulations were highly controversial from the start. So said a bishop from the U.S. state of Georgia, instead of condemning the errors of some German idealists, one should prefer the "conception condemn blacks did not have souls ."

Intention of the author

The intention can be read from the preface of the text:

But now ... as the bishops of the entire Erdkreises virtue of Our authority in the Holy Spirit gathered for this ecumenical council, sit with us to rate and judge, have We - Us supportive to the written and spoken word of God, as we it, have kept sacred by the Catholic Church and interpreted genuine, received - decided to proclaim from this See of St. Peter from the eyes of all the sound doctrine of Christ, and to explain, but to reject the opposite errors by virtue of Us by God conferred authority and condemn.

Swell

• Robert Aubert: Vatican I. Matthias - Grünewald -Verlag, Mainz, 1965 ( history of the ecumenical councils, 12).