Veritatis Splendor Conference at St. Bernard’s

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The St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry announces a conference on Veritatis Splendor and its ecclesial reception.

Conference Date: September 29th – October 1st, 2024, in Rochester, NY

Please submit a 300-word title and abstract by June 1st, 2023.

Submit abstracts via this form. More details from the conference website below.

Veritatis Splendor was written by Pope St. John Paul II as a response to the Second Vatican Council’s call for the renewal of moral theology. The Second Vatican Council invited scholars to take “special care for the renewal of moral theology,” in such a way that “its scientific presentation, increasingly based on the teaching of Scripture, will cast light on the exalted vocation of the faithful in Christ and on their obligation to bear fruit in charity for the life of the world.” The Council also encouraged theologians, “while respecting the methods and requirements of theological science, to look for a more appropriate way of communicating doctrine to the people of their time[.]” This led to a further invitation, one extended to all the faithful, but addressed to theologians in particular: “The faithful should live in the closest contact with others of their time, and should work for a perfect understanding of their modes of thought and feelings as expressed in their culture.” [VS 29]

Veritatis Splendor thereby represents a broader postconciliar movement of renewal in moral theology that permeates the pontificates of the last 60 years. Most recently, Pope Francis has called to mind again and again the missionary context of moral theology: “the Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn. . . . The proposal of the gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.” (Francis speaking to Antonio Spadaro, in A Big Heart Open to God: A Conversation with Pope Francis [New York: Harper One, 2013], 34-35).

The 30th anniversary of Veritatis Splendor, also the 10th anniversary of Francis’s pontificate, seems an appropriate moment to consider the legacy of the renewal of moral theology in the postconciliar era, with a special focus on the text of Veritatis Splendor and its ecclesial reception.

The purpose of the conference is threefold: (1) to understand and appreciate Veritatis Splendor as the most significant magisterial document expressive of the postconciliar renewal in moral theology; (2) to continue and further the trajectories of inquiry, contemplation, and engagement present within Veritatis Splendor; (3) to manifest a consideration of Church history and pontificates through a hermeneutic of reform (and not of simply continuity or discontinuity), which permits a truly ecclesial reflection on moral theology, human action, and the call to accompaniment, requiring a “discernment [which] can never prescind from the Gospel demands of truth and charity, as proposed by the Church” (Amoris Laetitia, 300).

We invite papers that will explore the renewal of moral theology from various perspectives, including those beyond the traditional field of moral theology. Submissions are encouraged that take up the above themes in the context of scriptural exegesis, philosophical inquiry, literature, spiritual theology, pastoral theology, canon law, ecclesiology, and/or interdisciplinary approaches. Papers with explicit reference to Veritatis Splendor will be privileged. Specific topics might include:

  • The interpretation of the post-conciliar renewal of moral theology via a hermeneutic of reform;

  • The failures and opportunities surrounding the implementation and reception of Veritatis Splendor;

  • The relationship between scripture and moral theology;

  • The relationship between Patristic theology and moral theology;

  • The legacy of Thomistic moral theology vis-à-vis the renewal of theology, Veritatis Splendor, and Amoris Laetitia;

  • The role of Veritatis Splendor in the work of prominent moral theologians;

  • Theodramatic and pastoral expositions of accompaniment as a pastoral principle;

  • The implementation of Veritatis Splendor throughout the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict, and Francis;

  • Contemporary moral challenges posed by new technologies and cultural movements