„Diakonia prawdy” jako ważne zadanie społeczne według encykliki Jana Pawła II „Fides et ratio”

Abstract

In contemporary world, truth is denied; some even claim that there is a crisis of truth. In such a situation, the Church must have responded, and therefore, the problem was raised by the pope John Paul II, who stated in his encyclical Fides et ratio that a human being has a natural capacity to know the truth and opposed to a modem tendency to separate reason from faith highlighting that the real diakonia of the truth always combines reason and faith, raises hope in human hearts, and constitutes both a natural mission, which means sharing the truth in the spirit of love, and a supernatural one, defined in theology as apostolate. Knowledge of truth is possible for human beings, since truth is accessible, not hidden, and at the same time, the social nature o f a human being requires participation in the life of other people and generates a duty to proclaim it. The moral dimension of the diakonia of the truth imposes on a human being: a necessity to get involved in self-development in order to meet one’s need of creativity for others in a fruitful way (natural law), an obligation to share the truth in the spirit of love (natural law), and a duty of evangelical deliverance of people through truth (revealed law); at the same time, it is a call for doing good to everyone, but especially to brothers and sisters in the faith (revealed law). The diakonia of the truth is one of the most topical issues in theology nowadays. And it is not an easy one. It requires humility and ability to make a sacrifice. However, it has a very important task. Its aim is, above all, to overcome the crisis of a sense, to eliminate mistakes and dangers of thinking (nihilism, relativism, historicism, scientism, pragmatism), to shape a watchful and creative attitude towards tradition, to show the relationship between truth and life, and to encourage action and sapiential behaviours. Theology should also inspire a permanent dialogue with philosophy and positive science. The aim of this dialogue is to integrate the order of reason and the order of a heart. According to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the crisis of contemporary world arises from the fact that there is a problem with connecting subjective and objective sphere, and that reason and feelings miss each other and consequently become sick. Sectionally specialised reason is amazingly strong and productive, but standardisation of only one type of certainty and reasoning does not allow it to know the area of the basic human problems well. Even more important problem of this dialogue is the integration of reason and a human will, the gnoseological (epistemological, logical) sphere and the field of axiology. An escape of some people to the realm of “aesthetics” is not a solution in the context of responsibility for life. “The aim of consumption is to bring joy to a consumer, who should experience the process of “digesting” things as his own happiness. The factor uniting a society is no longer ethics, but aesthetics”. However, life does not mean just playing a game or looking for experiences and sensations; it is a hard reality demanding to stand up bravely to the vicissitudes of fortune, as a well-known maxim says: “To live does not mean to walk among roses, to reap laurels and win applause; to live means to survive amid hardships and crosses, to strive for ideals that shine and glow”.