A Ressourcement Encyclical: Veritatis Splendor and the Recovery of Christocentric Moral Theology

This article proposes that Pope John Paul II’s Veritatis Splendor is a ressourcement encyclical that creatively retrieves insights from a movement to renew moral theology in a Christo-centric mode which had flourished in the decades immediately preceding Vatican II but dissipated soon after the Council. Although most clearly expressed in its often-neglected first chapter, in fact Veritatis Splendor ’s Christocentric vision permeates the entire encyclical, including those portions often presumed to be purely philosophical, and lends the encyclical an internal coherence frequently overlooked. Reading Veritatis Splendor as a work of ressourcement and attending to its first chapter as a constructive proposal for moral theology rather than a mere prologue to an analysis of disputed questions offers promising new pathways for receiving the encyclical three decades later.