Spe Salvi: The Gospel "informs" and "performs!"

I’m just now getting a chance to give it a look.

Here’s a passage from the introduction that jumped out at me (underling for emphasis mine):

“Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.“

More to come as more jumps out.

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This entry was posted on November 30, 2007 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Benedict XVI, Pope, Papal Encyclicals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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