Published: 2025-12-04

ENCYCLICAL OF PIUS XII "HUMANI GENERIS" AS A DEFENSE OF TRADITION AND DEFINING THE FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF SCIENCE

Krzysztof Kupiński
Studia Teologiczne Białystok Drohiczyn Łomża
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.56898/st.15323

Abstract

The encyclical Humani Generis, promulgated by Pius XII in 1950, is a pivotal document of the 20th-century Church. It reflects the challenges and tensions between traditional doctrine and contemporary natural sciences and philosophy. Defending orthodoxy, it criticized dogmatic relativism, promoted Thomistic philosophy, and rejected polygenism while allowing the hypothesis of human bodily evolution. Emerging amid renewal movements like Nouvelle Théologie, which it initially curtailed, it ultimately contributed to their rehabilitation and the Second Vatican Council. Today, its reflections on faith and reason remain relevant amid biotechnology and questions of human identity, highlighting the need for dialogue between theology and science.

Keywords:

Encyclical Humani Generis, Nouvelle Théologie, Thomism, Evolution, Second Vatican Council

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Citation rules

Kupiński, K. (2025). ENCYCLICAL OF PIUS XII "HUMANI GENERIS" AS A DEFENSE OF TRADITION AND DEFINING THE FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES OF SCIENCE. Studia Teologiczne Białystok Drohiczyn Łomża, 43, 125–152. https://doi.org/10.56898/st.15323

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