Bonatywna funkcja Kościoła a współczesna kultura

Abstract

The paper develops argumentation in favour of the bonative function of the Church. It shows that the Church of its nature does good both in the supernatural and natural order. According to the will of Jesus Christ, its Founder, the Church conveys supernatural goods, preaches the Gospel, that is, arouses faith and makes it more profound, administers the holy sacraments, unifies with God, grants the grace of deification to man, shows the sense of life. Similarly, in the contemporary order the Church builds and spreads Christian culture, bringing values typical of this religion, does charitable works, takes care about the lonely, the sick (hospices), the disabled. Such works are derived from the motives of faith and love, and they belong to the good activities of the Church and make it credible as the Church of Jesus Christ. By stressing these functions of the Church, fundamental theology draws from them some premisses that speak on behalf of its credibility within the frameworks of the so-called bonative argumentation. The paper sought to show one of the aspects of the bonative function of the Church, the one that is made manifest mainly in its care about the sick and dying. This aspect of the charitable activity of the Church has been chosen as a subject matter of analysis, for it is one of the most spectacular trends of its ministry, such that contributes to the creation of the moral good and moral culture, broadly understood. Through these actions, the Church stands in opposition to contemporary lay culture, defined as post-modernist, the culture that pushes the old and sick man into the margins of social life. Instead it advocates the “cult” of the strong, healthy, and young.