Dignitatis Humanae

Authors

• Francis J. Beckwith, Baylor University

Abstract

Sixty years ago the Second Vatican Council issued the document Dignitatis Humanae, a declaration on religious freedom. At the time it was considered to be the Catholic Church's most significant concession to the modern world, though the Council argued that the declaration was, given the political and religious realities at the time, a legitimate doctrinal development rooted in the Church's most ancient teachings. Its defense of religious liberty relied on widely held and uncontroversial beliefs about human nature, the common good, and the meaning of religion. But since the beginning of the 21st century those beliefs have been challenged by two increasingly influential schools of thought that this Article identifies as Hegemonic Liberalism and Eliminative Egalitarianism. The purpose of this Article is twofold: first, this Article carefully explains Dignitatis Humanae in its context, and then draws the reader's attention to how and why its premises and political implications may seem increasingly implausible to many elites in our culture-shaping institutions including the judiciary and the legal academy.

First Page

297

Recommended Citation

Francis J. Beckwith, Dignitatis Humanae, 56 Loy. U. Chi. L. J. 297 (2026).
Available at: https://lawecommons.luc.edu/luclj/vol56/iss3/3