Authenticity and the task of discernment : a pastoral hermeneutics of Christian life
Avtentičnost in naloga razločevanja : pastoralna hermenevtika krščanskega življenja

english

2026

volume 81, issue 1

authenticity   Christian anthropology   discernment   late modernity   pastoral hermeneutics   pastoral theology

Univerza v Ljubljani, Teološka fakulteta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Authenticity has become a powerful language through which many late-modern persons speak about selfhood, integrity, trust, belonging, and the desire for faith to be lived truthfully. Pastoral theology therefore treats this language with caution: it is not reducible to expressive individualism, but neither can it be received as a Christian norm in itself. This article argues that authenticity is best understood as a pastoral signal requiring theological discernment. Drawing on interdisciplinary accounts, it first identifies recurring concerns: personal appropriation, coherence between word and life, relational credibility, vulnerability, and social recognition. It then reframes these concerns through biblical-theological motifs of truthfulness before God, Christological witness, discipleship, and accountable ecclesial communion. Christy Capper’s constructive account is engaged to clarify how authenticity may be ordered beyond the self within Christian theological anthropology. The article’s central contribution is to propose a pastoral hermeneutics of authenticity: a disciplined practice of listening, interpreting, discerning, and accompanying in situations of pastoral care, mistrust, self-questioning, institutional disappointment, and the search for personally appropriated faith. Authenticity thus has real, though limited, pastoral value. It may help the Church hear what is being expressed through contemporary appeals to authenticity, while the norm of Christian life remains truthful life received from God, revealed in Christ, and lived within ecclesial communion.

02.11.2026