Towards an ecumenical basis of Christian Social Service (caritas, diakonia) bridging Catholic and Protestant perspectives in the world
Iskanje ekumenske osnove krščanskega socialnega služenja (caritas, diakonia) : med katoliško in protestantsko perspektivo v svetu

english

2026

volume 81, issue 1

caritas   caritas studies   christian service   christian social work   diaconia   diakonia   diakonik   love of neighbor

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

In 2005, the new Pope Benedict surprised more than just a Catholic audience with his first encyclical letter about Christian love. He performed a detailed theological analysis of the term love in the first part. In the second part of the encyclical letter, the Pope applied the term »Christian love« in practice as caritas – active love of one's neighbor. However, more than ten years earlier, Christian love was discussed similarly by German Protestant theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg. For Pannenberg, such love has become a crucial double question: first, does the true love of God consist in participation in his love of the world? Second, is the love of neighbor, in fact, the love of God? This article discusses possible answers from the perspective of Protestant and Catholic the-ology and interconnects them with the discourse in Caritas Theory and Diakonik (i.e., the Protestant counterpart of Caritas Theory). Besides the Protestant understanding of Christian service rooted in creation, the Catholic conception of pastoral service as the Church's service to the world, and the concept of the sign of the times, are crucial components of this analysis.

02.11.2026