Reading DH Through the Lens of Ecclesial Ethics

Now that the major disagreements within political theology have come into relief and the characteristics of ecclesial ethics have been highlighted in the previous chapter, the following two chapters will use the lens of ecclesial ethics to launch a critical evaluation of what the conciliar documents teach about church-state relations. The critical evaluation of the conciliar documents in this chapter and the next will be assisted by two examples of ecclesial ethics. This chapter will use Stanley Hauerwas’ illuminating, yet brief essay on Dignitatis Humanae. The aim in these two chapters is to show that ecclesial ethics has an hitherto unfulfilled potential to provide an original critique of the conciliar documents and to reveal overlooked problems in their conception of church-state relations.