Infinite Love and the (In)dignity of Christ: Reflections on Francis’s Theology of Infinite Human Dignity from Infinite Divine Love

Greg Marcar is a research affiliate and teaching fellow at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), University of Otago (New Zealand). He is a co-editor of Søren Kierkegaard: Theologian of the Gospel (Wipf & Stock 2021) and  Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law: International Perspectives (Routledge 2023).

Dignity and Its Discontents: A Foundationless Foundation?

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) begins with the assertion that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights . . . and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” One of the co-drafters of the UDHR, René Cassin, likened its Preamble and Articles to the parts of a temple portico, with Article 1’s affirmation of dignity, liberty, equality, and fraternity forming the foundation block of this structure.

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Dignitas Infinita. A Theological Commentary

Antonio Autiero is Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at University of Münster (Germany).

The title of the Declaration of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, published on 8 April 2024, merits particular attention, due less to its originality (since it takes up an expression recurrent in earlier texts by the papal magisterium) than to the evocative space—both interesting and provocative—created by the image of the infinite in the adjective chosen to describe the dignity of which the document speaks.

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Why Should Human Dignity Be Defined as Infinite? Brief Reflections on Dignitas Infinita

Benedetta Vimercati is an associate professor of constitutional law at the University of Milan.

Referring to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Jacques Maritain stated,

Here we are no longer dealing with the mere enumeration of Human Rights, but with the principle of dynamic unification whereby they are brought into play, with the tone scale, with the specific key in which different kinds of music are played on the same keyboard, music which in the event is in tune with, or harmful to, human dignity.

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