Humani generis

Humani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine". Theological opinions and doctrines known as Nouvelle Théologie or neo-modernism and their consequences on the Church were its primary subject. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877 – 1964), professor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas Angelicum is said to have been a dominant influence on the content of the encyclical.

This deposit of faith our Divine Redeemer has given for authentic interpretation not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only to the teaching authority of the Church.

In Humani generis, Pope Pius held a corporate view of theology. Theologians, employed by the Church, are assistants, to teach the official teachings of the Church and not their own private thoughts. They are free to engage in all kinds of empirical research, which the Church will generously support, but in matters of morality and religion, they are subjected to the teaching office and authority of the Church, the Magisterium.

The most noble office of theology is to show how a doctrine defined by the Church is contained in the sources of revelation, … in that sense in which it has been defined by the Church.

Humani generis is critical of some trends in modern theology, but does not mention or attack individual opinions or even groups of dissenting theologians; possibly because of the much larger, still looming power issue of who teaches authoritatively the Catholic faith: Bishops, as successor to the Apostles; or Theologians, who have constant access to relevant information and research tools.

The Pope later refers to a new axiom, a new intellectual current, a new public mood within the Church, and, new behaviour patterns of its members. He asked his fellow bishops, to heal this “intellectual infection”, which should not be allowed to grow.

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