Anthropology of the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio

Abstract

The author starts from the statement, that contrary to the ancient and medieval thought, the modern thought considered conflict as the original and natural state of human coexistence (Hobbes, Marx, Sartre). In the biblical anthropology, which constitutes a point of reference for John Paul II in his exhortation Familiaris Consortio, the original truth of man is not expressed in the model of conflict, but on the contrary, conflict arises as a result of the betrayal of the original truth, which is the unity of man and woman. In the biblical vision of human relationships, therefore, the starting situation, the experience in which the primordial truth of man is expressed, is not a relationship of conflict, but a man-woman relationship in which two persons affirm their humanity not by submitting the other to their own will, but by the gift of themselves that they make to one another. In the anthropology of the exhortation Familiaris Consortio, marriage and family are the privileged place where human beings experience belonging and gift.