Abstrakt: | Modern understanding of progress, resulting from freedom and mind that have
been given such principal and unconditioned place and importance by current anthropology,
turns out to restrict, in fact, the direction of human development toward extending technological
capabilities and cultivating innovations or changes as values in themselves. This way the
proper sense of the mankind (and its history) is perceived; of the mankind that, after all,
makes its way from its origin in God towards its fulfillment in Him – toward the unification
with Christ. Replacement of earthly useful techniques, skills or tools with others cannot be considered as a real improvement, if it is deprived of the moral yardstick, purpose and spiritual
reference. J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI warns that this dangerous reduction, deluding with ostensible
effectiveness of operations and worldly profits (material, psychological etc.), sometimes
involves also the Church and theology. Meanwhile, their task is not to necessarily ‘keep up
with times’, but to protect the world and men against destructive, sinful or deadly ideologies
and tendencies, such as technocracy and idolatrous dictatorship of progress. |