Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates Catholic canon lawyers’ ontological and epistemological approaches to the unchanging nature of divine law of revelation as one expression of the steadfastness and commitment to tradition of the Catholic Church in the face of social transformations.

Paper long abstract:

The Catholic Church has been criticized for abuse scandals, gender inequality, homophobia, outdated sexual morals, authoritarian hierarchical structures and fundamental contradictions between the teaching and practice of Catholic clergy. The institution of the Catholic Church appears to be outdated and incapable of change for many people in the Global North. In contrast, the Catholic church remains the largest religious community in the world with increasing membership when seen in a global perspective. The steadfastness and commitment to tradition of the Catholic Church in the face of social transformations is seen by many Catholics as a reason for the continued existence of the oldest global institution in the world. In Catholic canon law, this steadfastness finds expression in the concept of the divine law of revelation, which refers to the God given unchanging elements in the structure of the Catholic Church. Based on fieldwork in central institutions of the Roman Curia and an analysis of canon lawyers’ discourse on divine law, the paper explores what parts of canon law are seen unchangeable by canon lawyers, how the unchangeable nature of parts of canon law is explained and how the tension between historical transformations of canon law in the face of its immutable nature are dealt with. I argue that there are either ontological approaches that understand the ability to change as an “incarnational” historicization of divine law or epistemological approaches that differentiate in various ways between an unchangeable substance and a transforming and contextualized form of divine law.