Vito Mancuso, Neo-Pelagian

Sandro Magister reports that the theologian Vito Mancuso has found himself unofficially censored by two organs of the Holy See, La Civilta Catolica, and L’Osservatore Romano. Since Mancuso is not a professor at an accredited Catholic institution, the kind of censorship typical in that arena (withdrawing his canonical mandate to teach theology) is not possible. Instead, negative reviews of the book appeared in the two papers. Mancuso’s errors? A few:

  • He does not believe in Original Sin.
  • He does not believe that “all” of the Bible is the Word of God.
  • He rejects the necessity of faith for salvation.
  • He does not believe that each individual soul is created directly by God.
  • He’s a fan of Teilhard de Chardin and an ardent evolutionist.
  • He thinks modern empirical sciene must be the rule to which the faith must be conformed.

That’s a short list. Dr. Mancuso is sadly wrong on some pretty major doctrinal questions. This is tragic for him personally. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a Jesuit Theologian (writing in La Civilta Catolica) and a Bishop (in L’Osservatore Romano) have given very damming reviews of the book, condemning it’s heterodoxy very intelligently.