ABSTRACT
The ‘crisis’ within the Thomist tradition regarding its stance towards the Liberal tradition and the culture of modernity was not solely created by the treatment of culture in the Conciliar document Gaudium et spes. However, this document represents a pivotal point in the magisterial engagement with the culture of modernity, and, like the Second Vatican Council itself, its treatment created an ‘explosive problematic’. This chapter seeks to provide an account of the elements of the problematic and the theological and philosophical ideas of those Conciliar periti who were infl uential in the drafting of the specifi c section of Gaudium et spes that deals with culture. In so doing, Gaudium et spes will be situated within the wider history of the magisterial effort to deal with the problem of modernity and the effort within the Thomist tradition to develop an understanding of the relationship between culture and theology, and, in particular, an account of the signifi cance of culture in moral formation.
