Language, Spirit, and the Development of Doctrine

How do statements about God gain authority? A hermeneutic analysis. The revelation challenges humanity’s capacity of verbal expression in order to give a testimony. Aspects of current philosophy (Žižek, Badiou, Agamben, Eco), hermeneutics (Searle, Gadamer) and psychoanalysis (Lacan) render assistance to this task of understanding how this encounter is taken into the fields of language.The horizon of this inquiry, though, also refers to the writings of the Church’s Magisterium. Decisive is here the Holy Spirit who not only enables faith but also provides the Church in the sensus fidelium with an infallible perspective. An ecclesiastical reception through the ages can mark an indirect demonstration of gifting process by the Spirit in both aspects (textualization and reception).