Is the post-Vatican II Church Christ-centered, or Man centered?

In many ways, the central theme of JPII’s teaching throughout his pontificate is arguable.  The discussion around it reminds me a little of the philosophical schools of Thomistic and Phenomenological epistemology: both the Thomists and the Phenomenologists claim JPII for themselves, where in reality he was solidly standing with one foot in both camps.  So it is with the his teaching theology: is it Christocentric, or Anthropo-centric?  Well, the truth is that JPII’s theology is both, simultaneously, because Christ was truly man, and came for Man.

JPII’s entire pontificate was like one well-written book, or academic dissertation.  Right from his first encyclical, he tells us exactly what he is going to teach throughout his pontificate: that, “the Church's fundamental function in every age, and particularly in ours, is to direct man's gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the whole of humanity toward the mystery of Christ.”  He tells us, from the beginning, that his pontificate is going to champion three things: Mission (directing gaze), Man (Man’s gaze to experience the whole of humanity) and Christ (the object of the mission, and Man’s gaze).

I say there are three things in his pontificate, but really they are one, inter-complexed theme, a theme which he never strays from even once.  For him, Christ came for Man, and Man exists to love and give of himself to another (culminating in the encounter with Christ).  In order to do this, however, Man must be inspired, guided, and taught how to turn his gaze away from selfish things and towards Christ; he is so inspired through the workings of the Church.  These three inter-connected workings can be distilled into one central focus: Christ is the Savior of the world, then, now, and forever.  Without Him, there is no work of the Church, there is no one towards whom Man turns his gaze, and there is no possibility of overcoming sin and receiving the Holy Spirit.

Because the pontificate of JPII was Christo-centric, but was so for the sake of Man, many of his encyclicals focus on the anthropology of Man, to develop a correct understanding of how, why, and in what way Christ draws all Men to Himself.  The danger of mistaking his pontificate as being solely anthropology-centric, however, is great.  It can be easy to see his concern with the nature of Man and what makes Man flourish as a radically subjective being as concern for the individual autonomy of Man and a relativistic morality based on subjective needs and wants.  On the contrary, JPII is very careful to focus his anthropological concerns towards Christ, He for Whom our subjectivity longs for.

JPII once said of himself that he must be understood from within.  You cannot fully grasp the depths of what he was trying to communicate with a cursory read of his documents.  Nothing could be more true.  In order to see how he oriented his pontificate towards Christ, one must familiarize themselves with JPII’s canon as a whole.  When this is done, the themes of Christology, anthropology, and missi-ology recur in every single encyclical, but feed into each other and build off of the previous document.  In such a culminating read of JPII’s encyclicals and letters, we see a cohesive whole picture: an anthropology of Man, focused on Christ, and brought to Him by the mission of the Church.