[4] During the creation of the document itself, Gaudium et spes went through multiple versions of Schemas to reflect the idea Pope John XXIII wanted to achieve during the council.
[4] After long debate during the council over Gaudium et spes, the document came to cover a wide range of topics examining the inner workings of the Church and its interactions with the world as a whole.
[4] The church had failed to act substantially on these issues, contributing to a feeling of irrelevance within larger considerations of the state of the world.
[4] From an ecclesiastical standpoint, there were open issues concerning completing the work of the interrupted First Vatican Council and the need for reform within the church.
[4] He wanted the council to focus on "the marvelous progress of the discoveries of human genius", while orienting the role of the church to one that should deal with right and wrong in the world.
[4] Gaudium et spes was to be the culmination of this as Pope John XXIII envisioned the constitution to share in the "joys and the hopes" of the entire world.
[4] Following the death of John XXIII, his successor Pope Paul VI also referred to the relationship between the church and the changing world in his first encyclical letter, Ecclesiam Suam.
[4] In a large width of responses sorted through by a commission appointed by the Pope, there resulted in 67 thematic documents that would be placed for discussion during the council.
[5] Schema 12, while focusing on the church's role in world social issues, underwent many changes before ultimately being rejected by the attendees over a lack of cohesion within the document.
[citation needed] Bishop Christopher Butler points out that a key principle behind the "audacious change" in this and in several earlier outward-looking documents of the council was that the Church is "Christ himself using us as his instruments to bring salvation to all", and in charity we must "presume that those who differ from us… are nevertheless [people] of good will".
[11] Additionally, Thomas Rosica points out that the Council Fathers "... were men who had experienced two world wars, the horror of the Holocaust, the onset of the nuclear weaponry, the hostility of communism, the awesome and only partially understood impact of science and technology.
"[12] Marie-Dominique Chenu, professor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum was influential in the composition of Gaudium et spes,[13] as was Louis-Joseph Lebret.
"The problem of poverty and of overcoming it through a healthy economy, respectful of the primary value of the person, allows for a vast discussion on political ethics in Gaudium et spes.
"[11] In the end, the "council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit".
This chapter references themes expressed near the start of Vatican II by Pope John XXIII in 1963 in his encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris.