The sixteen official documents—constitutions, decrees, and declarations—of the Second Vatican Council are now available from Liturgical Press in the most popular and widely used inclusive-language edition translated by Irish Dominican Austin Flannery (+October 21, 2008). As the worldwide Church continues to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Council (1962–65), there is a great need in college classrooms and parish faith formation groups—as well as for individuals—to again have access to these documents in contemporary English. As Flannery wrote in his introduction to the 1996 edition, “The translation of the texts of the Vatican documents in the present volume differs from that in the previous publication in two respects. It has been very considerably revised and, in place, corrected. It is also, to a very large extent, in inclusive language. “I say ‘to a very large extent,’ because we have used inclusive language in passages about men and women but not, however, in passages about God, except where the use of the masculine pronoun was easily avoidable.”

From 1962 to 1965, in perhaps the most important religious event of the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Council met to plot a course for the future of the Roman Catholic Church. After thousands of speeches, resolutions, and votes, the Council issued sixteen official documents on topics ranging from divine revelation to relations with non-Christians. But the meaning of the Second Vatican Council has been fiercely contested since before it was even over, and the years since its completion have seen a battle for the soul of the Church waged through the interpretation of Council documents. The Reception of Vatican II looks at the sixteen conciliar documents through the lens of those battles. Paying close attention to reforms and new developments, the essays in this volume show how the Council has been received and interpreted over the course of the more than fifty years since it concluded. The contributors to this volume represent various schools of thought but are united by a commitment to restoring the view that Vatican II should be interpreted and implemented in line with Church Tradition. The central problem facing Catholic theology today, these essays argue, is a misreading of the Council that posits a sharp break with previous Church teaching. In order to combat this reductive way of interpreting the Council, these essays provide a thorough, instructive overview of the debates it inspired.

Cardinal Kasper is a distinguished theologian who was a colleague of Cardinal Ratzinger, Karl Rahner, and Hans Kung at The Universities of Münster and Tübingen. Kasper now heads the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity, with the specific task of fostering relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian Churches and Ecclesial communities. Here he outlines his vision for the unity of Christian Churches. A man with an open mind, Kasper covers one of the major responsibilities of the contemporary Catholic Church. His perspective of the uniqueness of The Catholic Church and its magisterium is presented here as a modern inquiry into the nature of truth. His views are enlightening and engaging, and reflect the important role of dialogue as understood by the Catholic Church, which also listen to other traditions and learn from them. Many will read it in the hope that the thought of this renowned, open-minded Church leader may give hope to people of all traditions that they may learn to understand Jesus's injunction - 'they may be one'.

Vatican II represents a watershed in the history of Catholic ecclesiology. Although it stands in organic continuity with previous magisterial teaching, distortions of its teaching have proliferated since the time of the Council, leading many to conclude that the Catholic Church changed her position regarding the identity that exists between the One Church of Christ and the Catholic Church. Stephen A. Hipp’s The One Church of Christ: Understanding Vatican II refutes that conclusion and explains the Catholic understanding of how Christ’s indivisible Church relates to the Catholic Church, to non-Catholic Christian communities, and to other religious societies. Hipp thoroughly examines the controversial statement that “the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church” from terminological, historical, and theological perspectives, showing that Vatican II introduces nothing doctrinally new to the Church’s self-understanding, but provides a more nuanced way of speaking about the unicity and universality that define Christ’s Church. He reveals that Vatican II thereby establishes ecumenism and interreligious dialogue on fruitful ground, while calling Catholics to a greater appreciation of the extraordinary gift of the Church’s subsistence.

In recent bilateral ecumenical dialogue the aim of the dialogue has been to reach some form of doctrinal consensus. The three major chapters of the book discuss the variety of forms of doctrinal consensus found in ecumenical dialogues among Anglicans, Lutherans and Roman Catholics. In general, the dialogue documents argue for agreement/consensus based on commonality or compatibility. Each of the three dialogue processes has specific characteristics and formulates its argument in a unique way. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue has a particular interest in hermeneutical questions and proposes various forms of "differentiated" or perspectival forms of consensus. The Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue emphasises the correctness of interpretations. The documents consciously look towards a "common future", not the separated past.

An indispensable resource for clergy, students, and liturgists, this revised volume assembles the liturgical documents needed for the study and preparation of parish sacramental rites, and other liturgies, such as Masses with children, the Liturgy of the Hours, and Eucharistic adoration. This second edition now includes the praenotanda from the sacramental rites, along with additional documents needed to prepare the Mass, blessings, and the Sacred Paschal Triduum. A pastoral overview introduces each document, explaining the purpose of the document, the degree of its authority, and its practical implications. With an extensive index and a glossary of terms, this volume is designed for easy navigation and frequent reference.

The Ecumenical Work of the Icon is an invitation to the students and faculties of Catholic seminaries to be a part of the tradition of the icon through the lens of ecumenis. With a view of ecumenism as lived in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, the visual theological language of the icon may be engaged more fully and respectfully, thus enriching the theological education and future ministry of those who learn and teach in a Catholic setting. In the third portion of the book, readers are offered multiple practical pedagogical examples of how to integrate teaching and learning about the icon into seminary courses and beyond, including writing assignments, oral presentations, and hands-on activities.

Divided into 3 parts, this handbook provides a wide-ranging survey and analysis of the Christian Church. The first section addresses the scriptural foundations of ecclesiology; the second section outlines the historical and confessional aspects of the topic; and the final part discusses a variety of contemporary and topical themes in ecclesiology. Compiled and written by leading scholars in the field, the T&T Clark Handbook of Ecclesiology covers a range of key topics in the context of their development and importance in each stream of historic Christianity and the confessional traditions. The contributors cover traditional matters such as creedal notes, but also tackle questions of ordination, orders of ministry, and sacraments. This handbook is extensive enough to provide a true overview of the field, but the essays are also concise enough to be read as reference selections.

In this book, Shaun Blanchard argues that the roots of the Vatican II reforms must be pushed back beyond the widely acknowledged twentieth-century forerunners of the Council, beyond Newman and the Tübingen School in the nineteenth century, to the eighteenth century, when a variety of reform movements attempted ressourcement and aggiornamento. This close study of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) sheds surprising new light on the nature of church reform and the roots of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The high-water mark of the late Jansenist reform movement, this Tuscan diocesan synod was harshly condemned by Pope Pius VI in the Bull Auctorem fidei (1794), and in the increasingly ultramontane nineteenth-century Church the late Jansenist movement was totally discredited. Nevertheless, much of the Pistoian agenda--an exaltation of the role of the local bishop, an emphasis on infallibility as a gift to the entire believing community, religious liberty, a more comprehensible liturgy that incorporates the vernacular, and the encouragement of lay Bible reading and Christocentric devotions--would be officially promulgated at Vatican II. Investigating the theological and historical context and nature of the reforms enacted by the Synod of Pistoia, he notes their parallels with the reforms of Vatican II, and argues that these connections are deeper than mere affinity. The tumultuous events surrounding the reception of the Synod explain why these reforms failed at the time. This book also offers a measured theological judgment on whether the Synod of Pistoia was "true or false reform." Although the Pistoians were completely rejected in their own day, the Second Vatican Council struggled with, and ultimately enacted, remarkably similar ideas.

This book explores the life, mission, and writings of martyred Salvadorian archbishop St. Óscar Romero in the light of contemporary work for justice and human development Many historians, theologians, and scholars point to St. Óscar Romero as one of the most perceptive, creative, and challenging interpreters of Catholic social teaching in the post–Vatican II period, while also recognizing the foundational importance of Catholic social teaching in his thought and ministry. Editor Todd Walatka brings together fourteen leading scholars on both Romero and Catholic social teaching, combining essays that contextualize Romero’s engagement historically and focus on the challenges facing Christian communities today. The result is a timely, engaging collection of the most rigorous scholarly engagement with Romero and Catholic social teaching to date. Contributors: Ana María Pineda, R.S.M., Michael E. Lee, Matthew Philipp Whelan, Jon Sobrino, S.J., Edgardo Colón-Emeric, David M. Lantigua, Leo Guardado, Stephen J. Pope, Kevin F. Burke, S.J., José Henríquez Leiva, Meghan J. Clark, Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo, Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Peter Casarella, and Todd Walatka