Hard Sayings Left Behind by Vatican II

This project offers an original contribution to the interpretation of the documents of the Second Vatican Council that constitute the most authoritative doctrinal teaching within the Catholic Church. The chapters in this volume, published during the 60^th anniversary of the Council (2022-2025), discuss three types of stumbling blocks: ‘Stumbling Blocks for Ecumenism’, ‘Stumbling Blocks for Interfaith Dialogue,’ and ‘Stumbling Blocks for Church-world Relations’. Eight specialists of ecclesiology, comparative theology, intercultural theology, and theological ethics have each written chapters on a selected line of Vatican II that constitutes a ‘stumbling block’ or ‘hard saying’ for believers and theologians today. The views expressed in these chapters have been discussed in three response essays. The stumbling blocks have been selected from Lumen Gentium, Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate, and Gaudium et Spes. The selected lines discuss the difficulties the Catholic Church has with atheism and with the Eucharist as celebrated by Protestant ministers; how appreciation of other churches and religions goes hand in hand with defending the need of mission; and why the Council assigns different roles to priests and laity, making a distinction between the holiness of the Church and the sinfulness of its believers. 

The reception of Vatican II remains an ongoing and disputed task for the church. This volume brings together an impressive selection scholars to consider difficult questions that are often overlooked: Where does the council not say what we expect it to? What areas of ongoing discernment are necessary? How must theology develop to respond adequately to the council’s vision and its call to the church? Anyone involved in contemporary theology, especially questions of ecumenism, ecclesiology, and interfaith engagement would do well to sit with the questions raised here and think with the authors towards new answers.

–Jakob Karl Rinderknecht, University of the Incarnate Word.

 More than sixty years since the beginning of the conciliar event, there are in the final documents of Vatican II “hard sayings” that sometimes surprise our ecumenical and interreligious sensibility, as well as our expectations for Church reform and church-world relations. Ignoring these sayings brings about no fruitful theological and ecclesial hermeneutics of Vatican II. The book Hard Sayings Left Behind by Vatican II is very important and comes at a critical time because of this new phase in the hermeneutics of the conciliar teachings and of the renewed attention to the final documents of the Second Vatican Council prompted by new forms of traditionalism and integralism. 

-Massimo Faggioli, Villanova University.

This excellent book fills a critical need in Vatican II scholarship by exploring passages from the council's documents that pose “stumbling blocks” for believers and theologians today. While much attention has been focused on Vatican II’s legacy, these authors consider teachings which represent potential limits. Bringing together leading international scholars from a variety of specialties, these chapters offer rigorous historical examination and systematic reflection with an eye towards advancing dialogue. As the church continues to look to Vatican II to engage urgent theological and pastoral questions, the path ahead requires attention to these obstacles. We owe these authors a debt of gratitude for this original contribution that tackles “hard sayings” head on and thus helps ensure the council’s continuing significance. 

-Kristin Colberg, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

1)      These timely reflections draw our attention to important aspects of the teaching of Vatican II that have been poorly received or that await a more adequate development in our contemporary context. Their implications weigh heavily for relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian communities, other religions, and in the dialectic between church and world. They have important consequences for the life of the church itself as it navigates the changing roles of the baptized faithful and ordained ministers, or of the pastoral teaching office and the conscience of each person. A welcome contribution.

-Catherine Clifford

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Peter De Mey has held the chair of Ecclesiology and Ecumenism at KU Leuven, Belgium since 2002. He was a member of the first steering committee of the Ecclesiological Investigations group of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and is still a member of the steering committee of the Ecclesiological Investigations International Network. He is the co-founder, together with Massimo Faggioli, of the Vatican II Studies group within AAR.

Judith Gruber is Professor of Systematic Theology at KU Leuven, Belgium, and the director of KU Leuven’s Centre for Liberation Theologies.