Massimo Faggioli is professor in the department of theology and religious studies at Villanova University. He is an internationally established scholar in the area of Vatican II and the papacy especially, and a renowned public commentator on church affairs. He is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (edited with Catherine Clifford, 2023). Among his books with Liturgical Press are The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (2025); Catholicism and Citizenship: Political Cultures of the Church in the Twenty-First Century (2017); Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements (2014); Pope John XXIII: The Medicine of Mercy (2014); and True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (2012).

An articulate, clear response to those who seek to reject the liturgical renewal of the Council as inauthentic, antiquarian, and modernist…. A must-read for all those seeking a deeper understanding of the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical renewal of the Church.Timothy O’Malley, Church Life

• ContentsList of Abbreviations   viiAcknowledgments   ixChapter 1Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Meaning of Vatican II   11.1. The Nemesis of the Liturgical Reform   21.2. Approaches to Sacrosanctum Concilium   41.3. The Agenda of the Council and the Liturgical Debate   101.4. The Liturgical Constitution: A Forgotten Hermeneutics of Vatican II?   13Chapter 2Liturgical Reform and Ressourcement   192.1. The Liturgical Constitution as a Key to Understanding Vatican II   192.2. Liturgical Movement and Ressourcement   222.3. Liturgy, Ressourcement, and Ecumenism   312.4. Liturgy, Ressourcement, and Mission   372.5. Bible, Fathers, and History: The Sources of the Liturgical Reform   462.6. Tradition and Ressourcement in the Liturgical Reform   52Chapter 3Liturgical Reform and Ecclesiology   593.1. Between Mystici Corporis and Lumen Gentium   593.2. The Core Ecclesiology of Sacrosanctum Concilium   653.3. Liturgy and Ecclesiological Ressourcement   713.4. Ecclesiological Consequences of the New Liturgy   813.5. Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi and the Reception of the Liturgical Constitution   87Chapter 4Liturgical Reform and Rapprochement   934.1. Pòlis and Liturgy in the Church of Vatican II   964.2. Rapprochement within the Church   1014.3. Liturgy and Ecumenical Rapprochement   1074.4. Liturgy and the New Relationship with the Jews   1124.5. Rapprochement as Style of the Church   115Chapter 5Reforming the Liturgy—Reforming the Church   1195.1. Liturgy at Vatican II: Ressourcement–Development–Reform   1195.2. Reform of the Liturgy—Reform from the Liturgy   1255.3. Tradition, Language, and Style in the Liturgical Reform   1325.4. Liturgy at a Crossroads   139Chapter 6The Liturgy of Vatican II and Fifty Years of the Conciliar Reception   1456.1. The Anniversaries of Vatican II and the Liturgical Issue   1456.2. The Liturgy of Vatican II and the Postconciliar Church   1496.3. The Liturgical Reform and the Reception/Rejection of the Council   153Conclusion   161Bibliography   169Index of Names   181Index of Subjects   187