Vision of Vatican II

Ormond Rush is a priest of the diocese of Townsville, Australia, with a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He currently lectures at St Paul’s Theological College, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane Campus. His publications include Still Interpreting Vatican II: Some Hermeneutical Principles (New York: Paulist Press, 2004) and The Eyes of Faith: The Sense of the Faithful and the Church’s Reception of Revelation (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009).

"The Vision of Vatican II opens a new way to communicate the message of the Council, its sixteen documents and their international theological interpretations during the last 50 years. Ormond Rush manages to bring hundreds and hundreds of quotations of the conciliar texts and the theological references into a brilliant and transparent convergence. Rush does not pretend a critical evaluation of the documents. Yet the positive presentation of the `vision' guides the critical reader to discover the deficiencies in the actual reception of the Council and the discrepancies between the vision and the actual reality."Peter Hünermann, Professor Emeritus, University of Tübingen"Rush engages academic theologians in a deep analysis of the conciliar texts while presenting the complexity of the Vatican council in a way that is also enormously rewarding to less professional readers. This book is recommended to anyone who struggles to understand the meaning of the Second Vatican Council and who is not enlightened by the polarized antagonisms of recent decades. It is a long book, admirably clear in the way it approaches sometimes complex issues, and rewards the reader from its first word to its last."National Catholic Reporter"An outstanding theological work about an extraordinary conciliar event. Rush's approach, historical in the broadest sense, breathes life into the documents and shows how dynamic each principle is, and how the principles relate to one another."Catholic Books Review

• ContentsAcknowledgments ixAbbreviations xiPrologue xiiiPART I: HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLESPrinciple 1: The Council/The Documents 3Principle 2: Pastoral/Doctrinal 12Principle 3: Proclamation/Dialogue 14Principle 4: Ressourcement/Aggiornamento 17Principle 5: Continuity/Reform 22Principle 6: Vision/Reception 27PART II: THEO-LOGICAL PRINCIPLESPrinciple 7: Revelation/Faith 39Principle 8: Christological/Pneumatological 54Principle 9: Mystery/Sacrament 81Principle 10: Soteriological/Ecclesiological 100Principle 11: Protological/Eschatological 109PART III: ECCLESIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLESPrinciple 12: Scripture/Tradition 141Principle 13: Faith/History 165Principle 14: Particular/Universal 188Principle 15: Communio/Missio 200Principle 16: Unity/Diversity 230Principle 17: Ad Intra/Ad Extra 250Principle 18: Fideles/Fidelis 259Principle 19: People of God/Hierarchy 284Principle 20: College of Bishops/Bishop of Rome 309Principle 21: Magisterium/Theologians 336Principle 22: Catholic/Ecumenical 371Principle 23: Christian/Religious 425Principle 24: Church/World 480Epilogue: Receiving the Vision 533Bibliography 547Index of Names 585Index of Subjects 591Index of References to Council Documents  597