Hermeneutics Of The Second Vatican Council

The Hermeneutics of the Second Vatican Council, or the Hermeneutics of Vatican II, refers to the different interpretations of the Second Vatican Council given by theologians and historians in relation to the Roman Catholic Church in the period following the Council. The two leading interpretations are the "hermeneutic of continuity" (or "hermeneutic of the reform") and the contrasting "hermeneutic of rupture" (or "hermeneutic of discontinuity"), with some proposing a "third hermeneutic" along the lines of John W. O'Malley.

This field of research is taught in some universities and explored by learned societies such as the School of Bologna and the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences. Historians such as Giuseppe Alberigo, John W. O'Malley, Christoph Theobald, Gilles Routhier, Romano Amerio and Roberto de Mattei research perceived or actual ruptures with preconciliar Catholicism from both progressive and traditionalist perspectives. Meanwhile, Benedict XVI has emphasized the continuity of council with preconciliar Catholicism and endorsed a "hermeneutic of reform."

Interpreting the Council

Unlike other Councils of the Roman Catholic Church, Vatican II poses a problem of interpretation which theologians and historians have grabbled with the legacy of the Council and how it should be interpreted in the world. This peculiarity can be derived from the intention of the Council itself, which was not to define "one point or another of doctrine and discipline" but to "re-establish in value and splendor the substance of human and Christian thought and life". This intention was followed by a lack of dogmatic definitions, which gave rise to a debate on the nature of the documents and their application.

All ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church have had their historians who have contributed to providing an interpretation starting from their point of view. However, Roberto de Mattei argues that only for the Second Vatican Council have two contrary hermeneutics been confronted.Roberto de Mattei, ''Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta'', Torino, 2010, p. 14 According to some critics, the presence of opposing hermeneutics can be attributed to an ambiguity or ambivalence of the conciliar documents. Others have argued in response that the troubled reception of Vatican II is not unique to it and reflects a trend dating back to the Council of Nicaea.

Hermeneutics of continuity

According to the hermeneutics of continuity, the Second Vatican Council must be interpreted in the light and in continuity with the magisterium of the Church preceding and following the Council, or in the light of sacred tradition.According to the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', promulgated in 1992 under John Paul II, which lays out the official line of the Vatican, Tradition means the "living transmission accomplished by the Holy Spirit" of the "preaching of the Apostles which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books"; "the Church in her doctrine perpetuates and transmits to all generations, all that she is, all that she believes". ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', 77-78The Vatican II constitution ''Dei verbum'' states: "It is clear, therefore, that Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church, by the most wise design of God, are so connected and joined together that they cannot exist independently, and that all together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, contribute effectively to the salvation of souls."

Already in 1966, a year after the closing of the Council, Pope Paul VI highlighted two interpretative tendencies considered erroneous:

The hermeneutics of continuity was explicitly formulated by Pope Benedict XVI on 22 December 2005:

Hermeneutics of rupture

The hermeneutics of rupture, also known as the hermeneutics of discontinuity, tends to give value to the Council as an event, also in consideration of some particular characteristics of Vatican II: the absence of a specific historical purpose, the rejection of the originally Roman Curia-backed preparatory schemes, the assembly elaboration of the documents and also the perception of the Council as a crucial event by public opinion. This hermeneutics aims to valorise not only the documents approved by the Council, but also the debates within the assembly and the perception of the Council externally, by the faithful.

Benedict XVI, a few months after his election as Pope, expressed a severe criticism of the hermeneutics of discontinuity:

Bologna School

The progressivist supporters of the hermeneutics of discontinuity are represented by the so-called "Bologna School" directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, a student of Giuseppe Dossetti, author of a ''History of the Second Vatican Council'' in five volumes. They "emphasized the 'spirit' of the council, styling the progressive reformers as the heroes and the conservative minority at the council as the enemies of progress". It is named after the city of Bologna, the intellectual centre of this school of thought and the headquarters of the main organ associated with this line of thought; the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences. Other leading thinkers in the Bologna School were Alberto Melloni, Giuseppe Ruggieri and Maria Teresa Fattori. Outside Italy this approach is supported David Berger, John W. O'Malley, Gilles Routhier and Cristoph Theobald.

Many Catholic traditionalist groups, such as the Society of Saint Pius X, and some scholars such as the philosopher Romano Amerio. In 2010, the historian Roberto de Mattei intervened in the debate with the book ''Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta'' (''"The Second Vatican Council – An Unwritten Story"''), in which, without entering into the merits of the theological discussion, he argues on a historical level the impossibility of separating the Second Vatican Council from the post-conciliar abuses, isolating the latter as a pathology that developed in a healthy body.Roberto de Mattei, ''Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta'', Torino, 2010, p. 23

See also

* Post Vatican II history of the Roman Church
* Magisterium of the Catholic Church
* Modernism in the Catholic Church
* ''Nouvelle Théologie''
* ''Subsistit in''
* Pact of the Catacombs
* Saint Gallen Group
*

Notes

References

Further reading

* Giuseppe Alberigo, Storia del Concilio Vaticano II, 5 voll., Bologna, Il Mulino, 1995–2001
*Romano Amerio, Iota unum. Studio delle variazioni della Chiesa cattolica nel secolo XX, Torino, Lindau, 2009 ISBN 8871808207
*Roberto de Mattei, Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta, Torino, Lindau, 2010, ISBN 9788871808949
*Maria Teresa Fattori, Alberto Melloni (a cura di), L'evento e le decisioni. Studi sulle dinamiche del concilio Vaticano II, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1997 ISBN 9788815062871
*Benedict XVI and Kurt Koch, Vatican II : L'herméneutique de la réforme, Parole et Silence, 2014
* Brunero Gherardini, Concilio ecumenico Vaticano II. Un discorso da fare, Frigento, Casa Mariana Editrice, 2009 ISBN 9788890177040
*
*Agostino Marchetto, Il Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II. Contrappunto per la sua storia, Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005
* Ralph M. McInerny, Vaticano II. Che cosa è andato storto?, Verona, Fede e Cultura, 2009, ISBN 9788864090122
*Gilles Routhier, Vatican II : Herméneutique et réception, Montréal, Fides (coll. « Héritage et projet », 64) 460 p., 2006
*Gilles Routhier et Guy Jobin (dir.), L'Autorité et les Autorités. L'herméneutique théologique de Vatican II, Cerf, 2010
*Gilles Routhier, La Réception d'un concile, Cerf, coll. « Cogitatio Fidei » n° 174, 272 p., 1993, rééd. 2012
*Gilles Routhier, P. Roy et K. Schelkens (dir.), La Théologie catholique entre intransigeance et renouveau : La réception des mouvements préconciliaires à Vatican II, Thurnout, Brepols, coll. « Bibliothèque de la Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique » n° 95, 2012, 363 p.
* Brunero Gherardini, Concilio Vaticano II. Il discorso mancato, Torino, Lindau, 2011 ISBN 9788871809151
* Walter Brandmüller, Das Konzil und die Konzile: das 2. Vatikanum im Licht der Konziliengeschichte, St. Ottilien, EOS-Verlag, 1991
* Michael Bredeck, Das Zweite Vatikanum als Konzil des Aggiornamento. Zur hermeneutischen Grundlegung einer theologischen Konzilsinterpretation (Paderborner theologische Studien, 48), Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2007 ISBN 9783506763174
* Alfred E. Hierold (a cura di), Zweites Vatikanisches Konzil - Ende oder Anfang?, Münster, LIT Verlag, 2004 ISBN 9783825880880
* Anton Losinger, 'Iusta autonomia'. Studien zu einem Schlüsselbegriff des II. Vatikanischen Konzils, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh 1989 ISBN 978-3-506-70228-9
* Ralf van Bühren, Kunst und Kirche im 20. Jahrhundert. Die Rezeption des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-76388-4
* Hubert Wolf, Antimodernismus und Modernismus in der katholischen Kirche. Beiträge zum theologiegeschichtlichen Vorfeld des II. Vaticanums, Schöningh, Paderborn, 1998 (ISBN 3-506-73762-7)
* Karol Wojtyła, U podstaw odnowy. Studium o realizacji Vaticanum II, Kraków, Polskie Towarzystwo Teologiczne 1972 ISBN 83-87022-28-4
* Walter Kasper, The Catholic Church : Nature, Reality and Mission, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015
* Matthew L. Lamb, Matthew Levering, Vatican II: renewal within tradition, Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780195332681
* John W. O'Malley, SJ, Tradition and transition: historical perspectives on Vatican II, Lima, Ohio, Academic Renewal Press, 2002 ISBN 9780788099267
*John W. O'Malley, SJ, Vatican II: did anything happen?, New York-London, Continuum, 2007 ISBN 9780826428905
*John W. O'Malley, SJ, What Happened at Vatican II, Harvard University Press, 2010

{{Pope Benedict XVI

Second Vatican Council