Although this Handbook covers all the documents of the Council and their reception, texts such as the Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC); the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (LG); the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum (DV) and the Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio (UR); together with the Decree on Religious Liberty Dignitatis Humanae (DH) are repeatedly quoted throughout the volume and undergird all the conciliar teaching. From an Anglican perspective, this is important to recall because it was these documents which also convinced Michael Ramsey that the time was ripe for the initiation of the ‘serious dialogue’ which resulted in the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

The judicious editorial Introduction crucially flags the question of the hermeneutical interpretation of the Council. The editors unashamedly tell us the ‘Oxford Handbook of Vatican II is a response to the hermeneutical distortions that attempt to bend the conciliar event and its documents to fit a neo-integralist logic or to dismiss Vatican II altogether’.

Part I covers Context and Sources. The path from the Council of Trent to Vatican II is expertly covered by John O’Malley, SJ., including the Conciliar Movement. Gallicanism is explained as well as the seismic effect of the French Revolution, Ultramontanism and the First Vatican Council, the rise of Neo-Scholasticism, and the suppression of Modernism. The broader historical context of Vatican II is treated by co-editor Massimo Faggioli. He points to the importance of the development of social Catholicism and Catholic Action as well as the loss of the temporal power of the Papacy. The Second World War and the Cold War periods are well summarized, together with the origins of ‘Christian Democracy’, anti-Communism, the end of colonialism and the Civil Rights Movement. The ‘new theology’ of a return to the sources, ressourcement, is explained in the following chapter as the basis for a ‘Council of Renewal’. Editions of the Council Documents (in English) are meticulously covered by Norman Tanner SJ, who (deliciously) reports the criticism of some translations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) which preferred translations which added words to the text to render more conservative interpretation. Next, the archival story is told, and Journals are covered such as Concilium and the work of Guiseppe Alberigio and Alberto Melloni and the Bologna five-volume History of Vatican II. Journalism, diaries and broadcasting are covered in a further chapter. Vatican II was the first Council to be reported immediately throughout the world, especially in North America and Italy. Interestingly, the beneficial effects of television on liturgical reform are noted, especially in Italy.

Part II, the longest, covers not only all the Council documents but also expunged and forgotten texts. Alberto Melloni importantly warns of a post-conciliar tendency to try to capture the synodal event in the static language of neo-scholasticism, precisely what John XXIII sought to avoid. He further challenges the later distinction of texts as either ‘pastoral’ or ‘dogmatic’. Overall, the survey of the conciliar documents here presented does not reveal new surprises for those already conversant with the often turbulent history of their composition, including Papal interventions in the interest of appeasing the conservative minority. Nevertheless, we are given an encyclopaedic survey of the considerable literature on all the texts, and this part of the book is an admirable way of introducing the conciliar texts to new readers Catholic and non-Catholic, encompassing almost half a century of research. From an ecumenical perspective, the role of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity is recognized as highly significant. Cardinal Augustin Bea and, later, Bishop Jan Willebrands headed a team of consultants and ecumenical observers who had real influence on the direction of the Council. Texts on Ecumenism, Religious Liberty, Catholic-Jewish relations and Interreligious Dialogue, Nostra Aetate (NA) all emerged from this matrix as well as Bea’s significant contribution to the key text on revelation (DV).

Part III examines Catholic reception. It opens with an important examination of the theology of reception as a process involving tradition, reaction and re-expression. Churches are ‘active subjects’ of reception with the consequent interplay of the Gospel and different cultures. The following chapters analyse the process of reception from the close of the Council through the Synod of Bishops (1985) and Benedict XVI’s hermeneutic of reform versus discontinuity, to the current phase of reception with Pope Francis. A fascinating chapter is devoted to the non-reception of the Council by ‘traditionalist’ Catholics, including its liturgical reforms. The relation between the Papacy and the Council is also examined, including the inspiration Paul VI gave to Pope Francis. Paul Murray explores how decades of systematic theology flowed into Vatican II, stressing the fundamental role of the bishops of the local churches. James Bretzke traces the oscillations in Roman Catholic moral theology between ‘contextual’ and ‘inductive’ approaches; Bernard Häring and Gaudium et Spes versus Benedict XVI and Veritatis Splendor. This fluctuation has significant bearing on the current work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. Canon law is also examined. The structure of the revised Code (1983) follows the Council’s understanding of the Church as embodying the three-fold offices of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King in terms of the whole Church as People of God in teaching, sanctifying and governing. Nevertheless, the canonist John Beal argues this is only partially achieved. This is significant because he is a co-editor of the standard comprehensive English language commentary on the Code. He entitles his chapter ‘New Wine, Old Wineskins’ and details relapses into legal ‘positivism’. Feminist theologies and reception are also well covered with the perhaps unsurprising conclusion that ‘full reception’ has not been reached. Nevertheless, the ‘synodal pathway’ must open dialogue on the road to reform.

Part IV explores reception by other Churches and non-Christians. We are given an excellent account of the roles of the Observers, including reference to Bernard Pawley’s confidential dispatches to Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher. The resistance of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to sending observers handicapped the ecumenical Patriarchate, only for the ROC to unilaterally send observers to the second session. The role of the Orthodox observers, especially in terms of the emerging ecclesiology of the bishop and the local church, is stressed. Mark Chapman traces the visit of Archbishop Fisher to Pope John XXIII and then the views of the Anglican observers and those (few) members of the Council who had a deeper knowledge of Anglicanism, such as Dom (later Bishop) Christopher Butler. The visit of Michael Ramsey is well covered and the early stages of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue. Lutheran reception is covered by William Rusch, one of the architects of the Episcopal-Lutheran agreements in the USA. He rightly includes the establishment of the Ecumenical Research Institute at Strasbourg by the Lutheran World Federation as a fruit of the Council. Reformed reception is outlined by Donald Norwood who stresses the Council as ‘event’, as ecumenical friendships and the influence of Taizé. Methodist reception includes recognition of the consonance of Wesleyan and Catholic emphases. There is an interesting concluding chapter on evangelical reception and non-reception of the Council as well as a conservative alliance of some Evangelicals with some Roman Catholics on debated ethical and social issues. Catholic-Jewish relations are discussed, most significantly in the genesis of NA and the continuing validity of the Jewish Covenant, including later Christian reflection by Paul van Buren and Johann Baptist Metz. Islam, also included in the scope of NA, is expertly covered by (Cardinal) Michael Fitzgerald who has pioneered Catholic (and Christian) relations with Islam since the Council. Other faiths are discussed with particular regard to the radical change in NA from a previous dismissal of ‘superstition’ to ‘respect’.

The (final) Part V covers global reception. International affairs and diplomatic relations are outlined. Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe and Oceania are systematically covered. Adrian Hastings is extensively quoted on Africa. Initial enthusiasm for the Council is recorded, especially in the Americas, Western Europe and Anglophone Africa. Resistance is recorded in first-generation indigenous clergy wedded to ‘colonial’ models. And partial reception is noted in regions where the Council concerns were perceived to be European and North American and where translations into local languages took several years. In addition, reception was slow with a ‘wordy’ council where there was an oral rather than literary culture. Anglicans will no doubt nod at this from the experience of the seeming remoteness of decisions of the Lambeth Conference for many Anglicans, especially in non-Anglophone cultures.

The Handbook will not only become a standard reference work, but is also an entirely convincing argument in terms of the ‘hermeneutic’ of the Council. Important changes did take place and are here documented. All was not smooth continuity. Though this is not a volume neo-conservative Catholics will like, it is one which should reassure Anglicans, especially as Pope Francis continues to encourage ‘synodality’ as a process of the Church listening to itself.