Kevin J. Ahern and the nineteen emerging scholars along with the established scholar Massimo Faggioli are to be congratulated on this excellent collection of essays reflecting various theological specialties in light of the documents of the Vatican II. The book is timely given the Golden Jubilee of the council years, and serves to provide hope as the “grandchildren” of conciliar theology continue to be shaped deeply and differently by the council's wisdom.
The essays are short, and thus are more what Yves Congar would have called “signposts” pointing toward various areas of theological development than tightly constructed theological answers. This collection illustrates well that the council's teachings are being woven into virtually every area of theological thought. The essays' authors came together for a conference in March of 2012, jointly sponsored by the Intellectual Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and Boston College Theology Graduate Student Association. Faggioli gave the keynote address, which set the tone for the conference and provides a historical context for the essays, which tend to receive the council's teachings favorably and to interpret them broadly.
The essays are organized in five categories of theological pursuit: liturgy, ministry, dialogue, the ethics of Gaudium et Spes, and ecclesiology. A quick glance makes clear that the designated topical areas cross various lines between systematics and practical theology rather than following “traditional” breakdowns (i.e., systematics, ethics, fundamental theology, etc.). Clearly, the theological work represented here is ministerial or has faith-based praxis as its orientation. Similarly, that ever-so-pastoral council is interpreted here in pastoral terms. This is a very positive sign for the future of the various theology departments of Catholic universities in the next few decades!
All of the essays provide interesting and informed reading. I call attention to several I was impressed by, not to ignore or to diminish the others, but because I was interested in the way their authors dealt with specific pastoral issues. Anselma Dolcich-Ashley's essay on the emergence of authority relationships from the sexual-abuse scandal does not dwell on the horrors of the scandal, but on a wholly new way to work toward effective, ministerial authority. This new path would honor the hierarchical reality of the church envisioned in Lumen Gentium while encouraging the developing responsibility of the baptized for the life and mission of the church (also envisioned in Lumen Gentium).
Heather Miller Rubens considers one of the thornier theological issues of the post–Nostra Aetate church, the corporate and personal tensions between respect for other religious traditions and the biblically compelling mission of evangelization. Miller Rubens points out that various more recent documents of the Catholic Church have gradually moved the church away from Nostra Aetate and back to a pre–Vatican II vision of “dialogue” as a means to evangelize. She raises the serious question of where in the Scriptures we might find the mandate for genuine, respectful interreligious dialogue. In the end she points to “signposts” but has not identified a satisfying answer. I found the essay unsettling, but very helpful in explaining why the Vatican has not been comfortable with initiatives in interreligious dialogue under the two previous papacies. The signposts point to quicksand or quagmires that the church has not yet successfully navigated!
More challenging, however, is the essay by Eduardo Gonzalez on the notion of a “crucified future.” Integrating concepts from the political theology of Europe and the liberation theology of Latin America, Gonzalez sees the created order as the new locus for recognizing the body of the crucified Christ. Is there a future for the implementation of the Second Vatican Council's theology if there is not even a future for the earth itself? Understanding the fragility of the earth, and the current state of its crucifixion by humans, requires us to attend to the Holy Spirit who breathes over the world, bringing it to being even as that same Spirit guides the church to recognize this “sign of the times.”
I highly recommend this collection of essays, not as providing a last word on anything, certainly, but as offering very intriguing arguments to open thoughtful discussion in college classrooms and parish discussion groups.
