The Practice of Theology as Passion for Truth: Testimony from the Journals of Yves Congar, O.P.

Horizons ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-402
Author(s):  
Elizabeth T. Groppe

ABSTRACTYves Congar, O.P. (1904–1995) is widely considered the most important Roman Catholic ecclesiologist of the twentieth century and one of the most influential theologians at the Second Vatican Council. His personal diaries Journal d'un théologien 1946–1956 and Mon journal du Concile, recently published posthumously in France, enhance our appreciation for the character and spirituality of this extraordinary theologian. These journals testify to the passion for truth that inspired and sustained Congar's theological vocation through both his difficult years of censure and the exhilarating conciliar period. The witness and example Congar offers can be instructive to our own continuing practice of the theological discipline.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Daniela Concas

At the beginning of the first half of the twentieth century the bond between ars-venustas and cultus-pietas has produced many churches of Roman Catholic cult.It’s between the 20s and 60s of the twentieth century that the experiments of the Liturgical Movement in Germany lead to the evolution of the liturgical space, which, even today, we see engraving in modern churches in Rome (Italy).The Council of Trent (1545-1563) constitutes the precedent historical moment, in which the Church recognised the need for major liturgical renovation of its churches. In comparison with this, the Second Vatican Council (1959-65) introduced some radical changes within the church architectural spaces.The observations come from the direct reading of the present architectural space and the interventions already realised in modern churches in Rome. The most significant churches from an historical-artistic point of view were selected (1924-1965). Significantly, although every single architecture is unique for dimensions, architectural language and used materials, a comparison, in order to gather the discovered characteristics and to compare the restrictions regarding the different operations, would extremely effective, as demonstrated below.Since the matter is considerably vast, in this work, only some brief notes regarding the liturgical renovation of the Presbytery area will be outlined.


Author(s):  
Paul Valliere

This chapter canvasses the impact of Russian religious thought on major thinkers and movements in twentieth-century Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Noting the unique role played by the Russian emigration that emerged in the West following the Russian Civil War (1918–1920), the chapter assesses the influence of Russian Orthodox thinkers on six streams of modern Western theology: Karl Barth and Evangelical theology, liberal Protestantism, Anglicanism, Yves Congar and early Roman Catholic ecumenism, nouvelle théologie and ressourcement, and liberation theology. The chapter argues that the most important venues of Russian influence on Western theology were the Ecumenical Movement and the Second Vatican Council. The most eminent English-speaking theologians to engage deeply with Russian Orthodox thought in the twentieth century were Jaroslav Pelikan and Rowan Williams. The chapter concludes by noting the passion for East/West unity that inspired the Russians and their Western Christian partners in the twentieth-century dialogue.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-316
Author(s):  
Valentina Napolitano

This article explores the mimetic analogies between the twentieth-century Mexican order of the Legionaries of Christ and the Jesuits in their historic and current Atlantic reproduction. It argues for a line of study of the translocality of the Roman Catholic Church that pays attention to phantomatic presences, changing bioreligiosity and affective histories. Moreover it shows as a close focus on the “psychic glue” between different religious orders can shed light on the affective power of eroticism and mysticism within the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council.


Author(s):  
Hiermonk Ioann ( Bulyko) ◽  

The Second Vatican Council was a unique event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, it was intended to make the Roman Catholic Church more open to the contemporary society and bring it closer to the people. The principal aim of the council was the so called aggiornamento (updating). The phenomenon of updating the ecclesiastical life consisted in the following: on the one hand, modernization of the life of the Church and closer relations with the secular world; on the other hand, preserving all the traditions upon which the ecclesiastical life was founded. Hence in the Council’s documents we find another, French word ressourcement meaning ‘return to the origins’ based on the Holy Scripture and the works of the Church Fathers. The aggiornamento phenomenon emerged during the Second Vatican Council due to the movement within the Catholic Church called nouvelle theologie (French for “new theology”). Its representatives advanced the ideas that became fundamental in the Council’s decisions. The nouvelle theologie was often associated with modernism as some of the ideas of its representatives seemed to be very similar to those of modernism. However, what made the greatest difference between the two movements was their attitude towards the tradition. For the nouvelle theologie it was very important to revive Christianity in its initial version, hence their striving for returning to the sources, for the oecumenical movement, for better relations with non-Catholics and for liturgical renewal. All these ideas can be traced in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and all this is characterized by the word aggiornamento.


Exchange ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Stan Chu Ilo

Abstract This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Bruce

AbstractIn 1963 the Second Vatican Council voted overwhelmingly to introduce the vernacular into Roman Catholic worship. The Irish hierarchy decided that both Irish and English speakers should be catered for in the reformed liturgy. Within a few years John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin, had gained a widespread reputation as having gone further than his fellow bishops in the provision of masses in Irish. At the same time he was criticised for his lack of enthusiasm towards other areas of liturgical reform. This dichotomy stemmed from McQuaid’s deep dismay at the church’s new ecumenical direction and the possibility that it would lead to shared worship between Catholics and Protestants. Yet, as a senior prelate in the Catholic Church, he was obliged to implement each of the Council’s decrees, including those concerning the liturgy. McQuaid’s response was to introduce Vatican-approved changes to the mass, while simultaneously protecting the traditional liturgy he cherished. So he tried to re-establish the Latin rite on the same terms as those he had arranged for the Irish mass. Had he succeeded, the result would have been a reduction in the use of an English vernacular which he found offensive to his Catholic sensibilities.


1999 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 478-497
Author(s):  
Edward Yarnold

At the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, the bishops were able to make a beginning to their legislative work by promulgating two documents which they fondly hoped would be uncontroversial: the unremarkable Decree on Mass Media, and the much more consequential Constitution on the Liturgy. Among the principles for the revision of the Roman Catholic Church’s sacraments contained in the second of these documents, instructions are given for the revision of the rites of initiation, including the following: The catechumenate for adults is to be restored [instauretur] and broken up into several steps [gradibus], and put into practice at the discretion of the local ordinary. In this way the time of the catechumenate, which is intended for appropriate formation, can be sanctified through liturgical rites to be celebrated successively at different times. In mission territories, in addition to what is available in the Christian tradition, it should also be permitted to incorporate ceremonies [elementa] of initiation which are found to be customary in each society, provided they can be adapted to the Christian rite.


Ecclesiology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-193
Author(s):  
MICHAEL PUTNEY

Abstract<title> ABSTRACT </title>The Decree on Ecumenism and subsequent ecumenical documents indicate a growing commitment to ecumenical dialogue in the Catholic Church. Given the ecclesiology of communion of the Second Vatican Council and foundational ecumenical texts in St John's Gospel, it would be impossible for the Roman Catholic Church to be faithful to Christ if it were not engaged in dialogue with other Christian communions. Such dialogue is necessary for its own self-realization. Only through dialogue will it hear the call to conversion and receive the gifts that only other Christians can offer. for the Catholic Church to cease to be involved in ecumenical dialogue would be not just a moral failure, but an ecclesiological breakdown.


Author(s):  
Ormond Rush

For 400 years after the Council of Trent, a juridical model of the church dominated Roman Catholicism. Shifts towards a broader ecclesiology began to emerge in the nineteenth century. Despite the attempts to repress any deviations from the official theology after the crisis of Roman Catholic Modernism in the early twentieth century, various renewal movements, known as ressourcement, in the decades between the world wars brought forth a period of rich ecclesiological research, with emphasis given to notions such as the Mystical Body, the People of God, the church as mystery, as sacrament, and as communio. The Second Vatican Council incorporated many of these developments into its vision for renewal and reform of the Roman Catholic Church. Over half a century after Vatican II, a new phase in its reception is emerging with the pontificate of Pope Francis.


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