Abstract
If John O’Malley had not written this insightful essay, somebody else would have had to. In a little over a decade O. has published three major volumes on the Councils of Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II. The publication of these volumes veritably begged for a more synthetic treatment of O’s conciliar scholarship. We are in his debt for his having accomplished that task himself. What makes this volume methodologically so fruitful is the author’s decision to place the three conciliar studies side by side, offering a synchronic analysis of the three councils, one that yields a cumulative insight not so easily available when each is studied in isolation. The “essay” is written in O’s characteristically lucid prose and made all the more accessible by being shorn of the documentation readily available to the reader in the three earlier monographs. This makes this slim volume particularly inviting as an introductory text while in no way lessening its interest for scholars.
The essay is divided into three sections. Part I attends to three basic issues: the role of councils, the problem of doctrinal change, and the loci of ecclesial authority. Here the reader encounters a concise summary of O.’s distinctive rhetorical analysis of the texts of each council, illuminating both Trent’s reliance on a juridical style and Vatican II’s turn to a more pastoral and aspirational rhetoric. The reader learns of the “substantialist” account of history that impeded Trent’s consideration of the problem of change, and of Vatican II’s much more capacious consideration of doctrinal change through the rubrics of aggiornamento, development, and ressourcement. His consideration of the shifting loci of ecclesial authority foregrounds the bishop-centered character of the Council of Trent, the dramatic papo-centrism of Vatican I, and Vatican II’s shift to a more balanced interplay between hierarchical and collegial dynamisms.
Part II considers four groups of participants at these three councils. Readers learn of the considerable influence given to theologians at Trent, to the role of ultramontane lay journalists in seeding the soil for Vatican I, and of the limited but still significant role for the lay auditors at Vatican II. Of particular value, however, is O’s consideration of the impact of “the Other” on all three councils, where this term designates persons and movements that were in some sense outside the church yet frequently claimed the councils’ attention. With Trent the Other appeared in the guise of secular princes and the rise of Lutheranism. At Vatican I the now threatening Other was modern liberalism itself. By contrast, O. notes Vatican II’s daring engagement with the Other through its respectful dialogue with non-Catholic Christians and practitioners of other religions. He also emphasizes Vatican II’s nuanced consideration of the complex historical and cultural forces at work in the world itself.
The final section of this fascinating essay begins with an assessment of the overall impact of these councils. Trent contributed indirectly to the bureaucratization of the modern church and thereby greatly enhanced the church’s capacity to enforce uniformity in its discipline. Vatican I mimicked the secular centralization of authority in its insistence on papal primacy and infallibility, creating a papo-centric view of the church that led many to believe that councils would no longer be necessary. Vatican II firmly resituated the church within the world .
In a volume committed to the importance of ecumenical councils, O. concludes by noting the difficulties that would be presented by any attempt to convene a new ecumenical council. Such a council would require a venue that could accommodate well over five thousand bishops and the hoped-for participation of other church members. He offers the possibility of a council comprised not of the full episcopate but of elected episcopal representatives, and proposes that the time may have come for such councils to meet, not in Rome, but in regions of the global church where Catholicism is flourishing, particularly in the Global South.
In this essay, the reader benefits from a lifetime of scholarship by one of the most influential church historians of our time. In a culture wracked with anti-institutional bias, the discerning reader will acquire a much greater appreciation for ecumenical councils as a vital ecclesial institution. What emerges from this essay is a dynamic vision of a church that is always negotiating its self-understanding and its place in the world.