Abstract
The ten articles in this book—all authored by Wicks; all written between 2009 and 2015; all previously published in other sources—attempt to cast the Second Vatican Council “as an event of theological discussion, argument, and exposition” (1). W. has a related goal in mind in binding the articles together in a single volume: fostering the “re-reception of Vatican II’s theologically rich documents” (1).
That W. achieves the first of these aims will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his work. As ever, his writing is crisp, his research well sourced, and his ability to call the reader’s attention to some of the more overlooked dimensions of the council impressive. Moreover, by dividing the articles into two groups, with one focusing mostly on figures such as Pope John XXIII, Cardinal Augustin Bea, and the council’s theologians, and the other devoted primarily to presenting four year-by-year summaries of the council’s work, the volume would supplement nicely book-length treatments of the whole of Vatican II.
The book accomplishes its aim of re-receiving the council’s texts as well, though it is not clear that the gathering together of the articles was vital for this task. The main virtue of their being collected in one volume, as distinct from the many virtues of each of the articles taken individually, is convenience. Still, having these articles in one place allows for deeper and more sustained appreciation of the three foci the book’s subtitle announces.
The contributions of the theologians who influenced the council most significantly course through all ten articles, but it is the second article that takes those contributions as its explicit topic. In that piece, W. sets out to go “beyond mythic narratives” (33) in his presentation of the influence these experts wielded. Even those with an above-average familiarity with Vatican II are likely to leave the chapter with a more sober appreciation of the usual roster of the council’s theological giants; but they will also encounter a careful treatment of figures such as the Louvain systematician Gérard Philips, whom W. calls “little-known but hugely influential” (80). By relying firmly on diaries, letters, and autobiographical accounts to detail the roles played by the theologians, W. makes good on his promise of setting aside myth and replacing it with solid documentary analysis.
At the start of the book’s fifth article, the one that deals most directly with the ecumenical character of the council, W. recounts a remark penned by Johannes Willebrands, Augustin Bea’s chief assistant in the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (SPCU), after meeting with George Lindbeck, who represented the Lutheran World Federation as a delegated observer at the council: “Conversation très intéresante” (115 n.1). One could characterize W.’s analysis of the ecumenical turn of Vatican II similarly: it consistently piques the interest of the reader. The primary way this occurs is through W.’s careful consideration of the work of the SPCU in general, and Bea in particular, especially as it relates to the way they interacted with the Holy Office. Occasionally, however, W. unearths less well-known parts of the council to give evidence of its ecumenical tone. He does just this when he points to “a passage seldom cited” (109) wherein Joseph Ratzinger calls Gaudium et Spes, Dignitatis Humanae, and Nostra Aetate—the final two originated in the SPCU—a rebuttal to Pius XI’s Syllabus of Errors, constituting, as it were, “a kind of counter-syllabus” (110).
Scripture factors into each of W.’s ten articles as well, but the final article’s engagement with chapter 6 of Dei Verbum (DV), that is, the part of the Constitution that addresses the role of Scripture in the life of the church, is notably illuminating. W. presents a helpful comparison of the outline and contents of this part of DV to their equivalents in De Fontibus Revelationis (DFR), one of the schemata that preceded DV. When it comes to the relationship of Scripture and theology (DFR §29; DV §24), that comparison shows that DFR was, in many places, a repetition of the status quo, while DV was doing something altogether new. It is only the latter, for instance, that proclaims Scripture not only to contain the Word of God, but also to be the Word of God, a conviction that gave rise to the memorable formulation, “The study of the sacred page is, as it were, the soul of sacred theology” (DV §24).
W.’s attention to these three foci, as well as to other themes that did not find their way into the book’s subtitle, makes for an important addition to the already sizeable body of literature about the reception of Vatican II. Those committed to this reception will do well to study his ten articles, either as collected in this volume, or in their original places of publication.