In this remarkably clear text, Tanner offers the results of years of intensive study and teaching of the ecumenical councils, provides a comprehensive history of councilor teaching, extending from the early and medieval councils to the Second Vatican Council.
Winner of the John Gilmary Shea Prize The Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Catholic Church’s attempt to put its house in order in response to the Protestant Reformation, has long been praised and blamed for things it never did. Now, in this first full one-volume history in modern times, John W. O’Malley brings to life the volatile issues that pushed several Holy Roman emperors, kings and queens of France, and five popes—and all of Europe with them—repeatedly to the brink of disaster. During the council’s eighteen years, war and threat of war among the key players, as well as the Ottoman Turks’ onslaught against Christendom, turned the council into a perilous enterprise. Its leaders declined to make a pronouncement on war against infidels, but Trent’s most glaring and ironic silence was on the authority of the papacy itself. The popes, who reigned as Italian monarchs while serving as pastors, did everything in their power to keep papal reform out of the council’s hands—and their power was considerable. O’Malley shows how the council pursued its contentious parallel agenda of reforming the Church while simultaneously asserting Catholic doctrine. Like What Happened at Vatican II, O’Malley’s Trent: What Happened at the Council strips mythology from historical truth while providing a clear, concise, and fascinating account of a pivotal episode in Church history. In celebration of the 450th anniversary of the council’s closing, it sets the record straight about the much misunderstood failures and achievements of this critical moment in European history.
In The Catholic Church and the Bible: From the Council of Trent to the Jansenist Controversy (1564–1733), Els Agten studies the impact of Jansenism and anti–Jansenism on the ideas regarding vernacular Bible reading and Bible production in the Low Countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book provides a review of book censorship during this time. Furthermore, it analyses the ideas and the writings of ten protagonists, including theologians, Bible translators, ecclesiastical authorities and representatives of Port-Royal. In particular, the author demonstrates how, even as their opponents took a more cautious position, the Jansenists encouraged the laity, including women and children, to read the Bible without any restrictions.
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From one of our foremost church historians comes an overarching analysis of the three modern Catholic councils—an assessment of what Catholicism was and has become today. Catholic councils are meetings of bishops. In this unprecedented comparison of the three most recent meetings, John O’Malley traverses more than 450 years of Catholic history and examines the councils’ most pressing and consistent concerns: questions of purpose, power, and relevance in a changing world. By offering new, sometimes radical, even troubling perspectives on these convocations, When Bishops Meet analyzes the evolution of the church itself. The Catholic Church today is shaped by the historical arc starting from Trent in the sixteenth century to Vatican II. The roles of popes, the laity, theologians, and others have varied from the bishop-centered Trent, to Vatican I’s declaration of papal infallibility, to a new balance of power in the mid-twentieth century. At Trent, lay people had direct influence on proceedings. By Vatican II, their presence was token. At each gathering, fundamental issues recurred: the relationship between bishops and the papacy, the very purpose of a council, and doctrinal change. Can the teachings of the church, by definition a conservative institution, change over time? Councils, being ecclesiastical as well as cultural institutions, have always reflected and profoundly influenced their times. Readers familiar with John O’Malley’s earlier work as well as those with no knowledge of councils will find this volume an indispensable guide for essential questions: Who is in charge of the church? What difference did the councils make, and will there be another?
The sixteen official documents--constitutions, decrees, and declarations--of the Second Vatican Council are now available from Liturgical Press in the most popular and widely used inclusive-language edition translated by Irish Dominican Austin Flannery (+October 21, 2008). As the worldwide Church continues to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Council (1962-65), there is a great need in college classrooms and parish faith formation groups--as well as for individuals--to again have access to these documents in contemporary English. As Flannery wrote in his introduction to the 1996 edition, "The translation of the texts of the Vatican documents in the present volume differs from that in the previous publication in two respects. It has been very considerably revised and, in place, corrected. It is also, to a very large extent, in inclusive language. "I say 'to a very large extent, ' because we have used inclusive language in passages about men and women but not, however, in passages about God, except where the use of the masculine pronoun was easily avoidable."
Catholic theology has to face a certain number of fundamental questions: what is the nature and content of Christian revelation, what are the sources of revelation, how are the mysteries of the faith to be understood in relation of one to another, and how do the truths of the Catholic faith relate to the acquisitions of natural reason. In the contemporary context, Catholic theology is marked by a diversity of approaches, many of which are seemingly incompatible or estranged from one another. How might we think about the unity of Catholic theology over and above the diversity of forms? What role, if any, can Aquinas play as a common doctor in facilitating exchanges between theological traditions in the Church? Principles of Catholic Theology seeks to address directly the nature of Catholic theology and the challenge of its contemporary articulation with an eye towards its articulation in its Thomistic key. This book is also the first of a series of collections of essays by Thomas Joseph White, OP, extending over a range of fundamental topics in Catholic dogmatic theology.
In this book Paolo Sachet provides a detailed account of the attempts made by the Roman Curia to exploit printing in the mid-sixteenth century, after the Reformation but before the implementation of the ecclesiastical censorship. Conventional wisdom holds that Protestant exploitation of printing was astute, active and forward-looking, whereas the papacy was inept, passive and reactionary in dealing with the relatively new medium of communication. Publishing for the Popes aims to provide an impartial assessment of this assumption. By focusing on the editorial projects undertaken by members of the Roman Curia between 1527 and 1555, Sachet examines the Catholic Church’s attitude towards printing, exploring its biases and tactics. See inside the book.
This unique work - no other work yet available in English treats this subject - illustrates the contribution of these Councils in the development and formulation of Christian beliefs. It then shows how their legacies lingered throughout the centuries to inspire - or haunt - every generation.