Vatican II and Ecumenical Prospects .............................................

Lecture 36

In this ¿ nal lecture, ... we will look at Christian theology after Vatican

II, ... which changed not just the Roman Catholic church but the whole

situation of Christian theology as Roman Catholics, Protestants, and

Eastern Orthodox began a new set of ecumenical conversations with

each other. We will focus precisely on the issue of how change works in

the Christian theological tradition, which becomes an interesting and

controversial point, especially after Vatican II.

V

atican II changed the landscape of Christian theology for both
Catholics and Protestants. Some traditionalist Catholics have parted
company with the pope because they see Vatican II as attempting to
change Catholic doctrine which cannot be changed. The view that prevailed
at Vatican II was that of de Lubac, that the church could move forward by
returning to the sources of Christian doctrine, which are broader than Vatican
I and neo-Thomism. This centrist view, represented by the popes after
Vatican II, holds that the council made no changes in Catholic dogma. On
the progressive wing of the church, the spirit of the council was embraced
as leading to much-needed changes that go beyond the changes the council
actually made.

Roman Catholic theology since Vatican II often centers on arguments about
how far the council’s changes went and how far they should go. A typical
example is how Vatican II raised the possibility of vernacular masses (not
in Latin), which became the norm by the end of the decade. A problematic
illustration is the question of whether the Vatican II decree on religious
freedom is really a change from the teaching of Pope Pius IX. An important
illustration is the debate about the ordination of women, which Pope John
Paul II tried to put an end to.

The new level of of¿ cial Roman Catholic involvement in ecumenism poses
an important challenge to other churches. The of¿ cial dialogues between
Catholic and Protestant theologians led to a distinctive kind of ecumenical
theology among mainline Protestants. While ecumenical theologians become