Cracks in the Edifice: Recent Challenges to the Received History of Vatican II

Abstract

For much of the period since the end of the Second Vatican Council, there has existed a consensus about what happened at this central event in modern Catholicism. This consensus is largely the product of the Bologna School of Historiography and stresses those aspects of the event of the Council which suggest a radical discontinuity with the pre-conciliar Catholic Church. This consensus has represented an historical view of the Catholic Church on itself that has remained almost entirely unchallenged for forty years and driven ecclesiological reflection and self-understanding within that Communion. Since 2005, however, a number of alternative scholarly accounts have emerged that dispute the received accounts and present a very different view of what happened at the Council. The short communication considers the work of two authors engaged in this challenge and assesses the likely impact of their work on the historiography of Vatican II O NCE UPON A TIME the people of England were happy medieval Catholics, visiting their holy wells, attending frequent masses and deeply respectful of Purgatory and afraid of hell. Then lustful King Henry forced them to abandon their religion. England was never merry again. Alternatively, once upon a time the people of England were oppressed by corrupt churchmen. They yearned for the liberty of the Gospel. Then, Good King Harry gave them the Protestant nation for which they longed.' 67