John W. O'Malley on the Interpretation of Vatican II

What is it about?

The Jesuit historian John W. O'Malley has contributed in significant ways to our understanding of the Second Vatican Council. He helps us to appreciate the council as a historical event. As well, he shows how the council's teaching more historically-minded than previous conciliar events. O'Malley draws our attention to the unique rhetorical style of Vatican II's teaching, a form deliberately chosen in order to convey the council's message with greater effect and to reflect the dialogical stance of the Catholic Church in relation to other Christians, non-Christians, and to the wider world. This paper locates O'Malley's writings on Vatican II against the horizon of a lifetime of scholarship, showing how his insight into the role of rhetoric in Renaissance and Early Modern history is brought to bear on Vatican II.

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Why is it important?

O'Malley's writings on Vatican II help us to understand the nature of the conciliar event and argue that a sound interpretation of its teaching must pay closer attention to the rhetorical style of the documents. In a context of debate concerning the correct approach to interpreting Vatican II, where some have pitted a a "hermeneutic of discontinuity" against a "hermeneutic of continuity," O'Malley consistently argues that all conciliar events involve both continuities and discontinuities, and welcomes Pope Benedict XVI's insight into Vatican II as a council of reform. His writings on the three modern councils of the Western Church (Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II) invite us to consider the trajectory of Catholicism the modern world in a new light.

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