Bibliographical information
Author: Brunero Gherardini
Publisher: Casa Mariana Editrice
Publication date: April 2009
Genre: SOCIAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL THEOLOGY
Topic: Vatican Council II
ISBN: 978-88-90177064
Pages: 302
Weight: 440 g.
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Description
[from the backcover of the Italian edition]: 'This is, at one and the same time, a book for and against. It is for reading Vatican II in the context of all Church history and the previous twenty Councils; it is for a critically enlightened use of its documents and for the re-assertion of its pastorality and adogmatic character; it is against the postconciliar vulgate that has been absolutizing it for about fifty years as the one and only Council, the beginning of a new Church, the legitimation of being joined in wedding to contemporary culture, the driving force behind unsustainable ecumenical adventures. Quietly but clearly, this book propounds an intervention by the Holy See to bring clarity in this respect.'
Monsignor Gherardini's latest book (Il Vaticano II. Alle radici d'un equivoco, Lindau Publishers 2012) ends with a renewed request (Supplica) for an evaluation of the documents of Vatican II in the light of Tradition: 'I now make the same request, in all humility but more firmly persuaded than ever before. I trust that the semi-centennial anniversary will put the conciliar wagon back on the right track by spelling out what, of its load, is truly a part or possibly a summary of the traditional, pluri-millennial teaching of the Church' (page 394).
Far from being an appendix to the book, the petition (Supplica) published in April 2009 was the culmination of The Ecumenical Vatican Council II. A Much Needed Discussion. This petition draws new urgency from the grand semi-centennial celebrations of Vatican II and the publication of Alle radici d'un equivoco, which pre-empties them all.
Table of contents
Preface
1 - The Ecumenical Vatican Council II
A gust of fresh air (37) - Aggiornamento (42) - The spirit of "Aggiornamento" (48)
2 - Value and limits of Vatican II
What the Council said about itself (56) - Appeals to Sacred Scripture, Councils, Tradition (60) - Vatican II, a pastoral Council (68)
3 - For a hermeneutic of Vatican II
Immanentistic criteria (81) - Theological hermeneutics (93) - The hermeneutics of continuity (99)
4 - A comprehensive evaluation
The tyranny of the relative (106) - Under the sign of "partial" and "experimental" (114) - And ecumenism? (121)
5 - Tradition in Vatican II
Tradition (131) - Tradition in Vatican II (138) - Tradition as normative-dogmatic authority of Vatican II? (145)
6 - Vatican II and the Liturgy
The principles of the reform (158) - Truly unexplainable? (164) - The liturgical reform (172)
7 - The great problem of religious freedom
The conciliar Declaration Dignitatis humanae (191) - And before? (197) - And now? (209)
8 - Ecumenism or syncretism?
UR [Unitatis redintegratio] and its contents (221) - Ecumenism in the context of Vatican II (227) - Continuity or rupture? (238)
9 - The Church of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium (LG)
The document (221) - The importance of LG in the context of Vatican II (262) - Latet anguis in herba [A snake lurks under the grass] (264)
Epilogue and Petition [Supplica] to the Holy Father
Comments
Fr John Hunwicke devoted several posts of his blog, Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment to The Ecumenical Vatican Council II. A Much Needed Discussion. Here are some tidbits:
"My blog, of course, has often referred to the large amount of work to be done with regard to the authentic siting of Vatican II in the life of the Church. That Council can only logically be seen as a phenomenon which was in continuity with the (antecedent) unbroken tradition of the Church. But it is one thing to assert this important principle; quite another to demonstrate such continuity by an engagement with the texts of Vatican II side by side with earlier and reiterated statements of the Magisterium.
The question concerned is perhaps the biggest task facing Benedict XVI's slimmed-down Church, because it involves nothing less than the reintegration of the Church's dogmatic theology after the disorders of the second half of the twentieth century."
Go to the posts for April 2010 and see the entries for 5, 6, 7, and 8 April.
A comment on this book by Brother André Marie gives abundant food for thought:
"Despite its generally cold reception in the hallowed halls of the theological establishment at present, the work of Monsignor Brunero Gherardini and Roberto De Mattei, along with that of Romano Amerio and Enrico Maria Radaelli, will probably be part of the future restoration of the sacred sciences."
Read the full post in Catholicism.org of 12 July 2012.
Reviews
*** After a brief but pithy introduction and a biographical sketch of Monsignor Gherardini by Christopher Ferrara, Hospitallers.blogspot presents several excerpts from the book, occasional comments, and a generous display of bold print to highlight the passages deemed most significant. "The Ecumenical Vatican Council II: A Much Needed Discussion" Msgr. Brunero Gherardini is signed Knight of Malta.
*** Msgr. Gherardini on Vatican II, Continuity and Rupture is a well thought-out review published in Opuscula. A collection of personal reflections authored by K. Gurries.