Has Vatican II been Hermeneutered ? Recovering and Developing its Theological Achievements following Rahner and Lonergan

Abstract

The 50th anniversary of Vatican II (1962–65) provides a good opportunity to reflect on its theological significance. The ongoing debates surrounding the hermeneutics of the council, the plethora of historical-critical studies, and ecclesiastical resistance to its broader implementation raise the question: Has the creative Spirit and the original enthusiasm for the council been neutralized by such resistance, scholarly reluctance, and the seeming endless hermeneutic speculation? Pope Francis speaks about the resistance to Vatican II: There are those who resist it outright and those who resist it by building a monument to it. With this critique as a starting point, this paper revisits Rahner’s concise hermeneutics of the council because it presents an historical analysis but with a theological trajectory. In this context, this article articulates some of the permanent theological achievements of Vatican II taking the thought of Bernard Lonergan as a lead and speculates about two future developments.