Nigel Zimmermann, The Great Grace: Receiving Vatican II Today (London: T & T Clark, 2015), viii + 143 Pps., $120.00.
Nigel Zimmermann writes in theology and ethics; he completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He was a Lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Sydney) 2012-14. He is based in Sydney, working for the Church, and serves as an Adjunct Lecturer with UNDA’s Institute for Ethics & Society. This title recounts the three-day international conference from May, 2013, in which over 600 people gathered in Sydney, Australia, entitled The Great Grace: Receiving Vatican II Today, hosted by the Archdiocese of Sydney. The proposal of the conference occurred during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, but the actual eve took place early in the pontificate of Pope Francis, who is the first Pope who was not directly involved with the production of Vatican II documents. With Francis, the Church has entered a new phase in which it is able to assess what the Holy Spirit has achieved in the intuitions and lessons of the conciliar documents. With a focus on what is genuinely human, the Church, from the Council to Francis, has embarked on a reform process that delves deeply into the sources of its own rich tradition and casts itself as the call to love and solidarity with the human person in the contemporary world. Fifty years after Vatican II, it seems now is a good time to reflect upon what progress has been made. That is exactly what this text does.
Zimmermann edits eight chapters in this title; he notes that all of the authors attend very closely to the texts of Council, and are persons whose life and vocation are intricately connected to the Church. As such, they are able to avoid the distraction of short-term agendas and shortsighted ecclesiological disputes. The opening chapter, by Cardinal George Pell, is an intriguing reflection on his experience in the Church in Australia, and on the controversies and challenges that took place after the Council. He expresses sadness over the nearly 10,000 priests who left the Church after Vatican II, and also expresses joyfulness on the role of the Church in the currents of history. Chapter two is written by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Cardinal Ouellet is a Canadian prelate whose works have previously focused on the notion of building up an ecclesiology of communio. Ouellet expresses both depth and scriptural warrant for his communio vision of the Church post-Vatican II, and he is keen to note this as a theology that is still being built. Anne Hunt, sometime Executive Dean of the Australian Catholic University, provides an important account of the vocation of the laity in ecclesiology since Vatican II in chapter three. She also gives some indication as to what the future may look like based on significant texts arising out of the Council.
Tracey Rowland, in chapter five, emphasizes the post-Vatican II theological turn as one from correlationism to Trinitarian Christocentrism. In chapter five, Anthony Kelly invokes the tension between the spirit and the letter of a text with respect to the documents of the Council. Kelly argues for a highly human element in interpretation, one that allows the myriad of voices to speak in witness to what is good. Chapter six recounts the derivation of the lay-led initiative known as Catholic Voices, which came about as a response to Benedict XVI’s visit to the UK in 2010. Catholic Voices draws on the expertise, experience and professional profiles of articulates lay voices in the Catholic world. Biblical scholar Mark Coleridge, in chapter seven, addresses how Catholic thinkers should understand the culture in which they do their work. In so doing, he outlines various terms associated with the “secular”, such as secularization, secularity and secularism; he notes that the present cultural context owes a great deal to Christianity, more than what is generally recognized. Bishop of Broken Bay, Peter Comensoli, offers a concluding reflection in chapter eight that places the previous ones in light of a biblical image.
All in all, this title is a good collection, drawing from prelates and laypersons that love the Catholic Church, and are devoted to the successful implementation of the documents of Vatican II. They have put their minds to a difficult task: to think with and for the modern Church. The title of this book refers directly to the grace of the Second Vatican Council as a divine gift, not received as one-time historical event, but as an unfolding one in the life of the Church. I recommend this title for those interested in Ecumenism, as well as those that are particularly within the Roman Catholic Church.
Bradford McCall
Regent University