Reclaiming Vatican II: What It (Really) Said, What It Means, and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church
About this ebook
During the past five decades, the Second Vatican Council has been alternately celebrated or maligned for its supposed break with tradition and embrace of the modern world. But what if we’ve gotten it all wrong? Have Catholics—both those who embrace the spirit of Vatican II and those who regard it with suspicion—misunderstood what the council was really about?
Fr. Blake Britton discovered the truth and beauty of the council while he was in seminary and he has witnessed firsthand the power of its teachings in the life of his own parish. In Reclaiming Vatican II—a partnership between Ave Maria Press and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries—Britton presses beyond the political narrative foisted upon the post-conciliar Church and contends that Vatican II was neither conservative nor liberal, but something much more beautiful and challenging.
Britton clears up misconceptions about the council and reveals how—when properly understood and applied—it fosters a richer experience of being in the Church. Britton says Vatican II
- promotes a radical return to the Church Fathers and the Scriptures, holding both a commitment to tradition and the need for constant renewal in life-giving balance,
- recenters the Church on sacred liturgy and encourages both active participation and genuine encounter with transcendence, and
- charts a clear path for the Church’s renewal and empowers it for evangelism and transformative engagement with the world.
Britton invites all Catholics to step beyond the polarization and embrace Vatican II as one of our greatest resources for being in the Church in a way that is faithful, engaged, and effective if we answer its radical call to worship and renewal.
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About the author
Fr. Blake Britton serves as a parish priest and assistant vocations director in the Diocese of Orlando. He is a regular contributor to the Word on Fire Institute’s blog and its Evangelization and Culture Journal. He also cohosts The Burrowshire Podcast with Brandon Vogt.Britton earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. John Vianney College-Seminary and his master’s degree in divinity from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary. He has contributed to two anthologies. He has appeared on EWTN, The Catholic Channel, and a number of radio programs and podcasts.He is a classically trained opera singer, pianist, and organist and is trained in classical Latin and biblical Greek.
John C. Cavadini is the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. A member of Notre Dame’s department of theology, Cavadini served as chair of the department from 1997 to 2010, during which he led the department to a top-ten ranking in the National Research Council rankings of doctoral programs. He is an expert in patristic and early medieval theology, with a special focus on the theology of St. Augustine. In November 2009 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a five-year term on the International Theological Commission.
