The Second Vatican Council met from 1962 through 1965 and is the most significant event in the last 400 years of Christian history. It changed the face of the Roman Catholic Church forever and dramatically affected all the people of the world. Author and theologian Bill Huebsch has provided a thorough and thoroughly readable telling of the story of Vatican II.

The story and promise of the Second Vatican Council are part and parcel of the church's daily life throughout the world. It isn't possible to prepare for or enact pastoral ministry today without being a student of Vatican II. From participatory liturgy to whole-family faith formation, from the RCIA to the deaconate, and from the renewed call to holiness to the renewed age of mercy, the springboard of the modern church is Vatican II. Because of this, knowing about the story of Vatican II is essential to understanding its promise. This volume tells that wonderful story of the council-and it does so in plain English. It follows an exciting chronological pathway from the beginning of the council to its final bell. But the deep promise of the council is found in the documents themselves. Church documents don't always make for compelling reading but the plain English presentations which author Bill Huebsch provides here make this book a page-turner! Huebsch captures the excitement and rapidly unfolding drama-all set in the theater of St. Peter's Basilica during those four years in the early 1960s. He treats each character with dignity and respect, moving beyond the judgments of "too liberal" or "too conservative" that have dogged the Church and created division rather than unity. This book fills its readers with hope and equips them to unfold the promise of the Second Vatican Council in today's world.

An informative and accessible guide to everything you want to know about Vatican II.

The sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council are the most important texts produced by the Catholic church in the past four hundred years. They shape virtually every aspect of church life today. But hardly anyone ever reads them… —From the Introduction In this indispensable guide, Edward P. Hahnenberg outlines each of the documents produced by the Second Vatican Council. Offering the background for each work, its language and context, this book provides a clear and concise overview of the Council's work and its significance in the life of the church. Each document's history, content, major concerns and effects are considered. Significant quotes provide a sample of the language, and contemporary topics provide discussion opportunities. Scripture scholars and students—and every Catholic—will find this a valuable resource.

John Henry Newman is often described as "the Father of the Second Vatican Council." He anticipated most of the Council's major documents, as well as being an inspiration to the theologians who were behind them. His writings offer an illuminating commentary both on the teachings of the Council and the way these have been implemented and interpreted in the post-conciliar period. This book is the first sustained attempt to consider what Newman's reaction to Vatican II would have been. As a theologian who on his own admission fought throughout his life against theological liberalism, yet who pioneered many of the themes of the Council in his own day, Newman is best described as a conservative radical who cannot be classed simply as either a conservative or liberal Catholic. At the time of the First Vatican Council, Newman adumbrated in his private letters a mini-theology of Councils, which casts much light on Vatican II and its aftermath. The leading Newman scholar, Ian Ker, argues that Newman would have greatly welcomed the reforms of the Council, but would have seen them in the light of his theory of doctrinal development, insisting that they must certainly be understood as changes but changes in continuity rather than discontinuity with the Church's tradition and past teachings. He would therefore have endorsed the so-called 'hermeneutic of reform in continuity' in regard to Vatican II, a hermeneutic first formulated by Pope Benedict XVI and subsequently confirmed by his successor, Pope Francis, and rejected both 'progressive' and ultra-conservative interpretations of the Council as a revolutionary event. Newman believed that what Councils fail to speak of is of great importance, and so a final chapter considers the kind of evangelization--a topic notably absent from the documents of Vatican II--Newman thought appropriate in the face of secularization.

Whatever happened to the Second Vatican Council? Has the Catholic Church backed away from its teachings? What, exactly, were those teachings? Did the Council stand for the renewal of the liturgy, for example, or its destruction? Did it bring the Church into the world, or has it allowed the world to infiltrate the Church? On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the closing of Vatican II, Alan Schreck discusses the key documents of the Council and their meaning for Catholics today. He also takes a close look at the ferment and criticism Vatican II left in its wake. What he finds will surprise some Catholics but encourage all to lean into the task of renewing and strengthening the Church for the twenty-first century.

2013 Catholic Press Association Book Award: 50th Anniversary of Vatican II (2nd Place)
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the first session of Vatican II (1962-65), a watershed event in the history of the church, whose meaning and interpretation continue to inspire heated debate. In this book fifty distinguished authors, including theologians, journalists, spiritual writers, and pastoral leaders, offer their own assessment of the meaning of the Council and its historic documents, drawing in many cases on their personal experience as witnesses or participants. The contributors are a "who's who" of modern Catholic and non-Catholic voices: Francis X. Murphy (who, as "Xavier Rynne," penned an inside account of the Council for The New Yorker magazine), Martin E. Marty, Lisa Sowle Cahill, John O'Malley, Joan Chittister, Gregory Baum, Michael Novak, Basil Pennington, Richard McBrien, Cardinal Avery Dulles, John Dominic Crossan, Joseph Komonchak, Brother Roger of Taize, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Elizabeth Johnson, David Hollenbach, and many more.
For those who want to understand what happened at the Council, as well as those concerned about the state of the church today and the agenda for the future, these fifty personal stories provide an invaluable and inspiring resource.