The Vision of Vatican II: Its Fundamental Principles by Ormond Rush

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Vision of Vatican II: Its Fundamental Principles by Ormond Rush Todd Walatka The Vision of Vatican II: Its Fundamental Principles BY ORMOND RUSH Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press Academic, 2019. 600+ xvii pages. $69.95. ISBN: 978081468074 Ambivalence. This was my surprising reaction to perusing the table of contents of Ormond Rush's superb new book on Vatican II. On the one hand, Rush is one of the most important English-language interpreters of Vatican II of the last twenty years, and this text appeared to be a sort of magnum opus. On the other hand, the book promised to offer not just one or two key principles for interpreting the council but twenty-four! Was this a synthetic vision or an encyclopedia? Was it a book with an argument or simply a series of quasi-independent discussions? As it turns out, Rush somehow managed to pull off the best of both options and has given a wonderful gift to scholars and teachers alike. The structure of the book is quite simple: each chapter explores one of the twenty-four "principles" for interpreting Vatican II, and these principles are grouped within three overarching categories: hermeneutical (6), theological (5), and ecclesiological (13). Crucial to the argument and success of the book, however, is that each principle is really a dyad, a balance between two ideas or emphases: "Pastoral/Doctrinal," "Continuity/Reform," "Faith/History," and "Church/World," for example. It is hard to overstate the quality of each chapter. At all times Rush maintains a sense of balance and dynamic tensions rather than producing a higher synthesis or clear preference for one pole of a pairing. Perhaps even more important than any particular insight (and there are many) is the compelling model that Rush offers for engaging Vatican II. Every chapter includes close attention to the key texts under discussion, an intertextual reading that keeps the corpus of the council constantly in view, an appeal to the event and debates of the council without reducing the meaning of the texts to these debates, and, finally, a horizon of interpretation that includes the reception of Vatican II. The book exemplifies a non-reductive reading of Vatican II and challenges the reader to continually broaden their interpretative perspective. [End Page 175] One of the real strengths of Rush's texts is that each chapter stands on its own in a certain way. For example, I would recommend the short chapter on Ressourcement/Aggiornamento for almost any course on Vatican II. Indeed, nearly every chapter of the book could be used in this way without the need for an extended explanation of the overarching argument of the book. Yet, the book does indeed have an important and driving argument! Most simply, Rush insists, against many standard readings of the council, that the most fundamental contribution of Vatican II to Catholic tradition is "more theo-logical than eccesiological," that the core of the council is the foundational vision of "divine revelation as first and foremost God's loving, personal self-communication to humanity in Christ through the Spirit and not simply a communication of divine truths" (26). To put this even more simply, this represents a bold argument for Dei Verbum as a privileged starting point for understanding the council, for providing a paradigm shift that "conditions all other principles of the vision of Vatican II" discussed within the book (40, among many other places in the book, see 32, 53, 179, 204, and 541). Rush's book is without a doubt one of the most important books on Vatican II published in the last two decades. It draws upon an incredible range of scholarship while offering a synthetic and constructive account of the council. I expect it to be a cornerstone of future scholarly engagements with the council. Finally, the text (probably more in parts than in whole given its length) is perfect for the upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level classroom. The prose is inviting and engaging and the content offers an excellent immersion into the richness and complexity of the council. Todd Walatka University of Notre Dame Copyright © 2021 National Institute for Newman Studies