Tradition and Transition
Historical Perspectives on Vatican II
John O'Malley

When Pope John XXIII announced in January 1959 his intention to convene an ecumenical council, few anticipated the bold reshaping of the institutional church which was in store. The Second Vatican Council was a seminal event in church history -- yet decades later, there is still dispute over what the council intended, as well as uncertainty about what it all means for us today.

By placing Vatican II within the broad perspective of Christian history, Tradition And Transition helps readers understand the context of the council's earth-shaking developments. John W. O'Malley provides an astute overview of the essential issues which drove the assembly, as well as the unique characteristics which distinguished Vatican II from all previous church councils and clearly influenced the direction it would take. He uses a threefold approach to bring Vatican II's many facets into clearer focus -- defining a methodology for interpreting the council, unraveling and clarifying its message, and contemplating what that might signify for the church's present and future.

O'Malley emphasizes that taking the long viewpoint of history is crucial to grasping the council's true significance, and to that end he compares Vatican II to the Gregorian and Lutheran Reformations. He also notes that the seeds of many issues originated in the Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation, and asserts that the council tried to reverse or moderate considerably positions crystallized during those eras. Suggesting that the radical adjustment of attitude and religious practice sparked by the council was symptomatic of the modern world's social and cultural transformation, O'Malley concludes that Vatican II necessitated nothing less than a complete change in mentality and internal frames of reference -- in other words, a new paradigm for looking at Christian tradition. This was embodied in the concept of aggiornamento (?updating?), a term which became the council's leitmotif.

Taken in sum, the essays of this distinguished church historian provide a fascinating window for both scholars and interested readers into the remarkable impact of Vatican II on all areas of Catholic life. As its title implies, Tradition And Transition is a readable guide that offers penetrating insight into Vatican II's continuity with the church's rich heritage... and to its call for spiritual reform and renewal.

John W. O'Malley, S.J. is professor of church history at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author or editor of numerous prize-winning works, including Praise and Blame in Renaissance Rome, Trent and All That: Renaming Catholicism in the Early Modern Era, and The First Jesuits, which has been translated into several languages. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, O'Malley has been honored by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome.