Council, Controversy, Conversion, and Communion
A six-week course on the Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council remains controversial in some Catholic circles. Many people see it as involving a radical break from the Catholic past, for good or bad. Others, such as the popes since the Council, see it as a renewal and reform of the one-and-the same Catholic Church.
This is mini-course covering the main teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). It also examines how the Council’s teaching has been received, misperceived, and resisted, as well as how it has shaped Catholic life and mission in the last half-century.
Tuesday nights at 7 PM PT (San Francisco) on October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9
Course Schedule
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Session 1 (October 5): Getting Started
- Why Vatican II?
- What Vatican II Really Said: An Overview of Vatican II and Common Myths about It
- Why It Matters Today
- Reading for the next session: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)
Session 2 (October 12): Working on Worship: Reform of the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium)
- Liturgical worship: how and why did Vatican II “reform” the Liturgy?
- Key ideas of Vatican II on Liturgy
- Common Myths about Vatican II and the Mass
- Reading for the next Session: Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation)
Session 3 (October 19): It’s a Revelation (Dei Verbum)
- How God talks to us and our response to him
- The Catholic Church, Tradition, and the Bible (Is the Catholic Church ‘biblical’?)
- The Church goes to Bible Study
- Reading for the next session: Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)
Session 4 (October 26): Figuring Out the Church (Lumen Gentium)
- Mysterious Church, and Catholics, other Christians, other believers, and non-believers
- Hierarchy, laity, everyone called to holiness, and religious life
- The Pilgrim Church and Mary in the Mystery of Christ and the Church
- Reading for the next session: TBD
Session 5 (November 2): The Other Things (Decrees and Declarations)
- Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches
- Bishops, Priests, Laity, Religious Life, Ecumenism, Missions, and the Church and Non-Christians
- Social Media, Christian Education, and Religious Freedom
- Reading for the next session: Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)
Session 6 (November 9): The Church in the World as it is Today (Gaudium et Spes) and the Enduring Legacy of Vatican II
- The Church and humanity
- Some problems: marriage and family, culture, economics, politics, war and peace
- The Legacy of Vatican II: the past, the present, and the future