Looking at Vatican I's Pastor aeternus 150 Years Later: A Fresh Consideration of the Council's Significance Yesterday and Today

Many pressing issues facing the church today require a deeper appreciation of Vatican I, marking its one hundred and fiftieth year. We can now return it to its context and accept its “incompleteness” rather than insist upon its “wrongness.” The distance provided by time shows that its teachings are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHorizons (Villanova) Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 323 - 347
Main Author Colberg, Kristin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.12.2019
Subjects
Councils
Ecumenism
Popes
Theology
Traditions
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Summary:Many pressing issues facing the church today require a deeper appreciation of Vatican I, marking its one hundred and fiftieth year. We can now return it to its context and accept its “incompleteness” rather than insist upon its “wrongness.” The distance provided by time shows that its teachings are not as rigid or extreme as they are often perceived to be, but rather stand open to significantly broader interpretations. Pastor Aeternus has faced Vatican II, the social leveling brought about by democracy and the mass media, and an erosion of confidence in hierarchical institutions. Yet the council cannot be left behind. This essay's goal is to contextualize Vatican I's voice so that we can hear what it intended to say in its own day and see how it might contribute to some of our own most urgent conversations today.
ISSN:0360-9669
2050-8557
DOI:10.1017/hor.2019.57