Page 73 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

was a big surprise," Georgetown University professor Rev. John W. O'Malley says.

The council called between 2,000 and 2,500 bishops and thousands of observers, auditors, sisters,
laymen and laywomen to four sessions at St. Peter's Basilica between 1962 and 1965. Cultural changes
in the aftermath of World War II spelled a need to reconsider church practices. These meetings did just
that — 16 documents in total came out of it, laying a foundation for the Catholic Church as we know it
today.

O'Malley says a theme of the documents was reconciliation. In keeping, they allowed for Catholics to
pray with other Christian denominations, encouraged friendship with other non-Christian faiths, and
opened the door for languages besides Latin to be used during Mass. Other new positions concerned
education, the media and divine revelation.

Most prominently, says Xavier University's Peter A. Huff, the council highlighted the church's willingness
to operate in the contemporary realm.

"Prior to this time, the church had been almost seen as a fortress, very much concerned about its own
internal stability and integrity and engaging the world in terms of missionary activity," Huff says. "Pope
John wanted to reinforce that missionary mandate, but he also wanted to create an environment of
dialogue, where the church would engage in all the forces of the modern world."

Today, the council is credited with essentially shaping the modern Catholic Church. But some Catholics
still look fondly on the old days, and others are concerned about the interpretation of the council's
legacy. Pope Benedict, for one, is careful to emphasize that Vatican II was not a condemnation of the
pre-council church.

"He wants to see Vatican II as a council of reform but a council that's in continuity with the Catholic past
that came before it," Huff says.

Fifty years since the council, O'Malley says that most young Catholics know little about this
revolutionary period. (https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important)

Joseph Washington, 1964 –

Joseph Washington published his book Black Religion in 1964, which he argues for the
distinctiveness of black religion in North America and the need for integration of
Black theology into mainstream Protestantism. Washington examines mid-twentieth
century black culture and folk religion, community and church, values and virtues,
politics and polity, leaders and leadership, integration and segregation.

Emergence of Postmodernism , c. 1970 – Post-modern Christianity is just as difficult to lock down in a
concise definition as post-modernism itself. What started in the 1950s in architecture as a reaction to
modernist thought and style was soon adopted by the art and literary world in the 1970s and 1980s. The
Church didn't really feel this effect until the 1990s. This reaction was a dissolution of "cold, hard fact" in
favor of "warm, fuzzy subjectivity." Think of anything considered post-modern, then stick Christianity
into that context and you have a glimpse of what post-modern Christianity is.

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