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Vatican II: A Shift in the Attitude of the Roman Catholic Church Toward the Reformation Churches?—A Protestant Perspective

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Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions

Part of the book series: Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue ((PEID))

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Abstract

This chapter explores—through the lens of Protestant observers of Vatican II—how the Second Vatican Council has been perceived by Protestant theologians and the emerging theological convergences in the texts of Vatican II concerning some of the main issues that separate these two church traditions. It notes a general positive change of attitude on the Roman Catholic side toward the churches of the Reformation, but also indicates some matters that remain problematic from a Protestant perspective, especially the fact that the texts of Vatican II have obviously been open to different interpretations. Common efforts on both sides are necessary in the future in order to build on the ground prepared by Vatican II.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thies Gundlach, the Vice President of the Church House of the Evangelical Church in Germany , made this comment in one of the largest-circulating German daily newspapers. “Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil ist auch in protestantischer Perspektive ein Meilenstein,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 30, 2012, http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/fremde-federn-zweites-vatikanum-und-reformation-11943859.html, my translation.

  2. 2.

    Exceptions to this rule can be found, of course, but mostly in rural areas.

  3. 3.

    See Bernard Sesbouë, “Vatican II (Concile de),” in Encyclopédie du protestantisme, ed. Pierre Gisel, 2nd rev. ed. (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2006), 1471–73, at 1471.

  4. 4.

    See André Birmélé , “Vatican II (Concile de),” in Encyclopédie du protestantisme, 1473; see also Edmund Schlink , After the Council: The Meaning of Vatican II for Protestantism and the Ecumenical Dialogue (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 21; and Paul Metzger, “‘Eine Blume in einem unerwarteten Frühling’: Das 2. Vatikanische Konzil aus evangelischer Sicht,” in Pfälzisches Pfarrerblatt, http://www.pfarrerblatt.de/.

  5. 5.

    Birmélé, “Vatican II (Concile de).”

  6. 6.

    Peter Meinhold, “Was erwarten evangelische Christen vom angekündigten ökumenischen Konzil?,” in Der evangelische Christ und das Konzil (Herder: Freiburg, 1961), 19–48, at 37.

  7. 7.

    See Ernst Benz , “Das zweite Vatikanische Konzil in protestantischer Sicht,” Ökumenische Rundschau 15 (1966): 137–61, at 137.

  8. 8.

    John XXIII, alloc.  Questa festiva , AAS 51 (1959): 65–69, at 69.

  9. 9.

    Peter Meinhold, “Was erwarten evangelische Christen vom angekündigten ökumenischen Konzil?,” 22.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 23.

  11. 11.

    See Meinhold, “Was erwarten evangelische Christen,” 38–39.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 41–42.

  13. 13.

    Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, Mortalium Animos, AAS 20 (1928): 5–16, no. 10.

  14. 14.

    I use here the term ‘convergence’ in the meaning that was developed by the work of the Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC and especially through its first ‘convergence document,’ “Baptism , Eucharist and Ministry” (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1982). Convergence is not consensus, but a certain rapprochement of different positions. The rapprochement between the Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Church, that began with the Second Vatican Council, culminated in 1999 in the Joint Declaration on Justification, which used as method the ‘differentiated consensus,’ which is a variation of the convergence method.

  15. 15.

    Several commentators pointed to the mutual influence between Vatican II and the WCC Assembly at New Delhi; see Klaus Fitschen, “Das II. Vatikanische Konzil in der deutschsprachigen evangelischen Kirchengeschichtsschreibung,” Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 31 (2014): 244–55, at 244.

  16. 16.

    Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, 8.

  17. 17.

    The whole third part of John’s encyclical manifests this tone of openness. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter, Ad Petri Cathedram, AAS 51 (1959): 479–531, no. 62.

  18. 18.

    Schlink, After the Council, 68.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 69.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 87–88.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., 88.

  22. 22.

    Kristen E. Skydsgaard, “The Church as Mystery and as People of God,” in Dialogue on the Way: Protestants Report from Rome on the Council, ed. George A. Lindbeck (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1965), 145–74, at 155.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., correcting a typographical error in the Latin.

  24. 24.

    Schlink, After the Council, 88.

  25. 25.

    Skydsgaard, “The Church as Mystery,” 155.

  26. 26.

    The original Latin text uses the word coniunctam, “connected,” for “linked” here. The text cites Gal 4:6 and Rom 8:15–16, 26 as support for this approach.

  27. 27.

    See, for example, Pius IX’s 1854 allocution Singulari Quidem, 1856, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9singul.htm.

  28. 28.

    Schlink, After the Council, 103.

  29. 29.

    See, for example, Heinz-Dietrich Wendland, Die ökumenische Bewegung und das II. Vatikanische Konzil (Cologne: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1968), 17.

  30. 30.

    Edmund Schlink , “The Decree on Ecumenism,” in Lindbeck, Dialogue on the Way, 186–230, at 188.

  31. 31.

    Benz, “Das zweite Vatikanische Konzil in protestantischer Sicht.”

  32. 32.

    In his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, AAS 56 (1964), 609–59; see Schlink, After the Council, 42.

  33. 33.

    Birmélé, “Vatican II (Concile de).”

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    “Die Bedeutung des Konzils liegt …in erster Linie darin, dass sich in ihm wie in einem Prisma Themen und Fragen der damaligen Gegenwart bündelten und so auf den Weg gebracht wurden, dass sie bis heute nachwirken.” Metzger specifies this for the Protestant perspective in three ways: (1) the understanding of the church, (2) the understanding of revelation, and (3) the understanding of worship. Metzger, “‘Eine Blume in einem unerwarteten Frühling.’”

  36. 36.

    Lukas Vischer , “Nach der dritten Session des zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils,” Ökumenische Rundschau 14 (1965): 97–116, at 99.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 100.

  39. 39.

    Birmélé, “Vatican II (Concile de).”

  40. 40.

    Oscar Cullmann , “Was bedeutet das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil für uns Protestanten?,” in Was bedeutet das zweite Vatikanische Konzil für uns?, ed. Werner Schatz (Basel: Reinhardt, 1967), 15–52; see also Cullmann, “The Bible in the Council,” in Lindbeck, Dialogue on the Way, 129–44.

  41. 41.

    See Friederike Nüssel, “Dei Verbum – die Offenbarungslehre des II. Vatikanischen Konzils in der evangelisch-theologischen Rezeption,” Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 31 (2014): 256–82, at 272. Also Karl Barth sees a progress in how the Council places the Bible, but at the same time he finds passages that obscure these new insights. See Karl Barth, Ad Limina Apostolorum (Zürich: EVZ-Verlag, 1967).

  42. 42.

    See Nüssel, “Dei Verbum,” who refers to Ulrich Kühn , Die Ergebnisse des II. Vatikanischen Konzils (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1967), 47.

  43. 43.

    See Friedrich Weber, “Das II. Vatikanische Konzil und die Ökumene. Beobachtungen aus der Sicht eines Protestanten,” Vortrag am 13. February 2012 im ökumenischen Forum Osnabrück, 3–4, http://www.landeskirche-braunschweig.de/uploads/tx_mitdownload/Vortrag_Vaticanum_II_Osnabrueck_2012.pdf.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 4.

  45. 45.

    Cullmann, “Was bedeutet das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil für uns Protestanten?,” 36; see also Schlink, After the Council, 75.

  46. 46.

    For a survey on reactions from observers of Vatican II, see André Birmélé , “Le Concile Vatican II vu par les observateurs des autres traditions chrétiennes,” in Volti di fine concilio: Studi di storia e teologia sulla conclusione del Vaticano II, ed. Joseph Doré and Alberto Meloni (Bologna: Mulino: 2000), 225–64, at 263.

  47. 47.

    “Im II. Vatikanum sind zwar alle in eine neue Richtung weisenden Beschlüsse so sorgsam gefasst, dass sie im Notfall auch ganz traditionalistisch rückinterpretiert werden können…” Benz, “Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil in protestantischer Sicht,” 144.

  48. 48.

    Vischer, “Nach der dritten Session…,” 100.

  49. 49.

    Vischer, “Nach der vierten Session des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils,” Ökumenische Rundschau 15 (1966): 81–120, at 118.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 119.

  51. 51.

    Italics mine.

  52. 52.

    Weber, “Das II. Vatikanische Konzil,” 11.

  53. 53.

    Bernd Oberdorfer gives an overview on different German Protestant theologians interpreting Vatican II; see “Ein anderes Gegenüber? Protestantische Dogmatik nach dem II. Vatikanum,” Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 31 (2014): 359–82, at 374.

  54. 54.

    Metzger, “‘Eine Blume in einem unerwarteten Frühling,’” Chapter 2; see also Weber, “Das II. Vatikanische Konzil,” 7.

  55. 55.

    Schlink, After the Council, 187–88.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., 189.

  57. 57.

    Benz, “Das zweite Vatikanische Konzil in protestantischer Sicht,” 156.

  58. 58.

    The Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), nos. 41–42.

  59. 59.

    Some Protestant theologians, however, are of the opinion that Dominus Iesus simply repeats the positions of Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio and does not show a ‘conservative’ turn; see Eilert Herms, “Das Ökumenismusdekret. Sein Ort in der Lehre des Zweiten Vatikanums und seine heutige Bedeutung,” Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 31 (2014): 283–306, at 298. Some Catholic theologians hold to a similar position, too.

  60. 60.

    Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, AAS 92 (2000): 742–65, no. 16–17.

  61. 61.

    André Birmélé , “Die Rezeption des zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils in der Ökumene: ein evangelischer Beitrag,” Gastvorlesung an der Katholischen Fakultät der Universität Tübingen, 13–14. http://www.strasbourginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DialogLuthRCReceptionVatikanII.pdf; translation mine.

  62. 62.

    Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church,” AAS 99, no. 7 (2007): 604–8, Response to the Second Question.

  63. 63.

    See Michael Plathow, “Unerledigt und verheissungsvoll: Zum 50. Jubiläum des Ii. Vatikanischen Konzils aus evangelischer Sicht,” Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 112 (2012): 629–32, http://www.pfarrerverband.de/pfarrerblatt/dpb_print.php?id=3267.

  64. 64.

    “ein kirchengeschichtliches ereignis von aussergewöhnlichen Dimensionen”; translation mine. Kühn, Die Ergebnisse des II.Vatikanischen Konzils, 163.

  65. 65.

    Schlink, After the Council, v.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 205.

  67. 67.

    Michael Bünker , “Öffnung und Grenzen. Das Ökumenismusdekret aus evangelischer Sicht,” in Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, ed. Jan-Heiner Tück (Freiburg: Herder, 2012), 369–82, at 381.

  68. 68.

    Some reflections on catholicity in this sense have taken place in an academic consultation of Societas Oecumenica in August 2014 in Budapest. The Proceedings have been published as Catholicity under Pressure—The Ambiguous Relationship between Diversity and Unity, ed. Dagmar Heller and Peter Szentpétery (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2016).

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  1. Institute for Ecumenical Studies and Research, Bensheim, Germany

    Dagmar Heller

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Correspondence to Dagmar Heller .

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  1. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Vladimir Latinovic

  2. Department of Theology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Gerard Mannion

  3. Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, Italy

    Jason Welle, O.F.M.

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Heller, D. (2018). Vatican II: A Shift in the Attitude of the Roman Catholic Church Toward the Reformation Churches?—A Protestant Perspective. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98581-7_14

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